Cat Bristle - 15 September 2025

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A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A Massachusetts woman complains that a digital highway sign that says Use Ya Blinkah is well-intentioned, but goes too far in making fun of the local dialect. Plus, if you’re puzzling over something--no problem. Just use your Clyde! Also, squatcho and squatchee, wuzzle and fuzzle, juke and jook, gnurr and oosse, the millennial pause and the Gen Z shake, eye dialect, an adverbial brain teaser, the Coanda effect, how to ask for rooiboos tea, and a clever neologism that means “dread.” Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org. Be a part of the show: call or text 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text +1 619 800 4443. Send voice notes or messages via WhatsApp 16198004443. Email [email protected]. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:04.2	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:05.4	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:07.4	Hey, guys.
0:08.9	Today, I'm talking to you in the so-called lifestyle influencer accent.
0:13.8	I'm using rising tones, which make it sound like something's always coming next.
0:19.4	Now, this so-called accent is not so-called accent is not so much from a place as from a platform,
0:25.1	that is, platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
0:28.9	Because if you watch certain online videos, you're going to hear that kind of speech.
0:34.5	And there are reasons for it.
0:36.3	Those rising tones perk up your curiosity as you're
0:39.7	waiting for the next statement. So you keep on listening. And of course, that's what online
0:45.5	influencers want. And it makes sense, right, Grant? I mean, this is a way of holding the floor.
0:52.5	Yeah, there are a lot of ways that we hold the floor.
0:55.0	When we speak, we can drag out a word.
0:59.2	We can toss in a lot of just so we're making a sound and somebody else can't speak.
1:04.4	But this one is pretty interesting.
1:06.5	The influencers speak has got something.
1:09.9	Yeah, I mean, it's a tool.
1:12.0	It's something that online influencers cultivate for a purpose, and that's keeping eyeballs
1:18.8	on the video that they're trying to popularize.
1:21.8	Another example of that is the so-called Gen Z shake.
	...

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