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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Michael Rosen presents Radio 4's open door on the world of words and the way we speak. Email: word.of.mouth@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN |
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PRESENTER |
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"As a child, I was surrounded by people talking about words and language, my
parents and brother spoke several languages. What's more the house always
seemed to be full of people telling stories and jokes, many of which turned
on some word-play or other.
I've been writing poems and stories since I was sixteen and if that doesn't
sensitise you to how language is used then nothing will. So with all that,
to present Word of Mouth feels like being at home. I love it."
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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Terror
A timely investigation into the word terror and its derivations terrorism and terrorist with Lynda Mugglestone, Dean of Pembroke College Oxford.
The word has Latin roots and makes its first appearance in the language during medieval times. It was during the French revolution that the derivation terrorist was coined - then to describe the activities of the revolutionary government.
Listener questions
We collected a number of questions sent in by listeners and gave them to Michael Quinion, who runs the website Worldwide Words and is the author of Port Out, Starboard Home: and other language myths.
He traces the histories of well known phrases such as letting the cat out of the bag, a can of worms and wet behind the ears.
Jeremy Clarke
Jeremy Clarke is the Lowlife columnist for the Spectator magazine.
In a special column for Word of Mouth he describes his double life writing in the style of a posh, between the wars novelist while he talks like a binman from the Essex marshes (which is exactly what he was before he became a journalist).
Pasta
Michael meets the Italian chef Antonio Carluccio to find out what all those pasta names actually mean in English.
Come and see Word of Mouth in action!
The Word of Mouth team are recording two programmes for the next series at the Cheltenham Festival during the afternoon of October 15th.
If you can be in Cheltenham that day and have a question about language or usage you'd like ask our panel of experts to answer, then please e-mail the programme at word.of.mouth@bbc.co.uk, putting the word Cheltenham in the subject header.
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