Danny Bate

Danny Bate

From Better Known by Ivan Wise

March 22, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

Danny Bate discusses six things related to linguistics and the history of writing that should be better known.

Danny Bate discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Danny Bate is a linguist, writer, broadcaster and podcaster who is fascinated by the study of historical languages and etymology. He took his BA and MPhil degrees from the University of York and the University of Cambridge respectively, and his PhD in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. He can be found at dannybate.com. His new book is Why Q Needs U, which is available at https://dannybate.com/book/ . The alphabet is a product of migration, born out of a meeting of different peoples and their languages Our letters started out as depictions of things (body parts, animals, everyday objects) English's letters are connected via a big family tree to many other scripts, including many that seem 'alien' to its readers (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) There isn't universal one way to create writing, you pick which aspects of language (words, syllables, consonants) as a primary base English and related alphabets aren't phonetically accurate (and that's okay) Even when spelling diverges from a strict letter-to-sound ratio, new principles and processes can emerge This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

People in this episode

Host: Ivan Wise

Guest: Danny Bate

Topics covered

  • linguistics
  • etymology
  • historical languages
  • writing systems
  • language migration
  • English alphabet

Keywords

  • linguist
  • historical languages
  • etymology
  • English alphabet
  • writing systems
  • migration
  • language

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of York, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, ZenCast.fm

Products: Why Q Needs U

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