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Welcome to the Valley!
Lexicon Valley is an audio show dissecting this messy, maddening and thoroughly wonderful thing we call language.
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Lots of languages divide words into categories, like male and female. How does that happen? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 52 min 10 sec
Words have a way of rebelling against their etymological parents, acquiring meanings of their own. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVal...
· 55 min 5 sec
That language changes is certain. How quickly or slowly is another matter. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 1 hr 2 min 28 sec
The story of how one little verb developed a seemingly endless capacity to absorb new meanings. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValle...
· 40 min 52 sec
A controversial theory holds that English, along with other Germanic languages, was profoundly influenced early on by Phoenician. The evidence is intriguing. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: faceboo...
· 57 min 57 sec
Mark Twain famously depicted what he called the "Missouri Negro dialect" of Jim. Would that be acceptable today? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios...
· 52 min 52 sec
Animals bark, sing, purr and even gesture, all fascinating but a far cry from human communication. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVa...
· 58 min 51 sec
Peculiar linguistic tales of America's soldiers. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 36 min 49 sec
There's more than one way to ask why. How come? What for? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 34 min 57 sec
From baby talk to formal varieties, languages around the world offer—or even require—different ways of speaking for different situations. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley...
· 40 min 43 sec
Enslaved people developed a hybrid language that sailed from Africa to the Caribbean and—unbelievably—back again. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudio...
· 59 min 19 sec
A longstanding mystery of Black English may finally be solved. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 52 min 37 sec
Languages of the Ottoman Empire, inspired by historian Alan Mikhail's new book, God's Shadow. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 44 min 28 sec
Lots of languages have no dedicated way to indicate later-ness. Somehow life goes on. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 49 min 46 sec
On the insults, acronyms and sloganeering of America's racial reckoning. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 39 min 16 sec
The curious grammar of questions in languages around the world. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 49 min 20 sec
Language acquisition is like magic—how do children do it?! Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 44 min 58 sec
Can strongly aspirated consonants increase transmission of COVID-19? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 41 min 32 sec
A luxuriance of long words, baroque case endings and irregular everything—the Native American tongues! Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/Lexic...
· 58 min 12 sec
Host John McWhorter shares some of his longstanding language peeves—yes, linguists have them too! Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVal...
· 43 min 26 sec