Word of Mouth

Michael Rosen hears the fascinating story of the origin of all Indo-European languages from Laura Spinney, the author of Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. Today, nearly half of humanity speaks an Indo-European language and Laura has been investigating how that came to be. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

The use of punctuation is rapidly changing within the quickfire back-and-forth of instant messaging. Are these changes causing misunderstandings? Presenter Michael Rosen and his guest Dr Christian Ilbury discuss. Is the full stop on the way out? What about capital letters? Exclamation marks and question marks seem to be holding their ground, but what about the rest? Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley, in partnership with The Open University. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Michael Rosen talks to sociolinguist Philip Seargeant from the Open University about where our street names come from, including Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate in York, and Michael's old address, Love Lane. Also, have you ever thought about the difference between a street and a road? Are there regional differences in the names given to streets? And why are street names sometimes changed?Producer: Sally Heaven Word of Mouth is produced by BBC Audio Bristol in partnership with the Open University Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Michael Rosen explores the evocative Old English words used in daily life a thousand years ago, many of which are still in use now. He's joined by the linguist author of The Wordhord, Hana Videen. Hana has been hoarding words from Old English (450 AD to 1150 AD) for a decade, when she began tweeting one a day. Now she has lots of people following her to find out more about the language, and a new book out called The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary.https://oldenglishwordhord.comProduced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Michael Rosen's parents both grew up in the East End, and now he talks cockney with Andy Green and Saif Osmani from the Modern Cockney Festival. Including some mythbusting about rhyming slang, a discussion about how cockney has evolved, and of course a mention of Dick van Dyke. The Modern Cockney Festival takes place from March 1st to 31st with a month-long programme of online and offline activities.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

David Adger is Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. He's created new languages for TV series and films and he explains to Michael Rosen how he goes about it. For his latest language he used existing Creole languages for his 'conlang', or constructed (artificial) natural language. He talks Michael through the grammar and language principles he applies to his creations and lets him try his hand at the monsters' language he invented for a televised version of Beowulf.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Professor Louise Mullany talks to Michael Rosen about politeness, and how it governs our lives, from the behaviour of football managers to the different ways children can embarrass us. Why, in this country at least, is it so mortifying to mistakenly assume someone is pregnant, when in other cultures it's simply thoughtful to book two seats on a plane for a larger person. Starring Michael Rosen as Spanish football manager Unai Emery, the politest man in football.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Poet Jackie Kay has written a book in Scots: Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story. She joins presenter Michael Rosen to talk about her love of the language and what it meant to her growing up. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Adam Rutherford joins Michael Rosen to make sense of the heavily-loaded and often unscientific language that we use to talk about genetics, inheritance, ancestry and race. Adam is a geneticist, science writer, and lecturer in Biology and Society at University College London. His work tries to make sense of what our genes do (or don't) tell us about our similarities and our differences. He writes about this stuff in many of his books, including ‘How To Argue With A Racist' and ‘Where Are You Really From?'Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnzProduced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Susie Dent joins Michael to talk about her lifelong fascination with words and their origins. It's a programme bringing some apricity, which is one of Susie's favourite words. Her love of language began when she was a child, then found expression in her passion for French and German and now in her work as a lexicographer, writer and language broadcaster.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Michael talks to linguist Dr Andreea Calude about her research into how language is used on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter/X. And he asks if we're witnessing the death of email.Dr Andreea Calude is the author of The Linguistics of Social Media: An Introduction.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz Read less

Michael hears from zoologist Arik Kershenbaum about the latest research on how and why different types of animals communicate, from wolves howling to dolphins whistling: a world of soundscapes. He also explains how animal communication can help to shed light on the human variety.Dr. Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and the author of: Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

How best to write about love and other things. Nabeela Ahmed talks about writing in a second language and how her early life in Kashmir shaped the language she uses to express different aspects of her life. She is also a champion for the Pahari language in her home city of Bradford. Pahari is a language spoken by people in Northern areas of India, Kashmir and Pakistant. It fell out of favour as an official language of the courts but is still widely spoken in many British Asian homes today. Nabeela works with groups of budding poets and writers to help them express themselves in whichever language they feel comfortable with alongside English.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Eli Burnstein talks about fine distinctions between words, including Michael's personal bugbear of forewords, prefaces and introductions, some clarity on clementines, satsumas, tangerines and mandarins, and of course the lunch, dinner and tea debate.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Colonel Chris Hadfield is a veteran of three spaceflights. He crewed the US space shuttle twice, piloted the Russian Soyuz, helped build space station Mir and served as Commander of the International Space Station. Getting words and language right in as clear and a concise way is a matter of life and death for astronauts. Crews are traditionally made up of different nationalities and Russian is second to English on board. Chris Hadfield who flew several missions and captained the International Space Station talks about how astronauts communicate and the special language they use that he dubs NASA speak. He speaks several languages and lived in Russia for twenty years. As an author he has written several novels based on his experience in Space and as a fighter pilot the latest of which is The Defector. His books The Apollo Murders are being made into a series for TV. He tells Michael about the obligation he feels to share in words as best he can an experience that so few people have - of being in space and seeing Earth from afar.Producer: Maggie Ayre

How we talk about getting older can affect how we age, both mentally and physically. Michael asks Dr Lucy Pollock for her advice on ageing well and happily.Dr Lucy Pollock has been an NHS consultant geriatrician, a doctor specialising in the care of older people, for over 30 years. She is the author of The Book About Getting Older, and her new book is The Golden Rule: lessons in living from a doctor of ageing.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea. Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Recently a video went viral of a baby talking - or babbling - with a Liverpool accent. Professor Julian Pine from Liverpool University explains how babies and young children learn language, including the rules we take for granted. Including the surprising reasons who children make mistakes like saying "nana" instead of banana, or "I play football yesterday" instead of "I played football yesterday." Plus, did you know verbs and nouns go to different parts of the brain?Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz

Michael explores the mysterious rules of word order with linguist Dr Laura Bailey. We all know them instinctively, without knowing that we know them. Contains the truth about killer whales and also why Yoda sounds like an alien.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Michael meets fellow children's author Michael Morpurgo - author of over 150 books - including Kensuke's Kingdom, Private Peaceful and Warhorse. They talk words, writing, books and language and why it's so important that children learn to love reading at an early age.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Joshua Reno talks about how Charlie, his non-verbal son who is on the autism spectrum, communicates with him very effectively using gestures known as "home signs". Joshua is the author of Home Signs: An Ethnography of Life beyond and beside Language.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

In conversation with Michael about his book "32 Words For Field" Manchán Magan reveals Ireland's deep connection with the landscape expressed through the Irish language. The author traces his country's relationship with the natural world and its corresponding belief system that encompasses the 'otherworld'. He lists many similarities between Irish and Sanskrit and even Arabic - suggesting a link between the ancient Islamic word Shamrakh and the Irish Seamróg (shamrock). It's a fascinating discussion of a rich and poetic language that survives in traditional communities on the west coast and is being enthusiastically revived in the cities. Manchán also lists the many words that we use in English that have come from Irish and Scots Gaelic: words like 'bog' 'whisky' 'hooligan' and Tory. We also learn a bit of Hiberno-English along the way.Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio BristolA longer version of this programme is available on the podcast

Professor Lucy Easthope explains why language is important in the aftermath of a disaster, why some words are useful and some can be damaging.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

Dominic Fifield explains how football clubs got their names, uncovering a fascinating social history behind the Wanderers, Wednesdays and Villas.Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

"If you want to hide something in the 21st century world, you don't need to create a James Bond style plot. Just cover it in acronyms". Gillian Tett is a columnist at the Financial Times, but she initially trained as a cultural anthropologist, studying marriage rituals in Tajikistan. She joins Michael Rosen to discuss how the study of language has been vital to her work, who continues to see the world through the lens of an anthropologist. The pair talk about the etymology of words like 'company', 'office', and 'bank', why we should all speak more like the Dutch, how Brits in the workplace are more similar to the Japanese, and why it would be useful for all of us to think more like an anthropologist. Gillian Tett is the author of Fool's Gold, The Silo Effect, and Antho-Vision. Producer: Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio Bristol.

Michael shares listeners' stories about the words and phrases passed down in their families that they keep using, and what they mean to them. With Rob Drummond, Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Met University, and author of You're All Talk: why we are what we speak. Producer Beth O'Dea, BBC Audio Bristol

Michael Rosen talks to neuroscientist Dr Julia Ravey about whether we think and act differently when speaking a non-native language.More and more people are finding themselves speaking multiple languages in our cross-cultural societies. But when we communicate in a different tongue, do we become a different person? From the decisions we make to the memories we form, research in neuroscience and psychology has begun exploring this fascinating area, which not only offers insights into the linguistic brain, but also calls into question if our ‘core self' is a as stable as we like to think it is…Producer: Becky Ripley

Michael Rosen explores how language has become an online commodity, with Dr Pip Thornton, Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Thornton explains, with the help of auction props and a receipt machine, what happens to the words that we put into an online search and how the engines make money from our words and phrases. We discover why William Wordsworth's daffodils and clouds have had their context 'stolen', how Lewis Carroll wrote an incredibly 'cheap' poem and why mesothelioma is the most 'expensive' word. Plus Michael proposes a new form of poetry - the Monetised School of Poetry. Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold

Michael Rosen is joined by language scholar Ruanni Tupas, to discuss Unequal English - how native English is perceived differently, depending on where you come from.Ruanni, who's from the Philippines and also spent two decades in Singapore, has spent his career thinking about what it means to be a native English speaker when you come from somewhere other than the West. He chats with Michael about his own experience of speaking four languages (English and three Philippine languages), how being judged by how he spoke English at university affected the rest of his life and research, and what it means for his children speaking English as a first language, havng grown up in Singapore. They also discuss what is really meant by English as a 'global language', and why he prefers thinking of multi-lingualism as having a language repertoire. Ruanni Tupas is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at UCL, London.Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol

Grant Barrett is a lexicographer, linguist, author, editor, founder of Wordnik and Head of Lexicography at Dictionary.com. He also co-hosts A Way With Words, a phone in show about language, which airs coast to coast across the United States. He and Michael discuss the joy of flicking through a dictionary with friends vs the fast return of an online look-up, the history of dictionaries, and Grant's favourite area of language: sociolinguistics - "where the rubber meets the road", as he puts it. Producer: Ellie Richold

Isy Suttie is an actor and comedian best known for her role in Peepshow and her one woman show Love Letters on Radio 4 as well as many other shows and podcasts. Here she talks to Michael Rosen about writing her comedy and what informs it. She grew up in Matlock in Derbyshire and a deep love as well of knowledge of the place and its people find their way into her humour. Words ending in consonants too are much funnier than those ending in a vowel she says. And as for learning Welsh to impress her partner her song written to show off her language skills to him is a linguistic masterpiece!Producer: Maggie Ayre

Michael Rosen talks to Ben and David Crystal about the Shakespeare quotes we use every day, without even realising. We've all heard someone roll their eyes and say “the lady doth protest too much, me thinks” - or head back to their desk muttering “once more unto the breach!” Shakespeare had a way with words that makes his writing extremely relatable, even today. Ben and David Crystal tell Michael why so many of the bard's sayings have slipped into our everyday chat. Producer: Alice McKee, BBC Audio Bristol

Susie Orbach talks to Michael Rosen about the use and misuse of “therapy speak”. With the rise of mental health awareness, it seems to have leaked out of the therapist's office and into our homes. Instead of saying someone's getting on our nerves, we talk about “boundaries”; instead of accusing someone of lying, we call them a “gaslighter”; instead of telling someone we're listening, we say we're “holding space”. But do these words mean what we think they do? And do they help or heighten the issues we are trying to discuss? Producer: Alice McKee, BBC Audio Bristol

There's lots of 'birging' in this week's programme. For those not in the know - that's short for Basking In Reflected Glory and it's something football fans in particular do when they talk about their team's triumphs using the 'extended we'. Michael Bond author of 'Fans' talks to Michael about the words and language different fan groups have as a shared means of communication. Whether it's being a superfan of sport, film or music there are words and phrases that show you belong to a particular fandom. Producer: Maggie Ayre

Michael Rosen talks to journalist Sheela Banerjee about the family and cultural histories revealed by our names. In her book What's in a Name? Friendship, Identity and History in Modern Multicultural Britain, she takes a deep dive into her own personal and family names and those of her friends. Names turn out to be excellent prisms through which to view history and the stories she uncovers are surprising and poignant. Producer Beth O'Dea, BBC Audio Bristol

Lonny Evans audio describes in theatres and museums, and Terry James, who is vision impaired, trains audio describers. They talk to Michael about their work. Producer Sally Heaven

Irina Morgan is a high level interpreter. Being bi-lingual in Russian and Ukrainian means she's in demand whenever Vladimir Putin or President Zelensky give a press conference requiring simultaneous interpretation. Irina talks to Michael about the language do's and don'ts of live translation, and about how she puts herself into the mindset of someone like President Putin in order to give an accurate representation of his distinct man-of-the-people hard man linguistic style. By contrast Volodymyr Zelensky is a linguistic free-styler - like following jazz, Irina says. A fascinating look at the life of a language specialist. Producer: Maggie Ayre

Michael Rosen is learning Yiddish. Every Sunday, he joins other adults in an evening class, conjugating verbs and practising rhymes. For this episode of Word of Mouth, he invites his teacher, Tamara Micner, to join him in the studio. The pair have fun swapping family stories and sharing how they were first exposed to Yiddish. Tamara explains where the language came from and how it's evolved, and they discuss its connections to English. We also hear what Michael is like in class as a new learner, as he wraps his head around the pronunciation and patterns of this language which links him to his family history. Producer: Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio in Bristol.

Michael is joined by Emily M Bender, Professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington and co-author of the infamous paper ‘On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots'. Cutting through the recent hype, she explains how chatbots do what they do, how they have become so fluent and why she thinks we should be careful with the terminology we employ when talking about them. Presented by Michael Rosen and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.

Michael Rosen speaks with Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor at Yale University to discuss the language of fascism. They discuss propaganda, slogans and ‘vermin terminology' as well as how fascist language changes according to culture, geography and time. Presented by Michael Rosen and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.

Dr Jenni Nuttall talks to Michael about the words used by and about women since the beginnings of language. Including some words we should never have lost.

Michael Rosen talks nonsense with literary scholar Noreen Masud. From the nonsense language of Shakespeare's fools, to the nonsense lyrics of The Beatles, via the limericks of Edward Lear, the portmanteaus of Lewis Carroll, and the made-up words of three year olds. A BBC Audio Bristol production. Produced by Becky Ripley.

Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David talks to Michael about the dialogue that takes place between him and his patients. Producer Sally Heaven