You might do nothing. You might do zilch. But if you do bugger all, you’re really doing the minimum.
But wait — how did the phrase bugger all become a negative, in the complete absence of any negative words?
There …
Category: slang (page 1 of 2)
There are some things so nice we say them twice. And when we do, we’re using reduplication.
But this handy device can handle a surprising range of functions in the world’s languages, and it can pop up in the …
What do you call your family members? No, not like that.
We’re talking about kinship terms. How does your language handle family relations? Do you call your grandmothers on your mom and dad’s side the same thing? What’s a second …
It’s Word of the Year season again, and Daniel was repping Talk the Talk at the year’s biggest vote.
But controversy surrounds the WotY. Is it too white, too old, and too male? How can this be helped?
Daniel regales …
Some big corporations are paying big money to make sure you don’t use their names.
Usually they love it if their trademark name is well-known. But if it becomes so well-known that the name becomes generic, the company can lose …
We’re listening to West African Pidgin English.
Millions of people speak it, but now it’s getting a big boost from the BBC World Service. What’s this language like? And will it change, now that it’s hit the world stage?
Daniel…
We’re taking your questions on a Mailbag episode!
Along the way, we’re going to find out some pretty strange things about how words and phrases got to be how they are. Do you say zero or oh? What is …
Do you, like, like LIKE?
LIKE is often used and often reviled these days, but not everyone realises that LIKE has a long history. And it follows regular patterns — patterns we seem to know instinctively, but which we have …
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 …
Do you know what doctors are really saying?
How about tech support people? Or butchers? They’ve all got their own jargon that they use to communicate amongst themselves — or to exclude.
Linguist Daniel Midgley helps you crack the code on …
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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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