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.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlThis show was a real role reversal because I was in the chair, operating the deck, and Ben was sitting in my usual seat. But I think you’ll find we got used to it.
We were talking to Sali Tagliamonte, who’s a sociolinguist from the University of Toronto. Not only do we hose down the idea that English is in danger of its speakers, we also talk about how language is different depending on who you are, who you’re talking to, what you’re talking about, and of course what communication medium you’re using. Wow — and yet somehow we manage.
Show notes
“Twerk Fail”: A prank by Jimmy Kimmel which was anything but haphazard. Or is that half-hazard? He says it at 0:05.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJMoH7tnvw
Sali Tagliamonte’s home page
http://individual.utoronto.ca/tagliamonte/index.html
She studies language on the Internet
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/05/09/technology_shortens_language_but_the_meaning_stays.html
and English in Toronto
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/07/like_whatever_eh_u_of_t_prof_tracks_evolution_of_canadian_english_across_generations.html
and in remote areas as part of the Ontario Dialects Project.
http://individual.utoronto.ca/tagliamonte/Ontario_Dialects.html
She’s also studied the convergence of there was and there were. (PDF)
http://individual.utoronto.ca/tagliamonte/Downloads/TagliamonteBaayenFinal2012.pdf
And she’s been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
http://utlinguistics.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/sali-tagliamonte-elected-fellow-of.html
Young women are language trendsetters
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
at the forefront of ‘vocal fry’.
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2013/01/07/what-the-heck-is-vocal-fry/
