Episode 26 is a first for the show: a language so old that it's theoretical! This time, ALILI is discussing the whole Germanic language family, from English to Icelandic, since this episode's starring language is the family's common ancestor: Proto-Germanic. This prehistoric point of origin is the choice of my guest, Yoïn van Spijk, expert etymologist and Dutch dialectologist. Thanks to him, I get to chat linguistic reconstruction, language change and some underappreciated Finnish connections.

Go check out more from Yoïn!

Yoïn's website: https://taalaandewandel.com/

Yoïn's Twitter: https://x.com/yvanspijk

Yoïn's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yvanspijk

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Yoïn van Spijk

Audio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPadden

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 25 is here and it's a return to the Finno-Ugric languages with expert linguist Daria Zhornik. The particular member of Finno-Ugric is Mansi (specifically Northern Mansi), spoken in two regions of Russia. Daria both documents and researches this language, and so is full of good information about its history, genealogy, current status, future, and its speakers' very particular and periphrastic ways of talking about animals...

Check out Daria's website here: ⁠https://dariazhornik.github.io⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Daria Zhornik

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 24 of ALILI is a return to India, this time to dive into Marathi, the official langauge of the state of Maharashtra and India's third-largest language. My guest is Manish Goregaokar, a software engineer and a real expert on language and writing. We discussed history, geography, society, phonology and vocabulary, as well as Manish's personal experience of speaking Marathi alongside other languages.

Manish's Twitter: ⁠https://x.com/ManishEarth⁠

Sample of spoken Marathi from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChitpavaniMarathi.wav⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Manish Goregaokar

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an episode of ALILI with a twist, as Dr Jackson Crawford, YouTube's charming Old Norse expert, had me back on his channel to chat syntax, old languages and public linguistics. Chatting to him and his Patreon supporters was a real treat for me, both to share the ideas of my recent PhD work, and to get his perspective on the state and future of linguistics online. I hope you enjoy these excerpts from our chat!

Jackson's stellar YouTube page: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JacksonCrawford⁠

Jackson's Patreon site: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/norsebysw⁠

Host: Dr Jackson Crawford

Guest: Danny Bate

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For episode 22, we're travelling high into the Alps, to join linguist and translator Emma Gledhill in the Graubünden/Grisons canton of Switzerland. Emma's chosen language is Romansh, the distinct Romance language of the region that, despite its endangered and disunited state, nonetheless holds the status of one of Switzerland's four official languages. Emma leads us through the origins, history and social standing of Romansh, as well as some delightful bits of vocabulary.

Emma's Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/linguistforsail?lang=en⁠

Emma's LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-gledhill-0608425/⁠

For more about the Chartered Institute of Linguists: ⁠https://www.ciol.org.uk/⁠

Sample of spoken Romansh by native speaker Daniel from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Romansh_(Wikitongues).ogg⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Emma Gledhill

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of spoken Catalan by Ona, from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIKITONGUES-_Ona_speaking_Catalan.webm⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Alba Clopés, Joey Barber

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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#tab-1⁠

Kate's Academia.edu page: ⁠https://leidenuni.academia.edu/KateBellamy⁠

Spoken example of P'urhepecha taken from the textbook Ju je uantani, section 3.1, p. 50: https://lanmo.unam.mx/jujeuantani/

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Dr. Kate Bellamy

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIKITONGUES-_Aakriti_speaking_Kashmiri.webm⁠

Sāmapriẏa's wonderful Twitter site: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/avzaagzonunaada⁠⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Dr. Sāmapriẏa Basu

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.academia.edu/BenjaminSuchard⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Dr Benjamin Suchard

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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-minority-languages-in-russia⁠

Host: Danny Bate

Guest: Leonid Motz

Music: Bossa Nova by William_King

Artwork: Willow Marler

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.