Episodes
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Paul's guests for May 2022 are Edda Sharpe and Jan Haydn Rowles, authors of "How To Do Accents" and leading figures in the world of voice, speech, and dialects. The three discuss dialects in the English National Opera revival of "My Fair Lady" (coached by Edda) and the film "Belfast" (coached by Jan). They also engage in a larger discussion of dialects and accents, including the ones featured in those productions: Received Pronunciation (RP), Northern Irish, and Cockney.
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The April 2022 episode is a celebration of the first 50 episodes of "In a Manner of Speaking," the podcast Paul began in February 2018. Reminisce with Paul about some of his favorite episodes and join him in thanking all his guests -- and YOU for listening. And, as always, visit the main podcast page (https://www.paulmeier.com/in-a-manner-of-speaking/) for more info. (Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)
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Missing episodes?
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Paul’s guest for March 2022 is Denise Woods, a successful Hollywood dialect coach, theatre professor at the California Institute of the Arts, and author of "The Power of Voice." The two discuss topics related to dialect coaching, including audiobook narration, accent modification or "reduction," and coaching Black actors.
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Paul's guest for February 2022 is Lane Greene, language columnist and Spain correspondent for "The Economist." This month's episode takes its title from one of Lane's books, "You Are What You Speak," and Paul and Lane tackle a variety of topics related to linguistics, accents, and the myths, fears, and hopes surrounding language. For more information on Lane, visit LaneGreene.com.
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Paul's first 2022 guests are Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher of “Vocal Process." The three discuss pitch, specifically the extremes of the human voice as it relates to both speaking and singing. For more information, including biographies of Gillyanne and Jeremy, and links to the full recordings excerpted here, visit the page devoted to this month's podcast on PaulMeier.com.
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Paul's final guest for 2021 is Willem Hollmann, who has been generating headlines with his thoughts on how we teach grammar and dialects. A professor of linguistics and associate dean in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Lancaster University in England, Hollmann encourages a more robust discussion of regional English dialects and grammar in English education. But his views have also been distorted by the media, so in this month's podcast, Paul and Willem set the record straight. All dialects are equal, but are some more equal than others? Find out by listening to the December podcast. To learn more about Paul's guest, visit https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/willem-hollmann.
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For the November 2021 podcast, Paul discusses the peculiarities of the English language with Arika Okrent, linguist and author of "Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme." For more information on Arika, visit ArikaOkrent.com.
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Paul's guest for October 2021 is professional audiobook narrator Elizabeth Wiley. The two talk about everything related to the art of audiobook narration and read from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and Andromeda Romano-Lax's "Annie and the Wolves," which is available at Audible.com. For more on Elizabeth, visit WileyVoice.com.
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For the September 2021 podcast, Paul and his guest, legendary linguist David Crystal, converse about ... conversation itself.
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For the August 2021 podcast, Paul discusses heightened language and Black playwrights with Professor Jacqueline Springfield of Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia. To learn about Professor Springfield, please visit www.JacquelineSpringfield.com.
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Paul's guest for the July 2021 podcast is Professor Pamela Keller of the School of Law at the University of Kansas, where she teaches what she calls "lawyering skills." Appropriately, the topic of conversation is the spoken word as it relates to the law and, specifically, courtroom procedures and presentations. To learn more about Professor Keller, visit https://law.ku.edu/faculty/pamela-keller.
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The topic for the June 2021 podcast is glossolalia, which this month's guest, phonologist Paul de Lacy, defines as "spontaneous, sustained speech that doesn't convey complex meaning." Often described as "speaking in tongues," this has been the subject of de Lacy's research since the mid-1990s. For more information on de Lacy, visit visit https://www.pauldelacy.net. And please see the full page devoted to this podcast at PaulMeier.com for more information, including the links to the YouTube clips excerpted for this podcast.
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For the May 2021 podcast, Paul discusses reading to children with Mem Fox, Australia's bestselling writer and author of more than 40 books, including "Possum Magic" and "Time for Bed." For more about Mem, visit https://memfox.com/about/.
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For the April 2021 podcast, Paul discusses speech and voice disorders with Joanna Cazden, a speech pathologist specializing in voice rehabilitation for actors and singers, and an advocate for preventive vocal health education. For more information on Joanna, visit www.joannacazden.com and check out the Voice and Speech Disorders collection on IDEA (www.dialectsarchive.com/speech-and-voice-disorders), which she founded.
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For the March 2021 episode, Paul discusses the phonetic phenomena known as the glottal stop and the schwa. The glottal stop is that little explosion you feel in your throat when you say phrases such as "uh-huh," "huh-uh," and "uh-oh," while the schwa is the most common vowel in the English language that is not formally a vowel. Instead, it's a vowel substitute that sounds like "uh."
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For the February 2021 podcast, Paul discusses Polari, the secret language used predominantly by gay men in the United Kingdom in the 19th and 20th centuries. Paul's guest is Paul Baker, professor of English Language at Lancaster University and author of multiple books on the topic.
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The topic for the January 2021 podcast is what Paul's guest, Jan Gist, calls "Shakespeare's Shapely Language." Shapes is her term for literary or rhetorical tropes; she and Paul broaden the discussion to reflect on how such ancient devices figure in advertising, political oratory, and other forms of the spoken word today. For more information on Jan, visit http://jangistspeaking.com.
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The December 2020 podcast focuses on the earliest sound recordings: the experiments of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and Thomas Edison. Paul Meier's guest is Patrick Feaster, principal of First Sounds.org (along with David Giavannoni) and creator of Phonozoic.net, a website devoted to the history of the phonograph and related media. Film historian and IDEA Executive Editor Cameron Meier joins the conversation.
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The topic for November 2020 is the Ancient Greek language. Paul's guest is Rush Rehm, professor of Theater and Classics at Stanford University, and their discussion tackles many aspects of Ancient Greek, including the sound of the language and theatrical performances in Ancient Greece.
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The guest for October 2020 is Dr. Joyce Sukumane, the distinguished South African linguist. Paul and Joyce discuss topics related to African languages, voices, dialects, and language policy.
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