Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Episodes
We've asked linguists about how language began, but what would an evolutionary biologist tell you? Prof Madeleine Beekman says it's part of a complex web of body, brain, and community, and at the heart of it is (perhaps surprisingly) childcare. Madeleine is the author of The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why.
Timestamps
- Cold open: 0:00
- Intros: 0:42
- News: 9:07
- Related or Not: 30:02
- Interview with Madeleine Bee...
Among so many great word games, crosswords still reign supreme. How have they survived — and even expanded — in our digital age? What goes into a good puzzle, and will computer techniques take over? Daniel chats with author Natan Last about his book Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle.
Timestamps
- Intros: 0:35
- News: 4:42
- Related or Not: 22:13
- Interview with Natan Last: 37:56
- Words of the W...
The "Oh" show was an experimental linguistics performance lecture. It happened in June 2025 at Creative Time HQ in New York City. Actors, musicians, and audience came together (with at least one linguist!) to act out dialogues from conversational analysis, and have fun with language. Are there more ways we can perform linguistics? We're talking with artist and linguistics fan Maia Chao.
Timestamps
- Cold open: 0:00
- Intros: 0:38
- ...
Martha Barnette is one half of the linguistics podcast A Way With Words, and author of the new book Friends With Words: Adventures in Languageland.
Her lifelong love of language has led her through some of the toughest questions lexicography has to offer, and she's answering questions from our live listening audience.
Why do we FALL pregnant? How can we use PRETTY to say something is "pretty ugly"? And once and for all, why do we r...
Creators have to be mindful of what to say and what not to say in their content. This affects the language we're exposed to — and what we say IRL. But it's part of an old process. Popular LingToker Adam Aleksic breaks it down. He's the author of the new book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language.
Timestamps
- Start: 0:00
- Intros: 1:42
- News: 12:25
- Related or Not: 29:59
- Interview with Adam Aleksic: 44:0...
We've all seen style guides that tell us what to say and what not to say. Has a style guide ever asked you what you wanted to say? Or challenged you to examine your thinking? This one does. It's the Conscious Style Guide by Karen Yin, and she joins us for this episode.
Timestamps
- Cold open: 0:00
- Intros: 0:35
- News: 5:52
- Related or Not: 31:13
- Interview with Karen Yin: 48:43
- Words of the Week: 1:30:10
- Comments: 1:44:07
- The Reads:...
How did language start? What do all languages have in common? How does language really work? Many answers have been posed to these questions, but one thing is for sure: interaction is the combustion chamber where everything happens. We're having a chat with linguistic lion Stephen Levinson, author of The Interaction Engine.
Timestamps
- Introductions: 0:19
- These fascinating facts about language will make you (or Dr Levinson) a h...
How do large language models (LLMs) do their thing, and it is anything like how we do our thing? What can we learn about human language from this software? The answer might involve constructions — pairings of form and meaning that we use to make language. And here to discuss it with us is constructionist pioneer and linguistic legend, Professor Adele Goldberg.
Timestamps
- Intros: 1:14
- News: 7:13
- Related or Not: 34:18
- Interview ...
Gesture is everywhere. We wave our hands when we talk, even if we're alone. Signed languages are, of course, full languages that use gesture. And it could even be argued that emoji are the online equivalent of gesture. It's inescapable. And why would we want to do without it, when it's so useful? So we're talking about gesture and language with Dr Lauren Gawne, author of Gesture: A Slim Guide.
It's Eurovision season! We love to talk about what we can learn about language from this international song contest, but even we didn't realise that there was so much to learn. Language choice, language policy, language and gender and metaphor — and all of this has been packed into a unit at Umeå University: Linguistics and the Eurovision Song Contest. Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig are heading up the course, and they're ...
Artificial intelligence (so-called) is typified by its boom and bust cycles, and we're in a boom now. But as more and more money pours in with decreasing returns, we're going to see a shakeout, and hype is rushing in to stoke the enthusiasm. In other words, the con is on.
Dr Emily M. Bender and Dr Alex Hanna are co-hosts of the podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, and the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Cre...
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/wxGeXMzlwng
If you repeat something twice, how many times did you do it? Can more than one dinner be "the perfect dinner"? And what does "every other" mean?
We are once again fixing English, in a live episode in which we pile all our friends into a room and vote on vexing semantic questions. These results are binding on English-speakers throughout time and space, because that's how la...
Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound and escape its etymological origins, but have never seen their vision fully realised. Author Gabe Henry has chronicled the attempts, and he joins us on this episode.
Gabe is the author of Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, available from Dey Stree...
First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we see if we focused on interaction instead? A new book looks at words, gestures, and silence at the beginning and end of life. Daniel has a chat with the author of Bye Bye I Love You, Dr Michael Erard.
Timestamps
- Cold open: 0:00
- Intros: 1:05
- News: 6:59
- Related or Not: 35;54
- Interview with Michael Erard: 47:5...
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
- Words from Mignon and James: 58...
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 Related or Not!
Timesta...
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 the...
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 o...
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