Michael Rosen explores the evocative Old English words used in daily life a thousand years ago, many of which are still in use now. He's joined by the linguist author of The Wordhord, Hana Videen. Hana has been hoarding words from Old English (450 AD to 1150 AD) for a decade, when she began tweeting one a day. Now she has lots of people following her to find out more about the language, and a new book out called The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary.

https://oldenglishwordhord.com

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Michael Rosen's parents both grew up in the East End, and now he talks cockney with Andy Green and Saif Osmani from the Modern Cockney Festival. Including some mythbusting about rhyming slang, a discussion about how cockney has evolved, and of course a mention of Dick van Dyke.

The Modern Cockney Festival takes place from March 1st to 31st with a month-long programme of online and offline activities.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

David Adger is Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. He's created new languages for TV series and films and he explains to Michael Rosen how he goes about it. For his latest language he used existing Creole languages for his 'conlang', or constructed (artificial) natural language. He talks Michael through the grammar and language principles he applies to his creations and lets him try his hand at the monsters' language he invented for a televised version of Beowulf.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Professor Louise Mullany talks to Michael Rosen about politeness, and how it governs our lives, from the behaviour of football managers to the different ways children can embarrass us. Why, in this country at least, is it so mortifying to mistakenly assume someone is pregnant, when in other cultures it's simply thoughtful to book two seats on a plane for a larger person. Starring Michael Rosen as Spanish football manager Unai Emery, the politest man in football.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven

Poet Jackie Kay has written a book in Scots: Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story. She joins presenter Michael Rosen to talk about her love of the language and what it meant to her growing up.

Adam Rutherford joins Michael Rosen to make sense of the heavily-loaded and often unscientific language that we use to talk about genetics, inheritance, ancestry and race. Adam is a geneticist, science writer, and lecturer in Biology and Society at University College London. His work tries to make sense of what our genes do (or don't) tell us about our similarities and our differences. He writes about this stuff in many of his books, including ‘How To Argue With A Racist’ and ‘Where Are You Really From?’

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Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley

Susie Dent joins Michael Rosen to talk about her lifelong fascination with words and their origins. It's a programme bringing some apricity, which is one of Susie's favourite words. Her love of language began when she was a child, then found expression in her passion for French and German and now in her work as a lexicographer, writer and language broadcaster.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Michael talks to linguist Dr Andreea Calude about her research into how language is used on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter/X. And he asks if we're witnessing the death of email.

Dr Andreea Calude is the author of The Linguistics of Social Media: An Introduction.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

Michael hears from zoologist Arik Kershenbaum about the latest research on how and why different types of animals communicate, from wolves howling to dolphins whistling: a world of soundscapes. He also explains how animal communication can help to shed light on the human variety.

Dr. Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and the author of: Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.

How best to write about love and other things. Nabeela Ahmed talks about writing in a second language and how her early life in Kashmir shaped the language she uses to express different aspects of her life. She is also a champion for the Pahari language in her home city of Bradford. Pahari is a language spoken by people in Northern areas of India, Kashmir and Pakistant. It fell out of favour as an official language of the courts but is still widely spoken in many British Asian homes today. Nabeela works with groups of budding poets and writers to help them express themselves in whichever language they feel comfortable with alongside English.

Producer: Maggie Ayre