Accentricity

If you would like to take the Wug test (or test the tiny people in your life), I’ve done a blog post it which allows you to do so here. Remember that it’s not a test of intelligence! It tests a kid’s stage of linguistic development, and also their willingness to play along with the weird world of adults.

In this particular episode, I’m focusing on the stories of kids who are acquiring spoken language, and who are moving towards communicating in the same kind of way as I am now. Of course kids are much more diverse than this. Not everyone learns to talk, and some people develop communication strategies which involve single words or sounds, rather than phrases or sentences. Some people learn to speak using sign languages, and in these cases the story is in some ways similar to this one, and in other ways quite different. This episode is just about one of the many ways of growing up and learning language. I hope to visit some of the other ways in later episodes.

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The contributors: 

* Harris, aged 2 months. Thanks to mum Angie and dad Braxton.

* Mila, aged 8 months. Thanks to mum Nichola.

* Connie, aged 1 year. Thanks to mum Kat, dad Andrew and gran Sheila.

* Martha, aged 1 and a half. Thanks to mum Jennie and dad Euan.

* Kira, aged 2 and a half. Thanks to mum Joanna.

* Emilie, aged 3 and a half. Thanks to mum Jenn.

* Ronan, aged 4. Thanks to mum Lynsey.

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Thanks to Professor Jennifer Smith of the University of Glasgow for help with the content. Jennifer Smith is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow. At the moment she’s working on two big research projects: One Speaker Two Dialects and The Scots Syntax Atlas. You can find more information about her research and publications here.

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Find us @accentricitypod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or sign up to our newsletter for updates on what’s going on behind the scenes. You can support us on Patreon, on Steady, or with a one-off donation, to help keep Accentricity going.

The contributors: 

* Justin Currie performs solo and with his band Del Amitri. 

* Aidan Moffat’s most recent album is a collaboration with RM Hubbert called Here Lies The Body. If you haven’t listened to Arab Strap, look up Ten Years of Tears for a very fast trip through their career.

* Dave Hook performs with the band Stanley Odd, and solo as Solareye. He will be supporting Bombskare at the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh on the 2nd of March (2019), and you can see him as part of collaborative hip-hop project The Air In Between on the 28th and 29th of March (2019). Tickets and more info on other gigs can be found here.

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The music used in this episode is (in order of appearance):
* Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri
* The First Big Weekend by Arab Strap
* The Shy Retirer by Arab Strap
* Roll To Me by Del Amitri
* It’s All Gone To Fuck by Stanley Odd
* The Pageant by Solareye 

* The music is used with the permission of the artists. 

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Find us @accentricitypod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or sign up to our newsletter for updates on what’s going on behind the scenes. You can support us on Patreon, on Steady, or with a one-off donation, to help keep Accentricity going.

The contributors:

* Jennifer Smith is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow. At the moment she’s working on two big research projects: One Speaker Two Dialects and The Scots Syntax Atlas. You can find more information about her research and publications here.

* Emilia is only seven so she doesn’t (yet) have a website. Watch this space! Thanks also to her brother Daniel, her mum Ula and her dad Kyle.

* Thanks to all of the contributors from the Barras – you were endlessly excellent!

* And thanks to my sister Martha for the chat and the wine.

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Find us @accentricitypod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or sign up to our newsletter for updates on what’s going on behind the scenes. You can support us on Patreon, on Steady, or with a one-off donation, to help keep Accentricity going.

The contributors:

* Jenny Wartanby is working on a PhD about the Scottish movement to end violence against women. You can follow her on Twitter @armsofrain.

* Mark Leslie (“unleash the Glaswegian accent!”) is a photographer who takes INCREDIBLE photos around and about the Barras. You can see some of his work here.

* Ewa Wanat is a phonetician working at the University of Glasgow.

* Collette McCarthy works in TV - she’s a development executive for World Productions. She is originally from East London but now lives in Glasgow.

* A massive thanks to all of the other contributors from the Barras.

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If you’d like to talk about your experiences with linguistic prejudice, find us @accentricitypod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can support us on Patreon, on Steady, or with a one-off donation, and you can sign up to our newsletter for updates on what’s going on behind the scenes.