A Word in Your Ear
267 episodes — Page 3 of 6
A Word in Your Ear: English spelling
From utes to the quirks of the English language, Roly Sussex is here to answer all your linguistic questions.
A Word in Your Ear: Words of the Year
From "authentic" to "Matildas", Roly Sussex returns with some of his favourite words of the past annum.
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?
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?
A Word in Your Ear: Insults
Insults are hardly features of polite conversation, but some might say we've gotten a bit soft.
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'?
A Word in Your Ear: Punctuation
Is it exclamation points, or exclamation marks? What's the deal with the full stop, apostophe and comma?
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Stress words
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses where to put the emphasis on words.
A Word in Your Ear: Age
The word 'old' has come to have some rather peculiar connotations.
A Word in Your Ear: Phrasal verbs
Break down, luck out! Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex discusses phrasal verbs.
A Word in Your Ear: Football words
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses the language of football.
A Word in Your Ear: Politeness
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses the language of being polite.
A Word in Your Ear: Gardening terminology
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses terms related to your garden.
A Word in Your Ear: Signals and Signs
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses the effectiveness of signals, symbols and signs.
A Word in Your Ear: English's evolution
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses the evolution of the English language.
A Word in Your Ear: Sports nicknames
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses the nicknames we give our favourite sports players.
A Word in Your Ear: Dutch influences
A Word in Your Ear: Americanisms
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses Americanisms.
A Word in Your Ear: Eponyms
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses eponyms.
A Word in Your Ear: Echo phrases
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses echo phrases.
A Word in Your Ear: All about 'u'
Are we succumbing to American-isms?
A Word in Your Ear: Spelling and Pronunciations
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses spelling and pronunciation.
A Word in Your Ear: Battle of the English
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Back in Queensland
Fresh off the back of his European tour, Professor Roly Sussex is finally back in Queensland to share a word in your ear.
A Word in Your Ear: A word from Huddersfield
Professor Roly Sussex is away on a European tour, but he hasn't stopped sharing his linguistic lessons.
A Word in Your Ear: A word from Estonia
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Ekka terminology
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.
A Word in Your Ear: English verbs
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Filler words
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Demonyms
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.
A Word In Your Ear: Terms of Address
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.
A Word In Your Ear: The Periodic Table
To celebrate the World Science Festival returning to Brisbane, Professor Roly Sussex is breaking down the linguistic science of the Periodic Table.
A Word In Your Ear: Clothing names
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Endearment
As a nation are we naturally more reticent about using terms of endearment in public?
A Word in Your Ear: Sickness
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Family names
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Royal language
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Transport
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Unusual words
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about unusual words to add to your vocabulary.
A Word in Your Ear: Mispronunciation
How vulnerable are we to mispronouncing certain words? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about why some words are more commonly mispronounced than others.
A Word in Your Ear: Silent letters
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Wind
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?
A Word in Your Ear: Dutch language
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Kids ask their questions
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.
A Word in Your Ear: Gender influences
Do women interrupt less and generally use more polite language than blokes? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the linguistic war of the sexes.
A Word in Your Ear: Sports expressions
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?
A Word in Your Ear: Aussie slang
Bludgers and bogans, drongos and dunnies or do you buy sangers at the servo? Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about Aussie slang.
A Word in Your Ear: Winter words
Roly Sussex is talking about the cold weather, how we describe and what we wear? A pullover? A sweater, a jumper or a cardigan?
A Word in Your ear: Weasel words
Professor Roly Sussex is chatting about the words you hear most often in politics but which mean the least.