The power of words

What’s the shape of a word? How do you save a dying language? How is studying languages a science anyway?

All excellent questions for our guest Prof. David Adger a linguist at Queen Mary University of London. He is interested in what underlies the patterns found in the grammar of human languages.

Why would anyone study this? As David states, just to better understand the world. But there are also more practical applications like saving dying, often Indigenous languages which hold within them stories and knowledge that can help everyone’s understanding of the world.

Lovely coffees were imbibed at Naked Coffee Roasters in Spitalfields Market and we were joined by our friends Anson McKay (star of Science out in the open), Edward and Arturo. We were also hijacked by a budding almost 3 year old podcaster called Stephania. All recordings of her were taken with permission of her dad.
The music comes from a friend of David’s and you can find more music by ROKO here.

Finally, make sure to check out David’s book on this subject. Language Unlimited is available in all good book stores.