PODCAST · science
Linguistics After Dark
by Linguistics After Dark
Linguistics After Dark is a podcast where three linguists (and sometimes other people) answer your burning questions about language, linguistics, and whatever else you need advice about. We have three rules: any question is fair game, there's no research allowed, and if we can't answer, we have to drink.It's a little like CarTalk for language: call us if your language is making a funny noise, and we'll get to the bottom of it, with a lot of rowdy discussion and nerdy jokes along the way. At the beginning of the show, we introduce a new linguistics term, and there's even a puzzler at the end!
Episodes
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Bonus Episode: LxAD LIVE @ CrossingsCon 2025
In which LxAD show hosts Eli and Sarah get drunk and answer questions about language, live and unedited. That’s it. That’s the panel. Jump right to: 0:00 Introduction 2:25 Baby Language Acquisition Update 5:01 Questions 5:40 Question 1 6:17 Question 2 7:24 Question 3: What the heck is Linear B?...
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Episode 20: The Ghost of Language Past
Wherein we play language games. Jump right to: 12:47 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Language games 37:07 Question 1: Could y’all talk about how your understanding of how to pronounce the word can affect what you think the spelling, etymology, or meaning is? Examples that comes to mind is…
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Episode 19: Voiced Glottal Stop 2k25
Wherein we are pro-winter until approximately February 15. Jump right to: 4:38 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Allophones 26:50 Question 1: Why do we say “And you will be… (this person)?” when confirming identity? Why is it future tense? This cannot possibly be English. This cannot exist. Am I just...
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Episode 18: Can't Say "Teeth" Without Teeth
Wherein we are not professionals. Jump right to: 4:44 Language Thing of the Day: The short scale vs the long scale 21:38 Question 1: Why do we use 'on' to refer to spiders being 'on' ceilings? To me the spiders aren't on top of the ceiling, they're under. All the languages I know use a very…
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LxAD @ CrossingsCon Announcement
Linguistics After Dark will be live next month! Come see us at CrossingsCon in Philadelphia, August 15th–17th. More details at crossingscon.org transcript: ELI: Hey, hey, Sarah, what do you call it when a corvid recites a poem by Coleridge? SARAH: …what? ELI: A crow sings Khan. SARAH: But why?…
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Episode 17: The Vibes Are Iffy
Wherein we learn how to learn how to read. Jump right to: 4:53 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Existential “be” versus straight copula 16:32 Topic of the day: Phonics vs. the 3-cueing model, AKA how learning to read works, and how teaching people to read works (or doesn’t) 1:37:43 The puzzler:...
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Episode 16: SOUTHWYIGHTCKPQRFML
Wherein we guess that’s part of our grammar now. Jump right to: 6:16 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Vowel shifts 44:23 Question 1: Why do British people say “I was sat there” instead of “I was sitting there,” are they afraid of gerunds or something? 57:11 Question 2: I’ve noticed distinctions...
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Episode 15: Mr. White Is On Blast
Wherein we enjoy swearing, big lakes, and ambiguity more than most people. Jump right to: 6:25 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Swearing 26:10 After marrying my wife, who is from Chicago, I (who am a native of Boston) often get comments from my in-laws or wife's friends that my accent sounds…
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Episode 14: SNUBA (Snail Tuba)
Wherein we have an actual disagreement on the podcast! Jump right to: 2:42 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Ways to Make Words! 42:18 Is it possible to have a different accent in your speaking voice versus your inner monologue voice on a regular basis? when I’m tired mine just throws from one accent...
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Episode 13: A-blade-ive
Wherein we shove things away (with knives). Jump right to: 0:37 Is there a word in some language for “responding to the literal words and not the subtext of a request? 4:22 Response question from Spotify: With babies absorbing sounds even without learning the language, when learning a language...
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Episode 12: Dead Language Power
Wherein we are not warful. Jump right to: 3:36 A slight correction about the etymology of “magic” 5:55 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Verb voice, aka diathesis 23:01 Question 1: I [once] initially used "tiring" to describe someone, and then realized it didn't quite fit right, so I used "tiresome"...
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Episode 11: The Axiom of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wherein we are not already in textbooks. Jump right to: 2:25 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Ergativity 25:50 Some people would say “historic moment” or “electric field”; others seem to say “historical moment” or “electrical field”. Is there any study of this difference[, and] how would you…
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Episode 10: Voiceless Alvie
Wherein we finally post this collection of tangents in a trenchcoat. Jump right to: 15:09 Sneaky Question 0: As my high school-aged daughter starts to look towards college, she wants to learn more about the study of linguistics, both in terms of the fundamentals and in terms of cutting edge...
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Episode 9: You Can't Live A Dangerous Banana
Wherein we finish the podcast in under four hours! Jump right to: 5:43 Language Thing Of The Day: Transitivity 34:55 Question 1: Are accents predictable? That is, there are specific accents people have based on the languages they have learned, and often these have specific-enough features to have...
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Episode 8: No Linguist Can Afford That House
Wherein we KISS-FIST linguistics. Jump right to: 3:15 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Garden path sentences 25:05 How do [in/formal] registers change over time; do they stairstep as we invent new informal registers and then everything bumps up a notch and the old formal registers fall off as…
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Episode 7: The Fax Machine of Gondor
Wherein we spin a shitpost question into linguistics gold. Jump right to: 0:58 Mailbag; revisiting our treatment of linguistic typology 12:14 Language Thing of the Day: The Comparative Method 32:32 Question 1: Is English a creole? 40:34 Question 2: Are Old English and Modern English the same...
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Episode 6: Hamburger. Hamburger? Hamburger!
Wherein we find an excuse to recommend a bunch of music to you. Jump right to: 2:26 Language Thing of the Day: Filler words 14:17 Question 1: How did we get nicknames that don't seem to make sense? Like how did "Peggy" come out of "Margaret"? 25:26 Question 2: Why do singers' accents almost…
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Bonus Episode: LxAD LIVE @ CrossingsCon 2022 (full video with audio description at the end)
Wherein we #GiveLinguistsSwords. (Please note that this recording cut out a lot of background noise and claps/cheers, so if there is a weird volume jump up or down, that might be why.) Jump right to: 00:04:42 Is syntax fake? 00:10:14 Favorite and least favorite words 00:23:48 How has profanity...
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Bonus Episode: LxAD LIVE @ CrossingsCon 2022
Wherein we #GiveLinguistsSwords. (Please note that this recording cut out a lot of background noise and claps/cheers, so if there is a weird volume jump up or down, that might be why.) Jump right to: 00:04:42 Is syntax fake? 00:10:14 Favorite and least favorite words 00:23:48 How has profanity...
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Bonus Episode: LxAD LIVE @ CrossingsCon 2021
We've gone live for #CrossingsCon! ...two years ago. And before we fell further into our unintended hiatus, we forgot to post this episode anywhere besides YouTube. Oops!! So here is this, and a promise that we are back! Full show notes will be added here and uploaded to...
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LxAD @ CrossingsCon Announcement
Hello, and welcome to Linguistics After Dark! I'm Sarah, and this not really an episode—it's another teaser for next week's live show at CrossingsCon: Slipping Sideways. At 7pm New York time, Tuesday August 3rd, we'll be doing a live episode with real questions from real audience members! That's...
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Bonus Episode: LxAD LIVE @ #LingFest
Check out the events from #LingFest 2021 at https://lingcomm.org/lingfest/, and get hype for CrossingsCon 21: Slipping Sideways, running from August 1-8 on Gather, with more information at https://crossingscon.org/. Our show has not been assigned a time slot yet, but we'll make sure to announce…
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Announcement: Linguistics After Dark LIVE!
Hi everyone! We have two big Linguistics After Dark announcements for you. The first announcement is: we're still here! We have two episodes that are in fact recorded and waiting to be edited, so look for those in the next little bit. The second announcement is that we'll be doing a live show!...
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Episode 5: Schwa de Vivre
Wherein we talk a LOT. Jump right to: 1:50 The International Phonetic Alphabet 30:59 Corrections 36:08 Question 1: Computer languages: Are they languages (in a linguistic sense)? They have rules, syntax, even dialects. They can express certain complex ideas better than English, but they cannot...
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Episode 4: The HOA of Francophones
Wherein we frequently get off topic and get angry at Les Immortels. Jump right to: 1:08 Things Sarah Is Mad About Once She Did the Show Notes 3:39 Linguistic Thing of the Day: Borrowing! 8:00 L’Académie Française is annoying 22:27 Are there languages other than Irish that have the concept of...
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Episode 3: The Gospel of the Wug
Wherein we make wugability happen and invoke rule three. Jump right to: 3:40 The Part Where We Say The Title 20:22 Are clicks consonants? 30:22 Why do people like some words and hate others? 43:53 An uncharacteristically serious discussion about conversational styles and their relation or lack...
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Episode 2: Juno's Geese
Wherein we discuss how linguistics is everywhere but linguists are nowhere, and introduce the concept of the unsolicited etymology swear jar. Jump right to: 01:33 “Universal” word lists, bad puns, and university “field work” stories 07:25 What composes an accent? What counts as a dialect? What...
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Episode 1: Batman's Batsman
Our very first episode, answering real language questions from real listeners! And boy do we live up to our no-research policy. (What is the truth about bubblers? TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!) Jump right to: 00:43 Thing of the Day: Ambiguity (...or is it?) 04:28 In the English word ⟨scent⟩, is the ⟨s⟩…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Linguistics After Dark is a podcast where three linguists (and sometimes other people) answer your burning questions about language, linguistics, and whatever else you need advice about. We have three rules: any question is fair game, there's no research allowed, and if we can't answer, we have to drink.It's a little like CarTalk for language: call us if your language is making a funny noise, and we'll get to the bottom of it, with a lot of rowdy discussion and nerdy jokes along the way. At the beginning of the show, we introduce a new linguistics term, and there's even a puzzler at the end!
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Linguistics After Dark
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Linguistics After Dark have?
Linguistics After Dark currently has 28 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Linguistics After Dark about?
Linguistics After Dark is a podcast where three linguists (and sometimes other people) answer your burning questions about language, linguistics, and whatever else you need advice about. We have three rules: any question is fair game, there's no research allowed, and if we can't answer, we have to...
How often does Linguistics After Dark release new episodes?
Linguistics After Dark has 28 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Linguistics After Dark?
You can listen to Linguistics After Dark on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Linguistics After Dark?
Linguistics After Dark is created and hosted by Linguistics After Dark.
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