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…
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…
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…
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…
What one thing explains the most about language? Here to answer that question is linguist and friend of the pod Dr Mark Ellison — and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…