Story Archives of 'Language'

Verbal communication always evolves and mutates over time. If Shakespeare could listen in to a cell phone conversation between teenagers, he’d have no idea what they were saying.

Now we’re seeing English transformed by those who grew up speaking non-English tongues. By 2020, an estimated 2 billion people on the planet will speak English, and only 15 percent of them will be native speakers. Those regional dialects will become totally foreign to each other, but may also give rise to a globalized English referred to as Panglish.

Joining Word of Mouth with more about the English of the future is Michael Erard. He’s the author of "Um: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean." His article on Chinglish and the future of the English language is in the July issue of Wired.

You can see more examples of signs in Chinglish by clicking here.

(Photo by Charles W.)

Rhet•o•ric (r?t'?r-?k): Noun. 1- Skill in using language effectively and persuasively. 2- Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous. For decades politicians have used their skills as orators to explain their ideas to the voters, but more often than not, these plans stall or get lost in the shifting political landscape and don’t become policy. Sometimes it’s because of roadblocks in Congress, other times it’s because the candidate fails to get the party nomination or because the idea doesn’t gain any traction with the general public. We’ll look at how rhetoric has been used over the years by politicians, how that has changed and the reasons why some plans become policy and others do not.

Guests

• Ann Atkinson, Associate Professor of Communication specializing in campaign rhetoric at Keene State College
• Mark Timney, Associate Professor of Journalism at Keene State College

Short and practical, this book- the first of its kind for creative writers- shows authors the benefits that can be reaped from mastering punctuation: the art of style, sentence length, meaning, and economy of words. With full-length chapters devoted to each of the major punctuation marks, this is a great book for anyone looking to make punctuation their friend instead of their mysterious foe. Laura's guest is Noah Lukeman, best-selling author whose latest book is "A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation".

New England is a small region with an inordinate number of distinct dialects. The strong Boston accent has been both ridiculed and glorified on TV and in movies for generations, and the distinguished Maine drawl has come to represent the character of Northern New England. We'll talk with linguist Gaye Gould of Plymouth State University about where all our different inflections come from and why they seem to be going away.

***This interview originally aired Wednesday, September 21, 2005***

Here in New Hampshire we often hear about discoveries at the University of New Hampshire that could change the world.

Those stories are often about research done in high tech labs with all the latest equipment.

But a group of UNH linguistics students have started a project that may end up saving a language and a culture thousands of miles away.

Their equipment?

Seven pens, one man.

NHPR’s Kerry Grens reports.