Names are what they are, and as long as they work, they work.
But sometimes in the history of naming, people name things in a manner inapt to their nature or origin. So what’s the story behind words like atom…
Category: language change (page 1 of 4)
Again we tackle the questions that others dast not.
- Why do all children seem to know the nyah nyah song?
- Why do classic movie stars talk in that strange accent?
- Do Chinese characters stay readable longer than English words?
- Who
Listeners have sent us a bracket of great questions.
Will there ever be only one language on earth? When was the beginning of buzzwords? And why do some people say I have went?
We’ll give our best answers on …
Why does language have the form it does, and why does it change the way it does?
Is it just… because? Or are there environmental motivators? Linguists are getting interested in just what factors are forming language into what it …
Babies are linguistic super-geniuses!
They know a lot about their own language, and they’re able to infer things from other languages. But a new study shows that unloading bulk language upon them isn’t as important as the conversational turns that …
Just how feasible is a pet translator?
A report from a futurologist is claiming that we’re only ten years away from having deep and meaningfuls with our puppers and kittehs. But there might be some technical hurdles — including the …
Time to check in on Shakespeare.
Away from the glare of the footlights, the Play On! project is underway to translate all the Bard’s works into Present-Day English. How is it progressing? What’s staying, and what’s going?
We’re talking to …
We’re continuing our discussion of a controversial paper about how new languages get started.
When you start talking about creole languages, the linguistic becomes the political very quickly. So what are linguists saying about this work? And is there anything …
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 …
Are some words off-limits?
Many of us are aware of cultural appropriation: using symbols and clothing that pertain to another culture without attribution. But how does this relate to language? Is it okay to use the slang that originates …
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Awards
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- CBAA Awards 2018: Best Radio Program — Talk
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- Talkley Award 2018
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