Speaking the right language.

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matthew Sweet asks how did the English language grow & what are the key election phrases? He's joined by historian John Gallagher who's written about language in Shakespeare's time and how refugees and migrants to England learnt English. In 1578, the Anglo-Italian writer, teacher, and translator John Florio said of English that it was ‘a language that will do you good in England, but past Dover, it is worth nothing’. Other guests in the studio include researcher Stephanie Hare who writes on technology ethics, research and development expert Mathieu Triay; and Kate Maltby who writes about theatre, politics and culture.

John Gallagher has published Learning Languages in Early Modern England. He teaches at the University of Leeds and is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to promote research on the radio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:37.2	Hello, I'm Matthew Sweet. Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program,
0:42.5	which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate.
0:47.8	If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast. And while
0:53.7	you're there, please rate and review us.
0:55.7	It'll help other people find us.
0:57.8	This isn't the free-thinking election special, but tonight's vote will give us some of our subject matter.
1:04.1	And from where I'm sitting, the studio guests look pretty special.
1:07.8	We chose them carefully because they choose their words carefully and know the
1:12.1	hazards of converting them from one language to another. The object tonight is to consider
1:17.3	500 years of language learning, from English without tears and the plain pathway to the French
1:23.7	tongue, to the strangeness of those sentences that language learning apps ask you to translate,
1:29.8	like he loves his pink bicycle, and I am a mature bear. That's what I get anyway. What can we do
1:37.2	to illustrate this rich history? Well, the historian, a new generation thinker John Gallagher is
1:42.3	here, and this is the subject of his new book.
1:45.0	So he is now going to read something from an Italian phrasebook of 1597.
1:51.7	No, I've never thought that you see
1:54.0	at rameente of what you say.
1:56.3	So is, a poltroane, forfante,
	...

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