Pop-Ups Popping Up

I've decided to schedule the next three pop-ups – through the end of 2022 – all at once. And that once is now.

First, the topics:

1. October's Rhotic Vowels: What the heck is going on with <r>-control vowels? Are they one phoneme or two? Are they digraphs or two single-letter graphemes? What about <ear>, as in hear the early bear? And what about words like more and before and core – what's with the <e> on the end? How about those Brits, huh? Why don't they pronounce the <r> and what's that teach us about English orthographic phonology?
2. November's Kissing Cousins: "French and English are like cousins that grew up together." ~ Douglas Harper. What exactly is the nature of the linguistic relationship between French and English? What imprints did French leave on English? What can we learn from French-looking-and-sounding words and phrases in use in English today, like rendez-vous or faux pas or je ne sais quoi? And maybe a little overview of French orthography.
3. December's TBDecember: A weekday, daytime (my daytime, in North America) class on a topic to be determined democratically. The other two classes will be on weekends, because that's the time that most people can meet. But my weekends are compromised, and in December, I only have a half of a month to work with. So I'm going to choose a day and time, and whoever wants to come and signs up will get a say in the topic. It could also just be an open Q&A.

Remember that I don't prep for Pop-Up classes. There are no films or handouts, just a set of questions and a riff, and then a PDF of my white board after we're done. The classes last about 90 minutes, and they are totally unique. They just meet once. Even if I duplicate a topic, it's not the same class twice.

I'm going to ask folks who have taken a Pop-Up in the past two months to chill for 48 hours from this post before claiming any spots, to give others a chance. That is, you cannot respond until after 5:30pm Central on Friday, September 23rd, please. Then if there's still room, you can go ahead and sign up.

Please Note: To sign up, you have to do so in the comments below the post in a Web browser; you cannot do it by responding to this post in an email, if you're reading it in an email.  You have to be on the website, and you have to have a Disqus profile, which is easy to set up. [I know, I know, I don't want another login either, but it's just a login, not a whole social media profile, and it's free.]

Please Also Note: To sign up, you have to be a paid subscriber, because (a) I am posting the specific dates for these classes behind the paywall, and (b) you can only comment on this post behind the paywall. Pop-Ups are free classes for paid subscribers, and totally worth it.