240 episodes

Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex walks you through the linguistic mindfield, explaining the weird and wonderful aspects of English and many other languages.

A Word in Your Ear ABC listen

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.7 • 149 Ratings

Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex walks you through the linguistic mindfield, explaining the weird and wonderful aspects of English and many other languages.

    A Word in Your Ear: The World of Names

    A Word in Your Ear: The World of Names

    What are the cultural origins of our names? What makes them more feminine or masculine? And when did middle names become a thing?

    • 24 min
    A Word in Your Ear: Advertising jingles

    A Word in Your Ear: Advertising jingles

    From jingles about sun safety to songs about vegemite, Australia's advertising history is full of iconic earworms. But why were they so successful?

    • 23 min
    A Word in Your Ear: Insults

    A Word in Your Ear: Insults

    Insults are hardly features of polite conversation, but some might say we've gotten a bit soft.

    • 22 min
    A Word in Your Ear: Capitals and Capitalisation

    A Word in Your Ear: Capitals and Capitalisation

    How did we decide what should be capitalised, and what should be lowercase? And why do we capitalise 'I' but not 'me'?

    • 25 min
    A Word in Your Ear: Punctuation

    A Word in Your Ear: Punctuation

    Is it exclamation points, or exclamation marks? What's the deal with the full stop, apostophe and comma?

    • 21 min
    A Word in Your Ear: American influences

    A Word in Your Ear: American influences

    The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex,  discusses American influences on the English language.

    • 21 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
149 Ratings

149 Ratings

stuart nicholson ,

Five stars every time.

If you have any interest in the written and spoken language I highly recommend this program. I have listened for several years now on a weekly basis often repeating an episode several times and always come away informed and entertained. Roly you are great!

Barkly Dweller ,

G/day

Great show and I have learned a lot about our language . Thanks Roley .

Port Macquarie fan ,

Fascinated by language

Roly is a star, so informed and knowledgeable I feel intimidated!
Love listening to his podcasts and love not having to suffer through adverts. Well done Roly!

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