117: Sometimes It Feels Like I'm the Only One Trying to Fix English Around Here (live with friends for LingFest25)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Release Date: 05/05/2025
138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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...
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137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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:...
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136: These Languages Are Anchors (with Mary Walworth)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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...
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135: Linguistic Illusions (with Dan Parker)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
"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. 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)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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:
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131: Words of the Week of the Year 2025 (live with friends)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Video for this episode: 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)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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:...
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129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
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. 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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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