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Here are a collection of general resources designed to give you an overview of linguistics- no prior knowledge needed! Check out our Areas of Linguistics for more resources specific to different subfields.

Erik Singer: Technique Critique (YouTube)

Erik Singer is a dialect coach. His videos for WIRED analysing movie and historical accents are a fascinating introduction to the fields of dialectology and phonetics!

Crash Course (YouTube)

You might know Crash Course (started by John and Hank Green) for their literature and history videos, but the channel have recently released an excellent series providing an introduction to linguistics. Check out the whole series here.

Tom Scott (YouTube)

Tom Scott produces excellent videos on a wide variety of interesting topics, and his series on linguistics (produced with assistance from Lingthusiam’s Gretchen McCulloch) is a stand out. His videos are written for a general audience, so no prior knowledge needed. Check out the rest of his language series here.

Arrival (2016 Film)

Arrival (2016) can loosely be described as an alien movie- but a very unusual one! While the world may be at stake, the conflict at its heart is a linguistic one, as a linguist (Amy Adams) is tasked with deciphering the alien language. It is an interesting exploration of the idea that the language we speak shapes the way that we think (known as the Saphir Whorf hypothesis). Of course, it is still a Hollywood movie, not an academic text- see here for a discussion with a real life linguist about the plausibility of the ideas in the movie.

The Ling Space (YouTube)

For something a little more in depth, see The Ling Space, who has produced a series of comprehensive but accessible videos exploring specific topics in linguistics.

Langfocus (YouTube)

Langfocus posts a range of videos on different topics related to linguistics. He has a fantastic series of videos focusing on individual languages and language families.

Interested in more linguistics fun? Check out our Read Something and Listen to Something pages.