Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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100 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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96: Language City (with Ross Perlin)
19 april 2024 · 1 uur 45 min
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 the Endangered Language Alliance, and author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. Ross joins us for this episode. Lees meer
Intro: 0:36
News: 8:13
Related or Not: 32:52
Interview with Ross Perlin: 43:12
Words of the Week: 1:24:13
The Reads: 1:39:54Show notes: http://becauselanguage.com/96-language-city/
Support the show: http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/ -
95: Why the Far-Right Demagogues Language (with Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse)
1 april 2024 · 1 uur 44 min
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? Lees meer
Dr Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse join us to explain on this big episode.
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94: Mailbag of Sextillion and Three
18 maart 2024 · 1 uur 17 min
Dr Kelly Wright is helping us understand the link between public health and language maintenance. And she's helping us with our voluminous Mailbag! Lees meer
Why can you have a TRIFECTA, but not any other number -FECTA?
Why does a SEXTILLION (with a prefix meaning six) have seven chunks of zeros?
What do CHOPSTICKS have to do with chopping?
And what's the -ER in words like RUBBER, AFTER, and TEMPER?
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93: Stop! Grammar Time (live with Ellen Jovin and friends)
2 maart 2024 · 1 uur 28 min
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. Lees meer
YouTube video of this episode:
https://youtu.be/C1l8Alk3Ptc?si=7pnGnuKcy9YY-mhR -
92: In the First 600 Milliseconds (with Rachel Nordlinger)
23 februari 2024 · 1 uur 45 min
What are your eyes doing when you describe a scene? It may depend on your language. Lees meer
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. She's studied Murrinhpatha, an Australian Aboriginal language, to see what its speakers do.
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91: Linguistic Time Machine, part 2: Prehistory
31 januari 2024 · 1 uur 34 min
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 Lees meer
100,000 years ago
1 million years ago
10 million years ago
and then jump into the future
100 years
1,000 years, and
10,000 years from now.
What will we find?
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90: Enpoopification (with Grant Barrett and Tim Brookes)
22 januari 2024 · 2 uur 6 min
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 forestall Hedvig's planned mass human extinction. Lees meer
Also: World Endangered Writing Day is upon us! It's a fantastic initiative, and author Tim Brookes of Endangered Alphabets is here to lay out the case for preserving writing systems.
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89: Words of the Week of the Year 2023 (with Cory Doctorow and friends)
24 december 2023 · 1 uur 54 min
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. Lees meer
And there's a very special interview with author, blogger, activist, and inventor of words Cory Doctorow.
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88: Linguistic Time Machine, part 1: History
7 december 2023 · 1 uur 25 min
What was language like a year ago? Ten years ago? A hundred? What about before that? Lees meer
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 English once in a while.
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87: Trans-Inclusive (with Andrew Perfors)
2 december 2023 · 1 uur 42 min
What is a woman? Or a man? Or a chair, or a sandwich? Or anything, really? Lees meer
"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 cognitive linguistics has a response, in the form of a new paper in Nature Human Behaviour. Are categories concrete, or are they mental, social, or something else? How do we categorise objects at all? Author Dr Andrew Perfors brings the science on this episode.
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86: Mailbag of Dog Sushi (with Nicole Holliday)
14 november 2023 · 1 uur 19 min
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. Lees meer
Why is dog sushi made FOR dogs, but duck sushi is made FROM ducks?
What do we call it generally when companies try to improve their image by -washing?
Is the term "MVP" becoming uncoupled from sports?
Will vaping kill your vocal fry?
Are shibboleths made on purpose, as a way of creating an in-group and an out-group?
Plus our favourite game: Related or Not!
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85: The Dictionary People (with Sarah Ogilvie)
4 november 2023 · 1 uur 43 min
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 stories, and why did they have such a relentless sense of mission for the OED? Lees meer
Dr Sarah Ogilvie is sharing her research into their lives and times, and it's startling and wondrous. She's a lexicographer and author of The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary.
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84: Diego's Discourse (with Diego Diaz)
18 oktober 2023 · 1 uur 45 min
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? Lees meer
Listener and friend of the pod Diego Diaz has put together a terrific bunch of language news and words for our edification and enjoyment.
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83: You're All Talk (with Rob Drummond and Robbie Love)
2 oktober 2023 · 3 uur 1 min
Our accents are great! They represent our origins, our languages, our community, and our identity. But too many of us feel like we can't speak with our authentic voice. Accent prejudice is real. Lees meer
Linguist and author Dr Rob Drummond joins us to explain all about accent and accentism. He's the author of a new book You're All Talk.
And Dr Robbie Love is joining us with his research about how the word fuck is changing in the speech of British teens. Spicy!
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82: Girl Dinner (live with our patrons and friends)
16 september 2023 · 1 uur 26 min
Our patrons are joining us live to give us their news, words, and stories. That's right, it's a Potluck episode! What's a "girl dinner"? What's the other name of India? And how is AI helping translate an ancient language? Lees meer
Thanks to all our great patrons, and especially those who joined us for this episode.
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81: Mother Tongue (with Jenni Nuttall)
2 september 2023 · 1 uur 50 min
Women's bodies, women's occupations, women's experiences. So often in history, the discourse about women has been by men, about women. And that means that women's words have been lost. Lees meer
Dr Jenni Nuttall has charted the lost history of women's words in her new book Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words, and she joins us for this episode.
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80: Mailbag of TLAs
13 augustus 2023 · 1 uur 31 min
Listeners have once again sent us some great questions, and we have answers! Lees meer
Why do we TALK SHIT and not SPEAK SHIT?
Do we KEEP OUT, or STAY OUT?
Why are so many acronyms three letters long?
How do we break young people out of the prescriptivist mindset?
Isn't "folk etymology" just… etymology?
Can you think of any anagrams that are also synonyms?
Plus our favourite game, Related or Not!
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79: A.I. Hype Hosedown (with Emily Bender and Jack Hessel)
26 juli 2023 · 3 uur 1 min
Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård
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78: Forensic Linguistics, Really (with Helen Fraser, Georgina Heydon, Diana Eades, Seán Roberts, and Steph Rennick)
29 juni 2023 · 2 uur 39 min
For decades, forensic linguists have been pushing back on harmful language ideologies, and fighting for better representation for linguistic minorities in the legal domain. We're talking to three legendary linguists who have written the definitive record of how the discipline has developed in Australia. Lees meer
Also: why do male characters get more dialogue in video games? And how can this situation improve? The authors of a pioneering new study share their insights.
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77: Big Tent (live with Aris Clemons, Caitlin Green, Rikker Dockum, and friends)
15 juni 2023 · 1 uur 50 min
How do we make the discipline of linguistics — and our world — a more just, diverse, and equitable place? Why does our personal history and personal perspective matter when doing science? How do we build community? And what happens if we do nothing? Lees meer
This episode is really kind of a mini-conference. We found some new work from linguists we admire, so we put out the word to our patrons and piled into a room!
We're hearing work from Dr Aris Clemons, Dr Caitlin Green, and Dr Rikker Dockum on this episode.
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76: Ooo! Yum! Uh… (with Emily Hofstetter, Eleonora Beier, and Russell Gray)
27 mei 2023 · 2 uur 27 min
Why does everyone say OOO! when they see someone fall down? Why do we say YUM when we feed a baby? And what's the deal with fillers like UM? Lees meer
For this episode we're talking about non-lexical vocalisations with Dr Eleonora Beier and Dr Emily Hofstetter.
Also: linguists are diving into Grambank, a database with detailed information about grammatical features in over 2,500 languages. With its release, we're talking to project leaders Dr Russell Gray and our own Dr Hedvig Skirgård.
Also, Hedvig gives us our yearly Eurovision language update. Ben's not here, so he won't complain.
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75: Fake News (with Jack Grieve)
16 mei 2023 · 1 uur 44 min
How can you tell if a news story is intended to deceive? In one well-known case of journalistic deception, there were tells that required machine learning to trace. We're talking to author and computational linguist Jack Grieve about his new book, The Language of Fake News. Lees meer
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74: Mailbag of Go
25 april 2023 · 1 uur 9 min
We're going deep into our Mailbag, and we're going to answer all your questions. Lees meer
Why do we say "here you go" when we give something to someone?
Why can we reduce something to /sʌmʔ/?
The thing is is, there are two IS there. Why?
Some contractions seem to've appeared, and they look strange in writing. What other ones're out there?
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73: Consequences of Language (with Nick Enfield and Morten Christiansen)
3 april 2023 · 2 uur 13 min
When language was innovated, what happened next? How did it change our abilities — and our responsibilities — to each other? Dr Nick Enfield shares ideas from his new book, Consequences of Language. Lees meer
Plus: Have large language models (like GPT) disproven a key tenet of the innateness of language? Dr Morten Christiansen takes us through the implications for nativism and language learning.
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72: PharaohKatt Is a Speechie Now
25 maart 2023 · 1 uur 38 min
Here's an entire show, curated by one of our most prolific contributors — newly minted speechie PharaohKatt! Lees meer
She's got news. She's got words. She tries to stump us on Related or Not.
She even teaches us how to roll our R's. Wow.
But best of all, she answers all our questions about speech and language pathology.
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71: You're Welcome, English! (live with friends, for LingFest23)
3 maart 2023 · 1 uur 33 min
For this special live LingFest23 episode, we'll again be voting on tricky language issues, and our votes will be binding on all English users for all time because that's how language works. Lees meer
If you had to walk 10 kilometres "there and back", how far away is the place?
How many holes does a straw have?
And if "Floyd and the chickens are outside", is Floyd also a chicken?
And many more!
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70: Free Speech, But… (with Dennis Baron)
16 februari 2023 · 1 uur 43 min
We all have freedom of expression, but what are its limits — social and legal? And how have governments tried to curtail it? We're talking through the implications of free speech with Dennis Baron. He's the author of You Can't Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech. Lees meer
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69: Mailbagussy
27 januari 2023 · 1 uur 37 min
The American Dialect Society Word of the Year has been chosen — and it's a wonderful and terrible pick! Depending on who you're talking to. In this episode, we're talking about -USSY and all the words. Lees meer
And we're getting to our Mailbag, with our most intriguing research project ever: can you spot the pattern in the way Ben pronounces EITHER and NEITHER? Is there one?
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68: Lazy in a Good Way (with Mark Ellison)
3 januari 2023 · 1 uur 22 min
In what was meant to be a casual chat, cognitive scientist Dr Mark Ellison answers galaxy-brain-level questions about how language works. Lees meer
Why aren't we more efficient with language?
How do we know when something has gone wrong in a conversation?
Why don't we just talk in a flat monotone all the time?
Why do fairy tales start a certain way?
Why is it so tiring to speak another language?
Fortunately, he helps us keep our eyes on the ball for this episode.
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67: Words of the Week of the Year 2022 (live with friends)
21 december 2022 · 1 uur 45 min
We're counting down our Words of the Year, as voted by you! We're joined by our friends and patrons, and they've brought us some words we missed. And we'll go through all the Words of the Year from dictionaries and language lovers, English and not. Lees meer
Thanks to all our friends who joined us for this show, and to all our great patrons who have supported our work.
Video here: https://youtu.be/z1BmUixVNlY
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66: ChatGPT Wrote This Episode (with Daan van Esch)
13 december 2022 · 1 uur 26 min
ChatGPT has just landed. It can generate text that seems fluid, plausible, and (surprisingly) not total nonsense. It's got a lot of people wondering what's left for humans — and for the field of Natural Language Processing. Here to help us is computational linguist Daan van Esch. Lees meer
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65: Naval Manoeuvres (with Chase Dalton)
7 december 2022 · 1 uur 28 min
Many expressions we use come from the nautical domain. But are they nautical? Are they really? We've got Chase Dalton from the US Naval History Podcast to shine a light on some of these expressions, and in some cases reveal the secret nautical origins of words we use every day. Lees meer
US Naval History Podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
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64: Struggle Pile (with Kelly Wright)
20 november 2022 · 1 uur 57 min
A chat with Dr Kelly Wright, who's been working on… well, really a lot. Kelly is at the juncture of a lot of areas we're keen on. Lees meer
Oxford's effort to document African-American English? She's been there.
Doing lexicography with the American Dialect Society? She's on it.
The LSA's social media committee? She… was on it.
And she's been looking into a new unexplored area: people's ideas about their own language knowledge.
But it's not all easy. And Kelly is here to tell us about her view of linguistics… from the struggle pile.
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63: Mailbag of Yeah-No (with Isabelle Burke)
3 november 2022 · 1 uur 28 min
Just two words, but they do so much. But what exactly? Here to answer that question is Dr Isabelle Burke, who has studied yeah-no in depth. She's also going to help us with these Mailbag questions. Lees meer
Why is LIKE so resilient?
Why can we say "I very much enjoy…" but not "I much enjoy…" or "I very enjoy…"?
When is a loanword not a loanword?
Do word processors have a problem with singular THEY?
Why doesn't English have diacritics?
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62: Language in Spaaaaace (with Hannah Little)
22 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 48 min
Yes, linguistics is all through the world of sci-fi, but science fiction has had a surprising impact on linguistic research as well. Dr Hannah Little is cataloguing the ways in a new book, and she joins us for this episode.
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61: Together at Last
8 oktober 2022 · 1 uur 15 min
It's Ben, Hedvig, and Daniel all together in the same place for the first time. We're talking about the state of the show, the state of linguistics communication, and where we are after all these years.
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60: The Crossworld (with Hayley Gold)
13 september 2022 · 1 uur 49 min
Language isn't just for communication — it's fun. For over a hundred years, crosswords have served as entertainment, and even been blamed for society's ills. Turns out crosswords are serious business. Lees meer
Author and illustrator of Letters to Margaret and crossword enthusiast Hayley Gold takes us into the history and the discussions happening in the world of crosswords — the Crossworld.
You can buy Hayley's book Letters to Margaret at this link:
https://shop.lonesharkgames.com/collections/letters-to-margaret -
59: Mailbag of Ew
30 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 13 min
In which we get together for a chat, talk about stuff we like, and — oh, yeah — answers a few questions from our great listeners. Lees meer
Other languages have a word for late morning, before noon. Why doesn't English have one?
Why is EW the sound some English speakers make when disgusted?
Why can you have potatoes, but not broccolis?
Who started calling the YouTube description the DOOBLEYDOO?
Is it WHOA or WOAH?
Why do we use capital i for the pronoun I?
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58: Expression Unleashed (with Thom Scott-Phillips and Joshua Blackburn)
3 augustus 2022 · 1 uur 46 min
Today, we communicate. But once, we didn't. What had to happen in our brains to make communication possible? And why don't other animals do it like we do? We talk to Dr Thom Scott-Phillips about his new work in the social and cognitive origins of communication. Lees meer
And game creator Joshua Blackburn is going to test Daniel's linguistic prowess with questions from the hottest game on Kickstarter, League of the Lexicon.
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57: Potluck (live, with friends)
27 juli 2022 · 1 uur 27 min
Our friends, listeners, and patrons give us so many great stories, news, and words, so for this live episode, we're having them tell these language stories in their own words. Lees meer
Thanks to PharaohKatt, Lord Mortis, Ariaflame, seejanecricket, Aristemo, O Tim, Ditte, Rodger, and Ben (not the host one).
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56: Diego's Digest
14 juli 2022 · 1 uur 5 min
Our listeners and patrons send in so many great ideas, stories, and words. For this episode, listener and prolific contributor Diego has put together an entire show for our edification. Lees meer
ASL may have changed to include copular BE
What's going on with French-only laws in Quebec?
Why is an Indian airport broadcasting covid information in Sanskrit?
And more.
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55: Rebel With a Clause (with Ellen Jovin)
29 juni 2022 · 1 uur 39 min
Everyone's favourite tabletop grammarian is back! It's Ellen Jovin, proprietor of the Grammar Table. She dispenses grammar advice around New York City and the world, and now she's written a book about her grammar adventures. Ellen is the author of Rebel With a Clause, and she joins us for this big episode. Lees meer
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54: Slang (with Jonathon Green)
15 juni 2022 · 1 uur 37 min
It's crude. It's rude. And it's a lot of fun. Slang has been with us for as long as people didn't want others to understand what they were about. But what exactly is it? And has the nature of slang changed in our internet age? Lees meer
Daniel is talking to eminent slang lexicographer Jonathon Green on this episode of Because Language.
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53: Mailbag of Compounds (with Tiger Webb)
31 mei 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
Language titan Tiger Webb is helping us with our voluminous Mailbag.
Hedvig is giving her annual Eurovision language roundup.
And we're sorting through the lexicon of the 2022 Australian election. Lees meerIs MAYBE a compound word? What about ANOTHER, or GARBAGE?
Are GONNA and WANNA portmanteaus?
What does it take to be a linguist?
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52: The Language Game (with Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater)
11 mei 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
How is language like a game of charades? According to a new book, quite a lot. Charades players and language users improvise and work together to create meaning in a situation, and they get better at it as they reuse elements and build up patterns. Lees meer
Drs Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater explain their vision of language to Daniel and Hedvig on this episode of Because Language.
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51: A Wug-Tonne of Advice (with Kitty Liu and Romany Amber)
1 mei 2022 · 53 min
We had the pleasure of an interview with two up-and-coming linguists, wanting to find out more about the show and linguistic communication. It was such a fun chat that we wanted to share it with you. Here's Daniel and Hedvig with Kitty Liu and Romany Amber. Lees meer
Part of this chat also appears in magazine form (along with a lot of other really good articles) : https://issuu.com/u-lingua/docs/issue_8_forweb
Thanks to Kitty and Romany for thinking of us, and thanks to U-Lingua for letting us make this audio public.
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50: Employing Linguistics (with Anna Marie Trester and Ellen)
8 april 2022 · 1 uur 38 min
Linguistics is what we all love, but how do we make it pay? Turns out there are more ways than you might have thought of, and a new book is here to help. Dr Anna Marie Trester joins Daniel for an uplifting and hopeful chat. Lees meer
And how do we make the online experience better for Blind people? Friend of the pod Ellen is here with some do's and some do-not-do's.
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49: Mailbag - It's That T Again (with Mignon Fogarty)
23 maart 2022 · 1 uur 11 min
Lingcomm legend Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) joins us to answer all the questions in our Mailbag! And we have to ask her about National Grammar Day. How do we bring out descriptive grammar, and tone down the policing? Lees meer
Why do some people say "She text me"?
Why are some people convinced it's the Flinstones and not the Flintstones?
Are some people saying "I finished mines"?
Is technology making us forget how to spell and write?
And why does "going to Kong Kong" have a naughty meaning in Korean?
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48: The Black Side of the River (with Jessi Grieser)
4 maart 2022 · 1 uur 32 min
Anacostia is a rapidly gentrifying suburb in Washington DC, and as Anacostia changes, so does the language. How do the original Black residents use language to establish their cred? What about the language of the new Black gentrifiers? Lees meer
Dr Jessi Grieser has been listening. She's the author of The Black Side of the River, and she joins Daniel for a chat.
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47: We Need to Talk About Grice (with Rikker Dockum)
20 februari 2022 · 1 uur 14 min
Every Linguistics 101 student knows about HP Grice and his famous Maxims. They state that dialogue is usually cooperative — and when it doesn't appear to be, they explain how we manage to work out meaning anyway. Lees meer
But linguists are questioning the applicability and universality of these rules. Is it time for a reappraisal of Grice? We're joined by Rikker Dockum on this episode of Because Language.