Lexicon Valley

A podcast about language, from pet peeves to syntax.

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About the Show

If you’ve ever had curious thoughts and questions about the ways we speak, read, and write, Lexicon Valley is the show for you. Hosted by linguist John McWhorter.

Host

Nine Nasty Words

John McWhorter teases his new book about off-color English expressions, starting with cock.

The Invisible Complexities of Translation

A single word—take “self,” for example—reveals the thorny nature of literary translation.

English Is Plain Weird

Don’t be fooled into thinking that English is a typical language. It’s not.

Subject-Verb-Object. Right?

For many languages, the idea that the subject belongs up front is plain backward.

Parting Company

How did a word meaning with bread come to sprout its corporate connotation?

Wallowing in Negativity

From the evolution of ain’t to double negatives, simply saying no is wonderfully complex.

Fossil Hunting in English

Our language contains a trove of buried clues and petrified remnants of its past. But you have to know where to dig.

Why Do Languages Have Gender?

Lots of languages divide words into categories, like male and female. How does that happen?

Forgetting Your Roots

Words have a way of rebelling against their etymological parents, acquiring meanings of their own.

Future English Speaker, Can You Read Me?

That language changes is certain. How quickly or slowly is another matter.

Getting Got

The story of how one little verb developed a seemingly endless capacity to absorb new meanings.

On the Origin of English

A controversial theory holds that English, along with other Germanic languages, was profoundly influenced by Phoenician. The evidence is intriguing.

White Author, Black English. Problem?

Mark Twain famously depicted what he called the “Missouri Negro dialect” of Jim. Would that be acceptable today?

Do Cats Have Language?

Animals bark, sing, purr, and even gesture—all fascinating but a far cry from human communication.

Sergeant, Corporal, Colonel!

Peculiar linguistic tales of America’s soldiers.

To Reason Why

There’s more than one way to ask why. How come? What for?

When Talking to Your Mother-in-Law Is a Minefield

From baby talk to formal varieties, languages around the world offer—or even require—different ways of speaking for different situations.

The Incredible Story of the Traveling Creole

Enslaved people developed a hybrid language that sailed from Africa to the Caribbean and—unbelievably—back again.

This Am a Minstrel Stereotype, Right?

A longstanding mystery of Black English may finally be solved.

When Jews Adapted Spanish

Languages of the Ottoman Empire, inspired by historian Alan Mikhail’s new book God’s Shadow.