AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we have part two of our look at proverbs in American English. RS: We continue our conversation with Wolfgang Mieder, a professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our conversation with Jim Tedder, the creator of VOA's online Pronunciation Guide. RS: It used to be that when announcers at VOA needed to know how to say the name of some...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: My first resolution that I would recommend people ma...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sounds of change. RS: If you want a good example of how language changes, just picture a mouse. Are you thinking of a rodent -- or a device for moving the cursor on a computer...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we talk about regional changes in American English with University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov [la-BOVE]. Imagine a situation like this: WILLIAM LABOV: Someone says 'gee...
Personal computers and the Internet have become vital tools for everything from communications and research to entertainment and office work. Not surprisingly, new words connected with these technologies are becoming part of common speech. VOA's Adam...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more junk English. RS: Back in 2001, we talked to writer Ken Smith about his book Junk English. In his words, Junk English is much more than sloppy grammar. Most often it is a tri...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: words that express emotion. RS: Suppose someone gave you two minutes to write down as many different emotions as you could think of -- for example: happy, sad, angry. You're also...
I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we say hello again to English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles to talk about greetings in America. AA: So now typically, if someone says 'how are you doing?' ... RS: Yeah, typically...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguistic profiling. WALT WOLFRAM: What I mean by linguistic profiling is to hear a voice and on the basis of that voice make a judgment about that person which would sort of rat...
