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 revisit now and again. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 154: "When Words Collide." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...
Jun 22, 2022•44 min•Ep. 154
The letters C and K can both represent what we might call a Hard C — as in Cosmo Kramer or Calvin Klein. Not to mention Q, which usually indicates that same sound. Why does the English alphabet have this confusing redundancy? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 240: "The Haphazard History of C." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...
Jun 07, 2022•34 min•Ep. 240
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 line: And so, my fellow Americans — ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. Every part of that exhortation is a fascinating linguistic lesson. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios pr...
May 25, 2022•46 min•Ep. 239
What does it mean to be woke? Has the word problematic become problematic? John McWhorter talks with Banished host Amna Khalid about the fraught vocabulary of modern censorship. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 238: "The Evolution of Woke." With Amna Khalid and John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 10, 2022•34 min•Ep. 238
Did 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 did you know that no one really cares if you use them all correctly? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 236: "Let Sleeping Dogs Lay." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad cho...
Apr 12, 2022•30 min•Ep. 236
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. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Bonus: "How Did Nigeria Get Its Name?" With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Bonus segments are normally for paying subscribers only, but we’re making this w...
Apr 09, 2022•10 min
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 more specific? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 235: "Where Is the Name Ketanji From?" With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more a...
Mar 29, 2022•41 min•Ep. 235
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. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 234: "A Linguistic Love Letter to Ukraine." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
Mar 15, 2022•32 min•Ep. 234
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. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 233: "How About This Weather?" With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...
Mar 01, 2022•35 min•Ep. 233
You may have noticed, among widespread coverage of looming Russian aggression, an unfamiliar pronunciation of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. What does that have to do with Joe Rogan’s use of the N-word? Listen to find out. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 232: "Joe Rogan and the N-Word, by Way of Kyiv." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices....
Feb 15, 2022•43 min•Ep. 232
A hot mic caught President Biden using the epithet to describe a Fox News reporter. Where did “son of a bitch” come from, and why are modern speakers increasingly choosing other insults? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 231: "Son of a B*tch on a Hot Mic." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Feb 01, 2022•27 min•Ep. 231
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. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 230: "RIP: Sidney Poitier, Lani Guinier, Max Julien." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
Jan 18, 2022•47 min•Ep. 230
Self-styled language experts 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 pet peeve or two. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 229: "300 Years of Language Peevery." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices...
Dec 29, 2021•36 min•Ep. 229
Happy New Year! In the 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. You’ll get extra written content and access to bonus segments like this one. More importantly, you’ll be championing all the work we do here. Become a member of Booksmart Studios today. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a slog. It's repetitive, replete with archaic imagery and long — and s...
Dec 21, 2021•4 min
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? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 228: "Why Does the Letter A Look That Way?" With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...
Dec 14, 2021•41 min•Ep. 228
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what it means to be happy, both lexicographically and philosophically. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 227: "Happy Days Are Here." With Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo. Edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dec 02, 2021•43 min•Ep. 227
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. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Bonus: "In Language, Context Is King." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Normally, Lexicon Valley's bonus segments are be...
Nov 23, 2021•7 min
Language doesn't often do what you think it should. It’s as messy as almost anything that’s created by natural selection, but that’s what makes it so fun. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 226: "That's Not What Irony Means, Alanis." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 16, 2021•35 min•Ep. 226
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 banning of words — the game, they say, is merely descriptivist. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 225: "Can You Play 'Jew' in Scrabble?" With John McWho...
Nov 02, 2021•34 min•Ep. 225
Dividing up nouns as “masculine” and “feminine” has not been a part of English for many centuries. And yet our language remains peppered throughout with gender, often overtly in terms like Mrs. and Mr. Sometimes, however, it’s more subtle. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 224: "A*#holes and B%tches." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about yo...
Oct 19, 2021•37 min•Ep. 224
English has been calling out for a gender-neutral pronoun for more than a century, with many failed attempts at invented words and portmanteaus. Singular "they" — once the scourge of schoolhouse grammarians — has now emerged to become the pronoun of choice for many outside the so-called gender binary. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 223: "On the Singular They and Slippery Slopes." With John McWho...
Oct 05, 2021•37 min•Ep. 223
Turns out that some languages are less intelligible through a mask than others, and, believe it or not, it all depends on how often you use certain consonants. It’s called the McGurk effect and it’s the closest that linguistics comes to actual magic. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 222: "The Pandemic's Effect on Language." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved....
Sep 22, 2021•32 min•Ep. 222
Dari and Pashto are the two major official languages of Afghanistan. One, says John McWhorter, is “disarmingly approachable” while the other is “deliciously intimidating.” Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 221: "What Do They Speak in Afghanistan?" With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 07, 2021•36 min•Ep. 221
What did CRT originally mean, and what does it mean now? What are children actually being taught? And why do some terms tend to become so thorny over time? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 220: "The Morphing of Critical Race Theory." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 24, 2021•30 min•Ep. 220
In the 7-part crime drama, Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet plays a flannel-clad cop with a thirst for Rolling Rock, an appetite for hoagies and a tendency to pronounce water more like wooder. John McWhorter discusses his hometown’s enigmatic accent and Winslet’s courageous attempt at imitating those impossibly difficult vowels. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 219: "Mare of Easttown and the Philly Accent...
Aug 10, 2021•35 min•Ep. 219
Not all languages lend themselves to spelling competitions. Plus: A special subscriber-only bonus segment — get them all by becoming a paying subscriber to Lexicon Valley. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 218: "English Has a Bee in Its Bonnet." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jul 28, 2021•41 min•Ep. 218
How the novel Anna Karenina sparked a quest to learn Tolstoy's native tongue. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 217: "Russian Is My Mt. Everest." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jul 06, 2021•38 min•Ep. 217
Berber, Somali and other fascinating languages of the region. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 216: "Languages of Northern Africa." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jun 22, 2021•43 min•Ep. 216
Linguistic inspiration from a television series about the Royal Family. Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 215: "You’re Gonna Hafta." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jun 08, 2021•45 min•Ep. 215
Are Vietnamese, Thai and others of that region a lot like Mandarin? Visit Lexicon Valley . A Booksmart Studios production. Episode 214: "The Languages of Southeast Asia." With John McWhorter. Produced and edited by Mike Vuolo. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 25, 2021•38 min•Ep. 214
