Why is this a question? with Paul Anthony Jon...

1185. Today, we look at why English spelling is secretly optimized for readers. Colin Gorrie, linguist and creator of the Dead Language Society newsletter, shared the real history of silent letters, why medieval scribes weren't bothered by inconsistent spelling, and how the print ...  Show more

1184. This week, we look at the history of lingua francas, from the original mix of Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Turkish used during the Crusades to today's global English. Plus, we look at whether it's wrong to use "who" for animals, "that" instead of "who" for people, ...  Show more

Have you ever wondered what’s up with double negation, the history of gender neutral pronouns, or why swearing is taboo? Then get ready for this week’s guest, linguist Anne Curzan! Anne and Jonathan talk about how the English language has evolved since the 1300s and how our words ...  Show more

I recently started learning French, and the process has made one thing clear to me: There’s a lot I don’t understand about how languages work. So, I turned to John McWhorter, a linguist who has dedicated his career to demystifying the roughly 7,000 languages spoken around the wor ...  Show more

📝 Get FREE Episode Worksheet 🧐 Take English Level Test 👄 Improve Your Pronunciation Learn British English & about British culture in this episode where Charlie, your host, gets Martin from Rock N' Roll English back on the show to explore the cultural significance football has ...  Show more

📝 Get FREE Episode Worksheet 🧐 Take English Level Test 👄 Improve Your Pronunciation Charlie invites a non-native English teacher from Spain on the show to talk about her language learning journey, especially regarding her accent acquisition. This teacher is called Maria and go ...  Show more