Linguists Are Nihilists | Interview: Colin Gorrie
Summary
Jonah Goldberg interviews linguist Colin Gorey, who discusses his mission to make linguistics accessible and his work on a history of the English language. They explore the Norman Conquest’s delayed impact on English vocabulary, the evolution of dialects, and the social dynamics behind prescriptive grammar rules like "less" versus "fewer." The conversation also covers linguistic hygiene, accent bias, and the limited validity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis regarding how language shapes thought.
Topics discussed
Introduction to Free the Economy and guest Colin
Colin's background and interest in linguistics
Old English pronunciation and legal language origins
French influence on English and the Norman Conquest
Old English dialects and the rise of standard English
Descriptivism vs. prescriptivism in language rules
State control of language and the Académie Française
English vocabulary size and Latin borrowings
Class markers, accent bias, and linguistic snobbery
Academic jargon and accent-based discrimination
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and linguistic relativity
Metaphors in language and the etymology of 'God'
Semantic shift, euphemisms, and Shakespeare's coinages
Philology vs. linguistics and English dialect splits
Language vs. dialect and mutual intelligibility
Language isolates, substrate words, and difficulty
Conclusion and recommendation of Colin's Substack
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