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Slate Debates

English Spelling Is a Beautiful Mess

Slate Debates

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, News

4.63K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2018

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John McWhorter on why English spelling is so frustratingly idiosyncratic. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at www.slate.com/podcastsplus. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you're looking for a new podcast, might I recommend our podcast?

0:09.2

Hi, I'm Gabe Dunn, and I'm Allison Raskin.

0:12.5

We have a weekly show called Just Between Us where we explore every kind of topic out

0:17.4

there.

0:18.5

From mental health to sexuality, to animal behavior, to science, we love to interview

0:25.5

fascinating people about their various expertise.

0:29.0

We also answer listener questions and play a very silly game called hypotheticals.

0:34.4

You're not going to want to miss it, it's unhinged.

0:37.2

And if you don't want to trust our word for it because it's our show, you should know

0:40.7

that the IHAR podcast awards nominated us for Best Ensemble for 2023.

0:47.0

That means that we are good at our jobs.

0:49.6

Or we have good chemistry?

0:51.6

Ooh!

0:53.6

So check out Just Between Us every Wednesday.

0:59.4

From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

1:06.4

I'm John McWater, and I was John McWater at Winmore Monastery School in Philadelphia in

1:13.0

1971 too.

1:15.3

And I will never forget the afternoon I bit the dust in the spelling bee.

1:21.5

There are other things that I should remember more about that time.

1:25.2

I remember Jeffrey Nusbaum.

1:27.8

He used to throw his own feces around in the class like a monkey in a zoo.

1:32.9

He thought it was very funny.

...

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