Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Afleveringen

148: On the Mark (with Florence Hazrat)

11 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 19 min
Afspelen

Commas, em dashes, apostrophes, and interrobangs. We use them for timing, for grammar, and even for social purposes. But these little marks didn't just arise overnight. Dr Florence Hazrat fills us in on the history and meaning of these symbols. Florence is the author of On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
01:48 Intros and hot punctuation takes
(5:21) On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World
06:13 Patreon plug: It's OnlyFans for your brain
11:37 News: Irish citizenship test
17:35 News: Bonobo compositionality maybe not a thing
22:36 Side note: How does disconfirmation feel?
26:26 News: Analogies increase fidelity in language transmission
36:34 News: The Internet Archive is saving news footage
39:30 Related or Not: Theme from Camden
40:14 Related or Not 1: stick
44:32 Related or Not 2: vacation, vaccine, vacuum
46:10 Related or Not 3: Spot the pair
52:57 Interview with Florence Hazrat, author of On the Mark
55:09 Getting into punctuation
56:44 Punctuation is about prosody and…?
01:02:26 Misconceptions and playfulness in punctuation
01:04:45 Who were the heavy hitters in punctuation?
01:08:36 Punctuation as a democratising force
01:11:38 Hyphens and identity
01:14:59 English puts hyphens and spaces everywhere
01:20:14 How is digital communication changing punctuation?
01:23:57 Of dashes both em and en
01:30:33 Which punctuation marks have disappeared?
01:35:48 What punctuation should we be using, but don't?
01:38:15 Does punctuation help reading comprehension?
01:46:11 Conscious punctuation
01:49:19 Word of the Week: parachute
01:54:34 Word of the Week: Lake America
01:56:09 Word of the Week: doom trolling
02:05:44 Word of the Week: Naoero
02:06:46 Comment from Scott: Soo-ey! and Shakespeare
02:08:42 The Reads

Show notes

Why does French have circumflex letters?
https://thelanguagecloset.com/2022/05/21/french-circumflex-circonflexe/

Citizenship rules to be tightened …
147: The Language Beat (with Michael Erard)

23 september 2026 · 58 min
Afspelen

Michael Erard has been covering language in major publications for a good long while. What has he learned, and what can linguistic communication take from his work? Michael sits down for a chat with Daniel and Hedvig to talk about his new book The Language Beat: Essays and Reporting on Language and Life. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
01:21 Getting the book together: Save your contracts!
04:22 Getting into lingcomm
06:38 Popular things v things you're interested in
10:48 Getting the Spidey sense
19:30 Public reactions and book tour insights
23:22 Lingcomm involves a little bit of pastoral care
26:55 How has the lingcomm landscape changed?
34:05 Persistent misunderstandings
39:48 Are we seeing a lingcomm explosion?
47:37 Are we doing any good?
57:07 Thanks and closing
146: Beyond Words (with Karen Stollznow)

17 september 2026 · 2 uur 2 min
Afspelen

How do children learn language, and why can't other animals? Why are false friends between languages always naughty? And how is public perception of language changing? Dr Karen Stollznow is taking us through a tour of psycholinguistics, taboo language, and linguistic skepticism with her new book Beyond Words: How We Learn, Use, and Lose Language. We're also taking a look at Bitch: The Journey of a Word. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start

00:32 Intros: Do you use Y'ALL?

06:46 New patron shoutout

08:07 News: Strathfield Council trying to control shop signage

17:37 News: Claude introduces watermarking

25:43 News: Welsh joins the Star Wars club

29:30 Related or Not: Theme from Hugh

30:25 Related or Not 1: cute and acute

34:48 Related or Not 2: skip

42:22 Related or Not 3: tribe, tribute, & tributary

46:51 Karen Stollznow on psycholinguistics

50:36 Language and animal communication

53:37 Skepticism in linguistics

59:48 Getting a book done

01:02:09 The attraction of taboo words

01:08:18 Daddy diaries and child language acquisition

01:15:00 False friends

01:19:09 Best way to learn a language?

01:22:05 Public awareness of linguistics

01:26:58 Word of the Week: forever war

01:29:56 Word of the Week: aegyo

01:31:20 Word of the Week: meat proxy

01:33:46 Word of the Week: Cyberno de Bergerac

01:37:31 Comment: vague v ambiguous

01:39:24 Comment: Okay if languages die?

01:41:59 Comment: Sudoku pronunciation in Japanese

01:43:20 The Reads

01:56:02 Outtake: Hedvig watches an eclipse

02:00:18 Outtake: Glottle
145: Face With Tears of Joy (live with Keith Houston and friends)

3 september 2026 · 1 uur 34 min
Afspelen

Emoji, once regarded as some kind of frivolous nonsense, have become an important way we communicate online. But how did these little pictures come to our devices? What is the Unicode Consortium, and how did they get involved? And who is the Levitating Suit Guy? Fear not; author Keith Houston is here to give us the whole story in front of a live audience. Keith is the author of Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
02:21 Introducing Keith Houston, author of Face With Tears of Joy
03:28 Put your top five emoji in chat
08:03 What's the state of emoji now?
10:11 How did the Unicode Consortium get involved?
22:30 The strange history of Levitating Suit Guy
27:37 The latest emoji in v17.0
30:12 Changes to some emoji
38:22 What gives an emoji staying power?
47:12 Related or Not: Theme by David
48:10 Related or Not 1: orchard and hoard
52:46 Related or Not 2: belle, bell, ball, & ball
59:01 Related or Not 3: Italian aceto (vinegar) & Spanish aceite (oil)
01:03:45 Why don't they use emoji on Reddit?
01:05:26 Are emoji now more acceptable in serious contexts?
01:08:34 Do speakers of some languages use emoji more?
01:13:00 Any languages where they just don't use emoji?
01:13:59 Does everyone call them "emoji"?
01:16:13 Sociolinguistic trends in emoji?
01:22:12 The reads: Which emoji is closest to your name?
01:33:06 Afterparty
144: Sociophonetics Deep Dive (with Jennifer Nycz, Lauren Hall-Lew, and Kelly Wright)

22 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 8 min
Afspelen

Why don't we all sound the same? Are some accents easier to learn? And are there reasons for the differences in how people sound and sign, or is it just random? Lees meer

We use sound and sign to encode information about our age, place, gender, sexuality, and so much more. Sometimes we're not even aware of how we do it. But we're fixing that on this episode with Jennifer Nycz and Lauren Hall-Lew, editors of Sociophonetics: Implications for Phonological and Phonetic Theory.

Timestamps

00:00 Start: Introducing Jennifer Nycz and Lauren-Hall Lew
01:57 What is sociophonetics?
03:01 What's in our own sociophonetic background?
10:10 Why is it always vowels, vowels, vowels?
13:03 Why don't we all just sound the same?
15:09 You can hallucinate accents by seeing a photo
16:00 Sound encodes gender and sexuality
20:57 Chronolects, Boomerlects, and GenX-lects
22:04 Tweens to teens: What to expect sociophonetically?
27:33 Are there reasons for sound variation and change?
34:16 Why does a community change faster than an individual?
38:37 Does media have an influence on accent?
42:17 How much are we consciously aware of?
44:52 Are some accents easier?
48:39 What are the sociophonetic hot spots?
50:54 Are American women more nasal?
52:09 Persistent misconceptions
54:49 Fight linguistic discrimination, or teach marginalised people to "pass"?
01:03:03 The sociophonetics of signed languages
143: How to Kill a Language (with Sophia Smith Galer)

12 augustus 2026 · 2 uur 17 min
Afspelen

How does it feel to be isolated from a language and a culture that could have been yours? There are many paths to language loss, but there are also many ways back. Language revitalisation is now happening for communities and individuals. We're talking about it with journalist and lingToker Sophia Smith Galer, author of How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
00:34 Intros: How are you "going"?
05:54 News: A font that can poison data for GenAI
13:51 News: A lost Golden Age of language in the Holocene
27:33 News: New language support for Netflix, Disney+
33:59 Related or Not: Theme from Gordon
34:37 Related or Not: ramshackle
41:39 Related or Not: nap
48:57 Related or Not: adder, deer, natter, otter, hydra
54:12 Chat with Sophia Smith Galer: Her language background
01:00:31 The pain of separation from one's own language
01:05:01 Attacks on multicuturalism
01:07:34 Is all language death language murder?
01:09:41 The role of parents in language transmission
01:16:52 Factors influencing language survival
01:26:50 Will GenAI help or harm minority languages?
01:35:33 Challenging monoglossic language ideology
01:40:36 Sophia encourages linguistic curiosity
01:43:11 Responding to a review: Is it okay if languages die?
01:53:21 Word of the Week: slop zombie
01:55:29 Word of the Week: eternity leave
01:56:24 Word of the Week: spherical bastard
01:58:10 Word of the Week: the butter's penthouse
02:01:47 Word of the Week: Jimothy
02:04:42 Comments: Ingressive speech
02:08:33 The Reads
02:15:40 Outtakes: Hedvig's plant
142: If This Be Magic (with Daniel Hahn)

28 juli 2026 · 2 uur 2 min
Afspelen

Translating Shakespeare takes a knowledge of language, culture, and poetry — both in English and in the target language. There are tradeoffs and pitfalls, but a skilled translator can bring Shakespeare closer to our age, not just to another language. We're talking with translator Daniel Hahn, author of If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. Lees meer

Also, we're answering listener questions. Send us yours!

Timestamps

00:00 Start
00:21 Intros: Shakespearean insults
07:33 Pronouncing SUDOKU: Why so variable?
15:58 Ingressive speech
20:46 Nonplussed
26:59 Related or Not: Theme from Hugh
28:13 Related or Not: pooch, pouch, pocket, and poach
38:14 Related or Not: caddy and caddie
42:47 Related or Not: hemi-, demi-, and semi-
49:30 Chat with Daniel Hahn: Keeping everything but the words
52:51 Spanish as a language of translation
58:59 Translation closes the distance: Shakespeare in contemporary English
01:07:02 Poetic meter and when to break it
01:11:07 Punctuating the translation
01:16:08 Archaic words and the feel of Shakespeare
01:18:23 Hardest language to translate Skakespeare into?
01:20:43 Staying true to time and culture
01:26:05 Having fun
01:31:12 Monosyllables
01:34:32 The impact of GenAI on translation
01:37:38 Getting people to care about translation
01:40:37 Should multi-line highway word markings start near to us or start far?
01:47:48 Gender and the -ster suffix
01:56:12 Comment from Allyson: Soo-ee!
01:58:03 The Reads
02:02:01 Outtake
141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)

17 juli 2026 · 2 uur 24 min
Afspelen

Each letter in our Latin alphabet tells a story. But what about spaces? Or writing direction? Should we get rid of some letters, or could we even do with more? Here to answer all these questions is Dr Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start

00:44 Intros: Special letters

05:46 News: Spanish okay at World Cup?

09:30 News: Forgetting is helpful in language acquisition

21:18 News: Bluey in Yolŋu

25:41 Related or Not theme by Jo

27:21 Related or Not: prodigy, prodigal, and prodigious

34:19 Related or Not: vice, device, divide

43:09 Related or Not: gauntlet and gaunt

49:48 Interview with Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U

50:16 About Danny's podcast: A Language I Love Is…

52:24 The Alphabet: greatest innovation since sexual reproduction

56:08 The case against boustrophedon

58:51 Letters flipped over time

01:02:40 Why are some letters more common than others?

01:06:14 Why does H get used in so many digraphs?

01:10:52 Thoughts on spelling reform

01:18:07 Why are L and R so squirrelly?

01:28:53 The evolution of spaces in written language

01:31:46 What letters can we get rid of?

01:35:15 Actually, no, we need a new letter

01:36:53 Communicating linguistic ideas to the public

01:44:02 Word of the Week: monoculture

01:53:43 Word of the Week: algae-TBQ agenda

02:00:15 Word of the Week: hobbylos

02:03:14 Word of the Week: tokenmaxxing

02:06:27 Word of the Week: Claudeonomics

02:11:21 The Reads

02:18:18 Outtakes: Back on our Bluey nonsense + On being a Dan
140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)

30 juni 2026 · 2 uur 2 min
Afspelen

We created software that could generate human-like text output quickly and easily. Now we're dealing with the societal upheaval it's caused. What are the risks and rewards, and what can we learn about language from these large language models? Daniel — joined by Caitlin Green — has a chat with Dr Christopher Summerfield, author of These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
00:46 Intros: Generative A.I. concerns
04:15 Shout out to our patrons!
05:03 News: AP Style Guide defines COUPLE
10:35 News: Men do vocal fry more
14:59 News: Uptalk from 1890
16:01 News: Is Singlish up?
22:22 Related or Not: Bonkers Mélange editon, theme from Ste
23:41 Related or Not: population, discombobulate, bobbin
29:09 Related or Not: goggle, goo-goo, agog
36:09 Related or Not: once, ounce, pounce, lynx
41:55 Interview with Christopher Summerfield: Do you like A.I.?
44:21 Consequences of AI: Will we know nothing, or know everything?
47:03 Are LLMs just spicy autocorrect?
48:44 Are LLMs simply regurgitating their training data?
49:51 LLMs are getting better fast
52:33 On consciousness and intentionality
55:58 Do LLMs (or humans) understand?
58:58 The Chinese Room
01:01:00 Should we avoid anthropomorphising language around LLM behaviour?
01:04:02 Why we dismiss LLMs
01:07:26 Accelerationists, anti-hypers, and X-risk: Which are you?
01:09:49 Safety, privacy, and security
01:14:29 The magic wand of policy
01:20:18 Fixing the hallucination problem
01:27:36 Goals of the book
01:31:18 Word of the Week: liminal
01:39:59 Word of the Week: pink slime journalism
01:44:44 Word of the Week: waste colonialism
01:48:13 Quick words: hot-washing, eppy, shoulder surgfing, news-jacking, bio-break
01:51:37 Word of the Week: wario
01:55:02 The Reads
02:01:06 Outtake: That time when a siren went off in Hedvig's Parisian hotel, mid-recording

Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/94SbeM0KpWw
139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)

9 juni 2026 · 2 uur 47 min
Afspelen

Australian magpies are even cleverer birds than we thought. New research from Dr Stephanie Mason shows that they do two language-like things we used to think only humans could do: learn their calls socially, and combine their calls in a way that looks a lot like syntax. So are we calling this language? If so, how are the linguists taking it? Stephanie joins us to talk about magpies, media, and the territoriality of linguists. Lees meer

Timestamps

00:00 Start
00:54 Intros: Your favourite bird
07:10 What's coming up: Magpies
09:34 Join us! Patreon spruikery
11:32 News: Jamaican MP shut down for speaking Jamaican in Parliament
19:35 News: Whale phonology
31:46 News: Unicode to include new genderless pronoun for Mandarin
36:37 News: China and the Rubio Workaround
38:16 Related or Not: New theme from Hugh!
40:05 Related or Not 1: SLAP, SMACK, and SWAT
45:45 Related or Not 2: SOUND
56:13 Related or Not 3: SPECK, SPECKLE, SPECTRE, and SPECTRUM
01:00:36 Talking about magpies with Stephanie Mason
01:03:38 About Australian magpies
01:06:17 The problem of anthropomorphism
01:15:21 What's the semantic content?
01:22:52 Linguists can be territorial about language
01:34:48 Social complexity drives new behaviours
01:45:19 Magpies learn their calls socially
01:49:42 Magpies combine their calls
01:58:44 Magpies learn calls across the lifespan
02:05:36 Finding those birds
02:08:10 Doing public engagement: Are metaphors actually helping?
02:17:26 Words of the Week: mog
02:24:54 Word of the Week: pied-à-terre
02:27:48 Word of the Week: dummymander
02:33:03 Word of the Week: Sooooo-ee!
02:39:22 Etymology of Guacamole
02:39:35 Comment: guacamole = testicle sauce?
02:41:28 The reads
02:46:28 Outtake

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