Keeping My Family's Language Alive

Michael Rosen talks to Samantha Ellis, author of Chopping Onions on My Heart, about her efforts to keep alive the language of her parents: Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. Samantha grew up in London hearing her parents speak the language they spoke in their homeland of Iraq. Now she's keen to try and speak it herself, and to share the poetic expressions of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic with her son. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven, in partnership with The Open University.

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Keeping My Family's Language Alive is an episode from Word of Mouth by BBC.

This episode is 27:35 long.

This episode was published on Aug 28, 2025.

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