Word of Mouth

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk about the Multicultural London English (MLE) dialect with Somali born journalist Ismail Einashe. Listen to this with your fam and you'll know what Stormzy means when he talks about this wasteman ting, and find out how MLE speakers are using new forms of grammar. This programme draws heavily on research on Multicultural London English published by Paul Kerswil...

Lane Greene talks to Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright about the joys of editing and how it can improve writing. Lane Greene is The Economist's Johnson language columnist and deputy editor of books & arts. He's also a lover of a literal literally and of a well-placed colon. Producer Beth O'Dea

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright talk to maths writer Rob Eastaway about imperial and metric measurements. How and why do they co-exist in the United Kingdom? Why are teenagers still talking in feet and inches when at school they are taught in centimetres? And where do the words 'gallon', 'tonne' 'acre' and "yard" come from? Producer Sally Heaven.

Stephen Fry talks to presenter Michael Rosen about their mutual obsession with language: the particular joys they both find in speech and in writing and how language is developing. Starting at the very beginning with Stephen's theory about where a facility with words may come from, then dashing through the joy of finding connections between words in different languages, of listening to the rhythms...

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright look at the history behind and witty wordplay used in shop names, with guest Greg Rowland of The Semiotic Alliance, which invents names for products, and favourite punning shop names tweeted in by the audience.. a florist called Back to the Fuchsia, anyone? Producer Beth O'Dea.

Michael Rosen talks to Mark Harris and Darran Latham, who volunteer for the Samaritans, about the ways in which talking and listening can best be used to help people in crisis. You can call Samaritans anytime, free to from any phone, on 116 123. People can also contact us via email: jo@samaritans.org or go to www.samaritans.org to find details of their nearest branch for face to face help. Produce...

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright talk to Sally Bayley, author of Girl With Dove, about how words both mystified and rescued her during a highly unusual childhood. Producer Sally Heaven.

Michael Rosen and Dr. Laura Wright are joined in the studio by a virtual assistant and Tom Hewitson - conversation designer for the likes of Siri, Alexa and Cortana. They discuss whether virtual assistants can ever speak like actual humans, and how us humans are developing a new vernacular for machines. Mitsuku is a bot that won an award for most human-like AI and Tay is a now-deceased bot who lea...

Michael Rosen talks to Dr Tiffany Watt Smith about the words we use to try and describe our emotions, and what that can tell us about the way we feel now and have felt at different times in the past. Sadness once occupied the place that happiness now does in terms of life aspirations, and nostalgia was listed as a cause of death on death certificates - in the twentieth century. Producer Beth O'Dea...

How do fonts change the meaning of a message? What was Comic Sans invented for? Why was Obama's first election campaign so typographically bold? And which font would make you buy one chocolate bar over another? Michael Rosen is joined by graphic designer, author and the font of all knowledge when it comes to fonts, Sarah Hyndman, to discuss the psychology of typefaces. Sarah is the author of 3 boo...

Word of Mouth returns with a special programme in which Michael Rosen and guests Marina Warner and Barry Smith discuss the state of language and public debate. With the rise of the internet there is more political discussion than ever. Yet this torrent of words seems to carry less understanding than ever. This has been attributed to many causes. Some say it is the anonymous nature of internet disc...

Why do we 'let the cat out of the bag' or 'go the whole nine yards'? What is a hackle and why might it be raised? What does it mean to 'fribble'? Or to have a 'schnapsidee'? And what are 'cupid's kettle drums'? Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright are joined by Paul Anthony Jones, the writer behind the popular etymology blog Haggard Hawks to talk about the origins of common idioms, the stories behind...

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright are joined by CN Lester, author of 'Trans Like Me: A Journey for All of Us' to talk about language and gender identity. What does it mean to be transgender and how is language being used (by and about) people who identify as transgender, non-binary or genderqueer? Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright explore how diseases are named and the political, economic and social impact of disease names past and present. Joining them are Laura Spinney, Science journalist and author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World and Professor Peter Piot; Ebola co-discoverer and AIDS pioneer, currently Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical...

We used to sign off letters using "yours faithfully" or "yours sincerely", then email came along and it was all "kind regards" and "best wishes". Now, it seems, we hardly sign off at all. With so many forms of written communication- email, text, Twitter, What's App- what new etiquettes are emerging, and where are 'digital natives' simply getting it wrong? Emma Gannon is author of Ctrl, Alt, Delete...

Vocal coaches Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher, authors of This is a Voice, give Michael Rosen a workout. They get him to read against natural pitch and intonation, which proves nearly impossible, and make him match his speaking pace to a walk around the studio. What we do with our consonants and our ability with a tongue twister also turn out to play a part in the ways in which we speak. Produce...

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright are back with a new series of Word of Mouth, and appropriately enough they're starting with Hellos. And greetings. Former diplomat Andy Scott has greeted people in more than 60 countries, and he's written a book about his experiences called One Kiss or Two? The origins and psychology of greetings provide a rich subject and by the end of the programme they may all...

From The Red Lion to the Bucket of Blood, how did your local get its name? Michael Rosen asks Word of Mouth's resident linguist Dr Laura Wright about her research into pub names. And guest Eddie Gershon explains how the JD Wetherspoon pub chain goes about naming new pubs. Produced by Mair Bosworth.

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk to geneticist Steve Jones about how language is used to talk about genetics, and how genetics influences language. Producer Sally Heaven.

Michael Rosen finds out what the rest of society can learn about communication from people on the autism spectrum, by getting an insight into a different worldview. He meets Alis Rowe and Helen Eaton from the Curly Hair project. Producer Sally Heaven.

The writer Robert Macfarlane (author of Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind) believes that the language we use to talk about nature is itself at risk of becoming an endangered species. A 2016 research paper by Cambridge University conservationists found that eight-to 11-year-old schoolchildren were 'substantially better' at identifying common Pokemon characters than...

Lifelong Arsenal supporter Michael Rosen and football-uninterested Dr Laura Wright talk to Adam Hurrey about the language, and in particular, the clichés of football. Football is a linguistic microclimate, with coinages shooting into everyday speech: back of the net! Producer Sally Heaven.

Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts and Crosses, talks in depth to Michael Rosen about language: the writing that has shaped her and how she's used language in her own influential work. Her lifelong love of reading was fostered by the libraries she went to as a child. If she had to choose between being a reader and being a writer, she says, she'd choose being a reader.. Producer Beth O'Dea.

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright ask Great British Menu judge Andi Oliver and author of The Flavour Thesaurus Niki Segnit how they describe the flavours of food. Niki describes coriander and lime as "the wooh woohs in 'Sympathy for the Devil' - completely and utterly indispensable". But grapefruit, on the other hand, is "standoffish".. She brings a cheese and a mystery item into the studio for Micha...

David Walliams talks in depth to Michael Rosen about how he writes his children's books like Mr Stink and The Boy In The Dress. His acute awareness of language developed from a young age, and he was influenced by the books he read then, from Roald Dahl to James Bond. He talks about how The Shining was the surprising model for Awful Auntie, and about the boy who originally gave him the idea to star...