107: Urban Multilingualism

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

Science

4.8 • 743 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we try to represent languages on a map, it's common to assign each language a zone or a point which represents some idea of where it's used or where it comes from. But in reality, people move around, and many cities are host to hundreds of languages that don't show up on official records. In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about urban multilingualism! We talk about a recent book we've been enjoying called Language City by Ross Perlin, about the over 700 languages spoken in New York City, as well as how we've noticed urban multilingualism for ourselves in Melbourne, Montreal, and elsewhere. We also talk about organizations that work with communities interested in reclaiming space for their languages, what linguistic rights are, and how to tell if yours are being taken away from you. Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjE1NzMxNzE3Mg Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/792539370903207936/transcript-episode-107 Announcements: In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about linguistic landscapes! We talk about contrasts between the signs in the Chinatowns of Montreal and Melbourne, renaming streets from colonial names to names in First Nations languages, how signs can show the shifting demographics of tourism in an area, and how bi- and multilingual Lost Cat signs show what languages people think their neighbours understand. We also talk about our most absurd sign stories, including the Russell Family Apology Plaque, and creative imaginings of official signage, such as the Latin no-smoking sign in a modern-day British train station. Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135199073 For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/792539190192635904/lingthusiasm-episode-107-urban-multilingualism

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics.
0:21.5	I'm Lauren Gawain.
0:22.7	And I'm Gretchen McCulloch.
0:24.2	And today, we're getting enthusiastic about languages and cities and how there are often a lot more languages that live in a city than we might realize at first glance.
0:33.2	But first, our most recent bonus episode was about all the different ways you can read the local
0:38.6	linguistic landscapes in the signs and other writing in public spaces. You can think of it as sort of
0:44.6	a second part to this episode. Here we're talking about the unwritten ways that languages are
0:49.4	often hidden in cities. And in the bonus episode, we're talking about some of our favorite
0:53.8	street signs
0:55.0	that have interesting language things on them. I love this topic because there are so many
0:59.8	linguistically interesting street signs, and you'll never look at a street sign the same way
1:04.2	again. And if you're like me and Lauren, you probably have a bunch of photos on your phone
1:09.1	of linguistically interesting street signs that you've come across.
1:12.3	Yep.
1:13.3	You can head to the Linguism Discord or tag us on social media to share your favorite
1:18.0	examples of interesting language things on signs, and maybe we'll do a second one of these
1:22.7	episodes if we get enough.
1:24.3	Go to patreon.com slash Linguism to get access to the linguistic landscapes
1:30.0	episode and many other bonus episodes and help keep the show running.
1:46.6	I live in a city.
1:48.8	Gretchen, you live in a city.
1:53.0	I think it's fair to say we're both big fans of urban living. So I live in Montreal.
	...

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