Word of Mouth
BBC Radio 4
Linguist Michael Rosen's eclectic conversations on language, culture, and communication.
Why we picked this
We picked Word of Mouth because it treats language as a living system, not a museum piece. The hosts move from Shakespeare’s psychological precision to the phonology of invented monster dialects to the long-S typesetting errors that reshaped the King James Bible. The show’s posture is democratic: it pulls high-canon grammar and low-comic misprints onto the same bench. Where other language podcasts settle for etymology trivia, this one insists on the craft and friction behind the words we actually use.
Recent episodes
Where Did Punctuation Come From?
Oct 2, 202627 min
Word of Mouth
Oct 1, 202627 min
Bouncer George Bass on de-escalating conflict
Sep 24, 202627 min
Voices of Manchester
Sep 20, 202627 min
Bias against women's voices
Sep 10, 202628 min
How the Normans changed the way we speak
Sep 3, 202627 min
Gaelic
Aug 27, 202627 min
Fairy Tales
Jun 30, 202627 min
Smell
Jun 11, 202627 min
How did people speak throughout history?
Jun 4, 202627 min
Words to Love the Living World
May 28, 202627 min
The World of Words: editing, typography and print
May 21, 202627 min
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