Have you ever wondered why people in different regions use different words, or why some accents sound “smarter” than others? If you have, you might be a word nerd. In this episode, Adam is joined by fellow word nerd Valerie Fridland, linguist and author of the book Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents. Valerie helps Adam unpack some of his linguistic pet peeves, debates the value of the Oxford comma, and guesses where Adam is from based on his accent. She also explains how language and accents evolve over time, how kids and adults adapt differently to new linguistic environments, and why some people are better at imitating accents than others.
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