About Danny Bate – “you know, that etymology guy”
Born in rural England on a stormy* night**, this website belongs to Danny Bate, a linguist, writer language teacher, author, broadcaster, and someone uncomfortable writing in the third person.
For about a decade now, I’ve had a vocation: to share the scientific insights of linguistics that are both interesting and make languages easier to understand and learn. The primary aim of this website is to have a space in which I can share this passion with everyone who’s interested through the medium of online articles.
For my linguistic audio output, check out the podcast, and for my words in physical print, treat yourself to a copy of my beautiful book! For public-speaking bookings, please do get in touch; I am based in the Czech Republic, and am very often in the UK, which gives me a Europe-wide scope for travelling and presenting. If you can use me, I’ll be there.
*actually quite pleasant
**afternoon
Education and Career (Thus Far)
Linguistics BA
2015 – 2018
📍 The University of York
– A bachelor’s degree in general linguistics, later specialising in syntax and Latin, and concluding with a third-year research project on the Latin Accusativus cum infinitivo construction.
Linguistics MPhil
2018 – 2019
📍 The University of Cambridge
– A research master’s on the history and development of complementizers and complement clauses in Indo-European, supervised by Prof. Ian Roberts.
Language Teacher
2019 – 2024
📍 Prague, Czech Republic
– Teaching English, German, Latin and a little bit of Biblical Greek.
Linguistics PhD
2020 – 2024
📍 The University of Edinburgh
– A doctoral project on syntactic reconstruction and the word order of clauses and noun phrases in the oldest Indo-European languages, supervised by Prof. Caroline Heycock, Prof. Ronnie Cann and Prof. Robert Truswell. Final thesis available here.
Voice Actor and Proofreader
2022 –
📍 Prague, Czech Republic
Private commissions for English-language educational and touristic content.
Public Speaker
2023 –
📍 UK and beyond
– Academic outreach, promoting linguistics and presenting talks to non-academic audiences, such as to high-school students, for a fee or for free. Public perfomer would be more accurate.
Broadcaster
2024 – 2025
📍 Prague, Czech Republic
– Part of the team at Radio Prague International, the foreign-language department of the state broadcaster Český rozhlas.
Author
2025 –
📍 UK and beyond
– My debut book, Why Q Needs U, was published at the start of October 2025!
Danny L. Bate 