Show notes for Episode 23

Here are the show notes for Episode 23, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk to Dr Gareth Carrol of Birmingham University about his new book, Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics and about modern idioms - where they come from, how they work and how they spread into popular discourse.

Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics: modern idioms and where they come from website: Jumping sharks and dropping mics from Iff Books

Modern Idioms on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Modern_Idioms

Gareth Carrol on Twitter: https://twitter.com/garethcarrol

Dan was out of practice and forgot to send Gareth our usual quickfire questions so here are his answers:

Favourite book – “Through the Language Glass” by Guy Deutscher. It’s a really accessible take on the Language and Thought (Sapir-Whorf) debate, with some fascinating evidence and examples. Honourable mention goes to “Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation” by David Bellos.

Favourite fact / idea – that being bilingual is the norm, not the exception in the world (over half the world’s population speaks more than one language).

Advice to a budding linguist – be as flexible as you can in how you think about language (and anything else really). There is so much room for fuzziness/variation/ambiguity in how we think about language, and seeing it in these terms (rather than trying to be too rigid and look for clean answers) is a great help in understanding the whole picture.

For anyone who hasn’t heard the expression ‘as bent as a nine bob note’: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/as+bent+as+a+nine-bob+note

Lang in the News

Accents

Customer asks for refund from York Theatre Royal because actors performed play in Yorkshire accents

Child refugees in city to learn Hull accent and sayings including 'larkin out'

Big piece about accents in The Times in March

What does your accent say about you? | Times2 | The Times

Several related stories, some featuring criticism of Amanda Cole and her Essex colleagues:

Their blog here:

Ask or aks? How linguistic prejudice perpetuates inequality | Blog | University of Essex

University specialists say there is no such thing as 'correct' language and terminology | Daily Mail Online

https://twitter.com/DrAmandaCole/status/1506182631783866368

LBC Vanessa Feltz interview with Amanda Cole: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bqyvm6 (from 02:16:30 onwards)

Ann Widdecombe in the Daily Express linked here: https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog/status/1506727875134869514

"ACCORDING to academics at the University of Essex there is no such thing as correct language, pronunciation or terminology. Instead they advocate what amounts to linguistic anarchy with anything acceptable such as pronouncing "ask" as "aks" and dismiss any standardisation of usage as "prejudice".

Unfortunately for the students, employers who are looking for articulate applicants with a good command of the language will be perfectly happy to exhibit such prejudice and to choose someone who does not use "like" a dozen times in almost as

many words."

Anti-Welsh accent prejudice here:

https://twitter.com/ElunedAnderson/status/1506015005027807237

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Contributors

Matthew Butler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewbutlerwy

Lisa Casey

blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey

Music: Freenotes

End music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys

Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys