Colin Gorrie, a linguist and author of a Substack newsletter called the Dead Language Society, discusses various topics with host Jonah Goldberg, including language learning, etymology, and prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar. The interview covers over a dozen different subjects in linguistics and language, with no specific focus or angle other than to provide an exchange between two interested individuals. The podcast is part of "The Remnant", a production of digital media company "The Dispatch".
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Linguist Colin Gorrie discussed various aspects of language with journalist Jonah Goldberg in an interview for The Remnant, a production of the digital media company The Dispatch. They covered topics such as Old English dialects, prescriptive vs. descriptive linguistics, and the characteristics of languages like Australian English and Basque. Gorrie also mentioned the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that language influences thought, and the concept of linguistic hygiene, or the idea that certain words or phrases are considered impolite or unacceptable.
Written for “Linguistic Philosophy Debate” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
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No political leaning scored for article 2484 · logged 2026-08-27
There’s a certain ache in the bones—no, more like pain behind the eyes brought on by fatigue with the world—that overtakes a man when he’s gone too long without talking about etymology.
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he → ’ → etymology
We here at The Remnant have been feeling that deeply, and we know you have too.
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you → feel → that
That’s why Jonah Goldberg is sitting down with fellow word nerd Colin Gorrie to talk about everything he’s ever wanted to know about language.
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he → ’ → language
Jonah and Colin cover Old English dialects, prescriptive vs. descriptive, the world’s biggest language, Latinization, early dictionaries, class, accents, linguistic hygiene, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, metaphors, the euphemism treadmill, borrowed words, Shakespearean coinages, Australian English, gender in language, Basque, and the hardest European language to learn.
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Jonah → cover → language
The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective.
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Remnant → cover → perspective
Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here.
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you → set → experience
Ladies and gentlemen,
could I please have your attention?
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I → have → attention
Can you dig it?
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you → dig → it
This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant Podcast, brought to you by the Dispatch and Dispatch Media.
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This → bring → Dispatch
Extremely excited about today's guest, although it's funny, um, we got this sort of on the calendar a long time ago, and I've been crazy working on my own book and all this other stuff going on in my life with the house and whatever.
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I → get → house
And Alex, my RA, texts saying, "Hey, any specific you wanna talk about with the etymology guy?"
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you → say → guy
And I read it as entomologist,
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I → read → entomologist
and I was, like, thinking, okay, well, I would love to have a bug guy.
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I → think → guy
So, and I started thinking about it, and then it turned out I just, uh, my dyslexia or something kicked in, and 'cause I had forgotten that, that we had gotten Colin Gory on the calendar, and I'm very excited about that.
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I → start → that
Colin Gory is a-- joins a long list of linguist-- uh, linguists on here.
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Gory → join → linguists
We've had John McWhorter on a couple times.
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We → have → McWhorter
We've had Steven Pinker, Joshua Katz, and then some other psycholo-- some other folks who are more on the psychology side than the linguistic side, but there's a lot of overlap there, which I'm kinda fascinated by.
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I → have → which
Uh, Colin has a fantastic Substack that I've been going through called the Dead Language Society Substack.
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I → have → that
He's working on a book, book-length history of the English language.
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He → work → language
He's a linguist who claims to be on a mission to bring linguistics out of the ivory tower.
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who → claim → tower
We're gonna ask him how many languages he's, he actually knows or claims to know.
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he → go → him
Colin received his PhD in linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2014, where his studies focused on linguistic typology, methodological foundations of linguistic theory, and Celtic languages.
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studies → receive → theory
