Welcome, time travelers, to a tour through the evolution of the English language! Christina and Dominic chat about the quirks of linguistic prediction, and the weird and wonderful ways language changes right under our noses.

- Who’s at the origin of linguistic change?

- How is American English sneaking into other dialects?

- Will "fewer" finally lose to "less"?

- Can we forecast language like the weather?

From glottal stops to German “Handys” and English “earworms,” this episode explores digital slang and global English influences, and ventures into the question how linguists test their predictions – not with crystal balls, but using data, probabilities, and a whole lot of curiosity.

Full episode transcript available here:

https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/sections/edling/sciencecommunication/podcast-transcripts.php#Episode13

Full article available to read for free here:

Can we predict linguistic change? An introduction. By Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer. https://varieng.helsinki.fi/series/volumes/16/introduction.html.

Read more about the topic in the freely available online volume Can we predict linguistic change? Edited by Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer. https://varieng.helsinki.fi/series/volumes/16/.

Mentioned in this episode:

- Tom Scott: The language sounds that could exist, but don't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uZam0ubq-Y.

- Ig Nobel prizes: https://improbable.com/ig/about-the-ig-nobel-prizes/.