A Language I Love Is...

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.io⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Daria ZhornikMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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 BateGuest: Manish GoregaokarMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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 CrawfordGuest: Danny BateMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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=en⁠Emma'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).ogg⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Emma GledhillMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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.webm⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Alba Clopés, Joey BarberMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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-1⁠Kate's Academia.edu page: ⁠https://leidenuni.academia.edu/KateBellamy⁠Spoken example of P'urhepecha taken from the textbook Ju je uantani, section 3.1, p. 50: https://lanmo.unam.mx/jujeuantani/Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Kate BellamyMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marle 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.webm⁠Sāmapriẏa's wonderful Twitter site: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/avzaagzonunaada⁠⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Sāmapriẏa BasuMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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 BateGuest: Dr Benjamin SuchardMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William 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/ulaantenger⁠His podcasting performance with Jeremy Bradley: ⁠https://www.recet.at/podcast/detail/episode-37-minority-languages-in-russia⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Leonid MotzMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ALILI is back for a second series! Here's episode 16 with Jeremy Bradley, who takes us on a journey into the Mari language. This is a linguistic tour de force, surely the episode that mentions and discusses the most languages, from Estonian to Indonesian. Jeremy's Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/Chi_con_carnage⁠The Mari website: ⁠https://mari-language.univie.ac.at/⁠ Host: Dr Jeremy BradleyGuest: Danny BateMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's episode 15 and the finale of the first series of ALILI! To mark the occasion, the tables have been turned and your usual host now finds himself on the receiving end of the format he created, as Krishnan Ram-Prasad rejoins the show to interview me about the amazing Old Irish language. We dive into what this language is, who spoke it, who wrote in it, and why it's terrifying at first but actually rather wonderful. Books to get you started!- Sengoidelc by David Stifter: ⁠https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/1022/sengoidelc/⁠- A Student's Companion to Old Irish grammar by Ranke de Vries: ⁠https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Se7VzQEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions⁠ Host: Dr Krishnan Ram-PrasadGuest: Danny BateMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for the fourteenth and penultimate episode of the first series of ALILI, in which Gioia Cacchioli joins me to talk about Tigrinya, a Semitic and syntactically striking language of eastern Africa. Gioia introduces the language, its family tree, its word-building, its use of the Ge'ez script, and how she came to love Tigrinya. Here's Gioia's website: ⁠https://gioiacacchioli.com/⁠ The word of the episode: abugida (⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida⁠) Host: Danny BateGuest: Gioia CacchioliMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's episode 13 and it's all about Welsh! Victoria Noble, a PhD researcher in the semantics of Welsh and Arabic, joins me to share her enthusiasm and admiration for the Welsh language, discussing both its cool linguistic features and the difficult details of its history.Note from Victoria: the annual population survey mentioned at 8:02 is from 2023, not 2003.You can find Victoria on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/LinguisVicHost: Danny BateGuest: Victoria NobleMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For episode 12, I popped along to Charles University in Prague, to interview Dr Radek Šimík, a linguist, lecturer and researcher there, and to talk all about the local language: Czech. The topics ranged from the history of Czech and its dialects, to the influences of German and a special bit of syntax, which made for a great discussion.You can find Radek's personal website here.Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr Radek ŠimíkMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 11 of ALILI sees us back beside the Baltic Sea, where Dr Francis Young guides us into the story of Lithuania and the Lithuanian language. Francis discusses both history and prehistory in detail, and joyously shares some rather wrong ideas that people have held about the origin of this Indo-European language.To learn more from Francis, here's his ⁠website⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠.Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr Francis YoungMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ALILI has made it to ten episodes, and this tenth instalment is a suitably sensational journey into the linguistic and cultural cosmos of Persian. Alexander Jabbari joins me to talk about this influential language, and demonstrate why Persian is a hugely important yet surprisingly accessible global tongue. Alexander's ⁠website⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠. Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr Alexander JabbariMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 9 is here and it's all about Mexico! The wonderful Gilly Marchini, a PhD researcher at Edinburgh, guide us into the linguistic landscape of Mexico and its particular variety of Spanish, and into the practice of linguistic fieldwork and documentation. Gilly's passion and principles combine to make for a fun and fascinating look at Mexican Spanish.Gilly's website can be found here: https://gillymarchini.wordpress.com/Host: Danny BateGuest: Gilly MarchiniMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the eighth episode of A Language I Love Is..., Charles Roe joins me to introduce into the linguistic world of Latin in the Middle Ages. Charles offers a great example of how a particular language is often not defined linguistically, and demonstrates how Latin after Rome was anything but a dead language.Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Charles RoeMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 7 of ALILI... is a journey into the Uralic language family, specifically via one of its famous European members: Estonian! Prof. Johanna Laakso joins me to share her long-held love for a language very similar to her native Finnish, yet interestingly different in lots of ways, thanks to the specific ingredients that have gone into the Estonian of today. Host: Danny BateGuest: Prof. Johanna LaaksoMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Time for the 6th episode of ALILI... and for Dr Stephen Hopkins to wind back the clock on the language you are currently reading – we're heading back to Old English! Stephen is a real pro, and this interview with him is both an engaging and entertaining introduction to the earliest days of English.Stephen's brilliant Twitter site: https://twitter.com/phil_lol_ogistHost: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Stephen HopkinsMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.