New Patreon tier: IPA Wall of Fame and signed bookplates! (Patreon)

People have been asking, is there a way that we can support Lingthusiasm for a bit more per month than the bonus episodes tier? 

People have also been asking, is there a way to get a signed copy of Gretchen's new book without paying for a pretty heavy hardcover book to get shipped (often internationally) from Montreal or happening to be at a conference where she's speaking? 

We're excited to announce a new Patreon tier that solves both of these problems! 

New "ling-phabet" tier

We're creating a new $15 "ling-phabet" tier, which will let patrons sponsor an IPA symbol or other special character and be recognized on the Lingthusiasm website on our new "Supporter Wall of Fame" page. You can get your symbol through our ~*~super scientific~*~ Which IPA Character Are You Quiz, or just tell us what your favourite character or other Unicode symbol is. Plus, you get an image with your name and favourite symbol on it (see a sample above!) recognizing you as a supporter, which you can share on social media/print off and use as a bookmark/gaze at in warm satisfaction/etc. 

We'll be announcing this publically in a couple days for new supporters, but this is your chance to claim your favourite symbol early! 

Special Offer: Bookplates! 

In excitement at launching a new tier and at Gretchen's book coming out, we're also running a special offer: join this new tier by August 15 and get a free signed BECAUSE INTERNET bookplate sent to you in the mail! 

This is an easier way of effectively getting a "signed copy" of BECAUSE INTERNET without needing to ship a whole bunch of heavy hardcover books to and from Montreal: you get your copy of BECAUSE INTERNET however is convenient for you, Gretchen signs a bookplate with your name in it and sends you a small, light sticker in the mail, and finally you stick the bookplate inside your copy of BECAUSE INTERNET (or you can stick it somewhere else if you've gotten the ebook or audiobook version). 

(If you do want a signed copy of BECAUSE INTERNET sent to you despite potentially-large international shipping fees, however, the tiny and charming independent bookstore Argo Bookshop in Montreal is helping with that as a separate thing from this Patreon -- just buy it from them online and indicate in the "special instructions" box what name you'd like it signed to.) 

Here's what the bookplates look like! (Plus a scarf you might recognize!) Aren't they cool! This could be you! (Yes, Lauren has requested one already, we think she should definitely get one despite not technically being a patron haha)

We're still incredibly appreciative of all levels of support for our completely independent linguistics podcast! We even got to thank our patrons -- that's you! -- in our recent funding disclosure statement for this academic paper we wrote together about emoji and gesture, so you're helping fund this podcast and now also sometimes academic research on internet linguistics! (More on the story behind how our emoji gesture paper came together ~*~soon~*~)

The bonus episodes will continue to be available at the $5 and above level the way they always have, so definitely don't feel like you have to go for this new tier if you can't spare the cash, but if you can and you'd like to help cross-subsidize Lingthusiasm for the many people learning about linguistics for free from our main episodes, then we've got these new special perks to make it even sweeter!  

Thanks for being a patron, and stay lingthusiastic! 

Gretchen and Lauren