About Danny Bate – “you know, that etymology guy”
Born in rural England on a stormy* night**, this website belongs to Danny Bate, a linguist, language teacher, author, broadcaster, and someone uncomfortable writing in the third person.
I feel I have a vocation: to use the scientific insights of linguistics to make languages easier to understand and learn. The aim of this website is to have a space in which I can share this passion with everyone who’s interested, whether it be in an article, video, tweet or audio format!
For my linguistic audio output, check out the podcast!
*actually quite pleasant
**afternoon
Education and Career (So Far)
Linguistics BA
2015 – 2018
The University of York
– A bachelor’s degree in general linguistics, later specialising in syntax and Latin, and concluding with a third-year research project on the Latin Accusativus cum infinitivo construction.
Linguistics MPhil
2018 – 2019
The University of Cambridge
– A research master’s on the history and development of complementizers and complement clauses in Indo-European, supervised by Prof. Ian Roberts.
Language Teacher
2019 –2024
Prague, Czech Republic
– Teaching English, German, Latin and a little bit of Biblical Greek.
Linguistics PhD
2020 – 2024
The University of Edinburgh
– A doctoral project on syntactic reconstruction and the word order of clauses and noun phrases in the oldest Indo-European languages, supervised by Prof. Caroline Heycock, Prof. Ronnie Cann and Prof. Robert Truswell.
Voice Actor and Proofreader
2022 –
Prague, Czech Republic
Public Speaker
2023 –
UK
– Academic outreach, promoting linguistics and presenting talks to non-academic audiences, such as to high-school students.
Broadcaster
2024 – 2025
Prague, Czech Republic
– Part of the team at Radio Prague International, the foreign-language department of the state broadcaster Český rozhlas.
Author
2025 –
UK and beyond
– My debut book, Why Q Needs U, was published at the start of October 2025!
Danny L. Bate 
