Podcasts about nine nasty words

Why does the G in George sound different from the G in gorge? Why does C begin both case and cease? And why is it funny when a phonologist falls, but not polight to laf about it? Anyone who has the misfortune to write in English will, every now and then, struggle with its spelling. According to a study in the British Journal of Psychology, children take 2-3 times longer to grasp English spelling compared to more phonetic orthographies like German and Spanish. So why do we continue to use it? If our system of writing words is so tragically inconsistent, why haven't we standardized it, phoneticized it, brought it into line? How many brave linguists have ever had the courage to state, in a declaration of phonetic revolt: "Enough is enuf"? The answer: many. In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to bring English into the realm of the rational. ENOUGH IS ENUF: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell (April 15, 2025; Dey Street) is about them: Noah Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Eliza Burnz, C. S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and the innumerable others on both sides of the Atlantic who, for a time in their life, became fanatically occupied with writing thru instead of through, tho for though, laf for laugh, beleev for believe, and dawter for daughter (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too). Releasing from a staple of the New York Comedy Scene-Gabe Henry, whose previous book of haikus featured comics like Jerry Seinfeld and Aubrey Plaza and was lauded for its "wit and wisdom" (Dick Cavett) and "pure fun" (The Interrobang)-ENOUGH IS ENUF reveals how, and why, language is organically simplifying to fit the needs of our changing world. "Just look at our national spelling bee," Henry said in a recent interview with BIG THINK. "There's a whole glorification of complicated words. People pride themselves on mastering the complications and origins of our words. They want to hold onto that. The core of the book is that language is always changing - whether consciously or unconsciously, whether direction or indirectly - and no one should fight it. Language has to evolve just like culture, just like people. It's hard to accept because we want to exert control over the things around us, but it's like letting a child grow up. It's just the natural course." Henry's intelligent yet approachably laugh-out-loud humor will appeal to fans of Nine Nasty Words, Semicolon, and The Pun Also Rises, and the timing couldn't be better with the 100th anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which Henry covers annually, happening soon after publication. Thanks to technology-from texting to Twitter and emojis-the Simplified Spelling Movement may finally be having its day.and etymologists, linguists, and book lovers alike will be keen to learn mor!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

Why does the G in George sound different from the G in gorge? Why does C begin both case and cease? And why is it funny when a phonologist falls, but not polight to laf about it? Anyone who has the misfortune to write in English will, every now and then, struggle with its spelling. According to a study in the British Journal of Psychology, children take 2-3 times longer to grasp English spelling compared to more phonetic orthographies like German and Spanish. So why do we continue to use it? If our system of writing words is so tragically inconsistent, why haven't we standardized it, phoneticized it, brought it into line? How many brave linguists have ever had the courage to state, in a declaration of phonetic revolt: "Enough is enuf"? The answer: many. In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to bring English into the realm of the rational. ENOUGH IS ENUF: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell (April 15, 2025; Dey Street) is about them: Noah Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Eliza Burnz, C. S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and the innumerable others on both sides of the Atlantic who, for a time in their life, became fanatically occupied with writing thru instead of through, tho for though, laf for laugh, beleev for believe, and dawter for daughter (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too). Releasing from a staple of the New York Comedy Scene-Gabe Henry, whose previous book of haikus featured comics like Jerry Seinfeld and Aubrey Plaza and was lauded for its "wit and wisdom" (Dick Cavett) and "pure fun" (The Interrobang)-ENOUGH IS ENUF reveals how, and why, language is organically simplifying to fit the needs of our changing world. "Just look at our national spelling bee," Henry said in a recent interview with BIG THINK. "There's a whole glorification of complicated words. People pride themselves on mastering the complications and origins of our words. They want to hold onto that. The core of the book is that language is always changing - whether consciously or unconsciously, whether direction or indirectly - and no one should fight it. Language has to evolve just like culture, just like people. It's hard to accept because we want to exert control over the things around us, but it's like letting a child grow up. It's just the natural course." Henry's intelligent yet approachably laugh-out-loud humor will appeal to fans of Nine Nasty Words, Semicolon, and The Pun Also Rises, and the timing couldn't be better with the 100th anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which Henry covers annually, happening soon after publication. Thanks to technology-from texting to Twitter and emojis-the Simplified Spelling Movement may finally be having its day.and etymologists, linguists, and book lovers alike will be keen to learn mor!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is the host of the podcast Lexicon Valley and writes a weekly column for The New York Times. McWhorter is the author of twenty-three books, including Nine Nasty Words, Woke Racism, The Power of Babel, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and John McWhorter explore how language evolves, why English only has one form of you, and if we should embrace the singular they. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: goodfightpod@gmail.com Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, host of “Lexicon Valley,” and a regular guest on “The Glenn Show” with Glenn Loury. John's writing has been published in many venues, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New Republic, City Journal, Time Magazine, and Forbes. He writes a weekly opinion column for The New York Times.John's most recent book is “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.” He has authored more than twenty books on language and race relations, including “Nine Nasty Words,” “The Language Hoax,” and “Talking Back, Talking Black.” Woke Racism by John McWhorter Lexicon Valley SubstackNew York Times articlesWatch this episode on YouTube.

We're back, but less social; no death robots; Twitter's downward spiral; sure, this kills primates but let's trial Neuralink on people; NFTs decline, go to museums; collateral FTX damage; Meta fined for data scraping; DoorDash, Deliveroo profitability problems; I am Groot's Holiday; Mickey Mouse's evolution; Wednesday; BritPop; Knives Out; Memory; the White Lotus; Neal Brennan; Dropbox changes; Spotify festival posters; AI gets... weird & creepy; Apple Karaoke; FTC wants to stop Microsoft's acquisition of Activision; the Tower; Dennis E. Taylor; Jesus Jones & the cesspool of the music industry; Nine Nasty Words; the Muppets & adult Star Wars; Radioshack, Kinkos & Egghead; Goblin mode!Sponsors:Kolide - Kolide can help you nail third-party audits and internal compliance goals with endpoint security for your entire fleet. Learn more here.Hover - Go to Hover now and grab your very own domain or a few of them at hover.com/gog and get 10% off your first purchase.Show notes at https://gog.show/581/FOLLOW UPSan Francisco approves police petition to use robots as a 'deadly force option'San Francisco lawmakers vote to ban killer robots in drastic U-turnWho Said It: Kanye or Hitler?IN THE NEWSChinese Bots Inundate Twitter With Pornographic Spam Amid COVID ProtestsTwitter has stopped enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policyTwitter data leak exposes over 5.4 million accountsTwitter's Janitors Are on Strike at Its San Francisco HeadquartersNeuralink CEO Elon Musk expects human trials within six monthsNFTs, on the Decline Elsewhere, Are Embraced by Some MuseumsCrypto lender BlockFi files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid FTX falloutMeta fined €265 million over Facebook data scraping in the EUDoorDash is laying off around 1,250 corporate employees‘Purely economic': Deliveroo Australia's CEO on why management pulled the pinMEDIA CANDYThe PeripheralThe Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday SpecialMickey: The Story of a MouseWednesdayThis is Pop: Hail Britpop!Knives OutGlass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryMemoryThe White LotusNeal Brennan - BlocksWhat The Cameras Don't Show You On Guy's Grocery GamesAPPS & DOODADSDropbox support for macOS FAQs20-year-old California student creates viral Spotify festival poster appOpenAI's New Chatbot Will Tell You How to Shoplift And Make ExplosivesUPDATED: It's way too easy to trick Lensa AI into making NSFW imagesPrisma Labs, maker of Lensa AI, says it is working to prevent accidental generation of nudesMeet Unstable Diffusion, the group trying to monetize AI porn generatorsUnstable DiffusionAdobe Stock begins selling AI-generated artworkApple abandons controversial plan to check iOS devices and iCloud photos for child abuse imageryApple Music's Latest Party Trick? Karaoke!F.T.C. Sues to Block Microsoft's $69 Billion Acquisition of ActivisionThe Tower - Idle Tower DefenseAT THE LIBRARYOutland by Dennis E. TaylorDeath Threats From an 8 Year Old - The Story of Jesus Jones by Mike EdwardsThe Birth and Impact of Britpop: Mis-Shapes, Scenesters and Insatiable Ones by Paul LairdNine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever‘Goblin mode' chosen as Oxford word of the year for 2022Critical MassSECURITY HAH!The CyberWireDave BittnerHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopThe Muppets Christmas Carol Extended Cut Coming to Disney+Video press kit for Star Tours when it launched, showing that Anthony Daniels is a team player.Star Wars w/ Dan Zehr | I Don't Know About That with Jim Jefferies #131RadioShackComputer Repair Technicians Are Stealing Your DataThinking about taking your computer to the repair shop? Be very afraidTikTok ‘Invisible Body' challenge exploited to push malwareLastPass reveals another security breachGPT-2 Output Detector DemoCLOSING SHOUT-OUTSFarewell to Christine McVie, who gave us music for all timeSuper Steve's HolidaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John McWhorter, author of Woke Racism and Nine Nasty Words stops by to discuss a linguistic trend Mike has noticed, about phrases that are totalizing but at the same time, particular. In the Spiel Mike discusses attention spans, Ukraine, and how unrelated they are. Plus Lindsey Graham goes "Freakin' Nuts" Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dawn and Ryan continue their conversation (and open another bottle of wine) as they jump right back into the history of profanity, beginning with Ryan's favorite swear word, 'shit.'PART 100:03:30 - Dawn begins with the fun (but likely false) theory that the word 'shit' originated with the shipping of manure - and the necessity for it to be stamped with the instructions to Ship High In Transit.00:06:50 - More likely the root of the english word 'shit' is from German/Ukranian roots: Scheisse and skei. Could it be the word comes from 'to cut off' - as in 'to pinch a loaf'. 00:10:48 - Dawn discusses the journey from being an adult, accustomed to being very far removed from your own excrement and the excrement of others, to being a parent suddenly thrust tits-first back into shitsville. 00:12:28 - The word 'shit' was considered so forbidden, it wasn't included in the dictionary until 1970. Up until (and after) that time, however, it was liberally written on toilet stalls in what has been coined 'Latrine Poetry'. 00:13:46 - Dawn covers the 4 metaphorical uses of the word 'shit' as outlined by John McWhorter in the book Nine Nasty Words. 00:21:34 - Dawn and Ryan discuss, with care and respect, the third tier of cursing: Slurs against groups of people. Dawn discusses the N-word (without saying it) and how it's modern use has changed and sharpened since the 1990's. PART II00:32:05 - The next slur we discuss is the other F-Word (derogatory term for a gay man). How did it go from being used casually in PG-rated 80's teen movies to being so hot it got Isiah Washington fired from Grey's Anatomy? 00:37:57 - What does the other F-word mean? How did a 'bundle of sticks' and 'a cigarette' come to share the word? How are they related? 00:41:00 - Most derogatory terms for gay men begin as belittling words for women or women's genitalia. The exception, is 'cocksucker' which from its inception has been leveraged almost exclusively against men. 00:44:03 - Why does it sound strange when people don't swear? Adamant non-cursers like Ned Flanders and Mitt Romney also catch our ear's attention. 00:46:48 - Speaking of women's genitalia: we discuss the nuanced difference in the use of Pussy and Cunt and how a one-syllable word that ends in a consonant will ultimately always win the profanity game. 00:50:07 - We bid farewell to special guest Ryan Ripple and he also gives us his review of this fucking amazing journey.---HILF Podcast on Instagram  -Go here to see lots of photos and updates on guests and research. HILF Podcast on FacebookHILF Podcast on Youtube**We are a new podcast and still growing and learning. More resources and links will be available... as we get better at this. Thanks for listening and please reach out to let us know where you are and what you want us to F next. 

This month, we discuss Nine Nasty Words by John McWhorter with Josie, Jana and Devon. Next month we will discuss Being a Human by Charles Foster. Take our survey!! If you have been listening to our Book Chatter Podcast, we would like to get your feedback. Please take a few moments to fill out this quick survey. The survey closes on January 31st, 2022. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XXKKP79 Sign up for our monthly podcast newsletter and get links, reading suggestions, and comments from hosts in your inbox. Go here to sign up.You can participate! Read the book, send us your thoughts, and then listen in as we share our thoughts and perspectives. To participate in Book Chatter: Submit your questions, reactions, or comments about the month's book in one of these ways:By email;Facebook comments or Messenger;Twitter direct message; orBy leaving a recorded voicemail message at 303-774-4875.The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the podcast hosts and do not reflect or represent the views or opinions of the Longmont Public Library, The City of Longmont or the Friends of the Longmont Library. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's Roundabout Roundup: Catherine discovered she has a talent for axe-throwing. Nicole shouts out a portable projector that lets you turn any blank wall into a movie screen [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M3ZFW2J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]. And Terri recommends the audiobook Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624619/nine-nasty-words-by-john-mcwhorter/] (but maybe use earphones, depending on who else can hear it).

Turns out that some languages are less intelligible through a mask than others, and, believe it or not, it all depends on how often you use certain consonants. It’s called the McGurk effect and it’s the closest that linguistics comes to actual magic.* FULL TRANSCRIPT *From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language. I'm John McWhorter and you know, in line with the fact that the Booksmart version of Lexicon Valley is going to be somewhat more topical than the Grand Old version, I want to discuss something that I've tried not to get too much into because of my motto that life is always happy in the valley and that is the pandemic, especially since it could be argued that we're coming out of it. And I feel a little better about referring to it at length. And I want to discuss language and the pandemic and beyond the level that some people started asking back about a year and a half ago. What about all of these new terms? And, you know, the answer is, well, you know, what about them? So social distancing, you can't do a show about that. Yes, we learned a bunch of new words and expressions. But still, the question is — especially, you know, a year and a half out — what kind of effect has there been on language from all of this stuff that we've had to go through? And, you know, one of the first things that you might think about is these God-damned masks. What kind of effect does it have? For example, someone very near and dear to me was talking about how when she goes to a store and she has to tell them whether or not she's going to use credit or debit, well, when you're in there and everybody's masked, the cashiers have told her that it's hard to understand whether people are saying credit or debit because those two words differ only in their initial consonant, as we call it. So is it cr- or d-? There is no problem with that at all in normal life. But when you've got a piece of cloth in front of your mouth, it can be somewhat muffled and you can't make up for that by looking at people's mouths and doing a little bit of passive lip reading as we all do, whether we're conscious of it or not. So credit, debit, what did you say? And so, my sweetheart tells me that she walks into the store and she has to actually enunciate or shout credit or debit. What's going on with that?THE McGURK EFFECTDo these masks actually muffle speech in that way? Do they create a kind of a confusion? And, you know, we would expect that they would. They certainly are. And one way that we know it is that linguists are aware of something called the McGurk effect. And the McGurk effect is one of these things where you can have fun in a class showing people that linguistics can be magic. And what it is, is that if you show a video clip of somebody saying gah, but then what you play them saying is not gah, but bah — you have those two things going on — the person is with their mouth saying gah, but you play them saying bah, what an Anglophone does when they see that is they could swear to God that the person is saying dah. You watch somebody mouthing gah, you play them saying bah. Well then what you hear is not bah and you don't hear gah, what you hear is dah. And what's especially fascinating is that those consonants, the b, d and the g, have a certain relationship in terms of how pronunciation actually works. So forget the order that those things come in in the alphabet. It's not about b first and then d and then g. It's actually more interesting than that. And the alphabetical order is actually only accidentally consonant, haha so to speak, with how this works. B is with your lips, d is when you put your tongue on that alveolar ridge, that thing that you burn if you drink your hot cocoa too fast, then g is the soft palate. So front, middle, back, b front, d middle, g back. So what happens is if you see somebody speaking the back, gah, and then what's played is them doing the front, bah, you end up correcting it to what's actually in between, dah, which the person didn't say and you didn't hear. That is called the McGurk effect. Absolutely fascinating thing. It's funny with McGurk, I always find myself having the most random thought when I hear that. Does anybody remember that sitcom Dear John? This is way back about 30 years ago. Judd Hirsch is off of Taxi and Dear John was supposedly based on a British show, but really Dear John was a shameless attempt to put Judd Hirsch in Taxi again. And they had characters that almost all corresponded to the Taxi characters. And as you can imagine, the show was pretty good. It wasn't quite a keeper, but because it was more Taxi and because the actors were good, I must admit that back then when there was less to do because there wasn't really any internet yet, I watched it. And I remember Jere Burns had this character Kirk, and Kirk is this sort of Guys and Dolls-ish vernacular person. And the running joke was that he'd introduce himself as “Gurk.” My name's Gurk. And so I always think of “Gurk” when I hear about the McGurk effect. You know, why am I imitating this obscure character? Listen, everything's on YouTube. Here is Jere Burns. The first time, this is the first episode where he introduces this “Gurk” character.KIRK MORRIS: The name's Kirk.JOHN LACEY: Oh, hi. John. Nice to meet you.KIRK MORRIS: All right, stick with me. You're gonna make out like a bandit.The McGurk effect. And guess what has actually been shown in research that's now coming out in the wake of the height of the pandemic. It turns out that when people have these masks on their faces, young people are good at compensating. They stop relying so much on that passive lipreading and they get better at just distinguishing consonants based on hearing them. However, people who are older don't do that nearly as well. The ability atrophies. And so the masks have been less of a problem with the young than with older people. This was demonstrated by a very interesting paper in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, and it was by Czech researchers. And to tell you the truth, I don't know much about Czech and I can't pronounce their names. But it was in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. It was recently. And if you want to check it out, you should check this out. You'd predict it. You wouldn't necessarily predict that there would be an age issue. But yeah, these masks make it harder to understand what people are saying, sometimes in really graphic ways. But just in general, we don't get to do that lipreading. The way we learn to deal with human language is that you don't have to see the person's face. We know that from, you know, the radio, et cetera. But it certainly does help. And if we've got people in front of us watching their face is part of how we accomplish comprehension. With the masks that's muffled, and so you have to adjust and we can. But adjusting, as with just about everything else, is harder as you get older.IS THE McGURK EFFECT MORE PRONOUNCED IN ROTOKAS?And it's interesting, you think about other languages. The McGurk effect happens in lots of languages, more in some than in others. Although within a given language, the results are almost bizarrely consistent. But you can imagine there are places where these masks must have been more of a problem. And so, for example, I'm not aware of any article about how people are dealing with masks in the language Rotokas, which is spoken on an island off of New Guinea. But Rotokas is famous for one of the languages with the fewest sounds, period, of all. So there are languages that have like 148 different sounds. One of the click languages has that many because there are many, many, many clicks and then many, many other consonants and vowels. But then there are languages that have the fewest sounds and Rotokas is one of the ones with the very fewest. And so, for example, with consonants all Rotokas has — if we're going to be technical, it's the central Rotokas dialect — but all central Rotokas has is p, t, k, b, d and g. Now you can hear that as a pattern. So it's the b, d, g — front, middle, back — and then p, t, k have the exact same relationship. Really p and b are the same thing but different; t and d are the same thing but different; and k and g are the same thing but different. Feel it? So, p, b, and you're thinking well one is a B and that's close to the beginning of the alphabet and then P is somewhere in the late middle. No, that's completely irrelevant. P and b — b is just p with kind of some belly in it. So all Rotokas has is b, d, g and the related p, t, k. Nothing else. No nasal sounds. The way Rotokas speakers make fun of speakers of other languages is they start going mmmnnn, because that's how speakers of other languages seem to them. Now that doesn't mean that they have any problem with making themselves understood in normal conditions. But imagine if all you've got is p, t, k, b, d, g and now you've got these masks on, and there is this effect that you have where you are likely to hear a different consonant if you don't get to see the person's face. The McGurk effect must be a real pain in the ass on Rotokas in particular, in any language with that few consonants.IS THE McGURK EFFECT LESS PRONOUNCED IN CAMBODIAN?But then there are places where you would assume that it would be less of a problem. And that's because this issue is with consonants, not with vowels. The vowels come through the cloth pretty darn well. So that's not an issue. And that would mean that if you are a language with lots and lots of vowels, then this sort of thing isn't going to be as much of a problem in terms of comprehension. And I think, for example, of Cambodian. I'll just bet — and if any of you are Cambodian you can please let me know, I would genuinely like to know — I'll just bet that the masks aren’t as much of a problem in Cambodian. And that's because, this is a factoid that doesn't get around as much as that certain click languages have lots and lots of sounds, but just like there are languages that have lots and lots and lots of consonants, there are languages that have lots and lots of vowels, too. So, for example, depending on how you count it in English, you've got about 13 vowels. Cambodians got 30. It's really rather amazing. If you take the single vowels and then also the diphthongs — not dipthong as you want to call it if you see it on the page and you look by too quickly, but diphthongs — diphthongs like not aw but oi, not ah but ai. Diphthong. Those are still thought of as single sounds. Take the vowels that are single and then the diphthongs, Cambodians got 30 — you might say 29, you might say 31. And it depends on the dialect but they've got 30. It's funny how that happens. The only languages in the world that regularly have that many vowels are in Southeast Asia and they're ones that are related to Cambodian. And what that is, is the result of language change on tone languages. So I've talked about how there are languages where tone, the pitch that you utter a syllable on, is as important to indicating the meaning as what the vowel is itself. And so, for example, in Mandarin you can say, dah, okay but you've got to do the tone because dah is big, whereas dah is answer and dah is hit, and so on. Well, I'm always telling you that language always changes. Well, what about tones always changing? They can change into other tones, definitely. But another thing that can happen in a tonal language is that the tones wear away and just become different vowels. So where there once were four levels of tones and then a bunch of vowels, well, what ends up happening is you have just a big giant bunch of vowels. And so that's how Cambodian ends up having 30 vowels. Roll the tape back and it had some tones, just like a lot of the languages surrounding it — like Vietnamese, like, depending on what you call surround, Chinese. But now it's got 30. And that means that it's got so many vowels that speaking through a mask is probably less of a problem because the vowels come through loud and clear and they can help to distinguish what the consonants are that are being confused because you've got so many vowels to work with, and, well with context, you must be fine. So if you're a Rotokas speaker, and I'm sure I have many Rotokas speakers among my listeners, let me know how much of a pain in the ass the masks have been. And if you're Cambodian, let me know if you've noticed that with Cambodian, actually it's just not that much of a problem. It is, you know since we're talking about Cambodian, it's time for a song clip. And, you know, let's try this. It's Cambodia. It's hot there. In the summer of 1987, it was hot because it was summer, at least in Philadelphia. And I had this mind numbing but socially wonderful job working in the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia. And I remember this song was one of the pop hits, and I've always loved it. And I don't know anybody else who does. But one of the people who worked there, a woman in her 50s, I remember she said, you know, I like this one. I've been hearing this one on the radio. I like it. So well, Cathy liked it. So I'm not alone. I salute Cathy and Barbara and Antoinette, my summer coworkers, back at the Federal Reserve Bank in 1987. You know, actually, folks, for those of you who may have read Nine Nasty Words, this is the summer job where there was another coworker who used to yell motherfucker all the time. This is that job. In any case, the song is by ABC. Yeah, I know. But there was something about them and it's “When Smokey Sings.” It is one of my top ten favorite shitty pop hits of all time.When Smokey SingsCOVID MASKS AND SIGN LANGUAGESYou know who else has a problem with the masks and you kind of wouldn't expect it, people who use sign languages. Now, you kind of think that because they're talking with their hands that the mask would be less of a problem, but no. The truth is that facial expression is very important to getting across not only the things that we convey with facial expressions in spoken languages, but also grammar. There are grammatical things — and not just little nuances, but, you know, basic grammar — where you really have to have the face. And of course, the mouth and the nose are, for most people, part of the face. And so having the mask on when you're doing sign language is a problem. And in some ways it's more of a problem than it sometimes is in spoken languages, especially with Cambodian. And so, for example, you're trying to express yourself in American Sign Language, ASL and you do kind of a, a pout with your lips, a little bit of a pout, and you're kind of miming mmm. So that's what you're doing. That is one way of saying “regularly.” So whatever you're signing, whatever the verb is, when you do that little pout — as if to go mmm — that means that you do it on a regular basis. Now, if you think about it, that's not just making some facial expression. If I make my lips into a little pout and go mmm, nobody around me is going to say: oh, you do it that often? Doesn't look like that at all. In other words, it's arbitrary, like so much of language. There's no reason you call that thing a cat. That's not the sound it makes. It doesn't go cat. It's just arbitrary. Well, that kind of mmm, I'm sure there's some story as to how that came to mean regularly, but now it's just language. Well if you can't see your mouth then you can't convey that. Or you do the same pout but then you stick your tongue between your teeth a little bit, like thth. A little bit of th-ness. That means “carelessly.” Once again you can't convey it if you've got that damn thing on your face. Oh, by the way, I keep calling it that. I have masked along with everybody else, but goodness have I hated it. I don't like having that thing on. And it's partly because I'm weird. And I mean, I know none of us like it, but for example, I own not a single hat. I have never had a hat since I wasn't being made to wear one. I don't like something on my head and I have never felt, goodness my head is cold. And so only on the very, very, very coldest days will I put up a hood. I have various pairs of sunglasses. Never wear them unless I'm on the beach on my back with the sun right in my eyes. I get, most people put on shades. I don't want to. I don't want that in front of my eyes. I want to see the world as it is. Same thing with the masks, don't like them. That's why I keep on saying Goddamn, I have never gotten used to them, but I do read them. But if you are signing, then it's a problem to the point that there are these masks with windows in the front so that you can see and people who are signers like them quite a bit. Also, there's lipreading involved with sign language. It's to an extent. And once again, if the lips are covered up, you can't read them. And so the masks have not been fun for people who are using signed as opposed to spoken language, despite the fact that you might think that sign languages are all about the hands. That's what I thought at first. I thought, well, if there's one good thing about this, it's that people who are signing don't have to feel like they're being muffled by the masks for what I thought of as the obvious reason. But no, I wasn't thinking hard enough. They do.COVID (CORONA?) AND BILINGUALISMSomething else about the pandemic and language. You know, if you are somebody who, you know, for part of your living writes for the media, now and then you make predictions and it's very easy to never check up to see whether your predictions come true. You write it, and I don't know if all people are aware that if you write for the media regularly, you forget what you write the second you write it because you're on to the next thing. And a lot of people forget what you write the second you write because they're on to reading the next thing. And so pundits, as it’s sometimes called, don't get checked up upon enough. And so I decided to check up on myself. I said two things about language and the virus. I was wrong about one and I was right about another one. The one I was wrong about is that sometime back there, and I'm pretty sure it was on this show, I said that people were not going to take up the term Covid, they were going to call it Corona. Because there was a time — I'll bet we're almost already forgetting —  where you could talk about Corona. I remember that's what my kids were calling it for the first two or three months. And I was calling it that because Corona is a prettier word than Covid. You could call that arbitrary, but rrr, nnn, they don't stop — as opposed to covvv, which kind of has the kind of tire on the pavement then d. So it's like covvvv … d, it's like an accident. And so I kind of thought esthetically Covid is going to catch on because it sounds like the disease that it is, whereas Corona puts a kind of a corona of gentleness around it. I was wrong. Covid is what has caught on and to have people calling it Corona — they're going to have people doing that probably in movies about this in 20 years. And it's going to be a little, a little inaccurate, like showing people with water bottles in 1991 when it hadn't happened yet. But then I actually was right about something else. And this is something the same sweetheart is the one who came up with, it wasn't really me, but I jumped onto it and I wrote about it in the Atlantic. There was an idea that people who use a heritage language, as we call it, at home — s o people who say in the United States use English outside of the home, but then another language from another country in the home. The idea was that kids were going to get better at speaking those home languages during the lockdown because they weren't out being distracted by English as much. That was a prediction. It was something you could imagine and you couldn't be sure, but it looked like that was going to happen. And if you check up on it a year and a half later, it looks like that has definitely been true. Now, whether the effects will stick is a question. I would bet they won't. We should check up on that in the future. But nevertheless, a year and a half later, it's been shown that kids who have been under lockdown have been better at their heritage language because they aren't so distracted by English from the outside and English having that coolness effect, even if it does it through the media. Still your home with grandma, your home with your parents, you're using it more. There's a study by Li Sheng at U. Delaware. Li Sheng, and they were working with various other people. And it shows that if you are in a household these days, you're four to eight years old and English is the outside language, Mandarin is used at home. After the lockdown, these kids have been better at Mandarin than they were before. So their comprehension of English and Mandarin is the same, but they produce Mandarin. Their spoken Mandarin is a little better than their spoken English because it's been polished at home with native speakers of Mandarin such as their parents and their grandparents, and they haven't interacted live as much with English speaking peers. So that's a neat study. And similar things have been shown in Britain and Ireland and in Norway. And I also found a study in Uganda. Same thing. So we're not saying Corona, we're using that ugly word Covid, but it has given a little bump to kids retaining the language of their parents as opposed to big giant, nasty, dirty English. So language at home, language and love, love American style. There's your transition because I want the other song cue In this episode to be one of my favorite theme songs. Love American Style was a show that really does not travel outside of its time zone at all. It was this anthology show with these, you know, by today's standards, tacky little stories about love and hinting at sex about as much as Procter and Gamble could let you get by with at the time. But one of the best things about it was the theme song, which I remember. I found the show when I was seven and eight, about as incomprehensible as The Tales of Gilgamesh. But I did like the theme song and this is it. It's The Cowsills. If anybody remembers this, I know you liked it too, even if you didn't want to bother with the show.Love American Style theme songFor the musicologists among you, what's good about it is the pedal point in the bridge, the way the note in the bottom is the same all the way through. It makes the bridge sound kind of nostalgic and, frankly, more sophisticated than it is. I love pedal point.WILL VAX BECOME VASK? IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.What about new words during Covid? Well, as I’ve told you, to be honest, I have not found anything terribly interesting about them except that the words are just new. As you know, I'm often kind of a grammar person, but there is something that's interesting. More about me and the predictions. And this one seems to be coming true. When I say that language is always changing and you should take it as kind of a spectator sport, this was one of those things. And so, for example, the word mash, as in The Monster Mash. I say that because, remember Count Chocula and Frankenbrry. Well, they release those at Halloween again, and I love Frankenberry. It is a marvelous cereal. Usually you only get it at Halloween. For some reason, I found it in up-ish-state New York for sale at a Target. And so now I have a box of Frankenberry the size of a child in my home, and on the back there's something about Monster Mash. So the word mash, originally it was maks. Okay, now that in itself is just an isolated factoid. But fish, the original word was fisk and then in some dialects it became fiks. So you see how something ks. But then that might become sk, and then that might become sh. There's this ks, sk, sh interchange in English just like ask, for example. Well, just as many dialects of English have said aks as ask, and that is why, yes, Black people in colloquial speech say aks, not to mention many white people. It's not because people don't know what order to put their consonants in. It's because way back in old English, there was an alternation between askian and aksian. And now we have that as ask and aks, and that's not special pleading because also mash and maks, fish, fisk, fix. Well, if that's true, then I've been listening to people talking about vaxing and people being antivax and I've been thinking we need about five minutes before you start hearing people say antivask because when you say ks, there's a part of we English speakers that wants to kind of switch it around. There's always that little alternation. And so you can aks, you can ask, it's a maks that becomes mashing, etc. I was thinking antivax, some people are going to say antivask because it feels kind of good and because we're used to words like mask and ask and wouldn't you know, it's true. There apparently is an expression that's making its way. It starts small and then maybe it'll spread, but it's making its way. You can be antivask, antimask. That's what people are saying. I've only seen it with antimask alongside. But still, I'll bet it's the beginning of a colloquial pronunciation of vax as vask because it feels right, because there's so many words that end in sk as well as ks. So there is a, a Tweet that I found.Humans are generally like this. Hear/read something 1000X--e.g. anti-vask & anti-mask lies from Right Wing TV, radio, newspapers or social mediaOr there's somebody who wrote, frankly sadly: I know anti-vask, anti-mask nurses. Well, the world is complicated, but that means that yes, vax … antivask. Say that enough, and there are going to be people who say antivask. I'm assuming that before long, if it hasn't happened already, there are going to be people talking about the antivask people and just, you know, letting it go by because that's how language goes. There's some words during Covid. That's the one I've been listening for. And so far, it's behaving the way I think it should. And of course, that's what it's all about.If you'd like to leave a comment or check out our other great podcasts, Banished with Amna Khalid and Bully Pulpit with Bob Garfield, or if you want to subscribe, please visit BooksmartStudios.org. Our producers are Matthew Schwartz and, as always, Mike Vuolo. And our theme music was created by Harvest Creative Services. You know what, if I may, unless your body really can't take it, you should get the vaccine. And in any case, your host has been John McWhorter. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.booksmartstudios.org/subscribe

Author John McWhorter's new book Nine Nasty Words delves into the history and meaning of English profanity, as well as the political differences that often influence those meanings.

John's new book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever ... The original profane words: damn and hell ... The four-letter big ones ... How donkeys and buttocks got the same name ... The nasty word we still euphemize ... How profanity can become pronouns ...

John's new book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever ... The original profane words: damn and hell ... The four-letter big ones ... How donkeys and buttocks got the same name ... The nasty word we still euphemize ... How profanity can become pronouns ...

Leading linguistics professor at Columbia University John McWhorter talks about his brilliant book Nine Nasty Words, and the origin of swearing. Why are some words profane, and others not? How has it changed over time, and what will the unmentionable words of the future be? John McWhorter Links: Nine Nasty Words: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nine-Nasty-Words-English-Forever/dp/0593188799 https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter Andrew Gold Links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://patreon.com/andrewgold http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, John McWhorter, Columbia University professor, writer, podcast host, and author joins the team. They discuss the social media fervor over the Juneteenth holiday, and take an interesting look back. In 2001, John penned an eloquent article for City Journal entitled, "What's Holding Blacks Back?" In it, he listed pervasive beliefs by blacks, myths commonly believed by blacks, and internal issues that impede success for far too many blacks. We are coming up on a 20-year anniversary of the article so we ask him, "How much has changed?"We also discuss his podcast and his latest book, Nine Nasty Words.Shemeka longs for Will's return.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/cutthebullpodcast)

Our favorite words may not be the ones we can always say, but they have certainly become a big part of our vocabulary. Nine Nasty Words takes a deep dive into nine of the most taboo words in the English language, showing us where these words came from, and where they got all that power. Did your favorite expletive make the list? West Lafayette Public Library Director Nick Schenkel has the review.

What makes language offensive? The linguist and author of “Nine Nasty Words” talks to Anne McElvoy and Lane Greene, our language columnist, about the art of swearing. Is language the new cultural battlefield and does the current rhetoric around race help black Americans? And, grammatical bugbears — literally. Please subscribe to The Economist for full access to print, digital and audio editions:www.economist.com/podcastoffer See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What makes language offensive? The linguist and author of “Nine Nasty Words” talks to Anne McElvoy and Lane Greene, our language columnist, about the art of swearing. Is language the new cultural battlefield and does the current rhetoric around race help black Americans? And, grammatical bugbears — literally. Please subscribe to The Economist for full access to print, digital and audio editions:www.economist.com/podcastoffer See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the 58th episode of Private Parts Unknown, your hosts Courtney Kocak & Sofiya Alexandra welcome John McWhorter, linguist & author of the new book Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever for a deep dive on the history of swear words. For more John McWhorter: Buy John's newest book Nine Nasty Words Follow John on Twitter @JohnHMcWhorter Sign up for John's Substack It Bears Mentioning Private Parts Unknown is a proud member of the Pleasure Podcast network. This episode is brought to you by: Manscaped, #1 in men's below the belt grooming. Manscaped offers precision-engineered tools for you or your man's family jewels.  Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code PRIVATE at Manscaped.com.  Dipsea is an audio erotica app full of short, sexy stories and guided sessions designed to turn you on. Dipsea is offering a 30-day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/private. Let's be friends on social media! Follow the show on Instagram @privatepartsunknown & Twitter @privatepartsun. Connect with hosts Courtney Kocak @courtneykocak & Sofiya @thesofiya on Instagram & Twitter. If you love this episode, please leave us a 5-star rating & sexy review!  —> ratethispodcast.com/private 

Hangout spaces in TV shows have a certain place in our hearts because of the fondness we have of the shows they feature in. Who can forget Central Perk from FRIENDS? Or the Cheers Bar from Cheers? Or even Maclaren's Pub from How I Met Your Mother? Or the basement from That 70's Show? Tune in to this episode to catch IVM staffers Antariksh and Jalasmi and IVM founder Amit Doshi talk about their favourite hangout places in TV shows (and also in some movies). Tune in for a very fun discussion. What are some of your favourite hangout spots? Let us know.Also, don't miss some awesome recommendations in the first half where Jalasmi recommends two Instagram handles - Daily Overview and The Music Project; Amit recommends the book 'Nine Nasty Words' by John McWhorter, and Antariksh recommends the YouTube channel 'Past to Future'.Follow Amit on Twitter & Instagram: https://twitter.com/doshiamit and https://instagram.com/doshiamitFollow Jalasmi on Instagram: https://instagram.com/hathi.ka.bacha Follow Antariksh on Instagram: https://instagram.com/antarikshtHave topics or things that you'd like for us to cover on the show? Reach out to us at talktous@indusvox.comYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

Emily, John and David discuss the violence between Israel and Gaza, abortion at the Supreme Court, and the book Nine Nasty Words with author John McWhorter. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: John Dickerson for CBS: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on "Face the Nation," May 16, 2021” Bernie Sanders for the New York Times: “Bernie Sanders: The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government” Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever, by John McWhorter  John McWhorter for the Atlantic: “How ‘White Fragility’ Talks Down to Black People”  Here’s this week’s chatter: John: Tariro Mzezewa for the New York Times: “Hear a Harlem Choir Rejoice Again” Emily: Adam Liptak for the New York Times: “Ban on Non-Unanimous Verdicts Is Not Retroactive, Supreme Court Rules” David: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky  Listener chatter from Susan Bates: AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek DelGaudio. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about the objects that most define them. If you enjoy the show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the Political Gabfest. Sign up now at slate.com/gabfestplus to help support our work. Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John and David discuss the violence between Israel and Gaza, abortion at the Supreme Court, and the book Nine Nasty Words with author John McWhorter. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: John Dickerson for CBS: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on "Face the Nation," May 16, 2021” Bernie Sanders for the New York Times: “Bernie Sanders: The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government” Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever, by John McWhorter  John McWhorter for the Atlantic: “How ‘White Fragility’ Talks Down to Black People”  Here’s this week’s chatter: John: Tariro Mzezewa for the New York Times: “Hear a Harlem Choir Rejoice Again” Emily: Adam Liptak for the New York Times: “Ban on Non-Unanimous Verdicts Is Not Retroactive, Supreme Court Rules” David: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky  Listener chatter from Susan Bates: AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek DelGaudio. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about the objects that most define them. If you enjoy the show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the Political Gabfest. Sign up now at slate.com/gabfestplus to help support our work. Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

F*ck.  Sh*t. C*nt. These are some of the most profane words in the English language, but what exactly makes them profane? Is there something about profanities that makes them different from ordinary vanilla words? In this interview, I speak with John McWhorter, preeminent linguist and author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever.  Click here to order Nine Nasty Words. To hear more from John, listen to the Lexicon Valley podcast.   

Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being human. We know why languages have terms of endearment, of greeting, of ritual - but why do all languages have collections of words that are "bad"? Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. In his new book, "Nine Nasty Words," McWorther examines profanity, explored from every angle: historical, sociological, political, and linguistic. John McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and host of Slate's "Lexicon Valley" podcast.

Megyn Kelly is joined by John McWhorter, author of "Nine Nasty Words" and Columbia University professor, to discuss the power of the n-word (and other nasty words), systemic racism in America, how we can fix our culture's focus on race, the policing debate in America, MLK's message, why "White Fragility" is "the worst book ever written," and more. Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Megyn Kelly is joined by John McWhorter, author of "Nine Nasty Words" and Columbia University professor, to discuss the power of the n-word (and other nasty words), systemic racism in America, how we can fix our culture's focus on race, the policing debate in America, MLK's message, why "White Fragility" is "the worst book ever written," and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShowFind out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

The Columbia linguist discusses his new book Nine Nasty Words and dismisses the ideological excesses of the 'anti-racism' movement.

John McWhorter teaches linguistics and music history at Columbia University, is the author of more than 20 books, a contributor to The Atlantic and the host of the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley. If you're a fan of The Unspeakable, you may know John best from his commentary around issues of race. Since 2007, he has been in regular conversation with economist Glenn Loury on the Bloggingheads platform, where is his known as a uniquely honest voice on the complexities-and often the hypocrisies-of certain progressive antiracist orthodoxies. Last summer, he began writing a new book on this subject. The Elect: The Threat to a Progressive America from Anti-Black Antiracists is being made available in serialized form on Substack and will be published later this year. Meanwhile, yet another book, Nine Nasty Words, is out this week. Meghan spoke with John about his work over the last several years, his relationship to academia (including being raised by a leftist professor mom), and how the inspiration for The Elect came from none other than cookbook author Alison Roman.   Guest Bio:    John McWhorter teaches linguistics and music history at Columbia University. His new book about the new antiracist movement, The Elect, is cu being rolled out on his Substack. His book on language Nine Nasty Words, is out this week. You can find him in regular conversation with economist Glenn Loury on The Glenn Show at Bloggingheads.tv.

John McWhorter teases his new book about off-color English expressions, starting with c!#k. Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on Lexicon Valley each week, and no ads. Sign up now to listen and support our show. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Email: lexiconvalley@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John McWhorter teases his new book about off-color English expressions, starting with c!#k. Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on Lexicon Valley each week, and no ads. Sign up now to listen and support our show. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Email: lexiconvalley@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices