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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 56: Joins

May 19, 2017 The Allusionist

As considered in episode 51, Under the Covers part II, the vocabulary for sex and associated body parts is tricky to navigate in many ways - but even more so if you are trans or gender non-binary.

Following that show, I heard from several trans and non-binary listeners, recounting their experiences of that vocabulary; so I decided to make this episode about it.

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In episodes Tags words, language, trans, gender, LBGTQI, bodies, body, body parts, sex, dysphoria, communication, queer, proem, genitalia, genitals, queerness, LGBTQIA+, LGBTQIA
2 Comments

Allusionist 38: Small Talk

June 25, 2016 The Allusionist

"How are you?"
"Oh, fine - and you?"
"Yeah, not bad. Nice day today, isn't it?"
"Yes, it was a bit chilly this morning, but now the sun's come out..." [Continue until

Small talk is usually not conveying much vital information, nor is it especially interesting. But beneath that comfort blanket of tedium lies a valuable social function.

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In episodes Tags language, words, communication, small talk, talking, conversation, chat, chatting, chitchat, Latin, potpourri, sex, euphemisms, linguistics, Poo Pourri, The Great Courses Plus
6 Comments

Allusionist 28: WLTM part I

January 27, 2016 The Allusionist

Your online dating profile is the latest spin on a 300-year-old tradition of advertising yourself in order to find a spouse, a sexual partner, or someone to take care of your pigs. Francesca Beauman, author of Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the ...

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Your online dating profile is the latest spin on a 300-year-old tradition of advertising yourself in order to find a spouse, a sexual partner, or someone to take care of your pigs.

Francesca Beauman, author of Shapely Ankle Preferr’d: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad, digs into lonely hearts ads to see how British society and desires have evolved over the past three centuries.

WARNING: Some of the content is a little saucy, but not, like, swimming in sauce.

READING MATTER:

  • Reviews of hundreds of different dating sites? You got it.

  • I love reading the Blind Dates in the Guardian each Saturday, and The Guyliner’s dissection thereof shortly afterwards.

  • Atlas Obscura tests the Victorian seduction technique of reading aloud.

  • Not so much a lonely heart ad as a curious soul ad, but it resulted in one of the most intriguing books I’ve ever read: The Life Swap by Nancy Weber. Read about it here (NB spoilers).

  • Warlock: offensive term?

  • The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/wltm-i.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
extraposition

CREDITS:

  • Find Francesca Beauman at francescabeauman.com and buy her books, including the excellent Shapely Ankle Preferr’d, from your usual book-buying places.

  • This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.

  • Martin Austwick provided all the music.

  • Matthew Crosby provided his voice.

  • Allusionist listeners provided their dating profiles, for which I am extremely grateful.

  • WLTM you at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.

This is a two-parter, and the second half is an absolute belter, so return next week to hear it.

- HZ

In episodes Tags words, language, history, linguistics, communication, internet, technology, online dating, dating, love, sex, marriage, romance, courtship, gender, women, men, Victorians, England, Britain, matrimony, matchmaking, gay, homosexuality, code, private lives, emotions, pigs, lonely hearts, adverts, ads, advertising, feminism, wedlock, warlock, Squarespace, Fallen London, newspapers, press, print, media, deception, fraud, scandal, liberation
1 Comment

Allusionist 25: Toki Pona

November 18, 2015 The Allusionist

There's a language which is said to be the smallest language in the world. It has around 123 words, five vowels, nine consonants, and apparently you can become fluent in it with around 30 hours' study. It was invented by linguist Sonja Lang in 2001,

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There’s a language which is said to be the smallest language in the world. It has around 123 words, five vowels, nine consonants, and apparently you can become fluent in it with around 30 hours’ study. It was invented by linguist Sonja Lang in 2001, and it’s called Toki Pona.

And Nate DiMeo, from the Memory Palace, decided we should learn it together.

FURTHER READING:

  • tokipona.org is your first stop for Toki Pona information, such as Sonja Lang's book and the Facebook group.

  • This is the article that first piqued Nate's and my interest in Toki Pona. I also enjoyed reading about this two-day Toki Pona learning binge.

  • A Finnish psychiatrist experimented with getting his patients to record their thoughts in Toki Pona every day.

  • Hey, linguistic size queens: here's a piece comparing number of words in different languages, and here are some stats for you.

  • I need to read In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent, who appeared in this early episode of 99% Invisible about Esperanto.

  • There are a lot more invented languages; here are a few mentioned in this episode: Kēlen, Ithkuil, Blissymbols, Lojban, Klingon, Elvish, Na'vi...

  • Here's the transcript of this episode.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
kobold

CREDITS:

  • Nate DiMeo makes the beautiful podcast The Memory Palace thememorypalace.us.

  • This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks to Eleanor McDowall.

  • Martin Austwick provided all the music apart from the instrumental version of Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger'.

  • Communicate with me minimalistically at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.

- HZ

In episodes Tags Memory Pallusionist, The Memory Palace, Nate DiMeo, words, language, linguistics, minimalism, Sonja Lang, constructed languages, inventions, invented languages, Esperanto, Kelen, philosophy, metaphor, grammar, phonemes, morphology, universal language, history, computation, computers, programming, programming languages, Klingon, Elvish, JRR Tolkien, Na'vi, Blissymbols, Lojban, Ithkuil, humor, humour, numbers, counting, simplicity, colours, subjectivity, communication, comprehension, understanding, negatives, negativity, sarcasm, irony, new languages, Squarespace, Oxford Games, conceptual
8 Comments

Allusionist 24: Spill Your Guts

November 4, 2015 The Allusionist

It's cathartic; it's a useful historical record; and it might help you behave better on public transport. Neil Katcher and Dave Nadelberg from Mortified discuss the art and practice of keeping a diary. Find the Mortified podcast, stage shows,

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It's cathartic; it's useful historical records; and it might help you behave better on public transport. Neil Katcher and Dave Nadelberg from Mortified discuss the art and practice of keeping a diary.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:

  • This website has a fair amount of information about Samuel Pepys, including his diary entries describing the Plague and the Great Fire of London - and some of the entries he wrote in code because they're a bit saucy.

  • Pepys wrote his diary in shorthand, so snoopers couldn't understand it. Read a translation at Project Gutenberg.

  • Anne Frank, meanwhile, edited a version of her diary for possible public consumption, which was the one published in 1947. The longer, private version was recently published.

  • Mortification comes in many forms. All of which are funnier when they happened to someone else.

  • My friend Jo Neary has been keeping an illustrated diary for decades. Occasionally, she shares some pages online, to my delight.

  • Which of these medical acronyms will follow in LOL's footsteps and be in common use in textspeak within the next 30 years?

  • Having trouble translating DAMHIKT, UDS or POTF? Acronym Finder is here to help.

  • Here's the transcript of this episode.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
horst

CREDITS:

  • Dave Nadelberg and Neil Katcher run Mortified. It's a weekly podcast, a stage show in many cities around the world, a documentary, a TV series, and books; find all these Mortified things at getmortified.com.

  • This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks for the advice, Eleanor McDowall and Martin Austwick (who also provided all the music).

  • Communicate with me publicly at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.

- HZ

In episodes Tags laugh out loud, written word, Neil Katcher, journaling, handwriting, Anne Frank, embarrassment, blogs, acronyms, noose, technology, kewl, history, Latin, Portuguese, teenage, awkwardness, etymology, French, Roman Mars, LOL, computers, Dave Nadelberg, communication, writing, embarrass, PRX, digital communication, kids, emoji, folk etymology, privacy, therapy, abbreviations, Passion House Coffee Roasters, language, confessional, punishment, little old lady, Livejournal, LOLINAD, paper, longevity, Samuel Pepys, diary, Usenet, rope, pineapple, Spanish, journals, LOLFDGM, words, blogging, diaries, typing, Mortified, shame
1 Comment

Allusionist 13: Mixed Emojions

June 17, 2015 The Allusionist
Mixed Emojions Boggle board.png

Emoji allow communication without words. Could emoji be the universal language of the 21st century? Matt Gray and Tom Scott, founders of the emoji-only messaging platform emoj.li, talk through the pitfalls; and History Today's Dr Kate Wiles finds the 5...

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Emoji allow communication without words. Could emoji be the universal language of the 21st century? Matt Gray and Tom Scott, founders of the emoji-only messaging platform emoj.li, talk through the pitfalls; and History Today's Dr Kate Wiles finds the 500- and 5,000-year-old precedents for emoji.

CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains one category B swear word, plus references to penises growing on trees.

ADDITIONAL READING:

  • There is a transcript of this episode here.

  • Keep up to date with all matters emojional at Emojipedia.

  • Learn more about cuneiform and poor old St Audrey.

  • Read the Luttrell Psalter. Or Emoji Dick, if you must. (Try before you buy.)

  • It should have been a portent of Things To Come that at age six, my favourite of the Just So Stories was the one about the alphabet being invented. It's Rudyard Kipling's own spin on cuneiform, pretty much.

  • Why the interrobang never really took off. It's the "That's so fetch!" of punctuation.

  • Your summer beach read: Unicode.

  • The more medieval marginalia you find, the better they get. Here are some choice cuts, and there are many more at Got Medieval; read Kate Wiles herself on the topic; read an explanation as to why so many involve knights fighting snails; or if you can't be bothered to read, just watch the video I made for you:

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
kloof

CREDITS:

  • Dr Kate Wiles is contributing editor at History Today and appears on their podcast.

  • Matt Gray and Tom Scott brought the emoji-only messenger Emoj.li to life and now they're putting it to death.

  • All the music in this episode is by Martin Austwick. Hear and/or download more at thesoundoftheladies.bandcamp.com.

  • This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks very much to the Soho Theatre in London for letting me record there.

  • Find me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.

- HZ

In episodes Tags words, language, emoji, Japanese, Japan, mobile phones, smartphones, Unicode, Unicode Consortium, ideograms, pictographs, Emoj.li, Kate Wiles, history, communication, Squarespace, Animoto, Yo, social media, social networks, St Audrey, saints, Roman alphabet, alphabet, letters, characters, penises, poo, marginalia, nuns, manuscripts, medieval, scribes, Kirsten Dunst, Arabic, linguistics, syntax, semantics
5 Comments
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Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
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Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
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Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
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Allusionist 201: Singlish
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Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.