A Word in Your Ear

The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses eponyms.

The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses echo phrases.

Are we succumbing to American-isms?

The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses spelling and pronunciation.

Depending on whether you're speaking the King's English, the POTUS English, or good old 'Strayan English, the one language can sound entirely different.

Fresh off the back of his European tour, Professor Roly Sussex is finally back in Queensland to share a word in your ear.

Professor Roly Sussex is away on a European tour, but he hasn't stopped sharing his linguistic lessons.

Professor Roly Sussex is away on a European tour, but he hasn't stopped sharing his linguistic learnings. Roly joins Kat Feeney all the way from Estonia in northern Europe.

It's officially 100 days until Queensland can celebrate its Royal Show - the beloved Ekka!But why do we call it the Ekka? And where did the term "sideshow alley" come from?Professor Roly Sussex is digging into the Ekka terminology.

In school, you were probably taught they were the 'doing words'. But are English verbs a bit more complicated than that? Professor Roly Sussex investigates verbs and how they've evolved over time.

Have you ever, erm, noticed, like, how many times people totally say words they actually don't even need in a sentence? Turns out, it's a lot.This week, Professor Roly Sussex is culling the redundant words we use to fill the silence.

Are you an 'er', an 'ese', an 'an', an 'ee', an 'ian' or an 'ish'?There are so many different suffixes to describe the place you come from.Professor Roly Sussex breaks down the complexities of demonyms.

Mate? Guys? Confrère? What's the best way to address a friend, a group of colleagues, or someone you've never even met? Professor Roly Sussex tackles terms of address.

To celebrate the World Science Festival returning to Brisbane, Professor Roly Sussex is breaking down the linguistic science of the Periodic Table.

How did our clothes get the names that they have? From shirts to skirts and everything in between, Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the origins of our wardrobes.

As a nation are we naturally more reticent about using terms of endearment in public?

Why are some people under the weather and others ill? A fully sick Professor Roly Sussex is talking about words, expressions and idioms for poor health.

What's the origin of family names? Do they come from the profession of an ancestor, a location or are they simply patronymic? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the origin of the surname.

What does the Queen Consort mean? Where does the word throne come from? Professor Roly Sussex chats about the history and meanings of language used when referring to someone royal.

Why do you call a highway... a highway? Professor Roly Sussex is talking about the language of transport in this edition of A Word in Your Ear.

Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about unusual words to add to your vocabulary.

How vulnerable are we to mispronouncing certain words? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why some words are more commonly mispronounced than others.

Knives that cut and knights as in shining armour, psychology and psychologists, gnats in the air and gnomes in the garden. Professor Roly Sussex explains why we bother with silent letters.

There's a severe weather warning for dangerous winds at the moment so who better to talk about wind words and idioms than the word wizard himself, Professor Roly Sussex?

Dutch courage, a Dutch auction, and a Dutch oven are expressions that, like ABC Radio's Mike van Acker, have their origins in the Netherlands, but how many words that we use in everyday language come from Dutch? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about loanwords.

They form the basis of every word we read and every sentence we speak, but where do letters come from? That's just one of the questions for Professor Roly Sussex from students at Ferny Grove State School.

Do women interrupt less and generally use more polite language than blokes? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the linguistic war of the sexes.

State of Origin on Sunday so who will you barrack for? In Britain, barracking is about shouting loudly to interrupt someone so why does barracking mean something different in Australia?

Bludgers and bogans, drongos and dunnies or do you buy sangers at the servo? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about Aussie slang.

Roly Sussex is talking about the cold weather, how we describe and what we wear? A pullover? A sweater, a jumper or a cardigan?

Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the words you hear most often in politics but which mean the least.

It's that whatchamacallit when Professor Roly Sussex talks about words, language, linguistics and other thingamajigs.

Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about those words, the buzzwords, that come up time and time again. What are they, why do politicians keep using them, and what are they really trying to say?

A bellweather seat, a dark horse, swing states, and dog whistling: common enough expressions in election time, but what are their origins? Professor Roly Sussex is talking politics.

Why do so many languages have a gender for the words but, in the main, English doesn't? Professor Roly Sussex is on hand with an answer.

Sometimes the same word can be pronounced in different ways so does it all depend where the speaker's from? Professor Roly Sussex has an answer to the controversy - but how does he pronounce controversy?

New words in the English language pop all the time. Words like meme and paywall are connected with the digital age in which we now live. But how do new words become formally accepted for use though?

If it's mouse and mice, why isn't it house and hice? And what about tooth and teeth or foot and feet? Who makes the rules and why aren't they consistent? Professor Roly Sussex explains.

De-escalation, incursions and invasions: the dogs of war are barking but, if truth is the first casualty in war, then what happens to language?

Ink wells and blotting paper, milk monitors and chalk: the classrooms have reopened this week, but the language of school has changed and many words that were almost synonymous with the classroom have disappeared from everyday use.

Credenza, console, cabinet and cupboards: do we really keep cups in our cupboards? Professor Roly Sussex explains.

Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why certain words or expressions disappear or are removed from the English language.

Australian English seems to be adopting more and more expressions from the US, but how many Aussie words and expressions do you think the North Americans are borrowing from us?

What's the origin of our Christmas expressions and how is the festive season talked about in languages other than English?

From which other language did most English words originate? That's just one of the questions from students at Junction Park State School and Professor Roly Sussex is doing his very best to answer.

'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is an English-language pangram: it's a sentence which contains all of the letters of the English alphabet. But is that the only pangram? Professor Roly Sussex is on a mission to find out.

If you can't say what you mean then how can you mean what you say?

How big is your vocabulary? Former British prime minister and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Winston Churchill is supposed to have had a 60.000 word vocabulary. It's a question about vocabulary that's on the mind of Wesley, a Year 6 student at Durack State School and Professor Roly Sussex is only too happy to help out.

What's the G doing in benign or consign or even gnome? Allow Professor Sussex to explain.

Who was the very first person to speak and where was it? These are questions that have been troubling Eva. She's in Year 6 at St Sebastian's Primary School in Yeronga and Professor Roly Sussex is only too happy to answer.