What was early human language like?
A pair of researchers think they’ve reconstructed early human syntax from as early as 50,000 years ago. But have they got it right? How can we know about languages that no longer exist?
Linguist …
Author: Daniel Midgley (page 37 of 41)
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 …
While English is the major language of the Commonwealth, there are hundreds of other languages and dialects.
But many of these minority languages are under threat. What can we do to preserve the languages in our midst, and why should …
This week on Talk the Talk, we’re talking about spam.
Not the spicy ham product, but the wretched dreck that clogs your inbox. Why do we call it spam? How does your computer know if your email is spam? …
You say it many times a day, whether you notice it or not. It’s “um”.
Far from being just a conversation-filler, it can make you a better speaker, and may even help children learn new words.
Linguist Daniel Midgley will …
For 140 characters, Twitter can tell us a lot about ourselves.
By looking at masses of tweets, word-crunching software can tell when we’re feeling up or down, help us decide what stocks to buy or sell, and track the spread …
Are you a grammar grouch? Do you have language peeves? And if so, how can you recover?
Linguist Daniel Midgley talks the talk with Lane Greene, language blogger, journalist, and author of the new book You Are What You …
They’re reviled by spelling reformers, and loathed by English learners.
They’re silent letters. Why does English possess these orthographic curiosities? Do other languages put up with them? Are they useless leftover baggage, or could they be the quiet achievers that …
Not every language uses the same words for colours.
English has about 11 colour terms, while other languages get by with two or three. And it seems that people whose language uses different colour terms are able to easily tell …
Linguists and researchers are working on AusTalk — a database of Australian English.
With a thousand speakers, it will be the largest repository of English outside the UK. But what’s it for? What are we expecting to find? And how …
Connect to us online
Awards
-
- CBAA Awards 2018: Best Radio Program — Talk
-
- Talkley Award 2018
© 2024 Talk the Talk
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑