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Radio National: Different meanings for the same word

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David Crystal sits in conversation with Philip Adams
Radio National: Different meanings for the same word

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  9–10


You've heard people speaking English with different accents, but have you noticed that the differences in accent come down to the way words are pronounced?

Listen to this interview with linguist David Crystal and find out about accents and why the same word can mean something different or sound different from one country to another.

If you like this clip, visit http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/australiatalks/david-crystal-and-the-geography-of-english-accents/3219680 for further information.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Great Britain is obviously a place of English speakers, but what do you know of the English spoken in the places that make it up — Scotland, England and Wales? Do you know anyone from Britain? What is their accent like? How does an accent help us to place where a person is from?
  2. 2.What was David Crystal looking for when he went travelling around Wales? What is the medieval origin of the phrase 'by hook or by crook'? What did the word 'crook' mean in medieval times? What does the Australian English word 'crook' mean, and how does it connect to the medieval meaning of the word?
  3. 3.You can tell the difference between people from Manchester and Melbourne because of the way they pronounce the same words. Prepare up to ten short phrases containing words that have different vowel combinations. Now ask people you know from different linguistic backgrounds to read out these phrases. Listen for patterns in the way each person pronounces particular words. What do you notice?
  4. 4.

    'Crook' is an example of a homonym (a word that sounds and is spelled the same as another word, but which has a different meaning). What is a homograph, and what is a homophone? Use a dictionary to find out, and give some examples of all three types of words. Try writing (and maybe performing) a humorous text that plays on all three word-types.



Date of broadcast: 27 Sep 2007


Copyright

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