yes, I am a geek.

 I just sent in my choices for panels for Norwescon, and on there are a couple of language panels that I'm hoping work out.  I am super-stoked about the chance to talk about linguistics to interested amateurs.  I've never lost that sense of wonder about my chosen science, that excitement that human beings are not only wired for language but that we have evolved for language.  Language is so advantageous that we take a mortality hit to be better structured for language; for instance, our throats are structured in such a way that after we get out of early infancy we cannot swallow and breathe at the same time like most of the rest of our mammalian brethren.  (Babies can drink and breathe at the same time until their larynxes drop at three months.  After that, they get to take their chances with choking like the rest of us.)

In a very real way, humans are language machines.  Understanding the structures that make language possible, and the structures of language itself, is a way of understanding how our minds work.  And understand how language and culture interact with each other is another layer on top of that.  Language both reflects and influences worldviews.  It's one of the filters for understanding the world, and you can learn a lot about a culture by studying the language--but you also often need to study the culture to really understand what the language is doing.  

I occasionally think it's too bad that I was never able to do more with my love of linguistics.  Maybe some day.  :)