Lexicon Valley

Our Indigenous Languages

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

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Episode Notes

Some Native American languages employ a single, albeit very long, word to express an idea that would take English a full-length sentence, while others have complicated noun conjugations not unlike Latin. The indigenous tongues of North America are wonderfully diverse, maddeningly difficult and, unfortunately, mostly dying.

Podcast production by Mike Vuolo.

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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.

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