Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

"More people have listened to this episode than you have." Why does this sentence look so right, but feel so wrong? When your grammar says one thing, but your brain says another, you may have found a linguistic illusion. We're talking to Dr Dan Parker, author of Linguistic Illusions: A Case Study on Agreement Attraction.
Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/_9BcmMZrH7s
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:27
News: 6:30
Related or Not: 34:22
Interview with Dan Parker: 49:53
Words of the Week: 1:38:00
Comment: 1:54:16
The Reads: 1:58:19
Outtakes: 2:05:39

How do you define what blue is? What even IS colour? Turns out, the quest to define colours was happening along with a standardisation crisis and a dictionary crisis at the venerable Merriam-Webster. Lexicographer and author Kory Stamper tells us all about it, and about her new book True Color.
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 1:17
News: 12:40
Related or Not: 33:34
Chat with Kory Stamper, author of True Color: 50:43
Words of the Week: 1:41:58
Comment from Lauretta: 2:04:57
The Reads: 2:08:14
Outtakes: 2:16:48

We all have an accent — or several! And we use them to communicate things about us, and highlight aspects of our identity. So what's going on with the accents we hear? Are we losing some accents, or are they just changing? Dr Valerie Fridland is the author of Why We Talk Funny, and she joins us for this episode.
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:30
News: 6:25
Related or Not: 17:59
Interview with Valerie Fridland: 36:53
Words of the Week: 1:50:34
The Reads: 2:21:21
Outtakes: 2:26:14

We're talking to Dr Kelly Wright, friend of the show and data czar for the American Dialect Society. They run the biggest and most prestigious Word of the Year event, and she was there when the 2025 WotY votes came in. She's talking us through all the words we missed. Plus we get to some listener feedback. 
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 0:41
The ADS WotYs for 2025: 7:12
Related or Not: 1:00:51
Listener comments: 1:09:53
The Reads: 1:20:28
Outtakes: 1:27:01
Video version of this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXpfrXdWEW8

Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/Mqf05kN-TaI
It's Word of the Year season, and we're counting down our Words of the Week of the Year! In the time-honoured tradition, we gathered them all up from our 2025 shows, and let everyone vote. And we're going to give a mention to everyone else's words as well. We're joined by our friends and patrons, so come see them in chat!
Timestamps
Start: 0:00
Intros: 1:31
Everyone else's words: 5:57
Related or Not: 34:34
Our Words of the Week of the Year: 51:35
Comments: 1:22:04
The Reads: 1:26:36
Outtakes: 1:30:50