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

Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård

A podcast about linguistics, the science of language. read less

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

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

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. 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

Episodios

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

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

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. 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)

108: Mailbag of Etymology (with Douglas Harper)

We're joined for the first time by Douglas Harper, proprietor of the world-renowned Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com). He's here to help us with our Mailbag questions, and even test us in a game of Related or Not. In our Mailbag this 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: 0:00Intros: 2:01Questions for Douglas Harper: 9:16Mailbag questions 1: 24:00Related or Not: 41:24Mailbag questions 2: 1:03:20Comments: 1:14:18The Reads: 1:18:00Outtakes: 1:22:47

107: Linguaphile (with Julie Sedivy and Matt Spike)

107: Linguaphile (with Julie Sedivy and Matt Spike)

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. 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: 0:00Intros: 0:34News: 5:49Interview with Matt Spike: 32:01Related or Not: 50:57Interview with Julie Sedivy: 1:05:34Words of the Week: 1:33:33The Reads: 1:55:04Outtakes: 2:01:21

105 or 500 (live with Kelly Wright and friends)

105 or 500 (live with Kelly Wright and friends)

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. 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)

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

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. 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: 0:00News: 3:01Interview with Lizzy Hanks and Jesse Egbert: 16:47Related or Not: 35:45Interview with Elin McCready: 45:57Words of the Week: 1:17:47The Reads: 1:39:43

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

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

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. 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: 0:44Words of the Week (coconut, weird, brat): 12:41Related or Not: 55:25Interview with Ruanni Tupas: 36:36More Words of the Week (International Blue Screen Day / Crowdstrike, rawdogging, fedupedness, combining form -nomenon, fridgerton): 1:53:43Comments: 2:11:15The Reads: 2:13:47

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

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

What do signed languages have in common? How do oral languages influence signed languages? How do they influence each other? Here to answer these questions and many more, it's Dr Adam Schembri of the University of Birmingham. You can watch our chat with Adam Schembri on video, with Christy Filipich doing Auslan interpretation. That video is here: https://youtu.be/GcV0218VJ2k Also joining us as a special guest: Dr Mark Ellison. Timestamps Intros: 0:38News: 3:33Related or Not: 54:15Interview with Adam Schembri: 1:05:31Words of the Week: 2:08:27Comments: 2:27:56The Reads: 2:31:21Listener comment: 2:39:33

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

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

Noam Chomsky is one of the world's foremost thinkers, and his impact on linguistics is incalculable. Yet many people are only familiar with his political activism. What are his linguistic ideas, and why have they been so tenacious? To answer 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: 0:41News: 10:10Interview with Abduweli Ayup: 37:36Related or Not: 57:50Interview with Katie Martin: 1:06:56Words of the Week: 1:59:29The Reads: 2:15:53Outtakes: 2:22:21

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

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

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. 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)

98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman)

How much can we really know about the words we use? What are the facts behind some of the most tangled etymologies in English? And is our "Related or Not" game a good way of approaching word history? We're talking to Dr Anatoly Liberman, perhaps the world's preëminent living etymologist and the author of Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology.

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

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

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. 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

96: Language City (with Ross Perlin)

96: Language City (with Ross Perlin)

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. 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: 1:39:54 Show 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)

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

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? Dr Caitlin Green and Maureen Kosse join us to explain on this big episode.

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

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

In honour of Grammar Day (4 March), we are joined live by special guest Ellen Jovin, who regularly dispenses grammar advice and wisdom from the Grammar Table. Now she's testing our grammatical mettle and answering our questions. YouTube video of this episode: https://youtu.be/C1l8Alk3Ptc?si=7pnGnuKcy9YY-mhR

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

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

What are your eyes doing when you describe a scene? It may depend on your language. New research from Dr Rachel Nordlinger and team shows that we do a lot of planning and scanning very quickly, and it follows the requirements of our language. She's studied Murrinhpatha, an Australian Aboriginal language, to see what its speakers do.

91: Linguistic Time Machine, part 2: Prehistory

91: Linguistic Time Machine, part 2: Prehistory

We’re climbing back into the linguistic time machine and taking a look at language in the long view. We’ll find out what language was like 100,000 years ago1 million years ago10 million years ago and then jump into the future 100 years1,000 years, and10,000 years from now. What will we find?

90: Enpoopification (with Grant Barrett and Tim Brookes)

90: Enpoopification (with Grant Barrett and Tim Brookes)

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. 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.

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

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

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

88: Linguistic Time Machine, part 1: History

88: Linguistic Time Machine, part 1: History

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

87: Trans-Inclusive (with Andrew Perfors)

87: Trans-Inclusive (with Andrew Perfors)

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