Familiar Strangers (Rebroadcast) - 20 February 2023

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wants advice getting her dad up to speed on memes, Instagram, and animated images. Plus, when you’re on a long road trip, what do you call that one driver you keep passing on the freeway, or who sets the pace for your car mile after mile? Road buddy? Some call them Follow Johns. Plus, the linguistic reason why some people say “SANG-wich” instead of “SAND-wich.” It’s a mouthful — literally! And: thalweg, stick season, quare, jimmycane, the many Spanish words that derive from the Nahuatl language, camera and camaraderie, cada chango en su mecate, a puzzle all about the letter E, the connection between dollar and Neanderthal, umarell, and menos burros, más elotes. Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. 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.
0:03.7	I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Grant, we've gotten a lot of reaction to our conversation
0:09.7	with Haley. She's the poet in Minnesota who wondered if there weren't more terms for the seasons
0:16.8	than just winter spring summer and fall. The times between the seasons where something weather
0:23.2	wise is happening, but it doesn't really fit the other categories. And it turns out that there
0:28.0	are lots of terms for those many seasons. We heard from David Alice in Burlington, Vermont,
0:34.0	who says in his state they also have something called stick season. And stick season is once the
0:40.8	leaves have all fallen and there's no snow on the ground yet, typically in November. David says I
0:46.8	suppose because autumn is so spectacular here that it's quite the contrast when the leaves are
0:52.4	suddenly down. The forests look like big sticks. And he says he'd never heard of that until he
0:57.9	moved to Vermont. And we also heard from Linda Lavalette who lives in rural Upper Michigan.
1:04.1	And she said we refer to the time between winter and spring as mud season.
1:09.3	We heard that from more than a few listeners. Mud season is very popular around the country.
1:14.2	I don't think they throw parties, but they and they don't look forward to it.
1:18.6	No, not at all. And it reminds me that in old English, before we started using the term
1:25.6	February for that second month of the year, there was the term Saul Monoth, which may mean mud month,
1:32.7	which makes a lot of sense. Yeah, at least in the northern hemisphere mud month.
1:39.1	This is good. What do you call the other seasons of the year? Not winter spring, summer fall or autumn,
1:43.8	but the times in between. Let us know eight, seven, seven, nine, two, nine, nine, six, seven,
1:49.2	three, toll free in the US and Canada. Or email your thoughts, ideas or questions about anything
1:54.5	having to do with the language to words at waywardradio.org or talk to us on Twitter at w-a-y-w-o-r-d.
2:02.0	Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, how are you? My name is Sotalia. I'm Kong from Rhode Island.
	...

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