Author: Daniel Midgley (page 2 of 41)

386: English Needs These Idioms (Live Q&A)

If you speak a language besides English, you know that there are some idioms that English is missing, or just doesn’t do as well. We want to hear them on this episode of Talk the Talk.


Listen to this episode

385: You Look Like a Thing (with Janelle Shane)

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and that freaks some people out. But the real problem is that AIs may not be smart enough.

Whether you’re concerned about the future of human/computer interaction, or you just want a fun description of machine …

384: Mailbag of Welcome

Welcome to our mailbag, where all the really great questions come from.

  • Why do we say “You’re welcome”?
  • How can varelse mean ‘a being’ in Swedish, but ‘a room’ in Danish?
  • In sci-fi, what happens when the universal translator breaks?

383: Decolonising the Archive (with Emma Murphy and Caroline Hughes)

Communities need language. But a lot of the documentation is locked up in the archives.

So now linguists are teaming up with community researchers to demystify linguistic research, so that this work can be taken to their communities to help …

382: There’s No Enhance Button (with Helen Fraser)

We hear what we expect to hear.

That’s a problem in court, where covert audio recordings are often unclear. Who decides what goes into the transcript that lawyers, judges, and juries will see?

We’re talking to Dr Helen Fraser about …

381: A Hard Spell (Live Q&A)

What words do you constantly misspell? Are there any that make you stop and think every time you type them? We put out the call to our listeners for spelling bugbears, and we were inundated with responses. So we turned …

380: Emoji Innovations (Live Q&A)

For this episode, we want to hear about the emoji usages or combinations that are unique to you and your social network. We’ll unearth new patterns, or at least shine a light on the variability of digital communication. We’re taking …

379: Indigenous Signed Languages (with Rodney Adams and Steph Tisdell)

Indigenous languages matter. They’re part of Australia’s cultural heritage, and they’re a way for Aboriginal people to communicate, and connect.

This includes Indigenous signed languages. In the push to recognise minority languages, Indigenous signed languages deserve some attention of their …

378: Bugger All (with Isabelle Burke)

You might do nothing. You might do zilch. But if you do bugger all, you’re really doing the minimum.

But wait — how did the phrase bugger all become a negative, in the complete absence of any negative words?

There …

374: Polari, Britain’s Lost Gay Language (with Paul Baker, Grant Mathumba Thompson, and Alexandra Marley)

When homosexuality was illegal, a secret language brought people together.

In 1960s England, Polari was a creative blend of Romani, Italian, rhyming slang, and backslang, used among the LGBT community. It could be used to communicate, or to identify someone …

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Talk the Talk

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑