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 Street Books.

Timestamps

• Cold open: 0:00
• Intros: 1:44
• News: 9:50
• Related or Not: 32:21
• Interview with Gabe Henry: 49:23
• Words of the Week: 1:33:41
• Comment: 1:50:50
• The Reads: 1:53:57
• Outtakes: 2:03:28

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: 47:56
• Words of the Week: 1:33:32
• Comment: 1:45:46 
• The Reads: 1:49:43
• Outtake: 1:56:01

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: 58:50
• Our Words of the Week of the Year: 1:13:23
• The Reads: 1:33:40
• Outtakes: 1:39:29

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 there any place for hope in this setting? Dr Gerald Roche tells us about this unique situation, drawing from his new book The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet. 

Daniel chats with Dr Sasha Wilmoth about a very surprising sentence, and how our brains process language in some surprising ways.

Timestamps

Cold open: 0:00 Intros: 0:55 News: 5:30 Chat with Sasha Wilmoth: 21:30 Related or Not: 39:40 Interview with Gerald Roche: 54:40 Words of the Week: 2:02:56 The Reads: 2:29:16 Outtakes: 2:32:56

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 out loud?
• Why is STYGIAN the adjective form of the River Styx?
• Why are WHY and BECAUSE the same in some languages?

Timestamps

• Cold open: 0:00
• Intros: 2:01
• Questions for Douglas Harper: 9:16
• Mailbag questions 1: 24:00
• Related or Not: 41:24
• Mailbag questions 2: 1:03:20
• Comments: 1:14:18
• The Reads: 1:18:00
• Outtakes: 1:22:47

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 have proven adept at duplicating patterns of language that humans find possible. But what about impossible language patterns? Can LLMs learn those? And what even is an impossible language? Dr Matt Spike explains.

Timestamps

• Cold open: 0:00
• Intros: 0:34
• News: 5:49
• Interview with Matt Spike: 32:01
• Related or Not: 50:57
• Interview with Julie Sedivy: 1:05:34
• Words of the Week: 1:33:33
• The Reads: 1:55:04
• Outtakes: 2:01:21

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

Timestamps

Cold open: 0:00 Intros: 1:17 News: 9:19 PharaohKatt tells us about Speech Pathology Week 2024: 27:00 Related or Not (with polls!): 40:23 Words of the Week: 56:52 Self-indulgent twaddle about the show and thank yous: 1:23:16 The Reads: 1:30:50 Outtake: 1:35:24

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 joined by Lizzy Hanks and Dr Jesse Egbert, who are working on the LANA-CASE corpus, a huge corpus of conversational English. It aims to bring representation to a diverse group of English speakers, and they're looking for contributors.

Dr Rikker Dockum is our special guest host.

Timestamps

• Intros: 0:00
• News: 3:01
• Interview with Lizzy Hanks and Jesse Egbert: 16:47
• Related or Not: 35:45
• Interview with Elin McCready: 45:57
• Words of the Week: 1:17:47
• The Reads: 1:39:43