In a Manner of Speaking

Brian Ott For the October 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking, Paul Meier discusses the connection between orality and literacy with Professor Brian Ott, an expert in the field of rhetoric and media. Paul and Brian discuss many topics related to rhetoric and the oral tradition throughout human history. Professor Ott, who holds a Ph.D from the Pennsylvania State University, is professor of communication and media at Missouri State University. He has been studying rhetoric and media and their intersection for more than 25 years. Brian has authored numerous books and essays on the changing nature of communication in the digital era, and he has been interviewed by the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Politico, among others. His op-eds have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek,  Salon, Business Insider, and The Hill. He is the former director of Texas Tech University Press, a former editor-in-chief of the Western Journal of Communication, and a former president of the Western States Communication Association. For more information on Brian, visit Wikipedia and Missouri State University’s website. And for a PDF list of Professor Ott’s media interviews, go here. (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 69 (Orality and Literacy) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Distinguished linguist David Crystal discusses the history of the English language, including Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. He also explores the influences of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and French. The podcast covers the evolution of English pronunciation, the impact of French on the language, and Shakespeare's original pronunciation. It also delves into accents in writing and the development of American and Australian English.

Jill Purce For the August 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking, Paul talks to Jill Purce, the doyenne of harmonic overtone chanting, which is often called polyphonic overtone singing, or singing two or more notes at the same time. Paul and Jill discuss all aspects of this unique art. Jill is recognized globally as the pioneer of both the sound and the ancestral healing movements. In the 1970s, she introduced the teaching of overtone chanting throughout the world, along with the spiritual potential of the voice for healing and meditation. In the early 1970s, she lived and worked with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, exploring music’s spiritual dimension. She learned overtone chanting in the Himalayas with the chant master of the Gyutö Tibetan Monastery. Jill practiced Dzogchen from 1978 with the late Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. In the last 40 years, she pioneered both her workshops, Healing Voice and Healing the Family and Ancestors, the latter a unique combination of family constellations, chant, and ceremony. Jill is the author of The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul. Her recordings include Overtone Chanting Meditations and The Healing Voice. She lives in London with her husband, Rupert Sheldrake, and their two sons, musician Cosmo and author and biologist Merlin. For more information about Jill, visit HealingVoice.com. Several YouTube clips are excerpted under the copyright doctrine of fair use in this podcast. Below you will find the entire clips: Nestor Kornblum, Amazing Grace Harmonic Choir, Hearing Solar Winds: Ascending and Descending Jill Purce: Overtone chanting in St. Paul’s Cathedral Five female overtone and throat singing experts   Now available from Jill Purce: Online Family Constellation Workshop, September 22 -24, 2023. London Non-residential Week Intensive, October 28 – November 3, 2023. Online Healing Voice Workshop, October 21-22, 2023. Jill’s two albums: Overtone Chanting Meditations and The Healing Voice.   (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 67 (Harmonic Overtone Chanting) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

The July 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking is all about William Shakespeare. Paul dives deep into the Bard, from iambic pentameter, to scansion, to scoring, to metre, to Original Pronunciation. It’s a fun exercise for scholars and professionals but also actors just starting out on their Shakespeare journey. Paul references his Voicing Shakespeare ebook, which is a great accompaniment to this month’s podcast. For details on how to purchase and download it, go here. (It’s available both in Windows and iTunes/Mac/iPhone formats.)   Below is Edmund’s speech from King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. To hear Paul deliver the speech in Original Pronunciation (OP), click or tap the triangle-shaped play button. (To hear Paul’s reading of the speech in a modern dialect, go here. ) And for a more complete scansion and scoring of the speech, click here. https://www.paulmeier.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ThouNatureArtMyGoddessInOP.mp3   Thou, na│ture, art│ my god│dess; ││ to │thy law ENJ My ser│vices│ are bound. │││Wherefore│ should I ENJ Stand in│ the plague│ of cus│tom, ││ and│ permit ENJ The cu│rios│ity│ of na│tions││ to│ deprive│ me, HEX For that│ I am│││ some twelve│ or four│teen moon-│shines ENJ Lag of│ a broth│er? │││Why bas│tard? where│fore base? HEX [1] When my│ dimen│sions ││ are│ as well │compact, My mind │as gen│’rous, ││and │my shape │as true ENJ As hon│est ma│dam’s iss│ue? │││Why brand│ they us ENJ HEX[2] With base? │ with base│ness? ││ bas│tardy? │ base, base? Who, [in │the lust│y stealth│ of nat│ure, ││] take ENJ More com│posi│tion ││and│ fierce qua│lity ENJ Than doth, [│within│ a dull, │││stale, tir│ed bed,] Go t’ the │crea│ting a│ whole tribe│ of fops, Got ‘tween │asleep │and wake? │││Well, then, TETR Legit│’mate Ed│gar, ││ I│ must have│ your land: Our fa│ther’s love│││ is to│ the bas│tard Ed│mund ENJ As to│ the le│git’mate: │││fine word, — │legit│imate! HEX Well, my │legit│’mate, ││if │this let│ter speed, And my │inven│tion thrive, │││ Edmund │the base ENJ Shall top │the leg│it’mate. │││ I grow; │ I pros│per: Now, gods, │││ stand up│ for bas│tards! [1] This line scans as a broken-backed hexameter with a silent extra beat, taking up metrical space, following brother.  This is a very rare type of line. [2] And again, another broken-backed hexameter. For a partial phonetic analysis of the speech in Original Pronunciation, see below. (For further analysis of OP, see Paul’s Original Pronunciation ebook.) Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law ðəʊ    nɛːtʰə˞  a˞t mɪ gɑdɛs    tʰə ðəɪ lɑː My services are bound. Wherefore should I mɪ  sɐ˞vɪsɪz  ə˞ bəʊnd   ʍɛ˞fɔ˞       ʃʊd əi Stand in the plague of custom, and permit stand ɪ ðə pʰlɛːg ə kʰɤstəm an pʰɐ˞mɪtʰ The curiosity of nations to deprive me, ðə kʰju̹ɹiɑsɪtʰəɪ ə nɛːsjənz tʰə dɪpʰɹəɪv mɪ For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines fə˞ ðatʰ əi am sɤm tʰʍɛɫv ə˞ fo˞tʰeːn mu̹nʃəɪnz Lag of a brother?  Why bastard? wherefore base? lag əv ə bɹɤðə˞    ʍəɪ bastə˞d     ʍɛ˞fɔ˞    bɛːs When my dimensions are as well compact, ʍɛn məɪ dəmɛnsjənz a˞ əz wɛɫ kʰəmpʰaktʰ My mind as generous, and my shape as true, mɪ məɪnd əz d͡ʒɛnɹəs and mɪ ʃɛːp əz tɹu̹ː As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us az  ɑnɪst madəmz ɪsjə     ʍəɪ  bɹand ðɛ ɤs With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? wɪ  bɛːs     wɪ bɛːsnəs     bastʰɐ˞dəɪ bɛːs bɛːs   And for further Shakespeare study, don’t forget to listen to Paul’s previous podcasts: episodes one, fifteen, thirty-six, forty-three, and fifty-eight.   (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 66 (“Shakespeare’s Magical Keyboard”) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Praveen Shanbhag After asking the Shakespearean question “What’s in a name?” on the May 2023 In a Manner of Speaking podcast, Paul takes that topic a step further for the June episode by interviewing Praveen Shanbhag, the founder and CEO of Namecoach. Namecoach allows you to create a “namebadge” that you can add to your e-mail signature or social-media account, or wherever you want. The badge contains a sound file of you pronouncing your own name. Paul and Praveen discuss Namecoach and other topics related to name pronunciation. After hearing his sister’s name mispronounced at her college graduation, Praveen says he was compelled to create the initial Namecoach product while finishing his Ph.D. at Stanford. Prior to building Namecoach, he pursued studies in biochemistry, physics, history, and philosophy, and holds degrees from Harvard (B.A.), Columbia (M.A.), Cambridge (MPhil), and Stanford (Ph.D). For more information, visit Name-coach.com. To record your own “namebadge,” go here. For Namecoach’s social media, visit Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram. And watch Praveen’s appearance on Alan Headbloom’s Feel Like You Belong: (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 65 (“Namecoach”) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Graham Pointon For the May 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking, Paul and his guest, Graham Pointon, attempt to answer the popular question “What’s in a Name?” Specifically, they discuss how one decides on pronunciations of people and place names, and the issues surrounding “proper” pronunciation of words in general. Graham is the former pronunciation adviser for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). After studying French and linguistics for an MA (Hons), receiving the diploma in phonetics at Edinburgh University, and spending a year on a Spanish-government scholarship at Madrid’s Complutense University, Graham spent six years as a lecturer in English phonetics at Trondheim University in Norway. He also completed his MLitt for Edinburgh on the rhythm of spoken Spanish. He then moved back to the United Kingdom to take up the post of pronunciation adviser at the BBC, where he stayed until the end of 2001. Since leaving the BBC, he has co-authored three books on English usage with a former colleague in Norway, Stewart Clark, and writes an occasional blog: Linguism. For more information on the BBC Pronunciation Unit, go here. For more on Paul Auster’s novel, 4-3-2-1, see Wikipedia. And learn how to pronounce one of the world’s longest place names: And for further reading on this topic, Graham suggests Jurg R. Schwyter’s Dictating to the Mob, from Oxford University Press in 2016 (ISBN: 9780198736738), which discusses the history of the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English. (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)  The post Episode 64 (‘What’s in a Name?’) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Catherine Sangster Welcome to the April 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking. This month’s guest is Dr. Catherine Sangster, executive editor of pronunciations at Oxford Languages. She has been in charge of pronunciations for The Oxford English Dictionary for 11 years. Paul and Catherine discuss not just the dictionary and the purpose and origins of the dictionary but many other topics related to pronunciation. Before moving into lexicography, Dr. Sangster headed the BBC Pronunciation Unit and completed a D.Phil. in sociophonetics. Catherine’s linguistic research interests include accents and dialects, Germanic languages, the phonology of conlangs, language and gender/sexuality, and Latin and its Anglicization. For the OED’s pronunciation models and transcription keys for World Englishes, visit https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/.  For the recent press release discussing the decision to add Indian-English pronunciations to the dictionary, click here. For more information about the OED, go to OED.com. And for more about Catherine, click here. (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 63 (The Oxford English Dictionary) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

For the March 2023 episode of the podcast, Paul takes an in-depth look at the world of speed talking and speed singing. He examines the world records and introduces us to the wide variety of people who are called upon to talk or sing quickly — from actors to auctioneers to debaters to people who simply enjoy speaking at high speeds. Here is the original text that Paul and Cameron use in their speed test: “So this old guy comes up to me and wants me to tell him how fast I can talk. I told him I didn’t know but like why did he want to know such a thing.  He said he’d heard of a man who could speak four times as fast as the norm. So I said to him let’s put it to the test and I told him I’d write him a short speech that we could use to test our own speeds and this is it. So if you want to see how close you can get to the top speeds I spoke of just use this brief text. Can you do it fast and still make it clear and not make it sound like a speed test?” For the lyrics to “The Major-General’s Song” or “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” plus the lyrics to Tom Lehrer’s parody, “The Elements Song,” go here. This episode includes many fair-use snippets of longer video and audio clips. Many of those clips are available in their entirety below. And to hear cattle auctioneer John Korrey, go directly to YouTube. (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 62 (Fast-Talkin’ Dudes) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Malachy O’Neill The Irish language is the podcast topic for February 2023, and Paul’s guest is Professor Malachy O’Neill, Irish language scholar and director of Regional Engagement at Ulster University. Paul and Malachy discuss all aspects of the Irish language, including its history, dialects, and status as an endangered language. In his position at Ulster University, Professor O’Neill takes responsibility for relationships with key stakeholders including governmental agencies, councils, trusts, and other relevant authorities on behalf of the institution. He was awarded a personal chair in Irish (2020) and was provost magee campus (2016-2021) and head of the School of Irish Language and Literature (2012-2017). He has played a central role in a range of strategic initiatives for the university, including city and growth deals (UK government), Shared Island (Irish government), the inception of a School of Medicine (opened in 2021), the development of the North West Cross-border Tertiary Cluster (with FE/HE partners), and the accreditation of Derry/Strabane as a UNESCO Learning City Region. He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2019, the highest accolade in UK Higher Education, and is a principal fellow of the Higher Education Authority.  He was appointed to the Department for Communities’ Irish Language Strategy Expert Advisory Panel in 2021 was a member of the Irish Government’s Review Board of the Official Irish Language Standard (2016). He was editor of An tUltach (2008-2010). His research includes modern Irish pedagogy, the O’Neill dynasty, and Irish language theatre; and he is lead investigator (Northern Ireland) in the c.€4million Shared Island social capital research initiative with NUI Galway, University of Limerick and Atlantic Technological University. He is a board member of the Derry Chamber of Commerce and a director on the Governing Body of North West Regional College. For more information on Professor O’Neill, go here. Malachy recently contributed his voice to the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA). Go here to listen to him speak both English and Irish. For information about Irish and Celtic Studies at Ulster University, go here. A similar resource can be found here. In addition, An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) is currently making cinematic waves. And for Irish poetry, visit Lyrikline. Lastly, a wide range of short films are available online, particularly on YouTube. Yu Ming is Ainm Dom (My Name is Yu Ming), below, is a particularly illustrative look at the Irish language as perceived by both the Irish and non-Irish. Below is a transcription of the text that Professor O’Neill reads: Extract from An Druma Mór by Seosamh Mac Grianna (An Gúm, 1969): Eadar sliabh agus cladach, ó Iorras go Málainn Mhór, atá Gaeltacht Thír Chonaill, mar bheadh sí ag casmairt le fiántas na farraige móire. Is iomaí fail agus cneá ar na cladaigh chéanna, is iomaí colm agus gág iontu, de thairbhe an chomhraic sin a thosaigh sula dtáinig Parthalán go hInis Samhaoir, sea, agus sula dtáinig blianta nó laetha chun an tsaoil as broinn chian cheoch na haimsire. Tá an brablach tanaí domasaí atá mar úir ann ina luí ar na creagacha is sine ar an domhan; tá grágáin go fras ann – buna na gcrann mór a mbíodh an eilit ag dul i bhfostó iontu sula gcuala Éire guth daonna riamh. Ní inseoidh neach saolta goidé mar cuireadh síol an fhraoigh atá le fáil go fóill, d’ainneoin curaíochta, síos go fíorbhéal an láin mhara. Níl seanchas lena inse féin cé a chuir an chéad spád ann. Ach is furast a dhreach a shamhailt sula ndeachthas a bhaint barr as … English translation: The Big Drum by Art Hughes (Ben Madigan Press, 2009): The Gaeltacht of Tyrconnell lies between the rugged mountain and rocky shores from Urris to Malinmore, as if it were dueling with the Great Ocean. These same shores bear many wounds and scars, gores and gashes as a consequence of that conflict which began before Parthalán came to Inis Samhaoir, yes and before years or days came into the world from the distant, misty womb of time. The thin covering of mossy ground which serves as soil there lies on the oldest rocks in creation; bog oak is found in abundance – the stumps of the great trees into which the doe used to flee before Ireland ever heard a human voice. No living soul could ever tell how the first seeds of heather were planted, a plant which, in spite of tillage, is still found to the very edge of the sea. No living lore recounts who thrust the first spade there, but it is easy to imagine its countenance before it was ploughed for crops …   (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 61 (Irish: A Language in Danger) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Julien Meyer For the first podcast of 2023, Paul discusses the unique topic of whistled speech with Julien Meyer, linguist, acoustician, and professor at the European Institutes for Advanced Study at the University of Lyon, France. Found in more than 80 languages around the world, whistled speech, or whistled language, is often used to communicate when other forms of speech cannot be used or cannot be heard, often outdoors at great distances. Meyer was a post-doctoral associate researcher (CNPq) at the Linguistics Division of the Museu Goeldi in Belém, Brazil, from 2009 to 2013. He holds a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences option linguistics from the University of Lyon and is currently a CNRS researcher at the GIPSA-lab in Grenoble, France. His research is focused on acoustic communication, principally human language. He studies cognitive, physiologic, ecologic and environmental constraints that influence language production and comprehension. Meyer is the author of Whistled Languages: A Worldwide Inquiry on Human Whistled Speech (2015). He is a research fellow of the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions programme at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Grenoble, for a project called Icon-Eco-Speech. With global inquiries on whistled, drummed, and other instrumental forms of languages based on first-hand fieldwork documentation and study in 15 different language communities, Meyer has developed a unique expertise on natural human telecommunication systems and musical surrogacy encoding human language. He develops methodologies to run production and perception experiments both in the field and in the lab. His research also deals with the music-language edge and the relationships between language and natural rural environments. For additional information about Meyer and whistled speech, visit Eurias-FP.Edu, KnowableMagazine.org, and SoundCloud.com. And for videos related to this topic, watch the YouTube clips below: (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 60 (Whistled Speech) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.