//podcastplus.net/feed/the-world-in-words~6e736531 Language unites and divides us. It mystifies and delights us. Patrick Cox and Kavita Pillay tell the stories of people with all kinds of linguistic passions: comedians, writers, researchers; speakers of endangered languages; speakers of multiple languages; and just speakers—people like you and me. Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:06:30 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2631/season-4-is-coming.mp3 In our upcoming season, we have stories about voice clones, tongue twisters and small languages fighting back. We'll hear from comedians, bilingual lovers and badly-behaved grandmothers. Look out for the first episode on November 1. Music by Harry Edvino and The Freeharmonic Orchestra. Photo by Patrick Cox. Subtitle  is a production of Quiet Juice and the  Linguistic Society of America . Sign up for Subtitle’s newsletter  here . Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:02:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2631/season-4-is-coming.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2467/ukraines-linguistic-patriotism.mp3 For centuries, Russians have dismissed the Ukrainian language as "Little Russian," its speakers as simple-minded peasants. The Kremlin has sporadically and unsuccessfully tried to suppress the language. Now Russia's invasion of Ukraine has driven even some Russian-speaking Ukrainians to switch to Ukrainian. We trace the defiant rise of this language with the University of Washington's Laada Bilaniuk , American-born daughter of Ukrainian parents. Photo of Andriy Khlyvnyuk via YouTube screengrab. Music in this epsiode performed by Andriy Khlyvnyuk, Mad Heads XL, Jay Varton, Farrell Wooten, Lucention, Frank Jonsson, Felix Salt. Read a transcript of this episode with more photos here . Wed, 25 May 2022 04:05:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2467/ukraines-linguistic-patriotism.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2458/the-rare-joys-of-learning-finnish.mp3 Kavita Pillay recently moved to Helsinki with her Finnish husband and half-Finnish daughter. While husband and daughter effortlessly embraced their new linguistic surroundings, Kavita...didn't. In this episode, she seeks guidance from other immigrants with varying degrees of Finnish mastery. Among them, an opera singer who finds melody in verb conjugations, and an Iraqi-born linguistics major whose fluent Finnish is sometimes questioned by locals. Photo by Sauli Pillay. Music by Greatfool; Farrell Wooten; Jharee; Aoroa; Vanity Street; Raymond Grouse; Matt Large; At The End of Times, Nothing; Dye O. Read a transcript of this episode here . Wed, 11 May 2022 05:01:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2458/the-rare-joys-of-learning-finnish.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2258/the-pleasure-and-pain-of-spelling.mp3 With the Scripps National Spelling Bee back after a Covid-enforced year off, we conduct our very own spelling quiz. Also, Kavita Pillay offers her take on why Indian American kids perform so well in spelling bees. And author and self-described “crummy" speller David Wolman tells us why he wrote a history of English spelling and the many attempts to reform it. Wed, 23 Jun 2021 04:02:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2258/the-pleasure-and-pain-of-spelling.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2204/the-dots-and-their-future.mp3 Will technology make Braille obsolete as a primary reading tool for blind people? Will talking apps and audiobooks win out over embossed dots? It's possible, but Braille has been written off before; each time, it has come back stronger. We trace Braille from its beginnings in Napoleon's France, through the "War of the Dots" in the early 20th century to the age of the smart phone, and beyond. Wed, 14 Apr 2021 05:02:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2204/the-dots-and-their-future.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2198/the-language-closest-to-english.mp3 You may not have heard of Frisian, but it’s spoken by about 500,000 people. Once upon a time, an older form of the language was barely distinct from Old English. We take you to the Dutch province of Friesland to hear why people there care so deeply about their mother tongue. Texting, social media, music […] Wed, 31 Mar 2021 05:02:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2198/the-language-closest-to-english.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2191/my-notorious-name.mp3 Digital consultant Ivanka Majic was such an early user of Twitter that she was able to snag the handle @Ivanka. Which was great, until the rise of another Ivanka caused confusion. Many Twitter users— including the other Ivanka’s father— mistook one for the other. In this archive episode, Ivanka Majic tells the story of her brush with […] Wed, 17 Mar 2021 05:01:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2191/my-notorious-name.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2108/we-speak-veronica.mp3 Verónica Zaragovia lives in Miami but she was born in Colombia. Although she has a Colombian passport, her Spanish doesn’t sound Colombian— at least that’s what people tell her. During a recent stay in Bogotá, she decided to change that: she took lessons in Colombian Spanish. Along the way, she gained a new understanding of […] Wed, 22 Jul 2020 04:02:00 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2108/we-speak-veronica.mp3 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2063/sisu-gets-an-update.mp3 Finland has been named the happiest country in the world. So why is sisu the word that best describes Finns? Associated with war and endurance, sisu means stoic perseverance against almost insurmountable odds. But this small, cold nation is changing, as is the meaning of sisu. In these tumultuous times, this short Finnish word may have something to offer the rest […] Wed, 10 Jun 2020 11:28:46 +0000 https://subtitlepod.com/podcast-download/2063/sisu-gets-an-update.mp3 https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/cdn.pri.org/sites/default/files/audio/cdn/2019/03/world-words/episode-audio/wiwpodcast465.mp3 In the West, we are used to sci-fi written by English-speakers who dream up English-speaking utopias and dystopias. Often in the final reel, humanity is saved by English-speaking heroes. So what should we expect from China's newly-thriving sci-fi scene? Does it have its own hopes and fears, specific to Chinese values and encoded in the language? Or is the sci-fi genre more global than local? Wed, 13 Mar 2019 20:45:00 +0000 https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/cdn.pri.org/sites/default/files/audio/cdn/2019/03/world-words/episode-audio/wiwpodcast465.mp3