Lexicon Valley

A podcast about language, from pet peeves to syntax.

Illustration depicting a female with a microphone

Listen longer

Slate Plus members get ad-free versions of all Slate podcasts, plus extra segments, bonus episodes, and more. Try it free today.

Join Slate Plus
Advertisement

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

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.

Does English Have a Future?

Lots of languages have no dedicated way to indicate later-ness. Somehow life goes on.

Defund Karen

On the insults, acronyms, and sloganeering of America’s racial reckoning.

Beyond the Five W’s

The curious grammar of questions in languages around the world.

Tweety Bird and Toddlerspeak

Language acquisition is like magic. How do children do it?

Coronavirus: Isolation and Aspiration

Can strongly aspirated consonants increase transmission of COVID-19?

Our Indigenous Languages

A luxuriance of long words, baroque case endings, and irregular everything—the Native American tongues!

I Just Can’t!

Host John McWhorter shares some of his longstanding language peeves—yes, linguists have them too!