A Word in Your Ear: Recent Episodes
ABC Radio
Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex walks you through the linguistic mindfield, explaining the weird and wonderful aspects of English and many other languages.
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses Americanisms.
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses echo phrases.
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses spelling and pronunciation.
Depending on whether you're speaking the King's English, the POTUS English, or good old 'Strayan English, the one language can sound entirely different.
Fresh off the back of his European tour, Professor Roly Sussex is finally back in Queensland to share a word in your ear.
Professor Roly Sussex is away on a European tour, but he hasn't stopped sharing his linguistic lessons.
Professor Roly Sussex is away on a European tour, but he hasn't stopped sharing his linguistic learnings. Roly joins Kat Feeney all the way from Estonia in northern Europe.
It's officially 100 days until Queensland can celebrate its Royal Show - the beloved Ekka!But why do we call it the Ekka? And where did the term "sideshow alley" come from?Professor Roly Sussex is digging into the Ekka terminology.
In school, you were probably taught they were the 'doing words'. But are English verbs a bit more complicated than that? Professor Roly Sussex investigates verbs and how they've evolved over time.
Have you ever, erm, noticed, like, how many times people totally say words they actually don't even need in a sentence? Turns out, it's a lot.This week, Professor Roly Sussex is culling the redundant words we use to fill the silence.
Are you an 'er', an 'ese', an 'an', an 'ee', an 'ian' or an 'ish'?There are so many different suffixes to describe the place you come from.Professor Roly Sussex breaks down the complexities of demonyms.
Mate? Guys? Contraire? What's the best way to address a friend, a group of colleagues, or someone you've never even met? Professor Roly Sussex tackles terms of address.
To celebrate the World Science Festival returning to Brisbane, Professor Roly Sussex is breaking down the linguistic science of the Periodic Table.
How did our clothes get the names that they have? From shirts to skirts and everything in between, Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the origins of our wardrobes.
Why are some people under the weather and others ill? A fully sick Professor Roly Sussex is talking about words, expressions and idioms for poor health.
What's the origin of family names? Do they come from the profession of an ancestor, a location or are they simply patronymic? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the origin of the surname.
What does the Queen Consort mean? Where does the word throne come from? Professor Roly Sussex chats about the history and meanings of language used when referring to someone royal.
Why do you call a highway... a highway? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about the language of transport in this edition of A Word in Your Ear.
How vulnerable are we to mispronouncing certain words? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why some words are more commonly mispronounced than others.
Knives that cut and knights as in shining armour, psychology and psychologists, gnats in the air and gnomes in the garden. Professor Roly Sussex explains why we bother with silent letters.
There's a severe weather warning for dangerous winds at the moment so who better to talk about wind words and idioms than the word wizard himself, Professor Roly Sussex?
Dutch courage, a Dutch auction, and a Dutch oven are expressions that, like ABC Radio's Mike van Acker, have their origins in the Netherlands, but how many words that we use in everyday language come from Dutch? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about loanwords.
They form the basis of every word we read and every sentence we speak, but where do letters come from? That's just one of the questions for Professor Roly Sussex from students at Ferny Grove State School.
Do women interrupt less and generally use more polite language than blokes? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the linguistic war of the sexes.
State of Origin on Sunday so who will you barrack for? In Britain, barracking is about shouting loudly to interrupt someone so why does barracking mean something different in Australia?
Bludgers and bogans, drongos and dunnies or do you buy sangers at the servo? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about Aussie slang.
Roly Sussex is talking about the cold weather, how we describe and what we wear? A pullover? A sweater, a jumper or a cardigan?
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the words you hear most often in politics but which mean the least.
It's that whatchamacallit when Professor Roly Sussex talks about words, language, linguistics and other thingamajigs.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about those words, the buzzwords, that come up time and time again. What are they, why do politicians keep using them, and what are they really trying to say?
A bellweather seat, a dark horse, swing states, and dog whistling: common enough expressions in election time, but what are their origins? Professor Roly Sussex is talking politics.
Why do so many languages have a gender for the words but, in the main, English doesn't? Professor Roly Sussex is on hand with an answer.
Sometimes the same word can be pronounced in different ways so does it all depend where the speaker's from? Professor Roly Sussex has an answer to the controversy - but how does he pronounce controversy?
New words in the English language pop all the time. Words like meme and paywall are connected with the digital age in which we now live. But how do new words become formally accepted for use though?
If it's mouse and mice, why isn't it house and hice? And what about tooth and teeth or foot and feet? Who makes the rules and why aren't they consistent? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
De-escalation, incursions and invasions: the dogs of war are barking but, if truth is the first casualty in war, then what happens to language?
Ink wells and blotting paper, milk monitors and chalk: the classrooms have reopened this week, but the language of school has changed and many words that were almost synonymous with the classroom have disappeared from everyday use.
Credenza, console, cabinet and cupboards: do we really keep cups in our cupboards? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why certain words or expressions disappear or are removed from the English language.
Australian English seems to be adopting more and more expressions from the US, but how many Aussie words and expressions do you think the North Americans are borrowing from us?
What's the origin of our Christmas expressions and how is the festive season talked about in languages other than English?
From which other language did most English words originate? That's just one of the questions from students at Junction Park State School and Professor Roly Sussex is doing his very best to answer.
'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is an English-language pangram: it's a sentence which contains all of the letters of the English alphabet. But is that the only pangram? Professor Roly Sussex is on a mission to find out.
How big is your vocabulary? Former British prime minister and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Winston Churchill is supposed to have had a 60.000 word vocabulary. It's a question about vocabulary that's on the mind of Wesley, a Year 6 student at Durack State School and Professor Roly Sussex is only too happy to help out.
What's the G doing in benign or consign or even gnome? Allow Professor Sussex to explain.
Who was the very first person to speak and where was it? These are questions that have been troubling Eva. She's in Year 6 at St Sebastian's Primary School in Yeronga and Professor Roly Sussex is only too happy to answer.
What language do we use or hear which doesn't mean very much but has an important social function? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about phatic communion.
Prepare for a tongue-lashing from the ABC's word wizard because Professor Roly Sussex is giving the thumbs up to metaphors from body parts.
K-Pop and the Squid Game are just two examples of the popularity of Korean culture, and the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary has just added more than 20 words of Korean origin.
Actress, manageress, waitress: are those descriptions somewhat antiquated these days or are gendered nouns important so we know who's being talked about? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about gendered language.
What are the rules when it comes to asking questions in English? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to offer a few answers.
New words are being invented every day, many from social media, but which ones are entering into mainstream dictionaries?
Allegro and mezzaforte, presto and fortissimo. Why is the Italian language so predominant when it comes to musical terms and expressions?
Apolitical and atheist but unlawful and disbelief so why can't we say 'alawful' or 'abelief'?
Why would a glass be called a schooner? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about the origins of words we use to describe beer glasses.
Play with a straight bat if you don't want to be caught off-side because Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about sporting metaphors.
When was the last time you heard someone say ‘cobber’ or ‘ fair dinkum’? Has Aussie slang carked it? Professor Roly Sussex, a man who's never been a few stubbies short of a six-pack, has been doing the hard yakka researching the past, present and future of our everyday lingo.
With much of south east Queensland in lockdown, many parents are assuming the role of teacher. Professor Roly Sussex is helping out his younger listeners with their school-related questions.
Which words are most frequently mispronounced and why are those words so difficult in the first place? Professor Roly Sussex says simplifications like vulnerable have a good phonetic explanation, but that's not always the case.
According to the official Wimbledon website, Queensland's Ash Barty won the ladies singles final and Novak Djokovic won the gentlemen's final, so why not women and men's? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
How do we know where to put the word stress in English and are there any rules about which words have a stress in specific parts?
Is it atypical or untypical of Roly to return to a topic? Once again, Professor Roly Sussex is talking about prefixes.
The humble prefix: IMpossible to understand how they work or UNpossible to learn them all one by one? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
The sense of smell as in a dog with a keen nose or a special kind of smell as in a wine with a good nose. In this case, 'nose' is a polysemy. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Is there a geographical variation in language in Australia or do we even have regional accents? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about front yards and back gardens.
One tooth, two teeth. One goose, two geese. One foot, two feet ... so one mouse, two meese? And why don't we have two foots or two tooths? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the problem with plurals.
How do you ask for something? It's a simple question but there are lots of answers. Professor Roly Sussex is talking about how we make requests - and offers - in English.
How long is a chaise longue and would you really strip and polish a duchess? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about furniture.
Politicians and the health experts talk about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, but what's the difference between efficacy and efficiency or effectiveness?
Tennis has a distinctly French origin and this is reflected in the language of the sport itself. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Professor Roly Sussex says 'have' is one of the most important verbs in the English language, but how difficult is it using 'have' in the present perfect tense for someone learning English or speaking English as a second language?
"Let's eat, kids" is so much more palatable than "let's eat kids", but grammatical and syntax errors are easy to make. Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about some of the common mistakes we make in the English language.
Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas? Why and how do we greet people on festive occasions? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Should English be written as it sounds and sound as it's written? Professor Roly Sussex joins the debate.
Clothing words and changing fashions, Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the passing pageant of apparel.
Many surnames are patronymics, but there are a few matrilineal societies and the origins of the surname may differ in non-English speaking societies. Professor Roly Sussex is chatting to listeners about the origins and meanings of surnames all over the world.
We often use Latin expressions or words without knowing their origin or precise meaning. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about which Americanisms are in everyday use, which he thinks are likely to catch on, and which American words or expressions never will.
Why do we have a left and right in politics, and what do pebbles and scalps have to do with elections? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about the language of politics.
Some dogs go woof, others might go bow wow, but what if you or your dog don't speak English as your first language: what sound does your dog make then?
It's sometimes said that we should reform English spelling so that there should be one letter for one sound and one sound for one letter. Professor Roly Sussex explains why he thinks this wouldn't work.
How do you guard against being impolite and what do you do if someone is impolite to you? Professor Roly Sussex is talking with the utmost respect about words and language.
How do we know who talks when and when can other people join in a conversation or interject and interrupt? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars! Professor Roly Sussex is having some fun with various figures of speech and grammatical issues.
Bud, mate, guys, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues: Professor Roly Sussex is talking about terms of address and who can use which words to say hello to whom and under what circumstances.
There are many ways to express affection for loved ones, some are more traditional and others originate in languages other than English. Professor Roly Sussex is having some fun with terms of endearment.
Cilantro or coriander, candy or lolly? Which foods have different names in North America - and why? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
Acidic or earthy? Bitter or bittersweet? Sweet or spicy or even sour? The words used to describe food can entice or repulse. Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about edible linguistics.
Is pronunciation and where to put the stress the same thing? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue, and getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words. Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
You can't run through a camp ground, you can only ran because it's past tents. Shocking 'Dad jokes' or paronomasia and homophones with Professor Roly Sussex.
Going to the rubbidy with the trouble and strife? Take a Captain Cook at Professor Roly Sussex's contribution to rhyming slang.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about words with odd definitions, origins and generally a strange garden of verbal weeds.
Schoolboy humour or just a nice way to talk about sensitive or embarrassing topics, Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the use and definition of euphemisms.
Collocations are essential to speaking and understanding English, but are there rules when it comes to using them? Professor Roly Sussex is on the case.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the power of slogans and how effective they can be in creating a more lasting message or memory.
Politeness through avoidance means using conditional questions to stay away from language that may be thought confrontational or challenging. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Politeness is associated with empathy: being polite it is an attempt to help the other person be comfortable and avoid confronting behaviour. The ever respectful Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Is the Aussie accent unique or does it share certain characteristics with our Kiwi cousins? Professor Roly Sussex is talking ocker!
Schadenfreude, flak, pretzel, and so much more. Professor Roly Sussex on words we have borrowed from the German language.
Professor Roly Sussex on a new word that's entered the Australian vernacular: quozza from quarantine
Nouns have always been verbified, but is it right or wrong and should we or should we not? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Nicknames are a wonderful part of language play and are very well developed in Australia. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the role of accents in the differences and development of the English language.
When it comes to pronunciation, what is standard, who decides, and how much variation is acceptable? Allow Professor Roly Sussex to explain.
Vow and Declare - A Melbourne Cup winner and the subject matter with Roly Sussex this week as we talk doublets
Can language exist without culture? No jokes about it - Professor Roly Sussex talks ‘Globish'
Giddy Up! Professor Roly Sussex isn't horsing around in another escapade of equine expressions
Is it blowing a gale? Or raining cats and dogs? It's quite the heated subject - we're talking weather with Professor Roly Sussex
As we move from football to the racing season, Professor Roly Sussex is going hell for leather with equine expressions.
Professor Roly Sussex is joined by a special guest, Professor Tor Hundloe, to talk about the language of economics.
Professor Roly Sussex is trawling for examples of where one word has lots of different meanings.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why jargon's necessary and appropriate in its in-house context, but why it can be vile elsewhere.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about words which should be struck from the English language.
Where should we put the stress on words with more than one syllable? Professor Roly Sussex settles a few arguments.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why some places are spelt and pronounced differently in different langauges.
Professor Roly Sussex has been in the Czech Republic and is chatting about English words of Slavic origin.
Sushi, wasabi, and tofu. Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the Japanese words we use in everyday English.
Going forward, Professor Roly Sussex hopes you'll take some learnings from his chat about business jargon.
Using titles is one way of emphasising courtesy but, argues Professor Roly Sussex, it is declining fast in contemporary Australia.
Politicians have been egged during the election campaign. With an egg. Clearly, argues Professor Roly Sussex, this is an ill-eggal act.
A lot of people don't agree with the use of the word 'get' but, as Professor Roly Sussex argues, 'get' is the third most common verb in English, and there are hundreds of uses and combinations.
Professor Roly Sussex is talking about nouns, verbs and adjectives as well as political expressions and taking calls from listeners.
A hedge is a word when you hedge on committing: a 'possibly' dangerous purchase. A booster is a word which intensifies something: a 'really' dangerous purchase. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Ballot, poll, vote, candidate, constituent and constituency: Professor Roly Sussex is getting to grips with the upcoming election.
North American spellings, words and pronunciations are increasingly used in Australia. Professor Roly Sussex explains why.
In the early days of the ABC, people listened to the BBC and what was called Received Pronunciation; anything less was regarded as debased or undesirable. But, says Professor Roly Sussex, nowadays the norms of Australian English are multiple and often variable.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting with listeners about common mispronunciations and grammatical errors.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the way certain words are pronounced in Australian English.
A stitch in time saves nine is all Greek to me. Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about popular sayings, similes, proverbs and euphemisms.
What's the most polite way to greet a group of people? Professor Roly Sussex has a definite opinion on this one!
Is first responder an Americanism or is it coming from the services themselves? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
The Word Of The Year is proposed by various dictionaries and institutions in different countries. Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Will idioms involving meat, dairy products and animal be lost from the English language as veganism causes people to eschew such phrases as 'bringing home the bacon'?
Professor Roly Sussex is on a bit of a sticky wicket when it comes to talking cricket expressions.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting with listeners about weasel words and management jargon.
Phrasal verbs in English consist of a single verb, usually short and common, followed by an adverb or a preposition. But how do you use them correctly? Professor Roly Sussex explains.
Professor Roly Sussex is in Macau this week, but he's managed to find a studio to chat with his listeners and answer your questions.
Professor Roly Sussex is talking about how we greet people, especially in speech but also in writing.
We are taught at school to avoid 'get' and to find something longer and more elegant, but Professor Roly Sussex says we can't get by without it.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about words which sound the same but which have different spellings and often carry quite different meanings.
Professor Roly Sussex has great fun talking to listeners about their favourite sports expressions.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting with listeners about their favourite tongue twisters.
Professor Roly Sussex has great fun talking to listeners about their favourite Aussie expressions.
One of the quickest ways to increase your word power is to learn some prefixes and roots, and different ways of combining them.
There are more than a few Australian place names which have more than one pronunciation, but how do you pronounce Cairns?
Why isn't Bangkok the proper name of that city, what is its actual name, and what's its connection with Los Angeles?
Do you moan when you say ceremony? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about words with alternative pronunciations.
Not only are there names which can be used for either gender, but they sometimes have different spellings and diminutives are often the same even when the names differ.
Professor Roly Sussex is talking about the use of the word 'hood' and taking calls from listeners.
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one.
Professor Roly Sussex is discussing the sounds of language we use to symbolise various things in the real world.
Professor Roly Sussex declares he's delighted by dachshunds ... and the German origin of their name.
Professor Roly Sussex is back from a trip to New Zealand and is chatting about Kiwi English, its pronunciation, vocabulary, and phraseology.
We have to learn many collocations by memory and practice because, as Professor Roly Sussex explains, a lot of them are not predictable.
Professor Roly Sussex from the University of Queensland is joined by military historian Major Ross Eastgate OAM to chat about various aspects of the military use of language.
Professor Roly Sussex from the University of Queensland discusses the dreaded apostrophe and its three roles in the English language.
Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex from the University of Queensland discusses the wonderful and odd aspects of English and many other languages.
Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex is talking about Easter and answering questions from his fans and listeners.
Unlike most other languages, English doesn't have masculine and feminine versions of words ... or does it?
Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex is chatting with Loretta Ryan about using the dictionary.
Professor Roly Sussex is talking about English language, pronunciation and expressions.
For the final Word In Your Ear for 2017, it's the language of disabilities and how that has changed.
Beginning with strange words and odd expressions today, we then move onto the latest assault of Americanism upon our language.
What’s the difference between these words – cancer and Cancer, Hamlet and hamlet, Lent and lent? Don’t know? Well let Roly reveal all.
The language of advertising and how are we manipulated by the words chosen to push a product.
This week: take a trip down "Language Lane" with a few more of those annoying Americanisms that have made their way into our daily speech and a look back at the WooFTies - Roly's wonderful "Word For Today" series.
Today with Roly, pairs of words that cause confusion, for instance: affect, effect - lay, lie - among, between - infer, imply.
How many of us are guilty of the bad use of English language? See if you've used one or more of these phrases or expressions recently.
This week: polysemy, from Greek many + sign. When a word develops new related meanings.
With Roly today, homo-terms - homograph, written the same, pronounced differently, and homophone, written differently, pronounced the same.
If English and Irish languages have the same origin, why aren’t more similarities between them? Today with Roly, it’s all about the Irish.
Roly Sussex has been with the ABC for two decades now, and to celebrate, a special debate was held in Roly’s honour.
Today it's the language of Beer, and with Roly, award winning beer writer and passionate beer educator, Matt Kirkegaard from www.beermatt.com.
Once more we look at Americanisms - today those that are now standard and mainstream in Australia.
Today with Roly we talk about expressions like 'tough as nails' or 'as sweet as sugar' which are commonly used in the English language.
Today sports broadcasting and how it's changed over the years. For A Word In Your Ear Professor Roly Sussex is joined by ABC Grandstand's Quentin Hull.
Words In Your Ear this week: German words and expressions in English, prompted by Uber.
It's NAIDOC Week and Indigenous Languages Researcher at the State Library, Des Crumb joins Roly for today's special theme, "Our Languages Matter."
Over the past few weeks, we've been looking at the structure of language and how it's changed over the years in Australia. Today it's the turn of our Prime Ministers.
A Word In Your Ear continues our special series on the changing Australian accent with a focus, this time, on newsreaders and newsreading.
Professor Roly Sussex is back for A Word In Your Ear. Today we're looking at the language of Australian children's shows over the years and how it has changed in form and structure.
Your favourite bugbear this afternoon - Americanisms. Language Professor Roly Sussex is having a "Word In Your Ear"
Investigating words and meanings, Roly Sussex is back to clarify and identify what's really going on in the world of the spoken word and sometimes even the written. It's English as it's meant to be... even if it has to keep changing.
The English language has adopted many Latin expressions and abbreviations. Professor Roly Sussex helps to sort your "ipso facto" from your "carpe diem".
We don't speak English the same way as they did in Shakespeare's day, so why would we expect to be communicating in the same way as we did in the 1950s or even the 70s?
Although most of us have been taught at school not to use the word 'get' in writing, it's still the third most common verb in the English language after 'be' and 'have'.
Today we look at the informality of English as used in Australia, and the ways in which it is less formal than in many other countries.
Military words and expressions turn up in everyday usage, but few people know where they really come from. Roly Sussex is joined here by military historian and journalist, Major Ross Eastgate to discuss the language of the armed forces.
We all know that English has borrowed from other languages like Latin, Greek, Italian and Spanish, but what about Dutch?
Politeness is often only noticed when it's absent, for instance when people don't say thank you. What role does politeness play in our conversations?
How are plants are named, why is there a world-wide re-naming of plants happening and why do some plants have multiple names? All this and more with Professor Roly Sussex and Gardening Australia's Jerry Coleby-Williams.
Professor Roly Sussex explains what homophones are, why there are so many in the English language and why they exist.