On the Linguistics Career Cast podcast

🎙Last week I was a guest on the Linguistics Career Cast podcast, where we talked about how growing up in a bilingual environment led me to study our ancestral language, identity, and belonging.

I grew up in a household where both of my parents were linguists. So, language, such as our Basque variety of Spanish, or identity were not rare topics at home. Both sides of the family had stopped transmitting Basque, which gave our variety certain symbolic value 💝

Our town was also predominantly Spanish-speaking, although most of us were schooled in Basque. So, speaking Basque wasn't the social norm.

That contrast between how we identified and the language that we were NOT using made me start noticing how people from non-canonical sociolinguistic backgrounds negotiated their identities through language use. During my university years, I became more aware of the stigma surrounding standard varieties from said backgrounds and the unspoken hierarchy between "native" and "the rest" of the speakers. Those experiences were what eventually led me to pursue a PhD in sociolinguistics 🤓

We also talked in the episode about the academic job market and how constant relocation can clash with the sense of community that minority-language work relies on. Ironically, people who study belonging end up living lives where belonging is difficult to sustain 🪴

Minority Languaging was born out of that mix of reflection and distance. I started it after my qualifying exams to share research in a more accessible way, to turn theory into conversation, and connect with people who live similar realities, whether they speak Basque, Welsh, Gaelic, or any other minoritized language. Over time, it's grown into a bridge between research, community, and creative work across Europe and the Americas 🗺

🗣 In the episode, we talk about:
• The language dynamics of my hometown
• What I learned from studying linguistics abroad
• How belonging and legitimacy shape revitalization
• The realities of academic mobility
• The evolution of Minority Languaging and its future directions

“I created Minority Languaging as a place to communicate, to share, and to debate.”

🎧 Listen to Episode 80 on Linguistics Career Cast

Originally posted on Instagram on October 12, 2025: view the original post.