You don’t have to study linguistics very long before you learn all the ways language—and people’s attitudes to language—contribute to social injustice.

Think of any form of structural oppression—racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, class warfare, xenophobia, ableism—and you will find some form of linguistic prejudice in the background, where it can do its damage unnoticed.

If you believe that some people have more linguistic competence than others, and that these people deserve to do better in life because of their oral or literacy skills, you’re buying into a form of gaslighting that has linguistic prejudice at its heart.

Knowing this has changed the way I do linguistics. I’m still analysing conversations, but now I look to them for any secrets they might reveal about how to make a better society.

I figure if people in everyday conversation are structuring their grammar in new ways—without even thinking about it—maybe they’re also structuring their worlds in new ways.

Maybe people are always dreaming up more welcoming worlds. Maybe these dreams can be found in the patterns of their talk. Maybe it’s just a question of knowing what to look for.

If finding my voice is my doorway to writing stories, linguistics is my doorway to imagining a better world.

Check out my podcast, Structured Visions, which uses what I know about language to reimagine social structure.

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