Tim from Jacksonville, Florida, gets teased for the way he says the word milk, which he pronounces as melk and the word eggs, which he pronounces as aigs. It’s not uncommon for what linguists call lax vowel lowering to occur, and these...
A Michigan biologist wonders how the Carp River in his home state got its name, considering that the river was so named long before that particular fish was introduced. I turns out, just as in the rest of the Western Hemisphere, Europeans who...
Our Quiz Master John Chaneski leads us on a puzzle hunt, starting in a world capital that’s a homophone for a type of music or food. (Hint: This Asian capital hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics.) This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
To reef something, means to “tug hard” or “push vigorously,” as you might with a window that’s stuck. It comes from the sailing term reef, which refers to an action used to make a sail smaller. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Do you pronounce the words cot and caught differently? How about the words don and dawn, or pin and pen? The fact that some people pronounce at least some of these pairs identically is attributable to what’s called a vowel merger. This is part of a...
Why do people from Alaska sound like they’re from the Midwest? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Alaskan Accent” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how are you? Doing well. Who’s this? My name is Mike Kadeen. I’m calling from...