Prosody: Barbara Shepherd and Dave Shepherd try not to use “that tone” with each other as they discuss prosody in speech and in poetry.
Thanks to Marilyn O. for a PayPal donation (1:54)
Speech prosody: the rhythm, intonation, and grouping of sounds that are part of human speech. (2:17)
Music bumper from “Heartless” by Michael Burks (15:44)
Prosody in poetry and music (18:13)
Song: “Tongue Tied” by Hollins Steele (26:55)
Rude Word of the Week: “beyotch” (30:49)
Music bumper from “Necessary Rain” by Emile Westergaard. (33:40)
Characteristic systems of prosody in different languages; the prosody of presidential names (with thanks to Ian Ayres, writing in the Freakonomics blog of the New York Times) (34:14)
Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network
Theme music by Kick the Cat
Closing theme from “Grapes” by Evan Stone
time: 42:38
size: 39.1 Mb
rating: PG-13 (The Rude Word is a prosodic modification of a really rude word.)
Great show. I loved every bit of it, especially the part about the names. I didn’t know you could do that.
Anyway, I wanted to make a note on your rude word. I’ve actually never seen it spelled “Beyotch”, only “Biatch” or “Biotch”.
So if you go to Urban Dictionary and look up Biotch you’ll see these:
1. (noun) a woman of unsavory character traits pertaining to negative or even beligerant attitude (ie. a pain in the ass or a moody bitch)
2. (noun) a man who’s abilities/character/mindset/emotional responses is atypical of that which is generally associated with being a man (ie. acting like a girl, wimp or homosexual)
3. (noun) a non-offensive colloquialism meant to reference to a girl or a woman with whom the speaker is associated in some way
and Biatch gives you this:
An ending of any form of disrespect, usually used in exclamation.
Example: (from Urban Dictionary) “Yo, I f****d yo mama laaast night… BIATCH!” where the Biatch! at the end is broken into syllables, like “beeee-otch!”
Those are just some of the other ways it can be used; some are formal while others are very slang uses.
Great show though. Keep on Rocking On!
Thanks for pointing out the Urban Dictionary variants of “beyotch,” Michael.
Actually, the way I spelled it is the way I’ve usually seen it spelled–but I haven’t seen it spelled out that much. I’ve heard it spoken many times. I’ve also seen it broken down with a hyphen, as in “be-yotch” or “bee-atch”. When I see “biotch,” I think of the word “biotech” and it confuses me. And “beotch” looks to me as if it should have a long “o” in its last syllable, to rhyme with “encroach.”
Of course, Urban Dictionary’s definitions are ever-changing and are the “people’s” definitions–not at all academic, and not based on any scientific research. So you’re right–and we’re right too!
By the way, please excuse my prudishness for editing the F-word in your comment. I figured since our edition is rated PG-13, and since some directories link straight to a show’s blogpost (including comments), I should err on the side of caution.
Oh, it’s cool. I don’t use the F-word myself, it was just a simple copy-and-paste, so you can do what you deem necessary.
I love Urban Dictionary because of how versatile it is. It’s basically a dictionary for every occasion. There’s no right or wrong definition, it’s just that there’s a TON of definitions.
I also see words like that, where they look like something else, or seem like they should have a different pronounciation. But I think we should move this conversation to the forum, this is more like thread talk.
Once again, keep on rocking on!
Yes, we could get the thread hopping over at forum-land.
I’m just delighted to see the old website working again, and looking halfway decent, after about four weeks offline. Apparently somebody hacked it (or hacked away at it) on April 25, and I had not recently backed up all the WordPress files. So I had to reinstall the whole page yesterday from scratch (having only the database available).
Both the new version of WordPress and the new version of the theme should now be more secure than before.
It was interesting to hear about the word “chunking” within the context of Show 103.
In my technical business environment, we use the term “chunking” differently. It means dividing a work product (document, software, drawing, etc.) into chunks to be reviewed at a series of peer reviews. There’s actually an art to “chunking,” since you don’t always want the same-sized chunk for each review. Usually it is divided in such a way that it will take roughly equal time to perform a quality review of the work product. If it is more technically complex or requires more cross-referencing, for example, the “chunk” is likely to be smaller. Thus, the peer reviews will take about the same time to prepare for, and to conduct.
Thanks, Brad,
The term, “chunking” was new to me in both contexts. In actuality, we probably all do a bit of “chunking” of sorts in our work…putting pieces together in ways that fit; categorizing; breaking down large tasks into smaller ones. Not unlike what you mention in your work.
Now we just have a new term to use. I would not be surrpised to see it become more used in common language over time.
The discussion about “focus” or “emphasis” reminded me of an issue that comes up every year when I’m teaching Hamlet to my high school seniors.
In a well-known passage (though not as well-known as “To BE, or NOT to be…”), Hamlet says “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Invariably, students read that line with the following emphasis: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in YOUR philosophy.”
I always tell them that in my opinion, the emphasis clearly should be as follows: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your PHILOSOPHY.”
That subtle change in emphasis makes a significant difference in the meaning of the line.
Dear word nerds,
I (German living in Hong Kong) have been listening since the beginning, and as I am interested in both the German and English language it’s just the right podcast for me.
Some comments:
The Swiss consider their spoken language (schwyzerdytsch) an own language, like e.g. the North Germans do “plattdeutsch”. When they talk “hochdeutsch” you’d call this accent, we call this Dialekt. For us Germans an Akzent is always what we hear if we listen to somebody speaking from a foreign language speaking German (most noteably French with the missing “h” or English with the rolling “r” or Scandinavian with the “s-t”). Somebody speaking absolutely fluent we call “akzentfrei”.
Whether own language or Dialekt – they all have in common that they don’t share a written language, so if a Swiss or North German Frisian write something it’ll always be always in “hochdeutsch”, in this case aptly named “schriftdeutsch”.
Always? Not quite – the best way to learn more about how German Dialekte “sound” on the page is the comic series ASTERIX which is available in 60 Dialekten. http://www.ehapa-comic-collection.de/asterix_mundart.jsp For my own region, Hamburg, 2 types apply: “plattdeutsch” as language, “hamburgisch” as Dialekt (or, if you will, accent). As I have learned from your own travels you’d like “bayerisch” and regarding Freiburg I’m not sure: Is it “badisch” or “alemannisch”? In any case it’s most certainly not “schwaebisch”!
And if you want to make Arnold Schwarzenegger happy you’d give him “steirisch”.
In Hamburg sagt man “tschüß”! – I just love your podcast and hope it just doesn’t fade out…
All the best from Hong Kong to all the word nerds (when I listen to your podcasts sitting in a bus or metro or while running I always want to jump up and cry “wait! yes! nein!” – can’t come any better, can it?)
Klaus
Would it be possible to some day hear something about how English developed in my parts of the world? In Asian English speaking countries, most notably India and Singapore? Or Africa, for that matter? Australia, of course?