New York University's independent student newspaper, established in 1973.

Washington Square News

New York University's independent student newspaper, established in 1973.

Washington Square News

New York University's independent student newspaper, established in 1973.

Washington Square News

A mural of a woman’s face holding up a chain with the word “LOISAIDA” and a gold cityscape. The words “el bohio murals” and “#BRINGARTBACK” are next to the woman alongside the words “CURATED BY … THRIVECOLLECTIVE.ORG.”
Activists’ 25-year fight to revive an East Village community center
Dharma Niles, Deputy News Editor • Mar 12, 2024
A front entrance with the text “Electric Lady Studios” written in a retro white font on two reflective walls.
‘An exploitative environment’: The interns behind Electric Lady Studios
Julia Diorio, Music Editor • Feb 20, 2024

LOLS Club Makes Languages Heard

What better place to dissect how humans speak than a campus with incredible linguistic diversity?
League+of+Linguistics+Students+at+NYU+is+an+undergraduate+linguistics+student+organization.+%28via+Twitter%29
League of Linguistics Students at NYU is an undergraduate linguistics student organization. (via Twitter)

Though LOLS may be the most popular example of shorthand text lingo, the acronym stands for something else at NYU: League of Linguists Students.

The club, open to anyone in the NYU community, holds weekly linguistic discussions, allowing its members to learn about linguistics in a relaxed environment that can be hard to find in a typical class setting.

“You don’t have to be linguistics majors or anything,” LOLS treasurer and CAS sophomore Nella Dacius said. “We basically cover topics in linguistics that are interesting and hone people’s skills and allow them to interact more with linguistics as a subject.”

Hosted every Monday at 6:30 p.m. in 10 Washington Place, meetings usually consist of executive board members giving presentations. Occasionally, a professor from the linguistics department comes in as a guest speaker.

Dacius reflected on how her passion for linguistics first came about.

“My freshman year in high school I took a Spanish class, and I remember one day we had this discussion in class of certain expressions in Spanish and what they mean, and I just remember becoming so enamored right away,” Dacius said. “I went home to look up other expressions in other languages and I came across linguistics […] from that moment on, I knew I wanted to do something regarding language.”

One of Dacius’ primary topics of discussion in LOLS meetings is her mother tongue, Haitian Creole, spoken by over 7 million people worldwide.

“Not a lot of people know about Haitian Creole,” Dacius said. “Whenever I get the opportunity to talk about its features, I think it’s really interesting to share it with people who don’t know about it.”

Just like Dacius, Club President and Tandon sophomore Xinyu Zhou discovered his love of linguistics in high school.

At first I wanted to understand German phonology when I started to learn German in high school,” Zhou said. “Afterwards, I also wanted to use my linguistics knowledge to preserve endangered languages.”

You don’t need high school experience to join — the goal of LOLS is to bring students together and create space for all those interested in the spoken word.

“We just want to help all linguistics students share their ideas with each other and let others know how awesome linguistics is,” Zhou said.

Zhou’s passion for the club also makes him worry about its future. Linguistics is not a popular subject, and while around 400 students are part of the club’s Facebook group, LOLS is not very well-known on campus.

“Our club can easily die out if we don’t attract more members,” Zhou said. “I now have two years before graduation. Within these two years, I [hope] I can find several new members every semester.”

Email Bella Gil at [email protected].

Leave a comment
About the Contributor
Bella Gil, Culture Editor
Bella is a CAS junior studying Journalism and English. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she still wonders how she made it all the way across the country and back. She is a devoted lover of all things Nintendo and unironically loves a classic round of Fortnite. When not gaming or doing schoolwork, she is roller-skating. Though you won't see her on the street this semester, she's still probably thinking about what she's going to wear tomorrow even though she's just going to be home. If she likes you enough, she'll make you a batch of cookies. She loves to learn and is always open to new experiences and conversations. Follow her on Instagram @bellamaegil, she'll talk with you about (literally) anything.

Comments (0)

Comments that are deemed spam or hate speech by the moderators will be deleted.
All Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *