Category: language innovation

330: Making Words for Miriwoong (featuring Knut Olawsky)

The Australian Aboriginal language of Mirawoong is being revitalised. But to do this, it needs more than speakers. It needs words.

How do you construct new words in a language? And how well are these words being accepted?

We’re talking …

302: Creoles 1 (featuring Damián Blasi)

How do Creole languages arise?

A controversial new paper is rocking the linguistic world. Are Creole languages different from other languages? How do they start? And what does this all mean about the human language ability?

Daniel Midgley speaks with …

271: Words of the Year 2016

Was 2016 a dumpster fire 🗑🔥? Or was it just fire 🔥?

It’s time to look back at the words that defined our time, enlivened our speech, and zeited our geist in the previous year.

Daniel, Ben, and …

219: Eggcorns

Have you heard of eggcorns?

They’re off-quoted sayings that sometimes reel their ugly heads, and some might just leave you curled up in the feeble position.

Are they wrong? That might be a bit of a mute point. …

203: Modern Australian Usage (featuring Nicholas Hudson)

When writers need advice, they turn to editors, and Nicholas Hudson is a formidable presence in the editing world.

But how does his advice stack up linguistically? And what do Australian writers need to know?

Author and editor Nicholas Hudson

135: Language Detective (featuring Sali Tagliamonte)

Is the Internet killing English?

How is English changing?

For tough questions like these, you need a linguistic detective. Luckily, we found one.

Linguist Daniel Midgley has a chat to sociolinguist Sali Tagliamonte on this episode of Talk the Talk

63: Uptalk

Do you use question intonation, even when you’re not asking a question?

You may be an uptalker. Are you communicating something when you use it, or are you just driving people crazy?

Linguist Daniel Midgley takes it up a notch …

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