Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse
99% Invisible28 Sep 2021

Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse

When it comes to English spelling and pronunciation, there is plenty of rhyme and very little reason. But what is the reason for that? Why among all European languages is English so uniquely chaotic today?

To help us answer that question, we spoke with linguist and longtime friend of the show, Arika Okrent, author of the new book Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme and Other Oddities of the English Language. In it, Arika explores the origins of those phonetic paradoxes, and it turns out some of the reasons for confusion are as counterintuitive as the words themselves.

Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(788)

Nuts and Bolts

Nuts and Bolts

In her new book Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), structural engineer Roma Agrawal identifies and examines the seven of most basic building blocks of engine...

9 Maj 202337min

Craptions

Craptions

Bad closed captions can be entertaining, but they can be serious, too, because captions are a critical tool for lots of lots of people. There are the people learning a new language and of course capti...

2 Maj 202332min

For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

There's a new movie out called Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. It’s a fun and extremely meta biopic telling the story of Roger Sharpe, who, with one perfect shot, helped legalize pinball in New Y...

25 Apr 202329min

Dear John and Roman

Dear John and Roman

Last year, Roman Mars teamed up with Hank Green to guest host Dear Hank & John -- this year he's back on the Greens' show once again, but this time with Hank's brother John Green (Turtles All the Way ...

19 Apr 20231h 5min

For a Dollar and a Dream

For a Dollar and a Dream

From scratchers to the Powerball, the lottery is the most popular form of gambling in the United States, even though the odds of winning a big jackpot is infinitesimally small. Jonathan D. Cohen is a ...

11 Apr 202339min

De Fiets Is Niets

De Fiets Is Niets

Today the Netherlands has a reputation as a kind of bicycling paradise. Dutch people own more bicycles per capita than any other place in the world. The country has more than 20,000 miles of dedicated...

4 Apr 202343min

The Panopticon Effect

The Panopticon Effect

The “panopticon” might be the best known prison concept in the world. In the original design, all the cells are built around a central guard tower, designed to maintain order just by making prisoners ...

29 Mars 202337min

The Wilderness Tool

The Wilderness Tool

Vintage crosscuts that were made between 1880 and 1930 are often the tool of choice for trail workers who maintain the country’s roughly 112 million acres of protected land. That’s ahead of chain saws...

21 Mars 202344min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-svart-marknad
svd-tech-brief
rss-borsens-finest
badfluence
uppgang-och-fall
avanzapodden
bathina-en-podcast
fill-or-kill
24fragor
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
lastbilspodden
tabberaset
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-dagen-med-di
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
borsmorgon
rss-veckans-trade