Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing   /     From grunts to grammar. The Irish 'after doing.' The winning NGD poem!

Summary

972. How did humans evolve from grunting ape-like ancestors to masters of language and poetry? This week, we explore fascinating theories on the origins of human language, including the laugh-inducing Bow-Wow and Pooh-Pooh theories. We also delve into Irish-English calques for St. Patrick's Day (and in response to a question from a Grammarpaloozian) and celebrate Leslie F. Miller's winning limerick from the National Grammar Day contest.

Subtitle
972. How did humans evolve from grunting ape-like ancestors to masters of language and poetry? This week, we explore fascinating theories on the origins of human language, including the laugh-inducing Bow-Wow and Pooh-Pooh theories. We also delve into I
Duration
00:13:44
Publishing date
2024-03-12 09:00
Link
https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/bow-wow-theory-yOpLYBZi
Contributors
  Mignon Fogarty, Valerie Fridland
author  
Enclosures
https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/e7b2fc84-d82d-4b4d-980c-6414facd80c3/episodes/5d5b0373-e8b5-48d0-bbac-3a8fc0e422b7/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=e7b2fc84-d82d-4b4d-9
audio/mpeg

Shownotes

972. How did humans evolve from grunting ape-like ancestors to masters of language and poetry? This week, we explore fascinating theories on the origins of human language, including the laugh-inducing Bow-Wow and Pooh-Pooh theories. We also delve into Irish-English calques for St. Patrick's Day (and in response to a question from a Grammarpaloozian) and celebrate Leslie F. Miller's winning limerick from the National Grammar Day contest.

Miller works as a health care writer in Baltimore. She is the author of the nonfiction book "Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and  Pinch of Salt," which is not about BAKING cake, but about EATING cake; a chapbook of "arty and electric" poems called "BoyGirlBoyGirl"; and a forthcoming full-length poetry book called "Words with Friends."

The "language theories" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.

| Edited transcript with links: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/bow-wow-theory/transcript

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