121: Vampires, ghosts, imposters and more linguistic monsters
Vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, zombies, imposters, and frankenstein have something in common: they're all possessed by the spirit of...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Society & Culture
Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics
A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. A weird and deep conversation about language delivered right to your ears the third Thursday of every...
Episodes
20 of 121 episodes
120: How (not) to kill a language - Interview with Sophia Smith Galer
Narratives about smaller languages often focus on the death and endangerment sides of the story. There's generally less on the social and po...
119: Irregularity is all over the place
Talk, talked. Walk, walked. Go...went? In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about the many ways...
118: Using tech to chat with bonobos, dogs, and whales
Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? What about the studies trying to teach bonobos and other primates to co...
117: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking - Interview with Julie Sedivy
Sometimes, a phrase seems to leap off the page and lodge into your mind, crisp and shining like a precious jewel. Other times, you're readin...
116: Cross-cultural communication (in space!)
Sometimes, you're talking with someone and you just seem to click. Other times, you just can't seem to get comfortable: they're standing too...
115: The long shadow of Daisy Bates with This Guy Sucked
What do you do when the only records that remain of a language were made by someone who had absolutely horrendous views of the people who sp...
114: Begonia, average coral, and sea pink - Defining colour terms with Kory Stamper
begonia: a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see ‘coral’ 3B), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger tha...
113: Why "it's a diglossia!" explains so many social dynamics
In some communities, everyone regularly uses two languages or varieties according to the social situation, with one of them being more prest...
112: When language become-s(3SG) linguistic example-s(PL)
Language is all around us. This sentence right here, is language! But between the raw experience of someone saying something and a linguisti...
111: Whoa!! A surprise episode??? For me??!!
Wait, surprise is associated with a particular intonation!? Oh, you can see surprise by measuring electricity from your brain!? Hang on, som...
110: The history of the history of Indo-European - Interview with Danny Bate
Before there was English, or Latin, or Czech, or Hindi, there was a language that they all have in common, which we call Proto-Indo-European...
109: On the nose - How the nose shapes language
We often invoke the idea of language by showing the mouth or the hands. But the nose is important to both signed and spoken languages: it ca...
108: Highs and lows of tone in Babanki - Interview with Pius Akumbu
Linguistic research has its highs and lows: from staging a traditional wedding to learn about ceremonial words to having your efforts to fou...
107: Urban Multilingualism
When we try to represent languages on a map, it's common to assign each language a zone or a point which represents some idea of where it's...
106: Is a hotdog a sandwich? The problem with definitions
We asked you if a burrito was a sandwich, and you said 'no'. We asked you if ravioli was a sandwich and you said 'heck no'. We asked you if...
105: Linguistics of TikTok - Interview with Adam Aleksic aka EtymologyNerd
TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are an evolving genre of media: short-form, vertical videos that take up your whole screen and a...
104: Reading and language play in Sámi - Interview with Hanna-Máret Outakoski
When we talk about language reclamation, we often think about oral traditions. But at this point, many Indigenous languages also have consid...
103: A hand-y guide to gesture
Gestures: every known language has them, and there's a growing body of research on how they fit into communication. But academic literature...
102: The science and fiction of Sapir-Whorf
It's a fun science fiction trope: learn a mysterious alien language and acquire superpowers, just like if you'd been zapped by a cosmic ray...