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Supporting Content

• How do animals talk?

  Do animals have 鈥渓anguage鈥�? And can we talk to them?

  

• The surprising origins of football club names

  The team names inspired by religion, beautiful women, and different sports altogether.

  

• Finding the Funny: How to Write Comedy with Isy Suttie

  There鈥檚 no one better to teach Word of Mouth鈥檚 Michael Rosen about comedy writing.

  

• When Putin and Zelensky have her ear...

  High-level interpreter Irina Morgan reveals the secrets of simultaneous translation.

  

• 10 things we learned about words associated with women

  The etymology of many women's words tells a nuanced story of shifting attitudes.

  

• Word of Mouth: The power of subtitles to help us hear

  How carefully-written subtitles enhance viewing for deaf and hard of hearing people.

  

• Exclamation Marks!! Why do we love to hate them?

  How this mark at the end of a sentence can flag up surprise, wonder, irony and more.

  

• Ghosting, caking and breadcrumbing: The language of online dating

  Cyber-psychologist Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton breaks down the lexicon of internet romance.

  

• My Stammer Story 鈥� one man鈥檚 inspirational journey in overcoming a stammer

  A man who could not form a full sentence is now a stammer campaigner on the world stage.

  

• From blunk to brickfielder: our wonderful words for weather

  Exploring creative descriptions for wind, rainfall and sunny spells from around the world

  

• What language should we use about children in care?

  Important but problematic decisions have to be made around adopted and fostered children.

  

• Dropping the mic and jumping the shark

  Where do modern idioms come from?

  

• When words fail us: how to have difficult discussions

  How should we respond to someone sharing bad news or raw emotion?

  

• Digital body language 鈥� how to communicate better online

  We need to find new ways of talking to each other 鈥渧irtually鈥�.

  

• When people get your name wrong

  Why personal names are so often mispronounced or misspelled, in conversation and online.

  

• Coinages that changed the world 鈥� and some that tried to...

  Exploring the hidden histories of obscure words, and common buzz phrases.

  

• Realness, fierceness and throwing shade

  What is LGBTQIA+ slang and why is it so important?

  

• What makes Hilary Mantel鈥檚 writing so good?

  The acclaimed author shares her secrets.

  

• Ittibitium, borborygmus, and Ba humbugi 鈥� 14 wonderful science words you鈥檝e never heard of

  Michael Rosen puts the language of science under the microscope.

  

• Straightforward and concise advice from language guru Lane Greene.

  

• What are the right and the wrong things to say to someone who is struggling to cope?

  

• Comedian and writer David Walliams talks to Michael Rosen about writing children鈥檚 books.

  

• Subscribe to this programme or download individual episodes.

  

• Series of programmes examining key phrases in public debate.

  

• With terms like 'epic fail' entering our daily vocab, it's time for you to level up.

  

• Some facts about emoji - possibly the world's first truly global form of communication.

  

• What's a gubbins? Or a mosey? Find out the origins of old words and phrases.

  

• Transform your small talk from bland clich茅 to earth-shattering rhetoric.

  

• The weird and wonderful world of naming houses.

  

• How to speak like Shakespeare

  Get the bard in your corner with this video guide.

  

  Duration: 3:00

• How did Shakespeare speak?

  Ben Crystal reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 in Original Pronunciation.

  

  Duration: 4:33

• How to read the Cockney alphabet

  Michael Rosen reads through the Cockney alphabet, from A for 'orses to Z for his hat.

  

  Duration: 0:35

• Philip Pullman on 'His Dark Materials'

  Philip Pullman reveals why he chose the name, Lyra.

  

  Duration: 1:55

• Bags stuck in a tree? No, they're witches' knickers!

  Michael Rosen on the evocative words used to describe features of the British landscape.

  

  Duration: 1:46

• What is bad language?

  Lexicographer of slang and swearing Jonathon Green talks about where slang comes from.

  

  Duration: 4:03

• How did x come to mean kiss?

  Do you sign off your messages with x? Ever wondered where this behaviour comes from?

  

  Duration: 3:44

• Why did humans learn to speak but not animals?

  How come humans learn to speak while other animals don't?

  

  Duration: 4:32

• Brand name disasters

  Anyone for some ISIS Belgian chocolate?

  

  Duration: 3:04

• How to count one to ten in old English

  Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright explore the numbers one to ten

  

  Duration: 3:31

• Have a look at some of the fantastic words that children invent and reimagine.

  

• Do you have the authority to name a plant?

  River Cottage forager John Wright talks Latin naming conventions with Dr Laura Wright.

  

  Duration: 2:06

• Who would win in a fight - print or eBooks?

  Professor Naomi Baron joins Word of Mouth to discuss the future of reading

  

  Duration: 4:41

• Using social media

  Emojis, acronyms and slang...

  Duration: 0:05

• Somebody in my dream corrected "who" to "whom"

  What makes it funny when your "pedantic subconscious" intervenes.

  Duration: 0:36

• "Shakespeare has something to say about everything..."

  David and Ben Crystal explain how Shakespeare holds a mirror up to humanity even today.

  Duration: 2:09

• What's a "Mary Sue"?

  Don't put yourself in fan fiction even if you spot a "one true pairing", otherwise...

  Duration: 0:47
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