Lipreading has been in the news this month, thanks to gossip-stoking mouth movements at the Golden Globes that the amateur lipreaders of The Internet rushed to interpret. But lipreading tutor Helen Barrow describes how reading lips really works - the confusable consonants, the importance of context and body language - and gossip maven Lainey Lui explains why these regularly occurring lipreading gossip stories are unworthy of a second or even first glance.
Read moreAllusionist 95. Verisimilitude
When you’re watching a fantasy or science fiction show, and the characters are speaking a language that does not exist in this world but sounds like it could - that doesn’t happen by accident, or improvisation. A lot - a LOT! - of work goes into inventing new languages that sound real. Conlanger David Peterson talks about how he created languages for HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Read moreAllusionist 25: Toki Pona
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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...
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
Allusionist 22: Vocables
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La la la, dum di di dum, a wop bop a loo bop a wop bom bom - why are songs riddled with non-words masquerading as words?
Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder and songwriter Tony Hazzard explain.
WOAH WOAH WAH-OH, DO BE DOO DOO, HERE'S SOME READING MATTER:
How to write the perfect pop song. (TL;DR: just get Carly Rae Jepsen to do it.)
Indie singers become pop songwriters. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? Because I do not.
This is an old but good long profile of songwriter Ester 'Wrote Nicki Minaj's Superbass and Rihanna's What's My Name, also stars in Pitch Perfect' Dean, whose writing process seems intriguingly vocable-led.
Here's a little history of the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, and here's a documentary about it, which contains all the fashion inspiration you need for the next six months.
Here's the transcript of this episode, though not including the relevant lyrics of 'Agadoo', because there are limits.
Listener Timothy requested a downloadable MP3 of the special version of the theme tune in this episode. Who am I to deprive you?
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
occiput
CREDITS:
Hrishikesh Hirway makes the excellent podcast Song Exploder, which you'll find at songexploder.net. Here's that Tune-Yards episode I mentioned. He tweets as @songexploder and @hrishihirway.
Tony Hazzard's extensive career and discography can be found at tonyhazzard.com. His new album The Hallicombe Sessions will arrive in the next few weeks. He tweets as @tonyhazzard.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Communicate with me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
Thanks to Martin Austwick for providing the Allusionist theme, and the special vocable version thereof. The other music from the show was, in chronological order:
Ella Fitzgerald - ‘One Note Samba’
The Spice Girls - ‘Spice Up Your Life’
Theme from The Old Grey Whistle Test - ‘Stone Fox Chase’
Little Richard - 'Tutti Frutti'
The Crystals - ‘Da Do Ron Ron’
Black Lace - ‘Agadoo’
JLS - 'She Make Me Wanna'
Betty Wright - ‘Shoorah Shoorah’
Brokeback - ‘In the Reeds’
Come back in a week's time for the next special edition of the Allusionist. I promise not to sing.
- HZ
Allusionist 9: The Space Between
I know this is a show about words, but forget the words for a moment; look at the spaces between the words.
Without the spaces, the words would be nigh incomprehensible. And yet, they're a relatively recent linguistic innovation.
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