Talking etymology with the Lexis linguists!


Just a quick newsflash from me:

Last week I had the pleasure and privilege of talking to Dan, Lisa and Jill, three of the team behind Lexis, a podcast about language and linguistics that’s primarily aimed at A-Level teachers and students, although its great content is accessible to all.

We talked about etymology – what it is, how it works and how people can get into it. I thoroughly enjoyed our chat together, but admittedly I was quite nervous about how I would come across in the finished product. Well, clearly the Lexis team have skill not only as podcast hosts but also as audio editors, because I’m delighted with the episode and I sound like I have half an idea what I’m talking about!

It’s now available online to listen to for free. So, if you’d like to consume some of my linguistic content in audio form, and to get to know me and my process of doing etymology, you can listen to the episode (number 31) here:

Episode 87 – York English Language Toolkit 2026 with Devyani Sharma & Sam Hellmuth Lexis

Welcome to Episode 87 of Lexis in which Neil and Dan talk to Sam Hellmuth, Professor of Linguistics at University of York and Devyani Sharma, Professor of Language and Communication at University of Oxford about the 2026 York English Language Toolkit sessions at York. We talk about:What the York English Language Toolkit is and what it’s designed to do. What’s on this year.The Generations of London English takeover that’s happening this year.What the GLE project is and where MLE fits into this story.The synchronic and diachronic aspects of London English. The new work that’s being featured and where it fits in. The importance of real-time data in this project.Where the work on MLE has been going in recent years. Recent debates and arguments about MLE and Black British English.York English Language Toolkit 2026: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/workshops Generations of London English project page: https://generationsoflondonenglish.org/ Devyani Sharma’s university page: https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-devyani-sharma Sam Hellmuth’s university page: https://www.york.ac.uk/language-linguistic-science/people/sam-hellmuth/ Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaNeil HutchinsonAmanda Cole Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dramandacole.bsky.social Matthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado – Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 
  1. Episode 87 – York English Language Toolkit 2026 with Devyani Sharma & Sam Hellmuth
  2. Episode 86 – Chris Montgomery & regional swearing
  3. Episode 85 – Rob Topinka & digital rhetoric
  4. Episode 84 – Daria Bahtina and 'Gen Z slang'
  5. Episode 83 – Sarah Hopkyns and English in the Gulf

That’s all for now!



One response to “Talking etymology with the Lexis linguists!”

  1. […] on the heels on my previous podcast appearance, I joined Ray from the popular and long-running etymology podcast Words for […]

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