This episode is brought to you by Lionsgate Plus. The third season of the Lionsgate Plus

original series The Great is available to stream on Friday July 14 exclusively on Lionsgate

Plus. Follow Catherine the second play by L-Fanning and Peter The Great, played by Nicholas

Holt, as they hilariously attempt to make their marriage work after some seemingly insurmountable

problems, from attempt to murder and the imprisonment of close friends to their never-ending

legal responsibilities. The Great Season 3 is available to stream on Friday July 14 exclusively

on Lionsgate Plus.

The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hello boys and girls, isn't this a wonderful party? And do you know what kind of a party it is?

From New York City this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language. I'm John McWhorter,

I teach linguistics at Columbia University, and this week you can now buy my latest book Words

on the Move out from Henry Holt with a beautiful red cover and also some contents.

Also don't forget the language hoax why the world looks the same in any language,

which is now out in paperback. I am your host for Lexicon Valley, and not just for the summer,

I've enjoyed this so much that for the duration I'm staying right here. And this week's episode

will be another solo exploration of something language related that we often don't have much time

to think about in any real way and yet is interesting for all kinds of reasons.

This time out, what I've been thinking about is nursery rhymes. Have you ever noticed how often

nursery rhymes are kind of jacked up? Things don't really rhyme, the grammars off, you spent your life

thinking on a certain level that you know what it means, but you don't really. And don't worry,

this isn't going to be like the Shakespeare show again. I'm not going to say we need to translate

the nursery rhymes into modern English, but still there's some lessons we can learn from how truly

...