Linguists ponder when "no" means "yes."

Okay, full disclosure: I know that this kind of feature is not for everyone, but I had to post anyway.  This one goes out to all of the love seat linguists that are fascinated by the quirks and evolving history of the English language. A few days ago I came across this piece from The New Yorker.  "What Part of 'No, Totally' Don’t You Understand?" delves into the semi-recent language phenomenon of "no" increasingly "yes."

Illustration by Ellen Surrey, via The New Yorker.

Think about how many times you hear the following:

"No, for sure."

"Yeah, not even."

"No, absolutely."

As it turns out English used to have two different types of 'nos' - no and nay- and two different types of 'yes' - yes and yea.  Schulz postulates that with the shift to just one type of no and yes might have led us to adopt the quirky no-as-yes construction.

It's a long, nerdy read but I loved it.

For those curious but in a rush, the fine folks at NPR's All Things Considered interviewed the writer of the piece, Kathryn Schulz.  You can listen to the interview here.

Getting nerdy

Okay, I came across this fun little quiz and I just had to share!

What kind of grammar nerd are you?

I'm pretty chuffed with my result - "The Enlightened Grammarian."

 Did you take the quiz?  What kind of nerd are you?

Brand Crush: theSkimm

  "The Skimm has an absolutely pitch-perfect voice that blends information, sense of humor, and readability in a great way."

This is how JPMorgan Chase Chief Marketing Officer Kristin Lemkau introduced the founders of theSkimm at a recent JPMorgan Chase Marketing & Communications Team event, and I couldn't agree more.

For those that have never heard of or read theSkimm, it is a daily e-newsletter aimed at millennial women that gives them "cliff notes" of every important thing going on in the world - politics, foreign policy, business, celebrity, novelty,  etc. - so that they can stay informed and participate in water cooler talk every day.

I'm an avid reader of theSkimm, and it is one of the few brands that I actively evangelize.  Whenever I fall hard for a brand, I try to get to the bottom of why.

I came across this awesome video and Q & A with theSkimm's founders a couple of weeks ago as I was logging out of my Chase.com account after an online banking session.  [Sidenote, but kudos to the Chase digital marketing team for hooking me with this extremely valuable piece of content.]

In the piece, founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin discuss how they were able to turn a news and information site into a lifestyle brand.  Here are my two takeaways:

1. They got specific

"We decided we didn't want to be everything to everyone. So we chose a really specific audience and wanted to create a product which was meant for them."

As female millennials themselves, Danielle and Carly started by meeting the needs of the market segment that they knew most intimately - their own.  As broadcast news producers, the two business partners noticed that their young, ambitious, professional girlfriends weren't watching TV news.  Weisberg said:

"… we took a step back and started thinking about the habits of this audience. There wasn't anyone giving them real news in a way that fit in with their lifestyle."

Enter theSkimm.

2. They crafted a unique "voice"

"We created a voice that is that friend that you have that is your no B.S. friend, that tells it like it is and they are a little bit sarcastic and they always seem to have a comment on everything that is going on."

On the back of their laser-focused targeting, theSkimm was able to craft a tone of voice that completely delights their audience.  This sarcastic, edgy, witty voice is what sets them apart.  Though they deal with real issues they manage to present the news in a way that completely sets them apart.

I got a lot out of the video and Q&A and hope you do as well.  To view and read both, go to the Chase website's new section here.