A Language I Love Is...

For episode 21, ALILI becomes A Language We Love Is , as two guests, Alba Clopés and Joey Barber, join me to chat Catalan. Our conversation ranges from its Latin origins to ongoing efforts to build up popular usage of the language. Through the phonology, orthography, morphology, history and sociolinguistics of Catalan, you can see why Alba and Joey share a passion for this Romance language. Sample...

ALILI has reached 20 episodes! The twentieth beloved language is P'urhepecha, a language of Mexico introduced by Dr. Kate Bellamy. Kate enthusiastically takes us through the geography, history, morphology and lonely genealogy of P'urhepecha, as well as the reasons why it deserves to be better known outside Mexico. Kate's Leiden page: ⁠https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/kate-bellamy#...

Episode 19 sees the show's first returning guest, as the maestro of Indo-Iranian languages, Dr. Sāmapriẏa Basu, joins me again, this time to introduce Kashmiri. Beginning with its geographical and political situation, our conversation explores the many distinct features of Kashmiri that, for Sāmapriẏa, make it a 'linguist's language'. Sample of spoken Kashmiri by Aakriti Khaibri, available here: ⁠...

The third episode of this second series is a Biblical bonanza, as Dr Benjamin Suchard comes on the show to introduce the linguistic world of Biblical Hebrew. We discuss the language's history, its family tree, its layer of loanwords and external influences, and how human this holy language can be. Benjamin's website: ⁠https://bnuyaminim.wordpress.com/⁠ Benjamin's Academia page: ⁠https://kuleuven.a...

Episode 17 of ALILI is a linguistic and historical voyage into the Bulgarian language, as Vienna's Leonid Motz guides us through the language's many ingredients, far-reaching connections, and membership of the Balkan Sprachbund . To hear more from Leonid: His Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/ulaantenger⁠ His podcasting performance with Jeremy Bradley: ⁠https://www.recet.at/podcast/detail/episode-37-m...

ALILI is back for a second series! Here's episode 16 with Jeremy Bradley, who takes us on a journey into the Mari language. This is a linguistic tour de force, surely the episode that mentions and discusses the most languages, from Estonian to Indonesian. Jeremy's Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/Chi_con_carnage⁠ The Mari website: ⁠https://mari-language.univie.ac.at/⁠ Host: Dr Jeremy Bradley Guest: D...

It's episode 15 and the finale of the first series of ALILI ! To mark the occasion, the tables have been turned and your usual host now finds himself on the receiving end of the format he created, as Krishnan Ram-Prasad rejoins the show to interview me about the amazing Old Irish language. We dive into what this language is, who spoke it, who wrote in it, and why it's terrifying at first but actua...

It's time for the fourteenth and penultimate episode of the first series of ALILI , in which Gioia Cacchioli joins me to talk about Tigrinya, a Semitic and syntactically striking language of eastern Africa. Gioia introduces the language, its family tree, its word-building, its use of the Ge'ez script, and how she came to love Tigrinya. Here's Gioia's website: ⁠https://gioiacacchioli.com/⁠ The word...

Here's episode 13 and it's all about Welsh! Victoria Noble, a PhD researcher in the semantics of Welsh and Arabic, joins me to share her enthusiasm and admiration for the Welsh language, discussing both its cool linguistic features and the difficult details of its history. Note from Victoria: the annual population survey mentioned at 8:02 is from 2023, not 2003. You can find Victoria on Twitter at...

For episode 12, I popped along to Charles University in Prague, to interview Dr Radek Šimík, a linguist, lecturer and researcher there, and to talk all about the local language: Czech. The topics ranged from the history of Czech and its dialects, to the influences of German and a special bit of syntax, which made for a great discussion. You can find Radek's personal website here . Host: Danny Bate...

Episode 11 of ALILI sees us back beside the Baltic Sea, where Dr Francis Young guides us into the story of Lithuania and the Lithuanian language. Francis discusses both history and prehistory in detail, and joyously shares some rather wrong ideas that people have held about the origin of this Indo-European language. To learn more from Francis, here's his ⁠website⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠ . Host: Danny Bate...

ALILI has made it to ten episodes, and this tenth instalment is a suitably sensational journey into the linguistic and cultural cosmos of Persian. Alexander Jabbari joins me to talk about this influential language, and demonstrate why Persian is a hugely important yet surprisingly accessible global tongue. Alexander's ⁠website⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠ . Host: Danny Bate Guest: Dr Alexander Jabbari Music: Bo...

Episode 9 is here and it's all about Mexico! The wonderful Gilly Marchini, a PhD researcher at Edinburgh, guide us into the linguistic landscape of Mexico and its particular variety of Spanish, and into the practice of linguistic fieldwork and documentation. Gilly's passion and principles combine to make for a fun and fascinating look at Mexican Spanish. Gilly's website can be found here: https://...

For the eighth episode of A Language I Love Is... , Charles Roe joins me to introduce into the linguistic world of Latin in the Middle Ages. Charles offers a great example of how a particular language is often not defined linguistically, and demonstrates how Latin after Rome was anything but a dead language. Host: Danny Bate Guest: Dr. Charles Roe Music: Bossa Nova by William_King Artwork: Willow...

Episode 7 of ALILI... is a journey into the Uralic language family, specifically via one of its famous European members: Estonian! Prof. Johanna Laakso joins me to share her long-held love for a language very similar to her native Finnish, yet interestingly different in lots of ways, thanks to the specific ingredients that have gone into the Estonian of today. Host: Danny Bate Guest: Prof. Johanna...

Time for the 6th episode of  ALILI...  and for Dr Stephen Hopkins to wind back the clock on the language you are currently reading – we're heading back to Old English! Stephen is a real pro, and this interview with him is both an engaging and entertaining introduction to the earliest days of English. Stephen's brilliant Twitter site:  https://twitter.com/phil_lol_ogist Host: Danny B...

Here's Episode 5 of A Language I Love Is... and for this episode, Dr Sāmapriẏa Basu guides us into the Caucasus, the "mountain of tongues", a region rich in languages and language families. Our way in is via the modern language of Ossetian, an Indo-European relative marooned by history from the rest of its family. Sāmapriẏa's wonderful Twitter site: ⁠https://twitter.com/avzaagzonunaada⁠ Host: Dann...

Episode 4 of  ALILI  is here and its task is to introduce the linguistic cosmos that is the Sanskrit language. Dr Krishnan Ram-Prasad joins me to run through the basics of Sanskrit, from its prehistoric origins to its prestigious status in India today. Krishnan expertly offers a wealth of information, all presented with the palpable enthusiasm of a true fan. Find Krishnan's website and w...

Episode 3 of ALILI is a deep dive into the Germanic languages, expertly navigated by George Walkden, who shares a wealth of information about this language family through his love for one particular member: Old Saxon. Having introduced the language, its few (but fun) sources and himself, George uses the example of Old Saxon to make some great points about the connections between language, politics...

Episode 2 of  ALILI  and it's time to head back to ancient Mesopotamia and hear all about Akkadian, an influential  lingua franca  of the ancient world. Old it may be, but Akkadian still has much to tell us about its many cousin languages still spoken to this day. Akkadian expert Iris Kamil both introduces and shares a little of her boundless enthusiasm for the language and its...

Here's Episode 1, in which my friend Sarah van Eyndhoven kindly offers both her time and expertise to join me to talk about the Scots language. This language of the Lowlands of Scotland has a long history, reaching back into early medieval times, and also a complicated history with its southern cousin, English. Sarah is on hand to untangle all this history, as well as offering her thoughts on the...

Hello there! This is my introduction to a new podcast all about language, linguistics and loving both. In this initial episode, I set out the premise and format of the whole idea, which I've been thinking over for a couple of years now. Watch this space for the episodes proper, very soon! Music: Bossa Nova by William_King Artwork: Willow Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...