I once thought I wanted to be a linguist, precisely to study stuff like this. Then it turned out that the fundamentals of linguistics are incredibly dull, so in

I once thought I wanted to be a linguist, precisely to study stuff like this. Then it turned out that the fundamentals of linguistics are incredibly dull, so instead I went off and did literature. These "aha" moments are rare and beautiful promentories in the midst of seas of velar fricatives.