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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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Host John McWhorter finds linguistic inspiration in an 80-year-old musical performance of Rubber Dolly. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/Lexi...
· 39 min 11 sec
The -o suffix traces back to old comic strip characters with names like Knocko and Groucho. Neato! Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVa...
· 40 min 54 sec
Mandarin might not have gender or case endings but there's more to grammar than conjugations. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 47 min 7 sec
Want to hear what English will sound like in the future? Talk to a woman. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 46 min 42 sec
DNA analysis is revealing which speakers traveled where and when. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 41 min 6 sec
Let's talk about how we talk about that which already occurred. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 38 min 44 sec
Coming and going in languages around the world. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 38 min 15 sec
How our idea of formality can affect the way we say certain words. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 44 min 55 sec
Add to German a large helping of Hebrew and a dollop of Slavic. Stir. Let marinate. Enjoy! Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 44 min 19 sec
What does a rooster have to do with male genitalia anyway? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 37 min 9 sec
Terms such as "like" and "sort of" are ways for English speakers to sound more polite. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 42 min 32 sec
What is it with people and animals and irregular plurals? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 34 min 21 sec
Long-dead elements of the language still haunt our everyday speech. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 31 min 52 sec
Come table-hopping as we discuss the linguistic quirks of some mealtime terms. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 35 min 5 sec
Never mind those 26 letters — the English language has 44 unique sounds. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 34 min 20 sec
English has shed many of its nuances over the centuries. Take pronouns, for example. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 37 min 31 sec
Curse words can reveal a lot about language. S#!t, hell and darn, to name three, contain countless linguistic lessons. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmart...
· 33 min 51 sec
From Madagascar to Easter Island, Austronesian tongues traveled far and wide with early seafarers. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVa...
· 42 min 57 sec
The difference between a language and a dialect is mostly meaningless and entirely political. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 39 min 8 sec
A conversation with linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her new book, Because Internet. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 35 min 43 sec