Slate Debates

Latest Episodes:

Capital Language From Kyiv to Washington, D.C. Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Nicole and Ben talk about how the capital of Ukraine has become a linguistic hot take. They also interview Jessi Grieser, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville about her new book, The Black Side of the River: Race, Language, and Belonging in Washington D.C. And finally, we bring on a listener for some wordplay. We hope you’re good at figuring out analogies. You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis and Asha Saluja

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

New York Times: “How Do You Say Kyiv? It Can Be Hard for English Speakers”

NPR “Kyiv or Kiev? Why people disagree about how to pronounce the Ukrainian capital’s name”

Jessi Grieser: The Black Side of the River: Race, Language, and Belonging in Washington, D.C.

“Bad Analogies” on Twitter

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The Making of Wordle Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Nicole and Ben interview Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle, the creator of the viral online word game Wordle. They also recap their participation in the American Dialect Society’s annual Word of the Year vote, over which Ben presided. And Nicole’s shares some on-the-ground interviews from the Linguistic Society of America conference, at which she presented some of her own research. And finally, we bring on a listener for some wordplay. Can you solve our final wordplay clue? You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Subscribe to Slate Plus. It’s only $1 for the first month. To learn more, go to slate.com/spectacularplus.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis and Kevin Bendis

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Choosing Your Voice Dec 21, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Nicole and Ben discuss Creole languages. They also interview Rupal Patel, professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Computer Science at Northeastern University and the founder of VocaliD. And finally, Josh Levin and Joel Anderson, co-hosts of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen join us for some wordplay. We hope you’re good at playing the basketball game of Horse. You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis and Asha Saluja.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

BBC Pidgin

ThoughtCo., “What You Should Know About Creole Language”

Jamaican Creole at York College, “An Introduction to Jamaican Creole (also called Patwa or Patois)”

Omniglot, “Haitian Creole (Kreyòl ayisyen)”

Rupal Patel’s 2013 TED Talk, “Synthetic Voices, as Unique as Fingerprints”

VocaliD, the company founded by Rupal Patel

VocaliD’s Parrot Studio

“One Year: 1995,” hosted by Josh Levin

“Slow Burn: The L.A. Riots,” hoted by Joel Anderson

“Hang Up and Listen,” hosted by Josh Levin, Joel Anderson, and Stefan Fatsis

Josh’s Slate piece on the history of the “air ball” chant

Joel Anderson’s special episode of “Hang Up and Listen” on Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards

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Cracking the Omicron Code Dec 07, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Nicole and Ben discuss the pronunciation of the name of the latest COVID variant. They also interview Alex Bellos, puzzle columnist for The Guardian and author of The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book. And finally, Amanda Ripley, host of Slate’s podcast How To! joins us for some wordplay. We hope you’re ready to take your investigation skills to the next level. You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Ben’s Wall Street Journal column on “Omicron” as the name of the new Covid variant

Ben’s 2020 Atlantic piece on how geographic labels for diseases can encourage xenophobia

Ben’s Slate piece on the puzzling legacy of Stephen Sondheim

New US edition of The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos

Amanda Ripley’s podcast, “How To!”

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Taylor Swift’s “F— the Patriarchy” Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Nicole and Ben discuss Ben’s case against an accusation of anachronistic language use in the new version of her song “All Too Well.” They also interview Michael Adams, Provost Professor and Chair of the English Department at Indiana University about the late Madeline Kripke. And finally, Stefan Fatsis, co-host of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen joins us for some wordplay. We hope you’re up-to-date on your sports and dictionary knowledge. You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Could Taylor Swift Have Written “F— the Patriarchy” a Decade Ago? By Ben Zimmer for Slate

Lyric video for Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”

Gawker, “Taylor Swift is Lying About ’All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’”

Narratively, “The Dame of Dictionaries”

New York Times obituary of Madeline Kripke

Announcement of Indiana University’s acquisition of the Kripke Collection

“Hang Up and Listen,” co-hosted by Stefan Fatsis

Stefan’s 2014 piece, “These Sports Terms Should Be Playable in Scrabble”

Episode of “Hang Up and Listen” where Stefan discusses defining “posterize”

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Interrupting to Show We Care Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, hosts Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer recap the recent New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference for sociolinguistics. They also interview Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and best-selling author about conversational style. And finally, Barry Lam, host of Slate’s philosophy podcast Hi-Phi Nation stops by for some wordplay. We hope you paid attention in your philosophy classes for this next quiz! You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Subscribe to Slate Plus. It’s only $1 for the first month. To learn more, go to slate.com/spectacularplus.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

NWAV 49 (the 49th annual meeting of New Ways of Analyzing Variation)

Tweet by Cindy Noir (@Ebonie_QT) that inspired people to record Memojis code-switching between “home voices” and “work voices”

Ben’s 2011 New York Times essay, “Twitterology: A New Science?”

Twitter’s new Academic Research track

Deborah Tannen’s recent New York Times essay on cooperative overlapping, “In Real Life, Not All Interruptions Are Rude”

Sari Rachel discussing cooperative overlapping on TikTok

Deborah Tannen’s 2005 book, Conversational Style

Barry Lam’s philosophy podcast, Hi-Phi Nation

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The Millennial Language Cheat Code Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, hosts Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer talk about Anthony Fauci’s old-school Brooklyn accent. They also interview Sylvia Sierra about her new book Millennials Talking Media: Creating Intertextual Identities in Everyday Conversation.And finally, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher, the hosts of ICYMI, Slate’s podcast on internet culture, stop by for some world wide web wordplay. We hope you’re ready! You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Anthony Fauci on ABC’s This Week

Trailer for the National Geographic documentary Fauci

Nautilus, “Why Working-Class New Yorkers Drop Their ‘Rs’ ”

Sylvia Sierra’s new book Millennials Talking Media: Creating Intertextual Identities in Everyday Conversation

The ICYMI back catalog

Subscribe to Slate Plus. It’s only $1 for the first month. To learn more, go to slate.com/spectacularplus.

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Squid Game in Translation Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, hosts Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer chat about Netflix’s latest hit, Squid Game. They also interview award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, John Colapinto, about his book This is the Voice. And finally, we bring on chart analyst, pop critic, and host of the Slate podcast “Hit Parade,” Chris Molanphy for a fun music quiz. We hope you’re ready! You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Subscribe to Slate Plus. It’s only $1 for the first month. To learn more, go to slate.com/spectacularplus.

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The Wide World of Language Diversity Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer discuss a regional grammatical construction that is most common in the Philadelphia area, though it’s also found in Canada and Vermont. Then they talk with journalist Allyson Waller about Black American Sign Language. Waller won the Linguistics Journalism award from the Linguistic Society of America for her New York Times piece “Black, Deaf, and Extremely Online.” Finally, we invite listener Ben Snitkoff to take part in some wordplay with an improv-comedy theme.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis and June Thomas.

Here are some notes and references from this episode:

The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project page for the “done my homework” construction

A Facebook Live video of a conversation between Britney Trumpy and Patsy Kelly

“Black, Deaf, and Extremely Online,” by Allyson Waller for the New York Times

The Linguistics Society of America’s announcement of the 2021 Linguistics Journalism Award

Nakia Smith’s TikTok page

The documentary Signing Black in America

Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed, by Carl Zimmer

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Double Dutch Sep 14, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode of Spectacular Vernacular, Ben Zimmer tells Nicole Holliday how he’s been brushing up his Dutch. They also interview Cindy Blanco, senior learning specialist for the online language-learning app, Duolingo. And finally, we invite a listener to play a quiz that looks at the Dutch roots of some English words. We hope you’re ready!! You could win a year’s membership to Slate Plus.

Do you have any language questions or fun facts to share? Email us at spectacular@slate.com.

Produced by Jasmine Ellis.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Duolingo blog.

Subscribe to Slate Plus. It’s only $1 for the first month. To learn more, go to slate.com/spectacularplus.

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