In a Manner of Speaking

This month is all about phonetics and spelling. For the September 2018 episode, Paul offers up a provocative thought experiment that floats the idea of reforming our everyday spelling, replacing it with the International Phonetic Alphabet. Click here to download the accompanying PDF. This document is not just a full transcript of this month’s podcast, but also a guide to the phonetics.The post Episode 8 (Phonetics & Spelling) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

What’s in a name? In this episode, from August 2018, Paul asks why native English speakers across most ethnicities and cultures are apparently addicted to two-syllable names for their children, names with the accent on the first syllable. Why are names like Mary and David at the top of the list and not Celeste and Emil?   Image created by Omelchenko AndriiThe post Episode 7 (What’s in a Name?) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

In this episode, from July 2018, Paul leads the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA). Paul gives insights into the founding of IDEA back in 1998, and we hear from a few people who have had a large role to play in the archive’s success over the last two decades.The post Episode 6 (Happy birthday, IDEA!) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

David Crystal Paul’s guest for June 2018 is David Crystal, one of the world’s most famous linguists and the leader of the modern movement we call OP: Original Pronunciation of Shakespeare’s works. David explains the fascinating linguistic subfield called Pragmatics, which he defines as the “study of the choices that you make when you use language, the reasons for those choices, and the effects that the choices convey.” See David’s websites: http://originalpronunciation.com/, www.davidcrystal.com, and https://www.shakespeareswords.com/.  The post Episode 5 (Pragmatics, with David Crystal) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Cameron Meier Paul’s special guest for May 2018 is Cameron Meier, Executive Editor of IDEA, Vice President of Paul Meier Dialect Services, journalist (see MeierMovies.com), and Paul’s son.  Paul and Cameron discuss the art of the newscaster and the values of broadcast journalism while listening to clips from famous newscasters.    The post Episode 4 (The Art of the Newscaster) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Eric Armstrong Sera-Lys McArthur In this episode, Paul talks with guests Sera-Lys McArthur (a mixed-race Canadian actress) and Eric Armstrong (professor of theatre at York University in Toronto). While the speech of Indigenous people (particularly those of North America) is the broad topic, Eric and Paul also talk at length about the politics and ethics of dialect work in theatre and film, and of the gathering of dialect samples from Indigenous speech donors. You will hear a clip from Sera-Lys McArthur’s miniseries, The Englishman’s Boy. The text and translation of the Nakota speech you will hear in that clip is as follows: Eeneedukabee hay. Weebazoga yuka kyana. Are you hungry? There are Saskatoon berry bushes nearby. Hee, owa-yagay washtay Oh, that is very pretty! Duka wakta, weebazoga oda nuda shten nee-‘ray neeyazakta Be careful: if you eat too many Saskatoon berries, your stomach will really hurt. And for more information on this topic, you might check out a new short film titled To Wake Up the Nakota Language. Described as “a tender portrait of Armand McArthur, the last fluent speaker of the Nakota language in Pheasant Rump First Nation, Treaty 4 territory in southern Saskatchewan,” the film is playing the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in May.The post Episode 3 (Indigenous People) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Julia Whelan Tavia Gilbert In this month’s podcast, Paul discusses the art of audiobook narration with industry leaders Tavia Gilbert and Julia Whelan. Find Julia’s work on Audible.com here and Tavia’s at this link. My Oxford Year will be published in April and released on Audible on April 24; see this link. See this link for details of Be Frank with Me.    The post Episode 2 (Audiobook Narration) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.

This first podcast focuses on Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation (the dialect of English spoken in the late 16th and early 17th century). It also serves as an introduction to the entire In a Manner of Speaking series, as Paul briefly touches on several topics of upcoming podcasts. For more information about the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s upcoming production of Twelfth Night, visit the site. And here is the Original Pronunciation text that Paul references: If music be the food of love, play on ɪf mju̹ːzɪk beː ðə fu̹ːd ə lɤv ple ɑːn Give me excess of it, that surfeiting, gɪ mɪ ɪksɛs əv ɪt ðət sɐ˞fətɪn The appetite may sicken and so die. ðɪ apətəit mɛ sɪkn̩ n̩ so dəi That strain again! It had a dying fall. ðat stɹɛːn əgɛn ɪt ad ə dəiɪn fɑːɫ O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound o ɪt kɛː oə˞ mɪ i˞ ləik ðə sweːt səʊnd That breathes upon a bank of violets. ðət bɹeːðz əpɑn ə baŋk ə vəiəlɪts [Duke Orsino,  Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene 1] (Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)The post Episode 1 (Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.