Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios

By Lexicon Valley

Society & Culture Education

What's Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios about?

A podcast about language, with host John McWhorter.

lexiconvalley.substack.com

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Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios episodes:

03.18.2024
Come Under Scrutiny
What does the bat in “acrobat” have to do with the word come? John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
12.30.2023
Have Your Own Damn Self a Merry Little Christmas
Reflexive pronouns are redundant in a way, sure, but they’re also quite common in many languages. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
11.06.2023
When Did People Start Talking?
There’s good reason to believe that sophisticated speech began long before homo sapiens hit the scene. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
09.29.2023
Who's Afraid of Ayesha Rascoe?
Does Ayesha Rascoe have a good radio voice? Not according to many NPR listeners, who find her loud, high-pitched and generally grating. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...
08.21.2023
What Is Miami English?
A recent study suggests that a new dialect is emerging in the southern part of Florida. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
07.17.2023
Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks
The trial transcript of a 225-year-old murder is filled with fascinating evidence of the way we used to talk. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...
06.09.2023
I Got My Nails Did!
Many English verbs have three forms — sing, sang and sung, for example. The problem is that speakers seem to want only two. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or...
05.09.2023
To v. Too
Too — whether about excess, addition or contradiction — evolved from to. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
04.24.2023
Picture of Health
Some languages adopt their “health” word from the concept of wholeness — a metaphor that makes perfect sense. Other languages, however, adopt their “health” word from trees. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this...
04.03.2023
The Right Stuff
Like the French word droit, English’s right has taken on a number of useful metaphorical meanings. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
03.20.2023
Age, Color, Origin, Material
In this favorite from the archives, John discusses some unwritten rules of English that can be remarkably difficult for a learner of English to master. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or...
03.06.2023
One for the Record Books
The word “record” can be broken down into two parts, the re and the cord. But what do those parts even mean? John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...
02.20.2023
Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?
John is traveling this week and so we’re running a previous episode about the speech patterns of Bette Davis, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong and countless other Americans of the 1930s. Why do they all sound like that? This is a...
02.05.2023
Past Master
So many of our words have ugly associations that are particular to a historical time or event. Should we expunge them entirely from our vocabulary? Can we? John weighs in. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss...
01.22.2023
Are You Tryna Hear This?
Words that come to mean “want” often start out meaning something else. Take “want,” for example. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com/subscribe
01.07.2023
The Ambassadors
Henry James wrote his final novels just over a century ago — and yet they are far less accessible than works written much earlier. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers...
12.26.2022
Apostrophe S
Possession is more or less about ownership, and we denote that in English by adding ’s to the end of a word. But of course there’s far more to the story than just that. John explains. This is a public...
12.13.2022
Is "Knocked Up" Racist?
There’s a rumor going around social networks that “knocked up” traces back to American slave trading. Is there any evidence for that etymology? John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or...
11.11.2022
What a Young Brain Can Do
It’s tempting to imagine that a sentence will translate rather neatly, word by word, from one language to another. It’s also naive. English, after all, is relatively straightforward, while most languages are far more gunked up with complexity — perhaps...
10.29.2022
What Do You Talk?
The book and lyrics of The Music Man are replete with everyday, ordinary dialogue that, nevertheless, demonstrates how English often works. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access...
10.14.2022
The Problem With You
English used to have a more or less typical array of second person pronouns, with thou and thee for the singular — subject and object cases, respectively — and ye and you for the plural. So what happened? John explains....
09.28.2022
The Rodney Dangerfield Pronoun
Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was fond of introducing jokes with a kind of redundancy, for example: “My wife, she told me I was one in a million. I found out she was right.” But those seemingly superfluous pronouns are filled with...
09.13.2022
Is Negro a Slur or Just Antiquated?
The racial reckoning of the past several years has altered the way we think about and use language, often for better but occasionally for worse. And sometimes, as John explains in this episode, what we tend to believe is at...
08.31.2022
One Is the Loneliest Number
Only, lonely, alone and even atone all derive from the number one, which, by the way, wasn’t always pronounced as if it began with the letter w. John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this...
08.16.2022
Throw Up, Turn Out & Believe
Words like chit-chat, pitter-patter and wishy-washy are formed that way for a reason beyond the pleasing way that they sound. The vowel change actually signifies something more meaningful to our human way of thinking. John explains. This is a public...
08.02.2022
Why Fidget Poppers Are "Satisfying"
What does the proliferation of so-called ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos say about the nuanced use of the word satisfying? John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access...
07.19.2022
Why Do We Dot Our i's?
As a guest on The Late Show, John told Stephen Colbert that there was nothing especially interesting to say about the word I. Well, he takes that back — there is, it turns out, much to say. Have a listen....
07.06.2022
You Are SO Articulate. Really.
Do you remember learning — in grade school most likely — the difference between a count noun and a mass noun? Probably not, and yet chances are that you use them correctly. That’s because you’ve mastered your native language. John...
06.22.2022
When Words Collide
We are frequently asked — often by young listeners who are fascinated by language — how English could possibly accumulate the many thousands of words that make up its vast vocabulary. It’s a topic that’s just too fun not to...
06.07.2022
The Haphazard History of C
Hi Valley residents! It's Bob Garfield, former LV host, begging asking you to subscribe to my Bully Pulpit column at bullypulpit.substack.com. It's free, unless you wish to be a paid subscriber, for which you receive not a single extra bonus but the satisfaction of...
05.25.2022
JFK's Most Famous Sentence
On Jan. 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered — to an audience seated both outside at the U.S. Capitol and at home in front of their televisions — his inaugural address. Millions were stirred that afternoon by the rousing...
05.10.2022
The Evolution of 'Woke'
What does it mean to be woke? Has the word problematic become problematic? Today in the Valley, John McWhorter talks with Banished host Amna Khalid about the fraught vocabulary of modern censorship. This is a public episode. If you’d like...
04.28.2022
Reviving Dead Languages
More than half the world’s approximately 7,000 languages will have no speakers left in the coming decades. Some are working feverishly to preserve or maintain them. Others are asking: Why bother? John explains. This is a public episode. If you’d...
04.12.2022
Let Sleeping Dogs Lay
Do you know that the past participle of the intransitive verb lie is lain and that its past tense is lay, not to be confused with the present tense of the transitive verb lay? Oh, and do you know that...
04.09.2022
Bonus: How Did Nigeria Get Its Name?
You might guess that Nigeria and Niger derive their names from the Latin word for “black,” especially since both countries were formerly colonized by Europeans. Guess again. John explains. Bonus segments are normally for paying subscribers only, but we’re making this week’s free for...
03.29.2022
Where Is the Name Ketanji From?
President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee has said that her parents picked “Ketanji” from a list of West African names supplied by a relative. But West Africans speak hundreds of languages spread out across many hundreds of miles. Can we get...
03.15.2022
The Ukrainian Language
As John likes to say, Proto-Indo-European — the original ancestor of many European and Asian languages — began on the steppes of Ukraine. This is his linguistic love letter to a region and a people under siege. This is a...
03.01.2022
How About This Weather?
To describe inclement weather in English, we might say that “it” is raining, which seems natural to a native speaker. But does “it” refer to the sky, the outdoors, the god of precipitation? Maybe it’s not so natural after all....
02.15.2022
Joe Rogan and the N-Word, by Way of Kyiv
You may have noticed, among widespread coverage of looming Russian aggression, an unfamiliar pronunciation of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. What’s with the name change? And what does it have to do with Joe Rogan’s use of the N-word? John McWhorter...
02.01.2022
Son of a B***h on a Hot Mic
A hot mic caught President Biden using the epithet to describe a Fox News reporter. Where did “son of a b***h” come from, and why are modern speakers increasingly choosing other insults? This is a public episode. If you’d like...
01.18.2022
RIP: Sidney Poitier, Lani Guinier, Max Julien
Actors Sidney Poitier and Max Julien and law professor Lani Guinier — all of whom died this month — have last names that reveal fascinating stories about pronunciation, etymology and language change. This is a public episode. If you’d like...
12.29.2021
300 Years of Language Peevery
Self-styled language experts — and let’s face it, that includes all of us — have lamented the decline of English for centuries. From shifting pronunciations to newfangled words to evolving grammar, everyone from Jonathan Swift to John McWhorter has a...
12.21.2021
Four Calling Birds? Not Exactly.
Happy New Year! In the warm and generous spirit of the holidays, we’re making this week’s bonus segment free to all. But there’s more: Until the end of the year, you can get 30% off a subscription to Booksmart Studios....
12.14.2021
Why Does the Letter "A" Look That Way?
An alphabet, one of humanity’s greatest innovations, is far from intuitive. Our own English lettering was borrowed from the Romans, of course, but where did they get it from? And where did the concept originate? John has answers. This is...
12.07.2021
BONUS: Lexiconundrum #1
To continue our celebration of the re-release of 10 original Lexicon Valley episodes with Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield, we’re making today’s bonus content free for everyone. Presenting the fan-favorite “Lexiconundrum” — a portmantastic puzzle for the ages. This week,...
12.02.2021
Happy Days Are Here
To celebrate the re-release of ten original Lexicon Valley episodes — remastered, ad-free and for paying subscribers only — Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield return as hosts for this special show about the word “happiness.” Please let us know if...
11.30.2021
But Wait, There's More!
We’re giving John McWhorter a well-deserved day off. But the show must go on, so we’re bringing back a couple of Lexicon Valley legends for a special reunion episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this...
11.23.2021
BONUS: In Language, Context Is King
The late philosopher Paul Grice formulated four brief maxims by which conversations are generally governed. Most humans find it relatively easy to observe them. Machines, on the other hand, not as much. Normally, John’s Lexicon Valley bonus segments are behind...
11.16.2021
That's Not What Irony Means, Alanis
Language is tricky. It doesn’t do what you think it should. It’s as messy as almost anything that’s created by natural selection. And that’s what makes it so fun. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this...
11.02.2021
Can You Play “Jew” in Scrabble?
Scrabble and other similar games have been the subject of an ongoing lexicographic debate in recent years, with some arguing that ethnic slurs have no place in the official dictionary or on the board. Many tournament players, however, decry the...

What's Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Lexicon Valley from Booksmart Studios episodes:

Come Under Scrutiny

Have Your Own Damn Self a Merry Little Christmas

When Did People Start Talking?

Who's Afraid of Ayesha Rascoe?

What Is Miami English?

Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks

I Got My Nails Did!

To v. Too

Picture of Health

The Right Stuff

Age, Color, Origin, Material

One for the Record Books

Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?

Past Master

Are You Tryna Hear This?

The Ambassadors

Apostrophe S

Is "Knocked Up" Racist?

What a Young Brain Can Do

What Do You Talk?

The Problem With You

The Rodney Dangerfield Pronoun

Is Negro a Slur or Just Antiquated?

One Is the Loneliest Number

Throw Up, Turn Out & Believe

Why Fidget Poppers Are "Satisfying"

Why Do We Dot Our i's?

You Are SO Articulate. Really.

When Words Collide

The Haphazard History of C

JFK's Most Famous Sentence

The Evolution of 'Woke'

Reviving Dead Languages

Let Sleeping Dogs Lay

Bonus: How Did Nigeria Get Its Name?

Where Is the Name Ketanji From?

The Ukrainian Language

How About This Weather?

Joe Rogan and the N-Word, by Way of Kyiv

Son of a B***h on a Hot Mic

RIP: Sidney Poitier, Lani Guinier, Max Julien

300 Years of Language Peevery

Four Calling Birds? Not Exactly.

Why Does the Letter "A" Look That Way?

BONUS: Lexiconundrum #1

Happy Days Are Here

But Wait, There's More!

BONUS: In Language, Context Is King

That's Not What Irony Means, Alanis

Can You Play “Jew” in Scrabble?