It's our Words of the Year episode, where we do a vibe check on all the words and name one of them our Because Language Word of the Year. We're joined by Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty and a lot of friends and supporters. It's going to be weird. I

109: Language Oppression in Tibet (with Gerald Roche and Sasha Wilmoth)

Dec 6th, 2024 2h 35m

Minority languages are under threat everywhere, but Tibet represents a particularly difficult challenge. The Tibetan language family is under pressure from (no surprise) Mandarin, even as community support for Tibetan remains high. But where do

108: Mailbag of Etymology (with Douglas Harper)

Nov 16th, 2024 1h 24m

We're joined for the first time by Douglas Harper, proprietor of the world-renowned Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com). He's here to help us with our Mailbag questions, and even test us in a game of Related or Not. In our Mailbag this

107: Linguaphile (with Julie Sedivy and Matt Spike)

Oct 29th, 2024 2h 7m

Language is a lot like love. You can enjoyably lose yourself in both. They can both be dangerous. And they both entail a responsibility to keep each other safe. A new book Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love is both a language book and a memoi

105 or 500 (live with Kelly Wright and friends)

Sep 15th, 2024 1h 36m

For our 500th episode, we got together with our great listeners for their words, stories, and inspiration. It's a look back at the show, a look at language from our friends' point of view, and a celebration of our great community. Dr Kelly Wrig

104: Dogwhistles (with Elin McCready, Lizzy Hanks, Jesse Egbert, and Rikker Dockum)

Aug 26th, 2024 1h 44m

Can you hear them? Only if you're meant to. Political dogwhistles exploit lack of knowledge in one group to send a coded message to another group. But that's just the beginning. How are dogwhistles different from slurs? How do they licence beha

103: Unequal Englishes (with Ruanni Tupas and Nicole Holliday)

Aug 3rd, 2024 2h 20m

There are lots of Englishes out there, but the way we approach varieties of English sets learners up to fail. How do we combat language ideologies out there in the world — and in our own minds? Dr Ruanni Tupas is the editor of an important new

102: Signed Language Mailbag (with Adam Schembri, Christy Filipich, and Mark Ellison)

Jul 27th, 2024 2h 45m

What do signed languages have in common? How do oral languages influence signed languages? How do they influence each other? Here to answer these questions and many more, it's Dr Adam Schembri of the University of Birmingham. You can watch our

101: Talkin' Chomsky (with Katie Martin and Abduweli Ayup)

Jul 8th, 2024 2h 27m

Noam Chomsky is one of the world's foremost thinkers, and his impact on linguistics is incalculable. Yet many people are only familiar with his political activism. What are his linguistic ideas, and why have they been so tenacious? To answer t

99: Gender in Germany (with Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán from Corner Späti)

Jun 11th, 2024 2h 8m

What's going on in Germany? How are people talking about gender in the German language, and how is freedom of expression being handled? We have a couple of German experts — linguist Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán of the podcast Corner Späti — to tell

98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman)

May 20th, 2024 1h 43m

How much can we really know about the words we use? What are the facts behind some of the most tangled etymologies in English? And is our "Related or Not" game a good way of approaching word history? We're talking to Dr Anatoly Liberman, perhap

97: The Dictionary of Fine Distinctions (with Eli Burnstein)

Apr 28th, 2024 1h 38m

What's the difference between a KINK and a FETISH? Does it matter if you ASSUME or PRESUME? English is full of these close groups of words, and author Eli Burnstein has untangled many of them in his delightful book The Dictionary of Fine Distin

96: Language City (with Ross Perlin)

Apr 19th, 2024 1h 45m

New York City is home to a lot of languages! Sometimes a sizeable language community can live on just a couple of floors of an apartment building. Dr Ross Perlin is working to find and promote minority languages in NYC. He's the co-founder of t

95: Why the Far-Right Demagogues Language (with Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse)

Apr 1st, 2024 1h 44m

Language authorities. Right-wing politicians. White supremacists and feminists. What do they have in common? They're all working together to fight gender-inclusive language. But why bring language into this fight? What extra does this give them

94: Mailbag of Sextillion and Three

Mar 18th, 2024 1h 16m

Dr Kelly Wright is helping us understand the link between public health and language maintenance. And she’s helping us with our voluminous Mailbag! Why can you have a TRIFECTA, but not any other number -FECTA? Why does a SEXTILLION (with a pre

93: Stop! Grammar Time (live with Ellen Jovin and friends)

Mar 2nd, 2024 1h 28m

In honour of Grammar Day (4 March), we are joined live by special guest Ellen Jovin, who regularly dispenses grammar advice and wisdom from the Grammar Table. Now she's testing our grammatical mettle and answering our questions. YouTube video

92: In the First 600 Milliseconds (with Rachel Nordlinger)

Feb 22nd, 2024 1h 45m

What are your eyes doing when you describe a scene? It may depend on your language. New research from Dr Rachel Nordlinger and team shows that we do a lot of planning and scanning very quickly, and it follows the requirements of our language.

91: Linguistic Time Machine, part 2: Prehistory

Jan 31st, 2024 1h 33m

We’re climbing back into the linguistic time machine and taking a look at language in the long view. We’ll find out what language was like 100,000 years ago 1 million years ago 10 million years ago and then jump into the future 100 years 1,0

90: Enpoopification (with Grant Barrett and Tim Brookes)

Jan 21st, 2024 2h 5m

We’re talking words, and no one has a way with words like Grant Barrett. He’s here to tell us what it’s like at Dictionary.com, and what went down at the annual American Dialect Society Words of the Year 2023 vote. And perhaps he can help fores

89: Words of the Week of the Year 2023 (with Cory Doctorow and friends)

Dec 24th, 2023 1h 53m

The public has voted, and a winner has been decided! We're looking all the words chosen by the various dictionary bodies, and counting down our Words of the Week of the Year. And there's a very special interview with author, blogger, activist,

88: Linguistic Time Machine, part 1: History

Dec 7th, 2023 1h 24m

What was language like a year ago? Ten years ago? A hundred? What about before that? We’re climbing into the Linguistic Time Machine and finding out. Along the way, we’ll explain the resources that linguists use. And we’ll try to get away from

87: Trans-Inclusive (with Andrew Perfors)

Dec 1st, 2023 1h 42m

What is a woman? Or a man? Or a chair, or a sandwich? Or anything, really? "Gender critical" people are making language into a vector to attack the rights of trans people. They treat categories like man and woman as binary and obvious. But cogn

86: Mailbag of Dog Sushi (with Nicole Holliday)

Nov 14th, 2023 1h 18m

We've got mail, and linguistic MVP Dr Nicole Holliday is here to help us sort some things out around here. And we chat about the state of lingcomm today. Why is dog sushi made FOR dogs, but duck sushi is made FROM ducks? What do we call it gen

85: The Dictionary People (with Sarah Ogilvie)

Nov 4th, 2023 1h 43m

Who wrote the Oxford English Dictionary? Sure, James Murray had a very important role as editor, but a small army of volunteers submitted hundreds of thousands of words on slips of paper to get the project off the ground. What were their storie

84: Diego's Discourse (with Diego Diaz)

Oct 18th, 2023 1h 44m

What’s happening with signed language in Argentina? How are terms for gender changing in the Spanish language? And are Zoomers making work language more casual? Listener and friend of the pod Diego Diaz has put together a terrific bunch of lang