A Word in Your Ear
267 episodes — Page 2 of 6
A Word in Your Ear: Hip-hip-hooray
What is the history of birthdays?These days, people celebrate with cake, candles, balloons and gifts! However, after years of celebrating with these items, they almost become afterthoughts. But how did these forms of celebrations arise?
A Word in Your Ear: English Dialects
English is Australia's de facto national language and like many nations, us Aussie's have put our own spin on it. Many Australians are even surprised to find out that different regions or states tend to have their own unique dialects.
A Word in Your Ear: Footy Talk
Nothing gets our gold and green nation going like a good game of sport and in particular footy! Where it's League, Rugby or AFL - our passion runs deep. In fact, Australia has one of the highest sports participation rates in the entire world.
A Word in Your Ear: St Patrick's Day
Australia is the most Irish country in the world outside Ireland.Irish-born immigrants and their descendants have been a feature of the Australian population since the arrival of the First Fleet in New South Wales in 1788.You may assume America would be in the running for that title - they have 30 million people claiming Irish heritage.
A Word in Your Ear: Wild Weather Words
Have you ever heard weather phrases such as 'the wet', 'rain bomb' or 'mizzle' and wonder where they came from or what they actually mean? Roly Sussex takes us on a journey through weather event terminology.
A Word in Your Ear: Americanisms Part 2
Often times Australians will initially adopt Americanisms ironically but after a while the irony disappears and those words and phrases become part of our everyday language.
A Word in Your Ear: Hello and Goodbye
Whether you're meeting someone for the first time or you see them every day, the way we greet and farewell someone can say a lot about your culture, manners and familiarity to the other person.
A Word in Your Ear: Articulation & Speech Patterns
It's an age old question: 'Haitch' or 'Aitch'? What do the differences in how we pronounce words say about us?
A Word in Your Ear: New Year & Christmas Alliteration
Now that the festive season is done, its time to pack up the decorations, put away leftover wrapping paper and store this year's Christmas cards.
A Word in Your Ear: Giving & Philanthropy
Roly Sussex explores the origins of giving, and words like philanthropy, donations and charity.
A Word in Your Ear: Acronyms & Initialisms
What's the difference between Qantas and the ATO? Roly Sussex will take you into the strange world of acronyms and initialisms.
A Word in Your Ear: Americanisms
Americanisms have had such an impact on our language that ABC's Roly Sussex has recorded over 10,000 of them.
A Word in Your Ear: Spooky Words
Boo! From witches to wicca, Roly Sussex peeks behind the curtain of words like ghosts, spectres, Halloween and haunts.
A Word in Your Ear: The Language of Democracy
With US elections on the horizon, Roly Sussex investigates the language of democracy.
A Word in Your Ear: Italian Cuisine
It's the delicious language of Italy on the menu tonight.
A Word in Your Ear: Echo Phrases
Are you feeling tip-top, hoity-toity or namby-pamby today? Roly investigates the curiosities of echo phrases.
A Word in Your Ear: Onomatopoeia
Do dogs go "whoof, whoof", "ruff, ruff" or "wan, wan"? Roly Sussex explores the origins of onomatopoeia.
A Word in Your Ear: The Language of AFL
What's the Aussie origins of the slang, jargon and banter of our nation's greatest footy code?
A Word in Your Ear: Mispronunciation & Mondegreens
A "blessing in disguise" or a "blessing in the skies"? Roly Sussex dives into the elusive mondegreen.
A Word in Your Ear: Pirate Speak
"Wut a way you" might sound like pirate speak, but it’s a common greeting on this Australian island.
A Word in Your Ear: French Influences on Cooking Words
Who knows what sous vide is? What does being out of breath have to do with your soufflé?
A Word in Your Ear: The Language of Gen Alpha
Two teenagers explain the nuances of "rizz", "no cap" and "sigma" to Professor Roly Sussex.
A Word in Your Ear: The Language of The News
How has news language changed over the years? And why do news reporters say words in that fancy way?
A Word in Your Ear: Hedges and Politeness
Do you ever "soften" your language to sound more polite? Roly Sussex explains "hedges", where English soften statements for pleasantry's sake.
A Word in Your Ear: Mispronunciations and Common Mistakes
From mispronunciation to grammatical errors, Roly Sussex explores some of the common mistakes in English.
A Word in Your Ear: English's Newest Words
The Cambridge Dictionary added 3200 new wods to their books last year. So what are they? Roly Sussex is your guide.
A Word in Your Ear: The French Language
Bonjour! This week, Roly Sussex discusses the significance and evolution of the French language.
A Word in Your Ear: Metaphors
We've hit the nail on the head! This week, Roly Sussex discusses the significance of metaphors in everyday language.
A Word in Your Ear: Manners and Politeness
Please & Thank You! This week, Roly Sussex discusses how manners and gratitude are expressed differently around the world.
A Word in Your Ear: Grandparents and 'Cold Turkey'
Marmee? Gram? Gramps? Papa? This week, Roly Sussex discusses the words we use for our older relatives.
A Word in Your Ear: Written vs Spoken Languages
Are all written languages spoken? And are all spoken languages written?
A Word in Your Ear: Pub Names and Bar Chat
From The Churchill Arms to Ye Old Fighting Cocks, there's a whole "alien" language associated with pub talk.
A Word in Your Ear: The Language of Music
Music has the uncanny ability to be understood by anyone, anywhere. But why? And how did music develop its own kind of "language"?
A Word in Your Ear: Feminine and Gendered Language
From ships and professions to family structures and pronouns, Roly Sussex navigates the complex web of gendered language.
A Word in Your Ear: Weather Words with Jenny Woodward
Wind, clouds and rain... ABC's Roly Sussex discusses weather words alongside ABC TV Weather Presenter Jenny Woodward.
A Word in Your Ear: Catchy Phrases
Flat out like a lizard drinking! ABC's Roly Sussex discusses catchy phrases.
A Word In Your Ear: Phonetics and The Sounds of Language
Lips, tongue, teeth and cheeks... ABC's Roly Sussex discusses the sounds of language.
A Word In Your Ear: The Anzac Legacy in Language
Tell me a furphy... What is a brass razoo? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses language used during wartime.
A Word In Your Ear: New Words and The Yoghurt Debate
Omnishambles? Yoghurt? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses new words and how to pronounce yoghurt.
A Word In Your Ear: Avoidance Language and Rhyming Slang
A frog and toad for the road? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses avoidance language and rhyming slang.
A Word in Your Ear: Advertising Language
Catchy slogans. Memorable jingles. ABC's Roly Sussex discusses advertising language and memorable catchphrases.
A Word in Your Ear: Weather Words and Easter
The Easter Bunny? It's raining cats and dogs? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses weather phrases and the origins of Easter.
A Word in Your Ear: Phrase Verbs and the Strange Origins of 'Get'
Hang in there. Get over it. Put up with it. How did these peculiar and 'improper' phrases come to pervade the English language?
A Word in Your Ear: Sports Idioms
Football or soccer? From kicking goals to putting the ball in their court, Roly Sussex discusses his favourite sports idioms.
A Word in Your Ear: Syllables and Full Stops
White house? Mardi Gras? Roly Sussex discusses the muddling of syllables, and the changing face of the full stop.
A Word in Your Ear: Animal Words
Catfishing? Dogfishing? And what about breadcrumbing? Roly unveils the surprising origins of animal-based words, and the unexpected impact those words have had on the language of dating.
A Word in Your Ear: Month Pronounciation
Feb-RAR-y? Feb-RY? Feb-YOR-ary? How do you say February?
A Word in Your Ear: Love Language
I love you. I adore you. I'm smitten. You drive me crazy. I need you. But why?
A Word in Your Ear: Stress & Emphasis
Should you stress about stress in words? Roly Sussex explains the surprising origins for why we emphasise the things we do.
A Word in Your Ear: Pronunciation & Enunciation
Kilometre or KILO-metre? Addicting or addictive? And should you drop the 't' in comfortable?