Silas, a 10th-grader in Madison, Wisconsin, is working on his own conlang, or constructed language. He wonders how and why the French uvular R sound, as in the French word rouge, came about, as opposed to the rolled Spanish R in carro. As Trask’s...
Cecily from Indianapolis, Indiana, asks whether expressions she first heard in African-American English, such as hit us up and it’s been a minute, have long moved from minority communities into majority speech. Covert prestige describes the cultural...
In the United States alone, there are 15 different pronunciations of the word water! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pronunciations of Water” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Oh, hi, this is Toni. I’m from San Diego, California...