Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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100 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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148: On the Mark (with Florence Hazrat)
11 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 19 min
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 ReadsShow notes
Why does French have circumflex letters?
https://thelanguagecloset.com/2022/05/21/french-circumflex-circonflexe/Citizenship rules to be tightened …
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147: The Language Beat (with Michael Erard)
23 september 2026 · 58 min
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
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
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145: Face With Tears of Joy (live with Keith Houston and friends)
3 september 2026 · 1 uur 34 min
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
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
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
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
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
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140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)
30 juni 2026 · 2 uur 2 min
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-recordingVideo for this episode: https://youtu.be/94SbeM0KpWw
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139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)
9 juni 2026 · 2 uur 47 min
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 -
138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)
13 mei 2026 · 1 uur 32 min
Wherever Irish speakers in the world get together, you can have a "pop-up Gaeltacht"! And we're having one on this episode. We've got author and TG4 presenter Laura Pakenham taking us through the history and orthography of this great and resilient language. Laura is the author of Irish: History and Culture Through Language. Lees meer
Timestamps
00:00 Start
00:24 Introducing Laura Pakenham
10:12 About Laura: Getting the gig
15:01 Navigating "correct" usage v. common usage
21:05 Different Irish voices on TG4
21:56 Getting feedback from Gaeilge speakers
24:33 Gaeilge as it is today
30:15 Irish is fun and cool, not so much a duty anymore
37:55 On coming to Irish as a learner
41:30 Related or Not: Theme
42:49 Related or Not: JIG, GIGUE, and JOG
49:51 Related or Not: HEATH, HEATHER, and HEATHEN
56:31 Related or Not: SCRAP and SCRUPLES
01:01:10 Gaeilge orthography and phonology
01:08:37 Gaeilge words and idioms
01:13:36 Why are things often referred to as "she"?
01:15:43 Favourite Irish words?
01:17:40 Irish diaspora and its linguistic impact
01:21:30 Advice for language advocates
01:23:59 The reads -
137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)
1 mei 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
What goes on in our minds when we construct an utterance? Linguists often use syntax trees to represent the structure of sentences, but are they psychologically real? Yngwie Nielsen and Dr Morten Christiansen have found evidence for something else: we can recognise patterns in strings of words, even when they don't form coherent "treelets". They're giving us a walkthrough of their latest work. Lees meer
Timestamps
00:00 Start
00:31 Introductions: Yngwie and Morten
05:19 Insights into linguistics communication
07:45 What are syntax trees?
09:13 Why linguists love syntax trees
14:15 Treelets vs chunks: Looking beyond hierarchical structure
17:46 Wanna and gonna: Words that cross treelet boundaries
22:43 How to prime someone
28:18 Priming in this experiment: People do recognise chunks
32:26 Are people just filling in the treelet blanks?
35:23 Were they accidentally smuggling in treelets?
38:47 Do we process both treelets and chunks?
42:23 DensiTrees: A way of representing fuzzy networks
44:01 What are we doing mentally when we make an utterance?
47:20 What is language for?
49:29 Grammatical glue: How do we connect chunks?
53:23 Being able to language is bonkers
56:30 Should we be studying language differently?
01:01:09 Wrap-up and goodbyes -
136: These Languages Are Anchors (with Mary Walworth)
25 april 2026 · 2 uur 11 min
What will happen to the languages of climate refugees? Dr Mary Walworth has been working with the small island community of Nusi in Papua New Guinea, which was recently featured in an episode of Pole to Pole with Will Smith. What's it like doing media for a large audience, and more importantly, how do we help speakers hold onto their language? Dr Walworth joins us for this episode. Lees meer
Timestamps
00:00 Start
00:45 Intros
04:00 What's coming up on this episode
06:58 New patron shoutout and spruik
09:05 News: Air Canada CEO resigns over English communication
14:34 News: Banning foreign language election information in the UK
23:54 News: Can LLMs pass the Wug Test?
34:03 News: Does closing your eyes help you hear better?
39:48 Related or Not: Theme
40:23 Related or Not: GORGE, ENGORGE, and GORGEOUS
48:09 Related or Not: ANY and MANY
51:54 Related or Not: GUAVA, GUACAMOLE, GUARANÍ, GUARANÁ
01:00:20 Interview with Mary Walworth
01:45:52 Word of the Week: bimbofication
01:54:00 Word of the Week: glottophobia
01:55:50 Word of the Week: liveness check
01:57:54 Comment from Colin: CLAN and PLANTA
01:59:03 Comment from Lauren: crash blossoms
02:02:49 The Reads
02:08:09 Outtake -
135: Linguistic Illusions (with Dan Parker)
4 april 2026 · 2 uur 9 min
"More people have listened to this episode than you have." Why does this sentence look so right, but feel so wrong? When your grammar says one thing, but your brain says another, you may have found a linguistic illusion. We're talking to Dr Dan Parker, author of Linguistic Illusions: A Case Study on Agreement Attraction. Lees meer
Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/_9BcmMZrH7s
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:27
News: 6:30
Related or Not: 34:22
Interview with Dan Parker: 49:53
Words of the Week: 1:38:00
Comment: 1:54:16
The Reads: 1:58:19
Outtakes: 2:05:39
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134: True Colour (with Kory Stamper)
13 maart 2026 · 2 uur 21 min
How do you define what blue is? What even IS colour? Turns out, the quest to define colours was happening along with a standardisation crisis and a dictionary crisis at the venerable Merriam-Webster. Lexicographer and author Kory Stamper tells us all about it, and about her new book True Color. Lees meer
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 1:17
News: 12:40
Related or Not: 33:34
Chat with Kory Stamper, author of True Color: 50:43
Words of the Week: 1:41:58
Comment from Lauretta: 2:04:57
The Reads: 2:08:14
Outtakes: 2:16:48
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133: Why We Talk Funny (with Valerie Fridland)
26 februari 2026 · 2 uur 28 min
We all have an accent — or several! And we use them to communicate things about us, and highlight aspects of our identity. So what's going on with the accents we hear? Are we losing some accents, or are they just changing? Dr Valerie Fridland is the author of Why We Talk Funny, and she joins us for this episode. Lees meer
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:30
News: 6:25
Related or Not: 17:59
Interview with Valerie Fridland: 36:53
Words of the Week: 1:50:34
The Reads: 2:21:21
Outtakes: 2:26:14
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132: WotY 2025, the Final Word (with Kelly Wright)
17 februari 2026 · 1 uur 30 min
We're talking to Dr Kelly Wright, friend of the show and data czar for the American Dialect Society. They run the biggest and most prestigious Word of the Year event, and she was there when the 2025 WotY votes came in. She's talking us through all the words we missed. Plus we get to some listener feedback. Lees meer
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:41
The ADS WotYs for 2025: 7:12
Related or Not: 1:00:51
Listener comments: 1:09:53
The Reads: 1:20:28
Outtakes: 1:27:01
Video version of this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXpfrXdWEW8
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131: Words of the Week of the Year 2025 (live with friends)
20 december 2025 · 1 uur 32 min
Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/Mqf05kN-TaI Lees meer
It's Word of the Year season, and we're counting down our Words of the Week of the Year! In the time-honoured tradition, we gathered them all up from our 2025 shows, and let everyone vote. And we're going to give a mention to everyone else's words as well. We're joined by our friends and patrons, so come see them in chat!
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 1:31
Everyone else's words: 5:57
Related or Not: 34:34
Our Words of the Week of the Year: 51:35
Comments: 1:22:04
The Reads: 1:26:36
Outtakes: 1:30:50
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130: Back to the FTR (with Séan Roberts, Cole Robertson, and Annemarie Verkerk)
6 december 2025 · 2 uur 54 min
You know the story. The language you speak doesn't determine your savings. If your language has a future tense, there's no impact on the way you see or describe the future. Language and perception are separate. Lees meer
Well, maybe it's time to revisit this. Séan Roberts and Cole Robertson are finding a cognitive connection, not with how our language makes us talk about the future, but with how our language lets us express uncertainty.
Also, Annemarie Verkerk and Hedvig Skirgård team up to test out language universals. Which ones are getting knocked over?
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:36
News: 6:08
Chat with Annemarie Verkerk and Hedvig Skirgård: 23:06
Related or Not: 49:22
Interview with Séan Roberts and Cole Robertson: 1:10:38
Words of the Week: 2:18:09
Comments: 2:37:20
The Reads: 2:42:37
Outtakes: 2:50:05
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129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)
19 november 2025 · 2 uur 26 min
We've asked linguists about how language began, but what would an evolutionary biologist tell you? Prof Madeleine Beekman says it's part of a complex web of body, brain, and community, and at the heart of it is (perhaps surprisingly) childcare. Madeleine is the author of The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:42
News: 9:07
Related or Not: 30:02
Interview with Madeleine Beekman: 49:43
Words of the Week: 1:40:49
Comments: 2:01:30
The Reads: 2:08:07
Outtakes: 2:17:38
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128: Across the Universe (with Natan Last)
22 oktober 2025 · 2 uur 7 min
Among so many great word games, crosswords still reign supreme. How have they survived — and even expanded — in our digital age? What goes into a good puzzle, and will computer techniques take over? Daniel chats with author Natan Last about his book Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle. Lees meer
Timestamps
Intros: 0:35
News: 4:42
Related or Not: 22:13
Interview with Natan Last: 37:56
Words of the Week: 1:24:52
Comment: 1:53:37
The Reads: 1:55:31
Outtakes: 2:02:50
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127: Oh (with Maia Chao, Kelly Wright, and Caitlin Green)
10 oktober 2025 · 2 uur 16 min
The "Oh" show was an experimental linguistics performance lecture. It happened in June 2025 at Creative Time HQ in New York City. Actors, musicians, and audience came together (with at least one linguist!) to act out dialogues from conversational analysis, and have fun with language. Are there more ways we can perform linguistics? We're talking with artist and linguistics fan Maia Chao. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:38
News: 7:16
Related or Not: 40:03
Interview with Maia Chao: 55:08
Words of the Week: 1:30:31
Bonus chat with Caitlin Green: groyper: 1:54:40
The Reads: 2:07:48
Outtakes: 2:14:59
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125: Friends With Words (live with Martha Barnette and friends)
12 september 2025 · 1 uur 31 min
Martha Barnette is one half of the linguistics podcast A Way With Words, and author of the new book Friends With Words: Adventures in Languageland. Lees meer
Her lifelong love of language has led her through some of the toughest questions lexicography has to offer, and she's answering questions from our live listening audience.
Why do we FALL pregnant? How can we use PRETTY to say something is "pretty ugly"? And once and for all, why do we really say "the whole nine yards"?
Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/aPikLncj2xI
Timestamps (audio)
Start: 0:00
Cold open: 0:27
Intros: 2:02
Chat with Martha about Friends With Words: 5:42
On Martha's life and language: 11:10
Related or Not: 36:27
Questions for Martha: 56:25
The Reads: 1:25:40 -
124: Algospeak (with Adam Aleksic)
24 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 50 min
Creators have to be mindful of what to say and what not to say in their content. This affects the language we're exposed to — and what we say IRL. But it's part of an old process. Popular LingToker Adam Aleksic breaks it down. He's the author of the new book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. Lees meer
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 1:42
News: 12:25
Related or Not: 29:59
Interview with Adam Aleksic: 44:07
Words of the Week: 1:15:10
Comment: 1:37:56
The Reads: 1:39:56
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123: Conscious Language (with Karen Yin)
3 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 54 min
We've all seen style guides that tell us what to say and what not to say. Has a style guide ever asked you what you wanted to say? Or challenged you to examine your thinking? This one does. It's the Conscious Style Guide by Karen Yin, and she joins us for this episode. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:35
News: 5:52
Related or Not: 31:13
Interview with Karen Yin: 48:43
Words of the Week: 1:30:10
Comments: 1:44:07
The Reads: 1:47:45
Outtake: 1:54:06
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122: The Interaction Engine (with Stephen Levinson)
12 juli 2025 · 56 min
How did language start? What do all languages have in common? How does language really work? Many answers have been posed to these questions, but one thing is for sure: interaction is the combustion chamber where everything happens. We're having a chat with linguistic lion Stephen Levinson, author of The Interaction Engine. Lees meer
Timestamps
Introductions: 0:19
These fascinating facts about language will make you (or Dr Levinson) a hit at any party: 3:47
The mechanics of speech production: 06:01
What's going on when we're talking or listening? 8:46
Cultural differences in conversational norms: 20:33
Universals of interaction: 22:10
Metaphors of space may have been a motivator for language: 25:53
The role of gesture in language development: 28:47
Cooperation and empathy in language: 34:59
What one thing explains the most about language?: 45:56
Disclosure: Hedvig is employed at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where Dr Levinson is an emeritus director.
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121: Learning from LLMs (with Adele Goldberg)
29 juni 2025 · 2 uur 23 min
How do large language models (LLMs) do their thing, and it is anything like how we do our thing? What can we learn about human language from this software? The answer might involve constructions — pairings of form and meaning that we use to make language. And here to discuss it with us is constructionist pioneer and linguistic legend, Professor Adele Goldberg. Lees meer
Timestamps
Intros: 1:14
News: 7:13
Related or Not: 34:18
Interview with Adele Goldberg: 46:40
Words of the Week: 1:38:19
The Reads: 1:56:50
Bonus chat with Adele Goldberg: 2:03:16
Outtakes: 2:13:11
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120: Gesture! ✨👐✨ (with Lauren Gawne)
10 juni 2025 · 1 uur 54 min
Gesture is everywhere. We wave our hands when we talk, even if we're alone. Signed languages are, of course, full languages that use gesture. And it could even be argued that emoji are the online equivalent of gesture. It's inescapable. And why would we want to do without it, when it's so useful? So we're talking about gesture and language with Dr Lauren Gawne, author of Gesture: A Slim Guide. Lees meer
Our chat with Lauren is available on video, so you can see all the gestures! Link: https://youtu.be/kHPgyXhl8Kk
Timestamps
Intros: 0:19
News: 7:42
Related or Not: 23:20
Interview with Lauren Gawne: 44:10
Words of the Week: 1:32:53
The Reads: 1:48:10
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119: Eurovision Goes to Uni (with Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig)
18 mei 2025 · 2 uur 15 min
It's Eurovision season! We love to talk about what we can learn about language from this international song contest, but even we didn't realise that there was so much to learn. Language choice, language policy, language and gender and metaphor — and all of this has been packed into a unit at Umeå University: Linguistics and the Eurovision Song Contest. Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig are heading up the course, and they're here to tell us all about it… and nerd out with Hedvig besides. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:39
News: 7:39
Related or Not: 26:41
Interview with Paulette and Solveig: 38:53
Words of the Week: 1:30:08
Comment from John: 1:49:18
The Reads: 1:53:53
Outtakes: 2:02:25
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118: The A.I. Con (with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna)
12 mei 2025 · 51 min
Artificial intelligence (so-called) is typified by its boom and bust cycles, and we're in a boom now. But as more and more money pours in with decreasing returns, we're going to see a shakeout, and hype is rushing in to stoke the enthusiasm. In other words, the con is on. Lees meer
Dr Emily M. Bender and Dr Alex Hanna are co-hosts of the podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, and the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want. They join us for this episode.
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117: Sometimes It Feels Like I'm the Only One Trying to Fix English Around Here (live with friends for LingFest25)
5 mei 2025 · 1 uur 47 min
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/wxGeXMzlwng Lees meer
If you repeat something twice, how many times did you do it? Can more than one dinner be "the perfect dinner"? And what does "every other" mean?
We are once again fixing English, in a live episode in which we pile all our friends into a room and vote on vexing semantic questions. These results are binding on English-speakers throughout time and space, because that's how language works. By committee!
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:55
News: 4:12
Related or Not: 31:06
Fixing English: 47:59
Words of the Week: 1:13:44
The Reads: 1:34:00
Outtakes: 1:42:40
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116: Enough Is Enuf (with Gabe Henry)
19 april 2025 · 2 uur 7 min
Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound and escape its etymological origins, but have never seen their vision fully realised. Author Gabe Henry has chronicled the attempts, and he joins us on this episode. Lees meer
Gabe is the author of Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, available from Dey Street Books.
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 1:44
News: 9:50
Related or Not: 32:21
Interview with Gabe Henry: 49:23
Words of the Week: 1:33:41
Comment: 1:50:50
The Reads: 1:53:57
Outtakes: 2:03:28
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114: Bye Bye I Love You (with Michael Erard)
25 maart 2025 · 1 uur 56 min
First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we see if we focused on interaction instead? A new book looks at words, gestures, and silence at the beginning and end of life. Daniel has a chat with the author of Bye Bye I Love You, Dr Michael Erard. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 1:05
News: 6:59
Related or Not: 35;54
Interview with Michael Erard: 47:56
Words of the Week: 1:33:32
Comment: 1:45:46
The Reads: 1:49:43
Outtake: 1:56:01
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113: "Official" English (with Carmen Fought)
2 maart 2025 · 48 min
Breaking news: The president of the United States intends to sign an executive order designating English the official language of the USA. Is this a big deal? Why was this necessary, and what happens now? Dr Carmen Fought joins us on this episode. Lees meer
Timestamps
Theme and intros: 0:00
Discussing the executive order with Carmen: 0:56
Thanks and reads: 47:38
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112: WotY 2024: The Last Word
21 februari 2025 · 1 uur 33 min
What really goes on behind the scenes at the biggest Word of the Year vote in linguistdom? Are we really going to stick with sanewashing for our word? And which words did we miss? We lock in and crash out with New Words Data Czar Dr Kelly Wright. Lees meer
Timestamps
Open: 0:00
Intros: 0:57
Words: 6:54
Related or Not: 59:22
Comments: 1:19:19
The Reads: 1:24:00
Outtake: 1:32:39
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111: Words of the Week of the Year 2024 (live with Mignon Fogarty and friends)
21 december 2024 · 1 uur 43 min
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. It's going to be brat. You know we're going to eat that. Lees meer
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:54
All the words from everywhere: 10:58
Related or Not: 43:28
Words from Mignon and James: 58:50
Our Words of the Week of the Year: 1:13:23
The Reads: 1:33:40
Outtakes: 1:39:29
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110: Diego's Dossier (with Diego Diaz)
18 december 2024 · 1 uur 4 min
What's in the linguistic news? Diego knows. He's been tracking down stories and words for us all year long, and now he's curated an entire show for us. It's the latest in the Diego series. Lees meer
How do you write laughter in Spanish? Or other languages?
Why do islands have so many languages?
Why are speakers of an Indonesian language using Korean Hangul as their writing system?
Plus Words of the Week and Related or Not!
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
News: 5:07
Related or Not: 34:14
Words of the Week: 46:40
The Reads: 59:30
Outtakes: 1:03:18
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109: Language Oppression in Tibet (with Gerald Roche and Sasha Wilmoth)
6 december 2024 · 2 uur 36 min
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 does that leave the many other minority languages of the area, like Manegacha? Language policy, community pressure, and individual language choice are coming together in a turbulent mix. Is there any place for hope in this setting? Dr Gerald Roche tells us about this unique situation, drawing from his new book The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet. Lees meer
Daniel chats with Dr Sasha Wilmoth about a very surprising sentence, and how our brains process language in some surprising ways.
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:55
News: 5:30
Chat with Sasha Wilmoth: 21:30
Related or Not: 39:40
Interview with Gerald Roche: 54:40
Words of the Week: 2:02:56
The Reads: 2:29:16
Outtakes: 2:32:56 -
108: Mailbag of Etymology (with Douglas Harper)
16 november 2024 · 1 uur 25 min
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. Lees meer
In our Mailbag this time:
What's the difference between DEPENDENCE and DEPENDENCY?
Why is TONGUE spelled that way?
What does it mean if reciting a tongue twister in your mind is just as hard as saying it out loud?
Why is STYGIAN the adjective form of the River Styx?
Why are WHY and BECAUSE the same in some languages?
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 2:01
Questions for Douglas Harper: 9:16
Mailbag questions 1: 24:00
Related or Not: 41:24
Mailbag questions 2: 1:03:20
Comments: 1:14:18
The Reads: 1:18:00
Outtakes: 1:22:47
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107: Linguaphile (with Julie Sedivy and Matt Spike)
29 oktober 2024 · 2 uur 7 min
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 memoir, connecting the strands of language learning, language love, and language loss. Daniel speaks with author Dr Julie Sedivy. Lees meer
Also: Large language models have proven adept at duplicating patterns of language that humans find possible. But what about impossible language patterns? Can LLMs learn those? And what even is an impossible language? Dr Matt Spike explains.
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:34
News: 5:49
Interview with Matt Spike: 32:01
Related or Not: 50:57
Interview with Julie Sedivy: 1:05:34
Words of the Week: 1:33:33
The Reads: 1:55:04
Outtakes: 2:01:21
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106: What One Thing? (with Mark Ellison)
23 september 2024 · 1 uur 21 min
What one thing explains the most about language? Lees meer
Here to answer that question is linguist and friend of the pod Dr Mark Ellison — and many of our listeners and friends. It's one of our Deck Chats! Grab a coffee and follow along.
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 0:31
Mark's work: 1:51
Listener responses: 9:07
Daniel's answer: 43:34
Mark's answer: 1:03:45
Wrap up: 1:17:17
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105 or 500 (live with Kelly Wright and friends)
15 september 2024 · 1 uur 36 min
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 Wright joins us. Lees meer
Big thanks to our friends who joined us, and to everyone who's listened over the years.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Xc0S_O4KrhY
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 1:17
News: 9:19
PharaohKatt tells us about Speech Pathology Week 2024: 27:00
Related or Not (with polls!): 40:23
Words of the Week: 56:52
Self-indulgent twaddle about the show and thank yous: 1:23:16
The Reads: 1:30:50
Outtake: 1:35:24 -
104: Dogwhistles (with Elin McCready, Lizzy Hanks, Jesse Egbert, and Rikker Dockum)
26 augustus 2024 · 1 uur 44 min
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 behaviour? Do progressives dogwhistle? Dr Elin McCready is the author of Signaling Without Saying: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Dogwhistles. Lees meer
We're also joined by Lizzy Hanks and Dr Jesse Egbert, who are working on the LANA-CASE corpus, a huge corpus of conversational English. It aims to bring representation to a diverse group of English speakers, and they're looking for contributors.
Dr Rikker Dockum is our special guest host.
Timestamps
Intros: 0:00
News: 3:01
Interview with Lizzy Hanks and Jesse Egbert: 16:47
Related or Not: 35:45
Interview with Elin McCready: 45:57
Words of the Week: 1:17:47
The Reads: 1:39:43
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103: Unequal Englishes (with Ruanni Tupas and Nicole Holliday)
3 augustus 2024 · 2 uur 21 min
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 book: Investigating Unequal Englishes: Understanding, Researching and Analysing Inequalities of the Englishes of the World. Lees meer
We're joined by our special guest host Dr Nicole Holliday, and we are tackling a torrent of words — political and not — that the current news cycle has thrown at us.
Timestamps
Intros: 0:44
Words of the Week (coconut, weird, brat): 12:41
Related or Not: 55:25
Interview with Ruanni Tupas: 36:36
More Words of the Week (International Blue Screen Day / Crowdstrike, rawdogging, fedupedness, combining form -nomenon, fridgerton): 1:53:43
Comments: 2:11:15
The Reads: 2:13:47
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102: Signed Language Mailbag (with Adam Schembri, Christy Filipich, and Mark Ellison)
27 juli 2024 · 2 uur 45 min
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. Lees meer
You can watch our chat with Adam Schembri on video, with Christy Filipich doing Auslan interpretation.
That video is here:
https://youtu.be/GcV0218VJ2kAlso joining us as a special guest: Dr Mark Ellison.
Timestamps
Intros: 0:38
News: 3:33
Related or Not: 54:15
Interview with Adam Schembri: 1:05:31
Words of the Week: 2:08:27
Comments: 2:27:56
The Reads: 2:31:21
Listener comment: 2:39:33
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101: Talkin' Chomsky (with Katie Martin and Abduweli Ayup)
8 juli 2024 · 2 uur 27 min
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? Lees meer
To answer that question, Daniel had a delightful chat with generative syntactician and Chomsky fan Katie Martin.
We're honoured to have a chat with linguist and Uyghur language activist Abduweli Ayup, recipient of the 2024 Language Rights Defenders Award from the Global Coalition for Language Rights.
Timestamps
Intros: 0:41
News: 10:10
Interview with Abduweli Ayup: 37:36
Related or Not: 57:50
Interview with Katie Martin: 1:06:56
Words of the Week: 1:59:29
The Reads: 2:15:53
Outtakes: 2:22:21
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100: Spicy Mailbag
19 juni 2024 · 1 uur 28 min
A hundred episodes already? To celebrate, we're doing our favourite kind of episode: a Mailbag. Lees meer
Why is it a BLOW JOB when there's no blowing? Why JOB? And why is OFF often used in sexual expressions?
Why do we say NO SIRREE? Is there an equivalent expression for women?
Why does English have rare TH sounds like /θ/ and /ð/? Why doesn't everyone?
HIS'N — is it related to IF'N?
Timestamps
Intros: 1:00
Questions (sexual): 8:46
Questions (non-sexual): 26:24
Related or Not: 42:12
More questions: 36:36
The Reads: 1:15:48
Outtakes: 1:20:11
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99: Gender in Germany (with Rob Tegethoff and Ciarán from Corner Späti)
11 juni 2024 · 2 uur 9 min
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 us why other languages were banned at protests in Berlin, and what right-wing activists get from involving language in their plans. Lees meer
Timestamps
Intros: 0:34
News: 5:16
Related or Not: 26:29
Interview with Rob and Ciarán: 44:37
Words of the Week: 1:46:42
The Reads: 2:02:50
Outtakes: 2:06:23 -
98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman)
20 mei 2024 · 1 uur 43 min
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? Lees meer
We're talking to Dr Anatoly Liberman, perhaps the world's preëminent living etymologist and the author of Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology.
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97: The Dictionary of Fine Distinctions (with Eli Burnstein)
29 april 2024 · 1 uur 39 min
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 Distinctions. Eli joins us for this episode. Lees meer
Timestamps
Intros: 0:42
News: 9:54
Related or Not: 24:11
Interview with Eli Burnstein: 37:33
Words of the Week: 1:10:13
The Reads: 1:33:45