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256: Numbers

One, two, three… Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

And yet different languages express numbers in very different ways. How are they handled in our brains? And how did –illion get to be the suffix for truly astronomical sums?

Linguist Daniel

255: Diagnosing from Words (featuring Katie Fraser)

Can our language tell us if we’re not well?

The words we use can reveal a lot of social information. But in the future, computers will examine our words to detect mental illnesses like dementia and motor neuron disease — even …

254: Plagiarism

Did Melania Trump really plagiarise that speech?

Yeah, she totally did. But how can you tell if someone is copying someone else’s work? How do plagiarism checkers work? And can you beat them?

Linguist Daniel Midgley shows his work on …

253: Secret Professional Slang (featuring Dr Brian Goldman and Ji-Soo Kweon)

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 …

252: The Tower of Babel

Is there anything to the story of the Tower of Babel?

It’s a legend about why human languages are so different. So was there really only one human language a long time ago? Maybe — but how does this match …

251: Brexit Language Fallout

Seems the UK is eyeing the exits on the EU, but what would a UK exodus mean for language?

Would language learning be affected? How about Britain’s minority languages? And would the English language even be in the EU at …

250: Comma Sutra (featuring Louisa Fitzhardinge)

The Talk the Talk team is taking a break, but Daniel jumped at the chance to speak to Louisa Fitzhardinge, whose new comedy show ‘Comma Sutra’ looks at the lighter side of the use — and misuse — of …

249: Big Big Mailbag

It’s time to return to our mailbag and answer some questions.

Is the translating earpiece a thing? Is thing a thing? What about New Zealand English? And is it sexist to say guys?

Linguist Daniel Midgley finds out on …

248: Dog Whistles and Dead Cats (featuring Howie Manns)

It’s the political season in Australia again, and the air is filled with the sound of dog whistles and dead cats hitting tables.

For this show, we turn our attention to political language. What makes a good slogan? What’s behind …

247: Singlish (featuring Sean Yeo)

We’re talking about Singapore Colloquial English, or Singlish.

The Singaporean government would love to wipe it out, but Singlish is gaining prestige in the English-speaking world. Oxford is even adding Singlish words to its dictionary. But what is this …

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