About

Linguistic Discovery is all about the science and diversity of the world's languages—a field known as linguistics 🗣️

About

📰 Newsletter

The Linguistic Discovery newsletter teaches you all about the science and diversity of language—a field known as linguistics. 🗣️

Go beyond LING 101 to learn about the cultural, cognitive, and historical forces that shape language, while also being introduced the extravagant diversity of the world’s languages.

There are over 7,000 spoken or signed languages in use today, but over 40% of them are endangered (Ethnologue)

Topics include:

  • ⚙️ the science of how language works
  • ℹ️ explainers of terms and concepts in linguistics
  • 🌍 language profiles
  • 🧑‍🏫 guides and tutorials for studying linguistics
  • ⭐ reviews of books and other media
  • 📰 explainers of the latest news and research in language and linguistics

By signing up, you’ll receive:

  • 🗞️ a weekly digest of the latest news, research, and interesting reads in language and linguistics
  • 📰 a semiweekly deep-dive on different topics in linguistics

Paying subscribers also get:

  • ➕ occasional bonus articles about niche or advanced topics
  • 🔓 behind-the-scenes articles about my work revitalizing indigenous languages
  • 👀 early access to regular articles
  • 📖 early previews of my in-progress book
  • 👨🏼‍🏫 to support my mission to educate the public about the science and diversity of language!

Join 5,000 other readers and start learning about the science and diversity of language today!

👋 About Me

I (Danny Hieber, Ph.D.) am a research linguist who works with indigenous communities to help them document and revitalize their languages. I work primarily with the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, whose once-dormant language is now making a comeback. We are using archival materials to produce a modern dictionary and grammatical description of the language.

Renaissance on the bayou: Revitalizing the Chitimacha language
The Chitimacha language was once thought to be extinct, but today is undergoing a renaissance as young people learn the language again.
Linguistic DiscoveryDaniel W. Hieber, Ph.D.

I also study the patterns we see across the world’s languages and why they happen—a field known as linguistic typology. I received my Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and my B.A. from The College of William & Mary.

  • View my academic page here.
  • View a list of my interviews and media appearances here.

🎙️ Media Inquiries

I’m available for interviews, guest appearances, livestreams, talks, panels, and other events. I speak on anything relating to language and linguistics, especially linguistic diversity, language change, the science of language, and indigenous languages. Watch one of my award-winning 3-minute talks here. As a member of the LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 community I’m also happy to participate in or otherwise support LGBTQ-themed events. Email me here.

🌐 Additional Resources

The Linguistic Discovery website also contains some useful resources:

📑 Sources & Citations

I strive to always cite sources for the claims I make in articles, and often include sources in the captions of my videos as well. If a video doesn’t have sources listed, there’s usually an article on this website that corresponds to it, with references.

Some caveats: First, not everything needs a citation. If a fact is common knowledge in the field or can be easily found with a 5-second web search, I won’t typically include a citation for it. Second, given the breadth of topics I cover, I frequently rely on secondary or even tertiary sources rather than reading the original journal articles about a topic. This inevitably means that my writing will be less detailed and nuanced than it could be, and occasionally will be outright wrong about something. (See the note about Errata below.) While I do my best to avoid all of these imperfections, it’s also unreasonable to expect that blog posts written for a general audience will meet the same bibliographic rigor as the research articles I publish in journals. The purpose of Linguistic Discovery is simply to teach the world a little more about the science and diversity of the world’s languages. A high-level conceptual understanding of a topic is typically what I aim for.

📖 Further Reading

🚫 Errata

Sometimes I get things wrong. Sometimes I unintentionally say something that offends. When this happens, I post a correction or update the article. My weekly digest also contains an Errata section. My policy is not to take down content, but rather to leave it up with corrections.

But sometimes the internet gets things wrong. And sometimes I disagree with other linguists about facts or interpretations of those facts. When there are conflicting views on a topic, I do my best to explain both perspectives.

More often, however, there’s simply more nuance to an issue. In science, things are rarely black and white, right and wrong. This makes it difficult to explain conflicting opinions to readers, because doing so often requires a high-level understanding of philosophy of science or the subtleties behind a claim—the kind of expertise that comes from being a practicing researcher in the field. I do my best to explain, but it’s often just not worth it to get into the weeds with every issue; I could be using that time to continue educating people about other topics instead.

So I generally don’t engage in long back-and-forths in comment sections on the internet. (And I most certainly don’t reply to angry rants or snarky rhetorical questions, regardless of how good the point is.) If you’re looking for a detailed and robust defense of a claim I’ve made, sorry. 🤷🏼‍♂️ You can visit my own academic website and read my scholarly papers if you’d like. I also include sources in my articles, so you can read more there.

📖 Further Reading