History

Back in the mists of time, Because Language was another show called Talk the Talk, which aired on community radio station RTRFM.

Talk the Talk began as a short language segment with Professor Alan Dench, who at the time was in the Linguistics department at the University of Western Australia. As his duties became more time-consuming, he handed the show on to a young linguist named Daniel Midgley. With Daniel at the helm, Talk the Talk went from about seven minutes to fifteen to thirty. Eventually, Talk the Talk got an hour-long spot on Tuesdays on RTRFM, and it was about this time that Daniel invited Ben Ainslie and Kylie Sturgess — and later, Hedvig Skirgård — to join him on the show.

All the Talk the Talk shows can be found on talkthetalkpodcast.com, and RTRFM’s website is rtrfm.com.au.

About this time, Daniel started another podcast called Because Language. This was intended to be a solo show that would feature longer discussions with linguists, free of the time constraints of radio. Four shows were made with some fantastic guests, and here they are.

The Art of Language Invention (featuring David J. Peterson)

released 24 April 2017

Talking with language creator David J. Peterson, author of The Art of Language Invention.

Listen to this episode

The Art of Language Invention (featuring David J. Peterson)

Show notes

Penguin Random House: The Art of Language Invention
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316207/the-art-of-language-invention-by-david-j-peterson/9780143126461

David J. Peterson’s website: The Art of Language Invention
http://www.artoflanguageinvention.com/books/

Game of Thrones Wiki: Dothraki
http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Dothraki

Dothraki Wiki: Idiomatic Expressions
https://wiki.dothraki.org/Idioms_and_Phrases

Teens Aren’t Destroying Language (featuring Mary Kohn)

released 11 August 2017

The idea that young people — especially young women — are the engines of sociolinguistic change might need an update. We’re getting one from Dr Mary Kohn of Kansas State University.

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Teens Aren’t Destroying Language (featuring Mary Kohn)

Show notes

Teenagers’ Role in Language Change Is Overstated, Linguistics Research Finds
http://www.newswise.com/articles/teenagers-role-in-language-change-is-overstated-linguistics-research-finds2

Teens Aren’t Ruining Language
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/blatantly-budge-and-other-dead-slang/431433/

Mary Kohn’s website
https://en.gravatar.com/maryekohn

How Do Children Change Their Vowel Pronunciations As They Age? (paywall)
http://pads.dukejournals.org/content/99/1

How Language Began (featuring Dan Everett)

released 3 September 2017

The origin of language is one of the most tantalising topics in linguistics. Dan Everett discusses how language came about, and how his view contrasts sharply with another luminary in the field, Noam Chomsky. Dan Everett’s new book is How Language Began.

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How Language Began (featuring Dan Everett)

Show notes

How Language Began: The Story of Humanity’s Greatest Invention
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-87140-795-5/

Scientific Babel (featuring Michael Gordin)

released 8 October 2017

A vast majority of the world’s scientific literature is published in English. What does this mean for the world’s scholars and researchers, and for scientific progress itself?

Michael Gordin is the author of Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English.