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

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. Timestamps Theme and intros: 0:00 Discussing the executive order with Carmen: 0:56 Thanks and reads: 47:38

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. 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

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. Timestamps Cold open: 0:00 Intros: 0:54 All the words from everywhere: 10:58 Related or Not: 43:28 W...

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. 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...

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...

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...

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 ha...

What one thing explains the most about language? 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

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 Time...

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 join...

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 gue...

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...

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 Uyghu...

A hundred episodes already? To celebrate, we're doing our favourite kind of episode: a Mailbag. 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: 1:0...

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: 0:3...

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 .

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:...

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. I...

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.

Dr Kelly Wright is helping us understand the link between public health and language maintenance. And she's helping us with our voluminous Mailbag! 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?

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

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.

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 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?

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 Endange...

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 .