Linguistic News and Podcasts

In our effort to help people learn more about linguistics, or find new and/or interesting articles and podcasts, we’ve cumulated a list of resources for you to check out!

Podcast Title: Why can’t I change my accent? Source: BBC

Released On: 21 Oct 2022

Description: This is a podcast about accents and why some people strongly desire to change their accents.

Podcast Title: Bringing dead languages back to life Source: BBC

Released On: 10 Jan 2023

Description:  A podcast about linguistic professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann and his attempts to revive dead languages in Australia.

Podcast Title: Unconscious bias runs deep in employers’ language, says Linguist Kieran Snyder Source: WOUB

Posted on: Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Description: A podcast about the unconscious bias that lies within employers’ language and how this can negatively affect employees.

Podcast Title: Myanmar Source: BBC

Posted on: 27 Oct 2014

Description: A podcast on the government education policy of Burma and how it prohibits the teaching of ethnic languages in schools. Ultimately, this jeopardizes these ethnic languages and may cause them to become dead languages.

Podcast Title: Is the Future one World, one Language? Source: BBC

Posted on: 15 May 2000 

Description: A podcast about the rising concern of the rate at which we are losing languages.  

Video Title: What Can Body Language Actually Tell Us?  Source: WOUB

Posted on: Saturday, September 7, 2019 

Description: A short video on common myths about body language and some ways in which we can identify body language. 

Video Title: What’s In a Name? Source: WOUB

Posted on: Tuesday, March 6, 2018 

Description: A short video that explains, linguistically, what gives our names meaning and why some people might change their names to better suit their identity. 

Article Title: The Language Of Cybercrime Source: WOUB

Posted on: Monday, November 18, 2019 

Description: A short article about the new language that scammers may be using on their victims. 

Podcast Title: New York City Source: BBC

Released On: 17 Dec 2012 

Description: A podcast on the many languages in New York and how they have changed with time. 

Article Title: Tennessee Push Wants State Book to Cover Appalachian Dialect Source: WOUB

Posted on: Wednesday, March 27, 2019 

Description: A short article about the push being made to recognize the Appalachian Dialect of Tennessee as a legitimate dialect. 

Article Title: Reading Arabic ‘hard for the brain’ Source: BBC

Posted On: September 10, 2010

Description: Professor Zohar Eviatar at the University of Haifa is examining why Arabic language is hard to read. It is the ability to tell letters apart that seems to work differently in Arabic – because telling the characters apart involves looking at very small details such as the placement of dots.

Article Title: Buzz Lightyear film banned from cinemas by UAE Source: BBC

Posted On: June 13, 2022

Description: Disney and Pixar’s latest animated movie Lightyear has been banned from cinemas in the United Arab Emirates, officials said.

Article Title: The Aladdin controversy Disney can’t escape Source: BBC

Posted On: July 14, 2017

Description: As the filmmakers of the new live-action remake of Aladdin struggle to cast their hero, Sophia Smith Galer looks at the troubled history of the Disney classic.

Article Title: BBC Arabic radio goes off air after 85 years Source: Aljazeera

Posted On: Jan 27, 2023

Description: The Arabic language radio is among 10 different languages that are ending due to inflation and licensing fees, BBC says.

Article Title: Translating “Frozen” Into Arabic Source:  The New Yorker

Posted On: May 30, 2014

Description: One of the forty-one languages in which you can watch “Frozen” is modern standard Arabic. This is a departure from precedent. Earlier Disney films (from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “Pocahontas” to “Tangled”) were dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, the dialect with the largest number of speakers in the region, based in a country with a venerable history of film production.