Word of Mouth

Feb 20 2025 189 ep. 28 mins 56.6k
Word of Mouth Podcast artwork

Series exploring the world of words and the ways in which we use them

  Society & Culture
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Old English, New English

Feb 20 2025 27 mins  
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 lang

Talking Cockney

Feb 13 2025 27 mins  
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

Creating Languages for Film and Television with Professor David Adger

Feb 06 2025 27 mins  
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

Politeness with Louise Mullany

Jan 30 2025 27 mins  
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 M

Jackie Kay on the Scots language

Jan 23 2025 27 mins  
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

The Language of Genetics

Jan 16 2025 27 mins  
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 differen

Susie Dent's World of Words

Jan 09 2025 27 mins  
Susie Dent joins Michael Rosen 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

Social media language

Oct 03 2024 27 mins  
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 epi

How Animals Talk

Sep 26 2024 27 mins  
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 Commu

A Poet Writing in Three Languages

Sep 22 2024 27 mins  
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