A Language I Love Is...

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 origins, history and social standing of Romansh, as well as some delightful bits of vocabulary. Emma's Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/linguistforsail?lang=en⁠ Sample of spoken Romansh by native speaker Daniel from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Romansh_(Wikitongues).ogg⁠ Host: Danny BateGuest: Emma GledhillMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

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 language.Sample of spoken Catalan by Ona, from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIKITONGUES-_Ona_speaking_Catalan.webm⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Alba Clopés, Joey BarberMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

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/staffmembers/kate-bellamy#tab-1⁠Kate's Academia.edu page: ⁠https://leidenuni.academia.edu/KateBellamy⁠Spoken example of P'urhepecha taken from the textbook Ju je uantani, section 3.1, p. 50: https://lanmo.unam.mx/jujeuantani/Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Kate BellamyMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marle

Episode 19 sees the show's first returning guest, as the maestro of Indo-Iranian languages, Dr. Sāmapriẏa Basu, joins me again, this time to introduce Kashmiri. Beginning with its geographical and political situation, our conversation explores the many distinct features of Kashmiri that, for Sāmapriẏa, make it a 'linguist's language'.Sample of spoken Kashmiri by Aakriti Khaibri, available here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIKITONGUES-_Aakriti_speaking_Kashmiri.webm⁠Sāmapriẏa's wonderful Twitter site: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/avzaagzonunaada⁠⁠Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr. Sāmapriẏa BasuMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

The third episode of this second series is a Biblical bonanza, as Dr Benjamin Suchard comes on the show to introduce the linguistic world of Biblical Hebrew. We discuss the language's history, its family tree, its layer of loanwords and external influences, and how human this holy language can be. Benjamin's website: ⁠https://bnuyaminim.wordpress.com/⁠Benjamin's Academia page: ⁠https://kuleuven.academia.edu/BenjaminSuchard⁠ Host: Danny BateGuest: Dr Benjamin SuchardMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

ALILI is back for a second series! Here's episode 16 with Jeremy Bradley, who takes us on a journey into the Mari language. This is a linguistic tour de force, surely the episode that mentions and discusses the most languages, from Estonian to Indonesian. Jeremy's Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/Chi_con_carnage⁠The Mari website: ⁠https://mari-language.univie.ac.at/⁠ Host: Dr Jeremy BradleyGuest: Danny BateMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

It's episode 15 and the finale of the first series of ALILI! To mark the occasion, the tables have been turned and your usual host now finds himself on the receiving end of the format he created, as Krishnan Ram-Prasad rejoins the show to interview me about the amazing Old Irish language. We dive into what this language is, who spoke it, who wrote in it, and why it's terrifying at first but actually rather wonderful. Books to get you started!- Sengoidelc by David Stifter: ⁠https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/1022/sengoidelc/⁠- A Student's Companion to Old Irish grammar by Ranke de Vries: ⁠https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Se7VzQEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions⁠ Host: Dr Krishnan Ram-PrasadGuest: Danny BateMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler

It's time for the fourteenth and penultimate episode of the first series of ALILI, in which Gioia Cacchioli joins me to talk about Tigrinya, a Semitic and syntactically striking language of eastern Africa. Gioia introduces the language, its family tree, its word-building, its use of the Ge'ez script, and how she came to love Tigrinya. Here's Gioia's website: ⁠https://gioiacacchioli.com/⁠ The word of the episode: abugida (⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida⁠) Host: Danny BateGuest: Gioia CacchioliMusic: Bossa Nova by William_KingArtwork: William Marler