Category: pronunciation (page 3 of 3)

198: The Geography of Sound (featuring Caleb Everett)

Does climate affect language?

A linguist has found that tone languages appear in regions of high humidity. But the idea that human speech adapts to the environment is not a popular one. So what’s going on?

Daniel Midgley speaks with …

Radiothon 2014 Special

Last week’s Radiothon 2014 show was a celebration of RTRFM, community radio, and our listeners.

But there were language questions for linguist Daniel Midgley, appearances from Kylie Sturgess, Ben Ainslie, and more.

And we’re bringing you the …

166: Mondegreens

Even if you’re great at understanding the words to songs, you’ve probably encountered mondegreens.

They’re misheard song lyrics, and they can be funny, bizarre, and sometimes better then the real thing. Why do they happen, and what can they …

164: Sounding Gay

Can you tell someone’s orientation by the way they talk?

While there’s been a lot of supposition and stereotyping, there’s also a body of linguistic work on this very topic.

Linguist Daniel Midgley swings that way on this episode of …

121: GIF

You see an animated picture on the web. Is it a GIF or a JIF?

For decades, this simple question has ignited controversy and set up warring factions. How are you supposed to say it? And why is this even …

62: Carillon Shemozzle

There are some words we’ve been hearing around the place.

What exactly is a shemozzle, and why is Peter Costello talking about it? How do you pronounce carillon, and why is Perth’s “Carillon City” spelt with only one …

46: Speech Accent Archive (featuring Steven Weinberger)

Do you have an accent?

Of course you do; everybody does. And now there’s the Speech Accent Archive, an internet database that you can browse, containing sound data from hundreds of speakers of English from around the globe. What is …

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