• What is a mondegreen? -
• Hearing is a two - step process: auditory perception & meaning
• The Mcgurk effect -
• How do sounds influence meaning in human language? -
• Accents -
• Dialect -
• Romantic LANGUAGE -
• NEWSCASTER vs TOWN CRIER -
• Sounds and Pronunciation:  -
• Fair and Fare. Bare and Bear. Allowed and Aloud. Sight and Site. Onomatopoeia -
• Does society influence language or language influence society? -

MONDEGREENS & THE INSTINCT OF LANGUAGE   

language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, how it evolves and why we misinterpret. 

With Co-Host:

Kelly E. Wright Wright's research in Sociophonetics, Neurolinguistics, and Historical Sociolinguistics focuses on the link between Linguistic Production and Perception. She applies mixed methodologies including machine learning; massive corpora studies; perceptual and cognitive experimentation; and quantitative phonetic and qualitative sociolinguistic analysis. 

Special guest the stowaway: Mike from Jersey

• A mondegreen (/?m?nd???ri?n/) is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (from Thomas Percy's 1765 book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry), and mishearing the words "layd him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen".

• "Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.

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• Basic Criteria for a system of communication to be considered a language:

• Structure and Grammar: Languages have rules and patterns governing the arrangement of words, phrases, and sentences. They possess grammatical structures that help convey meaning and enable communication.

• Vocabulary: Languages have lexicons containing words and vocabulary specific to that language. These words carry meaning and can be combined to express a wide range of ideas.

• Productivity: Languages are generative, meaning that speakers can create and understand novel utterances that they have never encountered before. This creative aspect allows for the expression of new ideas and thoughts.

• Communicative Intent: Languages are used to convey meaning and communicate ideas, whether they are factual, expressive, or social in nature. They enable speakers to exchange information and express their thoughts and emotions.

• Cultural and Social Context: Languages are embedded within specific cultures and communities. They often reflect the values, customs, and identity of a particular group of people.

• While the criteria above provide a general framework, it's important to note that language is a dynamic and evolving system

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• L.L. Zamenhof believed that language had a huge impact on society.

• He was a Yiddish speaking Lithuanian/Pole who grew up in the Russian Empire. Poland had ceased to exist and was carved up by Prussia, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

• As you might have guessed, that meant that people spoke different languages in his home town.

• He saw disagreements, even fist fights, break out between people of different linguist groups over simple misunderstandings.

• He thought this problem was so bad that he invented Esperanto: the world's most widely spoken conlang.

• He designed the language to be easy to learn—that way people could communicate more easily across cultures.