A Language I Love Is...

Oct 20 2024 30 ep. 42 mins 260

A Language I Love Is... Podcast artwork

A show about language, linguistics and people who love both!

A Language I Love Is... (ALILI) broadcasts linguistic joy and shares expert insights into the languages of the world. It's a simple formula: one host, one guest, one language, and three key questions:

1) What is your story and connection to this language?

2) What do you love about this language?

3) What is something you want the audience to know about this language?

Through informative interviews and casual conversations, ALILI fulfills its mission: to share the linguistic love with all.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Old English and Colin Gorrie

Oct 20 2024 53 mins

Episode 29 is here at last, and a certain language is making a repeat appearance, but introduced by a new linguistic lover – what does Colin Gorrie have to say about Old English? We chat the basics of Old English and what makes it so 'old', before getting into how Colin teaches the language, and why he recommends it as a springboard for further linguistic adventures.Find the deta

Cornish and Daniel Prohaska

Sep 01 2024 58 mins

Dydh da! Episode 28 of ALILI is here, and Daniel Prohaska joins me to discuss Cornish! This Celtic language has a long and fascinating history, stretching back to Roman Britain. It's a story not only of slow decline, but also of resurrection. Daniel was the ideal expert to introduce it, being involved in modern efforts to revitalise and popularise Cornish for the twenty-first centu

Burgenland Croatian and Katharina Tyran

Aug 04 2024 55 mins

Time for Episode 27 and a return to the Slavic languages! Unsurprisingly, Croatian is a Slavic language widely spoken in the modern-day country of Croatia, but did you know that it has many speakers in eastern Austria too? Burgenland Croatian is the starring language of this episode, beloved and chosen by Dr Katharina Tyran. As one of its native speakers and researchers, Katharina

Proto-Germanic and Yoïn van Spijk

Jul 14 2024 56 mins

Episode 26 is a first for the show: a language so old that it's theoretical! This time, ALILI is discussing the whole Germanic language family, from English to Icelandic, since this episode's starring language is the family's common ancestor: Proto-Germanic. This prehistoric point of origin is the choice of my guest, Yoïn van Spijk, expert etymologist and Dutch dialectologist. Tha

Mansi and Daria Zhornik

Jun 23 2024 51 mins

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 particula

Marathi and Manish Goregaokar

Jun 10 2024 49 mins

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 al

SPECIAL: Talking Indo-European with Jackson Crawford

May 27 2024 49 mins

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

Romansh and Emma Gledhill

Apr 28 2024 39 mins

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 or

Catalan and Alba Clopés and Joey Barber

Apr 14 2024 42 mins

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

P'urhepecha and Kate Bellamy

Mar 31 2024 42 mins

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/staffmemb