It's TED Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Language. It has such power in shaping

our understanding of societies and ourselves. It can also limit us when there aren't the right

words to describe complexity or fluidity. That's what linguist Archie Crowley explains in their 2020 talk

from TEDx U of SC. They give us a cultural context for how we got here and call for a linguistic

expansion that better includes all of us. I am a linguist. Linguists study language.

And we do this in a lot of different ways.

Some linguists study how we pronounce certain sounds.

Others look at how we build sentences.

And some study how language varies from place to place, just to name a few.

But what I'm really interested in is what people think

and believe about language and how these beliefs affect the way we use it. All of us have

deeply held beliefs about language, such as the belief that some languages are more beautiful

than others, or that some ways of using language

are more correct. And as most linguists know, these beliefs are often less about language itself

and more about what we believe about the social world around us. So, I'm a linguist, and I'm also a non-binary person, which means I don't

identify as a man or a woman. I also identify as a member of a broader transgender community.

When I first started getting connected to other transgender people, it was like

learning a whole new language. And the linguist part of me was really excited. There was a whole

new way of talking about my relationship with myself and a new, clearer way to communicate that

to other people. And then, I started having conversations with my friends

and family about what it meant for me to be trans and non-binary, what those words meant to me

specifically, and why I would use both of them. I also clarified the correct words they could use when referring to me.

...