A Language I Love Is...

And we’re back! Series 4 of ALILI launches itself at the ears of language lovers everywhere, and it’s the Portuguese language that’s leading the charge. My guest is Marco Neves, scholar, translator and author, and a devoted champion of Portuguese in all its forms. Our conversation tackles some big topics and ideas. For example, where did Portuguese come from? (Linguistically as well as geographically, that is.) Where has it reached in the world of today? And what is the Lusophone community doing with the language? And how, strange to say, could Portuguese have become ‘Spanish’?

Support the language-loving mission by joining the ALILI Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ALanguageILoveIs⁠⁠⁠⁠

Marco’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@marconeves
Marco on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcofranconeves/?hl=en
Marco’s Substack: https://marconeves.substack.com/

Host: Dr. Danny Bate
Guest: Prof. Marco Neves
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPadden
Music: Acoustic Guitar by William King
Artwork: Willow Marler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Language lovers, lend me your ears again! ALILI will return! Here's a teaser trailer for Series 4, featuring yours truly and some clips of my first three guests.

For fans and subscribers of the show, I'd like to express sincere thanks for bearing with me during this inter-series hiatus. It was long, and seemed infinite at times, depending on my workload and mood. Now that I'm in between seasons of book promotion, I'm happy to return to podcasting. The mood in the production studio (i.e. my desk) is good, quietly confident and hopeful that the schedule in place will help make the workload easier. Let's see how well founded that confidence is...

Host: Dr. Danny Bate (more info at ⁠dannybate.com⁠)
Music: Acoustic Guitar by William King
Artwork: Willow Marler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The final episode of Series 3 is here, and we're ending with a good'un. Daniel W. Hieber, the linguist behind the popular ⁠Linguistic Discovery⁠ platform, joins me to discuss an indigenous language of North America: Chitimacha. In cooperation with the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, Daniel is contributing to the revitalising of this dormant language – which is gifting him so much in return. We discuss the history and prehistory of Chitimacha and its speakers, as well as intriguing parts of its grammar and the leading role it has played in the development of modern linguistics.

Support the language-loving mission by joining the ALILI Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ALanguageILoveIs⁠⁠⁠⁠

Check out and sign up to Linguistic Discovery: ⁠https://linguisticdiscovery.com/⁠ (also on Substack, Instagram, YouTube)

Sample of Chitimacha, by speaker Chief Benjamin Paul, provided by Daniel.

Continue learning with the Chitimacha Wikipedia page: ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitimacha⁠

Daniel's personal website: ⁠https://www.danielhieber.info/⁠

Host: Dr. Danny Bate
Guest: Dr. Daniel W. Hieber
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPadden
Music: Acoustic Guitar by William King
Artwork: Willow Marler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dia daoibh, language lovers! Episode 44 is here and it sees a return to the Irish language (Gaeilge), but this time with a focus on its modern shape and story. In this regard, the episode forms a trio with episodes 39 (Scottish Gaelic and David Adger) and 15 (Old Irish and Danny Bate – that is, me, your host). Modern Irish was the choice of guest Liam Ó Duibhiolla, a speaker and teacher of Irish. Liam is the founder of the platform ⁠Learn Irish Online⁠. Our chat touches on his work and how it fits into a recent uptick for the language, after two very difficult centuries.

Support the language-loving mission by joining the ALILI Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ALanguageILoveIs⁠⁠⁠

Learn Irish online and find out more about Liam's work here: ⁠https://www.learnirishonline.com/⁠

Sample of Irish, by speaker Mairéad Uí Lionáird (reading the first paragraph of Mo Sgéal Féin) from here: ⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSF_chapter_1.ogg⁠

Host: Dr. Danny Bate
Guest: Liam Ó Duibhiolla
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPadden
Music: Acoustic Guitar by William King
Artwork: Willow Marler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As 2025 ticks out its final hours, here’s one last episode of ALILI for the year, and it’s buonissimo! Journalist, author, content creator and linguist Sophia Smith Galer joins me to share the love for Italian. Our conversation has a focus on the sociolinguistic dynamics of Italian, namely how this national language fits into the lives of speakers up and down the peninsula, and how it might be harming the other languages of Italy in the process. Sophia also shares her personal relationship with Italian, as a ‘heritage language’ of hers that she is now working to promote in London.

Support the language-loving mission by joining the ALILI Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ALanguageILoveIs⁠⁠

Sophia’s splendid website: ⁠https://www.sophiasmithgaler.com/⁠

Pre-order How to Kill a Language here: ⁠https://www.sophiasmithgaler.com/how-to-kill-a-language⁠

Sample of Italian (by speaker Sebastiano) from here: ⁠https://wikitongues.org/videos/sebastiano_20131103_ita/⁠

Host: Dr. Danny Bate
Guest: Sophia Smith Galer
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPadden
Music: Acoustic Guitar by William King
Artwork: Willow Marler
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.