101 places to get enthusiastic about linguistics
In honour of Lingthusiasm's 100th episodiversary, we've compiled this list of 101 public-facing places where linguists and linguistics nerds hang out and learn things!Â
17 podcasts about linguistics
Lingthusiasm â A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics!Â
The Vocal Fries â Language discrimination and how to fight it
The History of English â From Proto-Indo-European to Shakespeare in 180 episodes (and still running!)
A Language I Love Is â Guests (some linguists, some not) talk about languages they love and why
En Clair â Forensic linguistics and literary detection
Because Language â New guests every episode discuss their linguistic interests
The Allusionist â Stories about language and the people who use itÂ
Subtitle â A podcast about languages and the people who speak them
Field Notes â Five seasons on linguistic fieldworkÂ
Tomayto Tomahto â Language meets cog sci, politics, history, law, anthropology, and more
Word of Mouth â A long-running and wide-ranging linguistics program on BBC 4.
Words Unravelled - A new and very well edited etymology podcast with popular creators RobWords and Jess Zafarris
Something Rhymes with Purple â Learn the background behind another word or phrase each episode
Lexitecture â A classic etymology podcast with a huge back catalogue
A Way with Words â A "lively and upbeat" public radio call-in show about language and culture
SprĂ„ket â A radio program in Swedish answering listener questions about language. We don't speak Swedish, but this was the most-mentioned non-English content in our listener survey!
Living Voices â A podcast in Spanish about endangered languages of the Amazon
12 nonfiction books about linguistics
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch (Amazon; Bookshop) â A linguist shows how the internet is transforming the way we communicate
How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die (Amazon; Bookshop) by David Crystal â A journey through the different subsystems of languageÂ
That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships by Deborah Tannen (Amazon; Bookshop) â A pioneering researcher on conversations gives advice on how they can go wrong
Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self by Julie Sedivy (Amazon; Bookshop) â Scientific and personal reflections on nostalgia, forgetting, and language loss
The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves to Sand Worms, the Words Behind World-Building by David J Peterson (Amazon; Bookshop) â an accessible guide to making your own conlangÂ
Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't RhymeâAnd Other Oddities of the English Language by Arika Okrent (Amazon; Bookshop) â The history behind English's many oddities
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell (Amazon; Bookshop) â A well-researched pushback on sexist language ideology
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper (Amazon; Bookshop) â A lifelong lexicographer discusses the job and the things she's learned along the wayÂ
Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren (Amazon; Bookshop) â A quick, funny tour of the quirks of 60 European languages
Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New by Felicity Meakins, Gari Tudor-Smith, and Paul Williams (Amazon; Bookshop) â The story of Australian indigenous languages' resistance and survival
Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words by Anne Curzan (Amazon; Bookshop) â A writers' style and grammar guide focused on real usage, not made-up rules
The Language Lover's Puzzle Book: A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles by Alex Bellos (Amazon; Bookshop) â Solve puzzles about writing, grammar, and meaning drawn from real and fictional languages
Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages (Amazon; Bookshop) â An anthology of poems in endangered languages, with commentary
6 linguistically-inspired novels
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang (Amazon; Bookshop) â Imagine a world where linguistics was as vital â and as ethically compromised â as engineering is in ours
True Biz by Sara NoviÄ (Amazon; Bookshop) â Love, friendship, and struggle at a residential high school for the Deaf
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by by Mark Dunn (Amazon; Bookshop) â "A progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable" full of wordplay and weirdness
Semiosis by Sue Burke (Amazon; Bookshop) â Human space colonists communicate with sentient plants
Translation State by Ann Leckie (Amazon; Bookshop) â What does life look like for a perfectly genetically engineered alienâhuman translator? (Spoiler: weird, that's what.)
Stories of your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (Amazon; Bookshop) â Includes the long short story that became Arrival, plus other reflections on humanity and change
13 linguistics youtube channels
Crash Course Linguistics â A whole linguistics course in 16 videos
Tom Scott's Language Files â Pithy language facts explained quickly and clearly
NativLang â Language reconstruction and the history of writing
Geoff Lindsay â Facts (and some scholarly opinions) about regional English pronunciation
The Ling Space â An educational channel all about linguistics
langfocus â A language factoid channel that digs deeper than many
K Klein â Language quirks, spelling reform, and a little conlanging
biblaridion â Teaching about conlanging and worldbuilding, with lots of linguistics along the way
RobWords â "A channel for lovers and learners of English"
Otherwords â "the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted"
LingoLizard â Widely spoken languages and their quirks, comparisons, and history
linguriosa â Spanish linguistics (in Spanish), including learning tips and linguistic history
human1011 â Quick accessible facts about linguistics (and sometimes other things)Â
Simon Roper â Language evolution and historical English pronunciation
10 shortform video channels about linguistics (tiktok/reels)
etymologynerd â Internet speak, etymologies and more! (reels)
linguisticdiscovery â Writing systems, language families, and more (reels)
jesszafaris â Fun facts about words, etymologies, and more (reels)
cmfvoices â An audiobook director talks about the linguistics of voice acting (eels)
mixedlinguist â A linguistics professor comments on the language of place, identity, politics, technology, and more (reels)
landontalks â Linguistic quirks of the US South (reels)
sunnmcheaux â Language and culture from Harvard's first and only professor of Gullah (reels)
dexter.mp4 â Talks about many branches of science, but loves linguistics enough to have a linguisticsy tattoo (reels)
danniesbrain â Linguistics and psychology from a researcher who studies both (reels)
wordsatwork â Quick facts on languages, families, and linguistic concepts (reels)
the_language â The Ojibwe language â plus food, dancing, and more