Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.

1180. Why does "Ye Olde Shoppe" look old-fashioned? This week, we look at the vanished letters of English — thorn, eth, and yogh — and at why English has so many words that are spelled the same but have different meanings, such as "compact" (an agreement) and "compact" (to press together).

The homographs segment was written by Samantha Enslen who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
The Old English segment was written by Karen Lunde who writes the newsletter I'll Go First. Find her on igofirst.org.

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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

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Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
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1179. This week, we talk to Valerie Fridland, a linguist and professor who grew up in Memphis surrounded by Southern accents and now researches the history and social power of speech. We look at her new book, "Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents," which explores the history of how American speech developed and how colonial settlement patterns shaped regional identities. Then we look at the decline of regional accents, the mechanics of speech sounds like "L" and "R," and the psychological impact of accent bias.

Get Valerie’s new book, "Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents."

More from Valerie at valeriefridland.com

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
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🔗 Get the edited transcript here.
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
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1178. Do you cringe when someone says "Hopefully, he'll pass the test"? This week, we look at why "hopefully" as a sentence adverb has been controversial for decades, even though the Associated Press accepted it in 2012, and it's been common since the 1930s. Then, we look at xenolinguistics — the study of alien languages — asking what human languages have in common and why (and how) alien languages might be completely different.

The xenolinguistics segment was by Natalie Schilling.

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Find an edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1177. This week, we look at behind-the-scenes of being a curator at Harvard's Houghton Library with John Overholt. We look at why 18th-century paper is surprisingly tough, how John managed the high-stakes transport of a George Washington book, and why curators actually prefer bare hands over white gloves. This bonus discussion originally ran for Grammarpaloozians back in January.

Find John Overholt on Mastodon.

Houghton Library's website

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🔗 Transcript available on QuickandDirtyTips.com.
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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1176. This week, we look at mind-bending words, including "semordnilap" (which spells "palindromes" backwards), "pentasyllabic" (which has five syllables), and "hyphenated" (which is not hyphenated). Then, we tackle how to use "me" and "myself" (with an aside for "hisself," "meself," and more fun dialect words).

The "palindrome" segment was by Karen Lunde, a career writer and former Quick & Dirty Tips editor. She writes I'll Go First, a Substack where she shares personal essays and memoir, then hands you a weekly writing prompt and a metaphorical pen. Find her on igofirst.org.

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Take our advertising survey.
🔗 Transcript available on QuickandDirtyTips.com.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
Audio Engineer: Castria Communications
Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.