1 00:00:19,980 --> 00:00:23,580 Jane: This is But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont 2 00:00:23,580 --> 00:00:27,405 Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions 3 00:00:27,405 --> 00:00:31,905 from curious kids just like you, and we find answers. I don't 4 00:00:31,905 --> 00:00:35,565 know about you, but I feel like I learn a new word all the time, 5 00:00:35,685 --> 00:00:38,985 even though I've been an English speaker my whole life! Some 6 00:00:38,985 --> 00:00:43,125 researchers estimate there are roughly 1 million words in the 7 00:00:43,125 --> 00:00:47,250 English language, so there's no way I will ever be able to know 8 00:00:47,250 --> 00:00:51,810 every single one of them, but it's a fun goal to have. Did you 9 00:00:51,810 --> 00:00:55,830 know new words get invented all the time? I bet there are words 10 00:00:55,830 --> 00:00:58,770 you use with your friends that didn't exist when the adults 11 00:00:58,770 --> 00:01:02,610 around you were growing up, and there are words our grandparents 12 00:01:02,610 --> 00:01:06,090 or great great grandparents used that you may never even hear 13 00:01:06,090 --> 00:01:09,330 because they're no longer popular. Lots of people describe 14 00:01:09,330 --> 00:01:13,575 languages as living or alive. Now, they're not technically 15 00:01:13,575 --> 00:01:17,535 alive, but they seem kind of that way, because they change 16 00:01:17,595 --> 00:01:21,375 all the time. Our guest for today's show is someone who 17 00:01:21,375 --> 00:01:26,115 studies words and how we use them. Dr. Erica Brozovsky is a 18 00:01:26,115 --> 00:01:31,815 sociolinguist, and she hosts the PBS show Otherwords, all about 19 00:01:31,875 --> 00:01:35,700 words and sounds. When we started talking to Erica for 20 00:01:35,700 --> 00:01:39,960 this episode, I needed to ask her for a word definition before 21 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:44,040 we even got into the interview, because I wasn't sure exactly 22 00:01:44,100 --> 00:01:46,740 what a sociolinguist does. 23 00:01:46,740 --> 00:01:48,480 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So linguistics is the study of 24 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:52,020 language, and sociolinguistics is the study of language related 25 00:01:52,020 --> 00:01:55,440 to who we are as people, so like where we're from, or who we 26 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,365 spend time with, or even what other languages that we speak. 27 00:01:58,540 --> 00:02:01,240 Jane: Erica says there are lots of different ways to study 28 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,960 languages and things to study within the field of linguistics. 29 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,320 Some linguists are really interested in the sounds we 30 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:11,920 make, and others study the meaning behind words. Some 31 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:14,920 linguists specialize in languages that used to be spoken 32 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:18,820 a long, long time ago. Erica says she decided to pursue 33 00:02:18,820 --> 00:02:22,120 sociolinguistics because she's interested in what's happening 34 00:02:22,165 --> 00:02:24,325 in the world around us here and now. 35 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:25,800 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: I like talking to people. That's why 36 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:30,180 I'm here today, and it's cool to think about what's actually 37 00:02:30,180 --> 00:02:33,480 happening. So why is it that I speak differently than you based 38 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:37,260 on any number of factors, like where we're from, or who we 39 00:02:37,260 --> 00:02:39,180 spend most of our time with, or things like that. 40 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,000 Jane: Okay, we have a lot of words questions and language 41 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,280 questions from kids. So I'm gonna get out of the way and 42 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:45,000 jump right in. 43 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,700 Maya: My name is Maya. I'm eight years old, and I live in 44 00:02:47,700 --> 00:02:51,120 Fairfield, California. Who invented the English language? 45 00:02:51,540 --> 00:02:54,420 West: I'm West. I'm seven years old. I live in Arcadia, 46 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,260 California. Where did the English alphabet originally come 47 00:02:58,260 --> 00:02:58,680 from? 48 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,140 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So the English language doesn't just 49 00:03:01,140 --> 00:03:04,740 have one inventor, the way that things like popsicles or 50 00:03:04,740 --> 00:03:07,740 earmuffs or trampolines do, which were all invented by kids, 51 00:03:07,740 --> 00:03:08,220 by the way. 52 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:08,820 Jane: Whoa. 53 00:03:08,820 --> 00:03:11,265 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Yeah, it developed over thousands and 54 00:03:11,265 --> 00:03:13,605 thousands of years. So what we're speaking right now is 55 00:03:13,605 --> 00:03:16,965 called Modern English. But before that, came Middle English 56 00:03:16,965 --> 00:03:20,625 and Old English, which didn't really sound like English that 57 00:03:20,625 --> 00:03:23,565 we speak today at all. I took an Old English class, and it was 58 00:03:23,565 --> 00:03:26,145 like learning a whole completely new foreign language. But 59 00:03:26,145 --> 00:03:30,585 language is like, it's changing all the time. So I would say, if 60 00:03:30,585 --> 00:03:33,450 you speak English, you can be an inventor of some parts of 61 00:03:33,450 --> 00:03:33,870 English. 62 00:03:33,870 --> 00:03:36,870 Jane: Yeah, I don't think of this as Modern English. I think 63 00:03:36,870 --> 00:03:39,690 of what we're doing as like, super wicked cool English, no 64 00:03:39,690 --> 00:03:40,170 cap. 65 00:03:41,850 --> 00:03:42,930 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: And we're like, oh, cringe. 66 00:03:45,210 --> 00:03:48,930 Jane: So where did the alphabet that we use come from? 67 00:03:49,020 --> 00:03:50,700 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So the alphabet has its origins 68 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:54,540 actually in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, which were... 69 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,720 those were pictures. So they would carve or draw pictures 70 00:03:58,140 --> 00:04:01,200 that might be like a jar, that would talk about jars or there'd 71 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,620 be some animal, there'd be that animal, right? So Semitic 72 00:04:04,620 --> 00:04:07,920 workers in ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago came up with an 73 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,400 alphabetic script that was kind of adapted from hieroglyphics in 74 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,205 order to write down their language, and that then 75 00:04:14,205 --> 00:04:16,905 developed into the Phoenician alphabet, which is how we got 76 00:04:16,905 --> 00:04:20,445 the name alphabet, which is from the first two letters. So Aleph 77 00:04:20,985 --> 00:04:27,285 meant ox, and Bet meant house, and it doesn't mean ox house or 78 00:04:27,285 --> 00:04:30,405 house ox now, but that's where we get the letters from. And 79 00:04:30,405 --> 00:04:33,165 then the Phoenicians brought their alphabet to Greece, and 80 00:04:33,165 --> 00:04:36,390 then it spread to Italy and inspired the Latin alphabet. So 81 00:04:36,450 --> 00:04:39,210 English itself used to be written in a Runic alphabet 82 00:04:39,210 --> 00:04:45,330 called the Futhorc until the 600s, like not 1600s but 600s, 83 00:04:45,330 --> 00:04:48,150 when it became replaced by the Latin alphabet. And then after 84 00:04:48,150 --> 00:04:50,610 some... there's some adjustments, like removing the 85 00:04:50,610 --> 00:04:56,130 letters thorn and eth, which were the "th" sounds. And maybe 86 00:04:56,130 --> 00:04:58,815 you've seen stores called like Ye Olde Candy Shoppe. 87 00:04:59,115 --> 00:04:59,415 Jane: Uh huh. 88 00:05:00,015 --> 00:05:02,535 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: That that y comes from the eth. So really, 89 00:05:02,535 --> 00:05:04,695 it would have been pronounced The Old Candy Shop. 90 00:05:04,815 --> 00:05:07,395 Jane: Oh, really? So it wasn't "Ye" old. It was "the" old. 91 00:05:07,575 --> 00:05:09,675 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Yeah, it just, it sounds fun and cute 92 00:05:09,675 --> 00:05:13,215 now, but it comes from the eth. So they, you know, they removed 93 00:05:13,215 --> 00:05:16,695 those letters and they added some new ones, like u and j. So 94 00:05:16,695 --> 00:05:20,715 beforehand, v and u were kind of... or v was used for both u 95 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,480 and for v, and i was used for both j and for i. So now there's 96 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,420 one of each. So we ended up with our 26 letter alphabet. 97 00:05:27,420 --> 00:05:30,300 Jane: And there are other languages that use the same 98 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:31,920 alphabet as English. 99 00:05:32,100 --> 00:05:34,440 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Correct. So Spanish, for example, uses the 100 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:36,840 same alphabet, although they also have an n with a little 101 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:38,100 tilde over it, called an enye. 102 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:41,640 Jane: Right. And Welsh has a double L that's pronounced by 103 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,045 blowing air through the edges of your mouth, which is very fun. 104 00:05:45,045 --> 00:05:48,705 So, so we have some different letters, even if we're using the 105 00:05:48,705 --> 00:05:50,985 same alphabets for some different languages, but then 106 00:05:50,985 --> 00:05:54,465 some languages use totally different styles of writing and 107 00:05:54,465 --> 00:05:55,125 alphabets. 108 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:55,420 name 109 00:05:55,965 --> 00:05:59,985 Hugo: My name is Hugo. I come from Hong Kong but I'm living in 110 00:05:59,985 --> 00:06:03,585 London. I'm 6 years old. Why is the words that we use now the 111 00:06:03,585 --> 00:06:04,965 words that we use now? 112 00:06:04,965 --> 00:06:12,510 Jane: Why are the words we use now the words we use now? So 113 00:06:12,510 --> 00:06:15,390 nobody invented the English language. We can all be 114 00:06:15,390 --> 00:06:19,170 inventors. But why do... we how do we have the words that we all 115 00:06:19,170 --> 00:06:20,490 know how to say and share? 116 00:06:20,490 --> 00:06:22,650 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: That's a really good question, and it's 117 00:06:22,650 --> 00:06:26,130 kind of hard to answer, but I have an idea. So words are 118 00:06:26,130 --> 00:06:30,975 really powerful. They can make us feel sad or happy, hurt or 119 00:06:30,975 --> 00:06:35,175 excited, bummed out or on top of the world, right? And we get to 120 00:06:35,175 --> 00:06:39,675 choose what words we use, right? I say, use your words. So 121 00:06:39,675 --> 00:06:42,795 through these choices that we make every day with the words 122 00:06:42,795 --> 00:06:47,415 that we decide to speak or to write or to sign, we build 123 00:06:47,415 --> 00:06:51,375 friendships and connections with the world around us. And if 124 00:06:51,375 --> 00:06:54,360 you've ever heard a baby copy what a grown up says, you know 125 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:59,520 that we like to repeat things. So the words that we use now are 126 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,340 the ones that have been repeated over and over and over and over 127 00:07:02,460 --> 00:07:04,800 and over and over and over and over and over again. So some 128 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,500 words have been lost to history, and we don't even know what we 129 00:07:07,500 --> 00:07:11,760 don't even know, but the words you know and say now are what 130 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:13,980 you've learned or been taught that's been passed down from 131 00:07:13,980 --> 00:07:14,640 someone else. 132 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,765 Jane: Where did the words we use now mostly come from? Do they 133 00:07:18,765 --> 00:07:23,445 come from other languages, or were they sort of invented by 134 00:07:23,505 --> 00:07:24,945 English speakers over time? 135 00:07:24,945 --> 00:07:28,305 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Yes... to both of those things. So a lot 136 00:07:28,305 --> 00:07:32,745 of the words in English were borrowed from dozens of other 137 00:07:32,745 --> 00:07:37,005 languages. So many of them, like the word coffee comes from 138 00:07:37,005 --> 00:07:40,110 Arabic. French influences, you have German influences, you 139 00:07:40,110 --> 00:07:44,250 have... so many ones. And also we invent them. So when we're 140 00:07:44,250 --> 00:07:47,910 thinking of a lot of slang terms, they sometimes get 141 00:07:47,910 --> 00:07:52,770 invented by somebody. So like the word "okay," which may be 142 00:07:52,770 --> 00:07:55,770 one of the most common words or popular words in the world, I 143 00:07:55,770 --> 00:07:58,530 don't know, lots of languages say okay, is thought to come 144 00:07:58,530 --> 00:08:04,695 from a kind of a joke. It was in a newspaper in Boston, and it 145 00:08:04,695 --> 00:08:07,635 stood for all correct, but it was like, O, L, L, correct, K, 146 00:08:07,635 --> 00:08:10,035 O, R, R, E, C, T, because they were trying to make a joke. And 147 00:08:10,035 --> 00:08:13,995 it kind of stuck after there was a presidential candidate who was 148 00:08:14,115 --> 00:08:16,935 from, I think it's from, from the area of Kinderhook, and they 149 00:08:16,935 --> 00:08:19,515 called him Old Kinderhook, and said, Old Kinderhook is okay. 150 00:08:19,935 --> 00:08:23,835 There was a whole thing about that becoming this big, popular 151 00:08:23,835 --> 00:08:27,300 word, and now, long time later, we use the word "okay" all the 152 00:08:27,300 --> 00:08:27,660 time. 153 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:31,440 Jane: I had no idea, even though I really do say "okay" all the 154 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,740 time. Also, just in case it wasn't clear because you're 155 00:08:34,740 --> 00:08:39,360 listening and not seeing things written out, all correct would 156 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:49,545 be spelled A, L, L, C O, R, R, E, C T, not O, L, L, K, O, R, R, 157 00:08:49,605 --> 00:08:54,525 E, C T. So the joke was that it's obviously not all correct, 158 00:08:54,525 --> 00:08:57,225 if you can't even spell "correct" correctly. 159 00:08:57,585 --> 00:09:02,265 Hakeem: Hi, my name is Hakeem. I live in Chicago, Illinois. I'm 160 00:09:02,325 --> 00:09:07,485 eight years old. Why do words spell the way they are? 161 00:09:07,485 --> 00:09:13,410 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Well, words in English are spelled all sorts 162 00:09:13,410 --> 00:09:20,190 of wonky, different ways. Fun fact, the spelling bee is an 163 00:09:20,190 --> 00:09:22,710 English thing. They don't typically have spelling bees in 164 00:09:22,710 --> 00:09:25,110 other languages because their languages are not spelled so 165 00:09:25,110 --> 00:09:26,430 wonky the way that ours is. 166 00:09:26,490 --> 00:09:29,010 Jane: Do you know what a spelling bee is? It's a 167 00:09:29,010 --> 00:09:33,270 competition where someone says a word and you have to spell it 168 00:09:33,375 --> 00:09:37,095 correctly without being able to look at it. We did an episode A 169 00:09:37,095 --> 00:09:40,335 while back with a National Spelling Bee competitor. We'll 170 00:09:40,335 --> 00:09:43,155 link to it in our show notes today. But if you speak a 171 00:09:43,155 --> 00:09:45,795 language where it's less confusing how things are 172 00:09:45,795 --> 00:09:49,995 spelled, there's not much need for a spelling bee competition. 173 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:52,720 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Exactly, exactly. Sounded out right? But 174 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,540 in English, it isn't, isn't quite so simple. So I think that 175 00:09:55,540 --> 00:09:59,080 this is kind of two questions in one. So words are spelled the 176 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:02,740 way that they are because someone put them in a dictionary 177 00:10:02,860 --> 00:10:06,160 and claimed that is the correct way for them to be spelled. And 178 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:09,520 we all just went along with that. So before we had reliable 179 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,685 dictionaries, people spelled things any which way that fell 180 00:10:12,685 --> 00:10:15,145 right to them, and maybe even spelled the same word different 181 00:10:15,145 --> 00:10:18,445 ways every time they wrote it. There was no right way to write 182 00:10:18,445 --> 00:10:21,385 it. But now, spellings have been standardized thanks to the 183 00:10:21,385 --> 00:10:24,385 dictionary. But I think this question is also asking, how did 184 00:10:24,385 --> 00:10:27,565 we get things to be the way that they are? So if you ask me, I 185 00:10:27,565 --> 00:10:30,625 think English spelling is kind of a mess, and it's been that 186 00:10:30,625 --> 00:10:33,985 way from the very beginning. So to explain that, we'll kind of 187 00:10:34,105 --> 00:10:38,290 need a mini alphabet history lesson. So Old English, as we 188 00:10:38,290 --> 00:10:40,570 mentioned earlier, was a Germanic language spoken by 189 00:10:40,570 --> 00:10:43,870 Anglo-Saxons in what is now England. And like I said, it's 190 00:10:43,870 --> 00:10:47,170 not anything like the English we speak today in the 21st century. 191 00:10:47,170 --> 00:10:49,870 So old English, some people say, some experts say, was spoken, 192 00:10:49,870 --> 00:10:53,290 let's say in the 400s to the 1100s and they used the Runic 193 00:10:53,290 --> 00:10:57,190 alphabet known as the Futhorc. So in the 600s, the Latin 194 00:10:57,190 --> 00:10:59,695 missionaries came in and replaced the Futhorc with the 195 00:10:59,695 --> 00:11:03,235 Latin alphabet. But the Latin alphabet wasn't designed for a 196 00:11:03,235 --> 00:11:06,355 Germanic language, and there were sounds that Anglo-Saxons 197 00:11:06,355 --> 00:11:10,795 used that didn't exist in Latin. So they had to improvise. And 198 00:11:10,795 --> 00:11:14,515 things got even more complicated when the French invaded English 199 00:11:14,515 --> 00:11:17,995 in 1066, and changed a lot of English spelling to make it more 200 00:11:17,995 --> 00:11:21,715 familiar for their French readers. So English spelling was 201 00:11:21,715 --> 00:11:27,760 a jumble of Germanic, Latin and French rules. And then came the 202 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:32,080 Great Vowel Shift, where lots of pronunciations changed, so like 203 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:36,100 the Ooh sound became Ow, so "hoos" and "hoond" became 204 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:37,600 "house" and "hound". 205 00:11:38,140 --> 00:11:42,100 Jane: Historians are not sure exactly why or how the Great 206 00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:46,420 Vowel Shift happened, but it happened gradually between the 207 00:11:46,420 --> 00:11:51,160 years of 1400 and 1700. So it took many, many generations of 208 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,340 people. It wasn't like your adult said to you, "Could you 209 00:11:54,340 --> 00:11:56,920 please get the "hoond" into the "hoose?" And you were like, 210 00:11:56,980 --> 00:11:59,800 "Huh? What are you talking about? I can't even understand 211 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:04,105 you. Do you mean get the hound into the house?" "Hooned" or 212 00:12:04,105 --> 00:12:06,265 hound being a kind of dog, by the way. 213 00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:09,360 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: And then there's even more. The printing 214 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,700 press came about right in the middle of all these 215 00:12:11,700 --> 00:12:15,180 pronunciation changes. So printers would spell things as 216 00:12:15,180 --> 00:12:18,720 they saw fit, adding extra letters or changing spelling so 217 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,420 that the words would reflect their history. So for example, 218 00:12:21,420 --> 00:12:25,260 the word "dumb" ends with a B, which you can't really hear. So 219 00:12:25,260 --> 00:12:28,440 some printers started mistakenly adding a B to the end of words 220 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:31,425 like "crumb" and "numb," which is an error that we call 221 00:12:31,425 --> 00:12:33,945 hyper-correction. So it's like more than correct. It's so 222 00:12:33,945 --> 00:12:38,505 correct that it's actually wrong. And words from Latin like 223 00:12:38,505 --> 00:12:42,165 "sign" and "doubt" had letters that were added in to remind 224 00:12:42,225 --> 00:12:44,625 readers where they came from, "signum" and "dubutary." 225 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:50,840 Jane: And then we still use that today, kind of because it got 226 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:56,000 put into dictionaries and into books by printing presses, which 227 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:01,160 were pretty new. And why don't we just drop the dumb B from 228 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,540 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: I think it makes a lot of sense to have 229 00:13:01,220 --> 00:13:01,400 "dumb?" 230 00:13:04,540 --> 00:13:09,220 things be spelled the way that they sound. But we are people of 231 00:13:09,220 --> 00:13:11,800 convention. We just stick with the things that we know, 232 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,260 apparently, when it comes to writing. It would be a big... it 233 00:13:14,260 --> 00:13:17,140 would be a big shift to change things for everybody across the 234 00:13:17,140 --> 00:13:20,740 world. So we're kind of, it seems stuck where we are. 235 00:13:21,100 --> 00:13:25,120 Etta: My name is Etta, and I'm five years old, and I live in 236 00:13:25,225 --> 00:13:29,545 Germany. Why is English so hard to learn? 237 00:13:29,665 --> 00:13:34,165 Isaac: Hi, my name is Isaac, and I'm nine years old, and I'm from 238 00:13:34,165 --> 00:13:38,965 Kamloops, BC. Why is the English language so complicated? 239 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,093 Right. 240 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:42,366 Jane: English is difficult, I think, because there are so many 241 00:13:40,093 --> 00:13:52,652 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So it's complicated, because English is 242 00:13:42,427 --> 00:13:46,320 exceptions to every single rule. Think of the spelling rule like 243 00:13:46,381 --> 00:13:50,213 I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A as a neighbor, 244 00:13:50,274 --> 00:13:53,619 and way, that's a lot of exceptions just for one little 245 00:13:52,652 --> 00:13:56,840 not just invented 246 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:57,086 rule, and that doesn't even cover how you spell the word 247 00:13:57,147 --> 00:13:58,060 "weird," right? 248 00:14:21,845 --> 00:14:25,565 Grayson: My name is Grayson. I live in St Louis, Missouri. I'm 249 00:14:25,565 --> 00:14:28,625 nine years old. Why do different countries have different 250 00:14:28,625 --> 00:14:29,405 accents? 251 00:14:29,405 --> 00:14:33,605 Jane: Why do different countries have different accents? And Jack 252 00:14:33,605 --> 00:14:38,045 in Ireland notes, you know, even people in the same country but 253 00:14:38,045 --> 00:14:41,165 different parts of the country can have different accents. So 254 00:14:41,585 --> 00:14:45,890 let's take English, but I think this is true in many languages. 255 00:14:45,950 --> 00:14:49,430 How can we speak the same language but have different 256 00:14:49,490 --> 00:14:51,830 accents and different ways we pronounce words? 257 00:14:51,830 --> 00:14:54,290 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Well, first things first, we all have 258 00:14:54,290 --> 00:14:57,710 accents, every single one of us. Some accents will make it clear 259 00:14:57,950 --> 00:15:00,770 where you're from or what languages you speak, or who your 260 00:15:00,770 --> 00:15:04,190 friends are. Even if everybody around you sounds pretty 261 00:15:04,190 --> 00:15:07,415 similar, you still have an accent. You just all have the 262 00:15:07,415 --> 00:15:10,355 same accent, right? So to answer the question, if we're talking 263 00:15:10,355 --> 00:15:13,235 about someone, let's say from a non-English speaking country, 264 00:15:13,235 --> 00:15:16,535 speaking English and having a foreign accent, that's because 265 00:15:16,715 --> 00:15:19,955 the sounds that make up each language are different. So for 266 00:15:19,955 --> 00:15:23,075 example, in Spanish, there are five vowels and there are five 267 00:15:23,075 --> 00:15:27,395 vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u, which are ah, eh, e, o and oo. 268 00:15:27,755 --> 00:15:30,620 In English, we have the same vowels: a, e, i, o, u and 269 00:15:30,620 --> 00:15:34,940 sometimes y, but between 15 and 20 different ways of pronouncing 270 00:15:34,940 --> 00:15:37,760 those vowels, depending on where you're from. So when we're 271 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:41,120 babies, we can hear all the different sounds that make up 272 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,540 every language in the world, hundreds of different sounds. So 273 00:15:44,540 --> 00:15:47,540 when we're babies, we can hear all the differences. But we 274 00:15:47,540 --> 00:15:51,260 learn to focus on only the ones that are in the language that we 275 00:15:51,260 --> 00:15:53,645 are learning to speak, because our brain doesn't have room or 276 00:15:53,645 --> 00:15:56,945 time for every single sound in every single language, right? So 277 00:15:56,945 --> 00:16:00,125 if you only learned five vowel sounds growing up, you might 278 00:16:00,125 --> 00:16:03,725 have a tough time not only pronouncing a bunch of different 279 00:16:03,725 --> 00:16:06,425 sounds, more sounds than you're used to, but also hearing the 280 00:16:06,425 --> 00:16:10,565 difference between them. And now, accents within the same 281 00:16:10,565 --> 00:16:13,205 country or within the same general area or same language 282 00:16:13,625 --> 00:16:16,850 come from how you spend your time. Where do you live? Who do 283 00:16:16,850 --> 00:16:19,850 you spend time with? Usually, accents develop when there are 284 00:16:19,850 --> 00:16:22,970 separations between people. So maybe you live in the US and you 285 00:16:23,090 --> 00:16:26,750 say "tomato" and... or you live in the UK, or Australians say 286 00:16:26,750 --> 00:16:30,110 "tomahto." There is a whole ocean of distance between those 287 00:16:30,110 --> 00:16:33,290 places, and there are lots of different social groups too, 288 00:16:33,470 --> 00:16:36,590 even in the same area, who can develop different accents. So 289 00:16:36,590 --> 00:16:37,159 sometimes, when you're talking with someone who has an accent 290 00:16:37,159 --> 00:16:39,755 that's really different from yours, you might even 291 00:16:39,875 --> 00:16:44,735 accidentally start copying their accent, and that is called 292 00:16:44,735 --> 00:16:47,435 speech accommodation, so you're accommodating towards what they 293 00:16:47,435 --> 00:16:48,035 sound like. 294 00:16:48,635 --> 00:16:51,215 Jane: We just talked about differences in pronunciation, 295 00:16:51,215 --> 00:16:55,175 like "tomato" and "tomahto." But sometimes we have different 296 00:16:55,175 --> 00:16:58,115 words for the same thing, depending on where we live, even 297 00:16:58,115 --> 00:17:00,740 though we speak the same language. You might throw things 298 00:17:00,740 --> 00:17:05,600 away in the trash can in the US, but the rubbish bin in the UK! 299 00:17:06,020 --> 00:17:09,380 Or enjoy soccer in the United States, but find that it's 300 00:17:09,380 --> 00:17:13,160 called football elsewhere. We have an episode all about that, 301 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,160 too, by the way. Check out our show notes if you want to hear 302 00:17:16,700 --> 00:17:18,020 it. Here's another example. 303 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,920 Natalie: My name is Natalie. I'm 11 years old, and I live in 304 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,265 Rutherford, New Jersey. Why are some people in England say 305 00:17:25,265 --> 00:17:27,245 biscuits while we say cookies? 306 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,504 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So for me, English biscuits and US cookies 307 00:17:29,559 --> 00:17:32,905 aren't exactly the same kind of thing. They are very similar. 308 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:36,362 I'd say like the cookie part of an Oreo is a biscuit. So Oreos 309 00:17:36,416 --> 00:17:39,544 could be like a chocolate sandwich biscuit, but chocolate 310 00:17:39,598 --> 00:17:43,000 chip cookies, like fresh out of the oven, those are definitely 311 00:17:43,055 --> 00:17:46,237 not biscuits. So we say "cookie" because of the Dutch word 312 00:17:46,292 --> 00:17:49,529 "koekje," meaning little cake. And there was a lot of Dutch 313 00:17:49,584 --> 00:17:52,875 influence in New Amsterdam, which is now New York. So that's 314 00:17:52,930 --> 00:17:56,002 where we got cookie from. "Biscuit" comes from the Latin 315 00:17:56,057 --> 00:17:58,691 "biscoctus" meaning twice-cooked. So originally, 316 00:17:58,746 --> 00:18:02,202 biscuits were a really, really, really hard bread. Because they 317 00:18:02,257 --> 00:18:05,494 didn't go bad very easily, soldiers would carry them around 318 00:18:05,549 --> 00:18:08,786 for a super long time, and they'd dip them in water or soup 319 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:12,077 or whatever was around to soften them up. And it was a good 320 00:18:12,132 --> 00:18:15,369 source of fuel. But that's really about it. Probably didn't 321 00:18:15,424 --> 00:18:18,551 taste very good, the texture... It's not a snack that I'm 322 00:18:18,606 --> 00:18:22,007 excited about. Eventually, when sugar became more common, they 323 00:18:22,062 --> 00:18:25,299 started to get tastier. So in the middle of the day, before 324 00:18:25,354 --> 00:18:28,756 lunch was invented -- because it was invented, at one point -- 325 00:18:28,810 --> 00:18:31,992 people would have tea and biscuits to tide them over until 326 00:18:32,047 --> 00:18:35,394 supper. That's kind of a long answer, but the short answer to 327 00:18:35,449 --> 00:18:38,741 the question of, why do we say different things in different 328 00:18:36,075 --> 00:18:42,860 Jane: Okay, I think it's time for a little cookie break. Or 329 00:18:38,795 --> 00:18:41,923 places is because we have different influences around us. 330 00:18:41,978 --> 00:18:45,324 So like how we got cookie from Dutch, it didn't used to be as 331 00:18:42,988 --> 00:18:51,182 should it be a biscuit break? Or if you're in Australia, a break 332 00:18:45,379 --> 00:18:48,890 easy to communicate with people far, far away, so sometimes we'd 333 00:18:48,945 --> 00:18:51,579 end up with different names for the same things. 334 00:18:51,310 --> 00:18:58,735 for some bickies? When we come back, why do we have silent 335 00:18:58,863 --> 00:19:06,673 letters? And my favorite, if more than one tooth is teeth and 336 00:19:06,801 --> 00:19:14,355 more than one goose is geese, what do we call more than one 337 00:19:10,020 --> 00:19:40,830 the English language? Speaking of spelling, you know what makes 338 00:19:14,483 --> 00:19:17,940 moose? Meese? Stay with us. 339 00:19:40,830 --> 00:19:45,870 spelling a word extra confusing? Silent letters. 340 00:19:46,260 --> 00:19:49,920 Wesley: My name is Wesley, and I'm five years old, and I live 341 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,180 in Chicago. Why do words have silent letters? 342 00:19:54,420 --> 00:19:57,780 Madelief: My name is Madelief from Brisbane, Australia. I'm 343 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:01,080 eight years old. Why do some words like "knife" have silent 344 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:01,560 letters? 345 00:20:01,620 --> 00:20:05,160 Annabelle: My name's Annabelle. I'm eight years old, and I live 346 00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:10,905 in Utah. Why does the word "island" have an S in it that is 347 00:20:10,905 --> 00:20:11,565 silent? 348 00:20:11,780 --> 00:20:15,620 Jane: Wesley, Madelief and Annabelle have all noticed that 349 00:20:15,620 --> 00:20:20,300 there are words in English with silent letters. What's the deal 350 00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:21,500 with silent letters? 351 00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:24,300 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: They are tricky. That's why we have those 352 00:20:24,300 --> 00:20:28,560 spelling bees, right? So a lot of the silent letters are thanks 353 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,500 to the Great Vowel Shift, which happened hundreds and hundreds 354 00:20:31,500 --> 00:20:35,520 of years ago. So some words used to have two syllables, but with 355 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,820 the shift, they lost their second half. So "name-ah" and 356 00:20:38,820 --> 00:20:42,480 "lik-eh" became "name" and "like." We spell those with the 357 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:44,745 e still, the e at the end that kind of represents that. That's 358 00:20:44,745 --> 00:20:47,865 the silent E, right? Other consonant sounds faded away as 359 00:20:47,865 --> 00:20:52,365 well. So "dum-b," like, with a b sound became "dumb" without the 360 00:20:52,365 --> 00:20:57,465 b sound. "Ni-ght" and "li-ght" became "night" and "light." 361 00:20:57,465 --> 00:21:01,305 "K-nife" and "k-night" became "knife" and "knight." And some 362 00:21:01,305 --> 00:21:03,645 scholars wanted to update the spelling to match the new 363 00:21:03,645 --> 00:21:07,905 pronunciation, but the printing press kind of helped lock in 364 00:21:07,905 --> 00:21:11,010 those outdated spellings. And specifically the s in "island," 365 00:21:11,610 --> 00:21:14,490 that's an example of hypercorrection, as we mentioned 366 00:21:14,490 --> 00:21:19,350 before. So the word "Isle," i, s, l, e, had the s added because 367 00:21:19,350 --> 00:21:22,290 it came from the Latin word "insula," which has an s in it, 368 00:21:22,530 --> 00:21:27,330 but "island" is from the Old English "ieland": i with a long 369 00:21:27,510 --> 00:21:30,390 bar over it, e, l, a, n, d, and people thought they were 370 00:21:30,390 --> 00:21:32,415 related, so they added the s. 371 00:21:33,015 --> 00:21:37,635 Jane: So why did we get rid of those sounds, though? Why don't 372 00:21:37,635 --> 00:21:41,655 we still say "name-ah?" Why do we say "name" instead? I mean, I 373 00:21:41,655 --> 00:21:44,895 see how the letter just kind of stuck around. But why did we 374 00:21:44,895 --> 00:21:46,035 change the way we say it? 375 00:21:46,540 --> 00:21:49,420 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Hmm, I don't know if I have an exact 376 00:21:49,420 --> 00:21:52,480 answer for that, but think of when you're speaking quickly, 377 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:55,660 like things fall away. You might drop a couple syllables or 378 00:21:55,660 --> 00:21:58,000 sounds here and there just because you're speaking quickly. 379 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:02,380 Or maybe other words will get mixed in with there. So for 380 00:22:02,380 --> 00:22:08,380 example, the word "apron" used to be "napron." So you know how, 381 00:22:08,380 --> 00:22:09,572 when you spell things that start with a vowel, you have to have 382 00:22:09,572 --> 00:22:10,285 an "an" in the article beforehand, instead of just "a," 383 00:22:10,645 --> 00:22:17,545 you have "an." So it used to be "a napron," and now it's "an 384 00:22:17,725 --> 00:22:23,125 apron," or the word "newt," like the salamander kind of creature 385 00:22:23,485 --> 00:22:27,565 used to be "ewt," and it was "an ewt" and now it became "a newt." 386 00:22:27,985 --> 00:22:30,085 Jane: So a lot of the way we speak, it's just to make it 387 00:22:30,085 --> 00:22:33,910 easier for us when we're saying the words, even if the spelling 388 00:22:33,910 --> 00:22:36,130 then becomes more complicated when we write it. 389 00:22:36,130 --> 00:22:37,270 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Yes, exactly. 390 00:22:37,690 --> 00:22:42,190 Sydney: My name is Sydney. I'm 10. I live in Rutland, Vermont. 391 00:22:42,430 --> 00:22:46,750 Why some words sound like other words, like "bare" and "bear." 392 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,600 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: So, words that sound the same but are 393 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,660 spelled differently are a type of homonym called a homophone. 394 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,220 So we end up with homophones mostly through sound merging. So 395 00:22:57,220 --> 00:23:01,000 for example, the words "meat" and "meet." So m, e, e, e, t 396 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,980 used to be pronounced like "mate," almost, and m,e,a,t was 397 00:23:06,100 --> 00:23:08,560 "met." And now they're pronounced the exact same way. 398 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:14,965 Just "meet." And f o, u r used to rhyme with "tour," and 399 00:23:15,565 --> 00:23:19,225 f,o,r,e used to be two syllables, so "for-e," and now 400 00:23:19,225 --> 00:23:22,705 they're both pronounced "four." So holophones can also occur 401 00:23:22,705 --> 00:23:25,345 when words are barred into English from different origins. 402 00:23:25,345 --> 00:23:29,125 For example, the word "tire," the sleepy version has potential 403 00:23:29,125 --> 00:23:32,245 Germanic roots, while the wheel version comes from French. 404 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,260 Jane: Even though those in American English are spelled the 405 00:23:36,260 --> 00:23:36,740 same. 406 00:23:36,980 --> 00:23:39,200 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Exactly, there's a Y in the other. 407 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,260 Jane: Yeah, in British English, tire that you use on your car is 408 00:23:43,260 --> 00:23:46,920 t, y, r, e. Here's another tricky thing in the English 409 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:51,000 language. When words go from singular,meaning one, to 410 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,560 plural, meaning two or three or five or more, we generally add 411 00:23:55,560 --> 00:24:00,180 an -s or an -es s to the end of the word. Like, "cow" becomes 412 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:04,545 "cows," "fox" becomes "foxes," "horse" becomes "horses." But of 413 00:24:04,545 --> 00:24:07,545 course, there are exceptions to this rule. 414 00:24:08,085 --> 00:24:11,085 Grace: Hi, my name is Grace. I'm 10 years old. I live in Rocky 415 00:24:11,085 --> 00:24:15,465 Mountain House, Canada. Does everything that ends with -us, 416 00:24:15,825 --> 00:24:20,145 like "octopus" or "cactus," could end with -i, like "cacti" 417 00:24:20,265 --> 00:24:24,465 or "cactuses?" I know about "cactus" and "octopus," but I'm 418 00:24:24,885 --> 00:24:27,390 looking for like anything that has those. 419 00:24:28,470 --> 00:24:32,970 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Hmm. So the answer is, nope! In Latin, the 420 00:24:33,210 --> 00:24:37,470 -us words end with an -i, so which gives us octopi. However, 421 00:24:37,530 --> 00:24:41,310 it is a Latinized version of the Greek word octopus and we 422 00:24:41,310 --> 00:24:44,430 borrowed it into English. And generally, when we borrow words, 423 00:24:44,430 --> 00:24:47,130 which we do all the time, we make it plural as an English 424 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:50,835 word. So in addition to "octopi," we can also say 425 00:24:50,835 --> 00:24:53,955 "octopuses" as an acceptable form of the plural. "Cacti" can 426 00:24:53,955 --> 00:24:56,775 also be "cactuses," even though it sounds more, sometimes more 427 00:24:56,775 --> 00:25:01,095 like fancy to say "cacti." Some words like "radius" and 428 00:25:01,275 --> 00:25:04,635 "alumnus" do get an -i at the end, and they are never said 429 00:25:04,635 --> 00:25:07,755 "alumnus" is or "radiuses." You know, "radii" and "alumni," 430 00:25:07,875 --> 00:25:11,535 right? But some words that end in -us never get to see an -i. 431 00:25:11,835 --> 00:25:15,180 I've never heard of "boni" and "campi" because those are 432 00:25:15,180 --> 00:25:18,480 actually "bonuses" in "campuses." There's always 433 00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:19,680 exceptions to every rule. 434 00:25:20,380 --> 00:25:23,200 Jane: So if you're trying to figure out, if you know a word 435 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,980 and you don't know how to say many of them, how are you 436 00:25:26,980 --> 00:25:31,120 supposed to guess? If you don't know whether it's "bonuses" or 437 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,660 "boni" or "octopuses" or "octopi," how do you figure it 438 00:25:34,660 --> 00:25:35,080 out? 439 00:25:35,260 --> 00:25:37,000 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: My rule of thumb, if I didn't, if I don't 440 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,400 know how to pluralize something in English, is just to add that 441 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:44,005 s sound at the end, because most words do end in -s. And of 442 00:25:44,005 --> 00:25:46,525 course, sometimes it'll be like -es or maybe it sounds like a z 443 00:25:46,525 --> 00:25:49,285 sound, but it's that general s or z sound at the end of it, 444 00:25:49,525 --> 00:25:53,785 like dog, dogs, bonus, bonuses. There may be times when you're 445 00:25:53,845 --> 00:25:56,365 less grammatically correct, but I think that's okay. It's okay 446 00:25:56,365 --> 00:26:00,025 to be creative with your language, too. So I err on the 447 00:26:00,025 --> 00:26:02,665 side of adding the s sound at the end of all the words. 448 00:26:02,665 --> 00:26:05,013 Jane: People will probably know what you're trying to say. 449 00:26:05,013 --> 00:26:05,530 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: They'll know what you're talking about, 450 00:26:05,530 --> 00:26:08,170 yeah. And if they feel the need to correct you, that's okay, 451 00:26:08,170 --> 00:26:08,410 too. 452 00:26:08,590 --> 00:26:10,390 Jane: Speaking of plurals... 453 00:26:10,510 --> 00:26:17,170 Oliver: My name is Oliver. I'm eight years old, and I live in 454 00:26:17,170 --> 00:26:24,370 North Carolina, Raleigh. If two tooth is "teeth" and if two 455 00:26:24,670 --> 00:26:29,050 goose is "geese," then why is two moose not "meese?" 456 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,620 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: That'd be kind of fun if they were 457 00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:33,860 "meese." They're kind of big, though. I feel like "meese" 458 00:26:33,980 --> 00:26:37,040 sounds like like a small thing instead of like a big, huge 459 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:41,900 animal, right? So the reason why is because "tooth" and "goose" 460 00:26:41,900 --> 00:26:45,500 are words with Germanic origins. So the word "goose" comes to us 461 00:26:45,500 --> 00:26:48,320 from Old English where the plural of goose was "geese." And 462 00:26:48,500 --> 00:26:51,320 that's because of some sound changes over time that led from 463 00:26:51,620 --> 00:26:55,565 "gooses" to "geeses" to "geese," which we say now. But anyway, 464 00:26:55,685 --> 00:26:58,385 the reason why we don't say "meese" is because the word 465 00:26:58,505 --> 00:27:01,985 "moose" doesn't have Germanic origins. It was borrowed into 466 00:27:01,985 --> 00:27:06,425 English sometime around the 1600s from a Native American 467 00:27:06,425 --> 00:27:09,065 language in the Algonquin family, likely either 468 00:27:09,065 --> 00:27:12,605 Narragansett or Abenaki, which were spoken in what is now the 469 00:27:12,605 --> 00:27:15,185 northeastern region of the United States, New England. So 470 00:27:15,245 --> 00:27:17,270 the plurals are different because they have different 471 00:27:17,270 --> 00:27:17,990 origins. 472 00:27:17,990 --> 00:27:21,590 Jane: So Erica, is it actually helpful if you don't come from a 473 00:27:21,590 --> 00:27:24,410 family or a culture where you already speak multiple 474 00:27:24,410 --> 00:27:27,650 languages, to learn some other languages, so you can start to 475 00:27:27,890 --> 00:27:31,670 see how these words in English even come together? 476 00:27:31,970 --> 00:27:35,750 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Absolutely, I think of being able to speak 477 00:27:35,750 --> 00:27:39,410 multiple languages as kind of a superpower. I... English is my 478 00:27:39,830 --> 00:27:43,115 primary language. It's the one that I'm the best at, but I've 479 00:27:43,115 --> 00:27:45,935 spent some time studying Mandarin and studying Spanish, 480 00:27:46,175 --> 00:27:49,175 and it's definitely helped me see the world in different ways. 481 00:27:49,175 --> 00:27:52,115 There's different ways of of explaining things in different 482 00:27:52,115 --> 00:27:54,875 languages. Some languages have words that we don't have in 483 00:27:54,875 --> 00:27:59,855 English that describe certain feelings that we might really 484 00:27:59,855 --> 00:28:01,063 know but don't have words for. Like, there's a word 485 00:28:01,063 --> 00:28:01,078 "kuchisabishii" in Japanese. It's like, when your mouth is 486 00:28:01,078 --> 00:28:01,090 bored, like you're eating because you're not really 487 00:28:01,090 --> 00:28:03,140 hungry. You're not eating because you're hungry, but 488 00:28:03,140 --> 00:28:09,020 you're eating because your mouth, or your mouth is lonely, 489 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:14,600 not bored. Your mouth is lonely and it needs something to occupy 490 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,260 it. And there's tons of other words that kind of explain fun, 491 00:28:18,380 --> 00:28:21,440 interesting experiences that we have as people, but we just 492 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,091 don't have one word for in English. So if you learn other 493 00:28:24,091 --> 00:28:26,465 languages, you get to know that. You also get to experience more 494 00:28:26,465 --> 00:28:31,385 of the world, and sometimes it helps you with learning your 495 00:28:31,385 --> 00:28:32,345 primary language too. 496 00:28:33,020 --> 00:28:41,360 David: Hi, my name is David. I am five and a half. I live in 497 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:51,260 Thousand Oaks. Why do 11 and 12 not end in the word "teen?" 498 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,460 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Well, if they did, then we wouldn't be 499 00:28:54,240 --> 00:29:00,780 able to call 11 and 12 year olds "preteens". But this seems like 500 00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:05,760 another two-part question. So why is t-e-e-n not part of those 501 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,480 numbers, which I do have an answer for. And then why did the 502 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:11,760 people who came up with the number names do it that way, 503 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,420 which I have... I can make an educated guess for. So "eleven" 504 00:29:15,660 --> 00:29:19,965 and "twelve" come from the Old English "endleofan" and "twelf," 505 00:29:20,445 --> 00:29:24,645 which even further back were "an" plus "lif," so "an-lif"and 506 00:29:25,365 --> 00:29:29,505 "twe-lif" which is one "lif" and two "lif." But scholars aren't 507 00:29:29,505 --> 00:29:34,425 exactly sure what "lif" means. One theory, because we don't 508 00:29:34,425 --> 00:29:37,365 always know. Sometimes it's in the past and it's gone. One 509 00:29:37,365 --> 00:29:41,730 theory is that it means left over. So like one left after 10 510 00:29:41,730 --> 00:29:46,410 and two left after 10. So teen was just a form of 10. You know, 511 00:29:46,410 --> 00:29:48,630 you can see how they kind of sound alike. So like you say, 512 00:29:48,630 --> 00:29:50,430 teen, teen teen, teen, teen teen, teen, teen, teen, teen 513 00:29:50,430 --> 00:29:53,370 might, might eventually get to 10. There was other variations 514 00:29:53,370 --> 00:29:57,030 too, but that was just one of them. So 13 and up were just 515 00:29:57,090 --> 00:30:03,135 three-teen, four-teen, or 3-10, 4-10, 5-10, right? But why were 516 00:30:03,135 --> 00:30:07,695 they different? Why weren't they like the "an-lif," "twe-lif?" 517 00:30:07,695 --> 00:30:11,895 Why wasn't it just three "lif," four "lif," right? It's hard to 518 00:30:11,895 --> 00:30:14,655 know for sure. We don't have a for sure, for sure answer, but 519 00:30:14,775 --> 00:30:18,555 back a long time ago, there wasn't much reason to talk about 520 00:30:18,915 --> 00:30:24,180 more than 10 of something. You have, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, several, 521 00:30:24,180 --> 00:30:27,360 many, just have a lot of things. So if it's more than the numbers 522 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,300 that you count, it's just a lot, right? But most of us have 10 523 00:30:30,300 --> 00:30:33,420 fingers, right? So it's easy to count to 10 on your fingers and 524 00:30:33,780 --> 00:30:37,680 maybe your toes, if you prefer sometimes you need just a little 525 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,560 bit more than the ones on your fingers. So you would say, ah, a 526 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:45,000 little more than 10, eleven. "An-lif," or 12, "twe-lif." And 527 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,885 we got so used to that. So even when we needed to count up to 528 00:30:49,065 --> 00:30:52,905 3-10, and 4-10, and 5-10, the pronunciation of 11 and 12 529 00:30:52,905 --> 00:30:53,325 stuck. 530 00:30:53,685 --> 00:30:56,085 Jane: Huh? But we're not sure about that. 531 00:30:56,085 --> 00:30:59,385 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: We're not sure exactly why 3-10, 4-10, 532 00:30:59,385 --> 00:31:05,025 5-10, is exactly that way. But the guess is that we... or why 533 00:31:05,205 --> 00:31:09,080 1-10 and 2-10 didn't end up it's probably because they were, they 534 00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:09,750 were like that before, and we just stuck with what we knew. 535 00:31:09,930 --> 00:31:13,290 Jane: So do you think if suddenly all the kids listening 536 00:31:13,350 --> 00:31:17,490 today decided together we're gonna change it and we're gonna 537 00:31:17,490 --> 00:31:21,870 start calling 11 "one teen" and we're gonna start calling 12 538 00:31:21,930 --> 00:31:25,650 "two teen." And so it's like, how old are you? I'm "two teen," 539 00:31:25,710 --> 00:31:29,730 and next year I'll be thirteen. Do you think we could change the 540 00:31:29,730 --> 00:31:30,810 English language? 541 00:31:31,110 --> 00:31:33,915 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Absolutely, it would take a long time, 542 00:31:33,915 --> 00:31:37,155 perhaps, or like a big amount of kids doing, deciding to do 543 00:31:37,155 --> 00:31:40,515 this. But it could definitely happen, because language is 544 00:31:40,575 --> 00:31:42,915 always changing. You might even notice it when you hear some 545 00:31:42,915 --> 00:31:45,615 slang that you're like so over at this point, like, if I try to 546 00:31:45,615 --> 00:31:48,195 use any Gen Alpha slang, they're like, I'm just gonna sound super 547 00:31:48,195 --> 00:31:52,095 Ohio, right? That sounds so embarrassing. So all of our 548 00:31:52,095 --> 00:31:54,975 listeners here get to decide what happens next, where our 549 00:31:54,975 --> 00:31:57,900 language is going. You don't need to come up with things or 550 00:31:57,900 --> 00:32:01,320 try to make changes. They're gonna happen naturally. But if 551 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,760 you wanted to make "one teen" and "two teen" be the next cool 552 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,000 thing, by all means, absolutely do it, and we'll see if it 553 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:09,600 actually sticks. 554 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:14,040 Jane: The truth is, every single day, new words get invented. For 555 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,220 those of us listening who are adults, that means we sometimes 556 00:32:17,220 --> 00:32:20,985 get confused when you, kids, tell us something using a slang 557 00:32:20,985 --> 00:32:24,405 word you and your friends use. But on the flip side, the really 558 00:32:24,405 --> 00:32:29,325 cool thing is, you, kids, are the ones at the forefront of 559 00:32:29,325 --> 00:32:30,585 language change. 560 00:32:30,885 --> 00:32:33,045 Dr. Erica Brozovsky: Y'all are the ones who are doing the big 561 00:32:33,045 --> 00:32:36,465 thing. So I'd say, keep it up, and I'm excited to see where you 562 00:32:36,465 --> 00:32:39,825 take it next, like what innovations and cool, new, fun, 563 00:32:39,885 --> 00:32:42,525 weird, awesome things y'all come up with. 564 00:32:43,380 --> 00:32:47,280 Jane: If you were to invent a new word, what would it be? I'd 565 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,040 like to invent a word that describes the feeling when you 566 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,580 love something or someone so much that you wish you could 567 00:32:53,580 --> 00:32:57,120 just squish yourself together with them and become one being. 568 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:01,020 Like how two water droplets pushed together blob into one 569 00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:05,265 big water droplet. What would the word be for that? Send us a 570 00:33:05,265 --> 00:33:08,145 video of what word you would invent and what it would mean, 571 00:33:08,145 --> 00:33:11,205 and we'll put it on our Instagram page. Thanks to 572 00:33:11,205 --> 00:33:14,685 sociolinguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky for answering so many 573 00:33:14,685 --> 00:33:18,285 of our questions today. If you found this episode fascinating, 574 00:33:18,285 --> 00:33:21,525 you should check out the show she hosts on PBS called 575 00:33:21,585 --> 00:33:25,425 Otherwords. Otherwords investigates fun, interesting 576 00:33:25,425 --> 00:33:29,490 and sometimes totally strange things about language. You can 577 00:33:29,490 --> 00:33:33,570 find it on YouTube and at pbs.org. We'll link to it in our 578 00:33:33,570 --> 00:33:37,230 show notes for this episode, as well. As always, if you have a 579 00:33:37,230 --> 00:33:41,070 question about anything, have an adult record you asking it on a 580 00:33:41,070 --> 00:33:44,430 smartphone using an app like voice memos, then have them 581 00:33:44,490 --> 00:33:49,530 email the file to questions@butwykids.org. But Why 582 00:33:49,530 --> 00:33:53,235 is produced by Melody Bodette, Sarah Baik and me, Jane Lindholm 583 00:33:53,235 --> 00:33:57,375 at Vermont Public and distributed by PRX. Our video 584 00:33:57,375 --> 00:34:00,495 producer is Joey Palumbo, and our theme music is by Luke 585 00:34:00,495 --> 00:34:03,975 Reynolds. If you like our show, please have your adults help you 586 00:34:03,975 --> 00:34:07,815 give us a thumbs up or a review on whatever podcast platform you 587 00:34:07,815 --> 00:34:11,355 use to listen to us. It helps other kids and families find us. 588 00:34:11,955 --> 00:34:16,515 We'll be back in two weeks with an all new episode. Until then, 589 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:18,300 stay curious.