Why Does Everyone Say ‘Like’ and ‘Um’ All The Time? - Valerie Fridland | Modern Wisdom 630

Valerie Fridland is a sociolinguist, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Nevada, a researcher and an author.

On average we say around 5,000 words every day. But how often have you assessed why you communicate the way you do, or where the words you're using came from? This is where the fascinating field of sociolinguistics comes in, exploring the history of our speech patterns and words' origins to help us develop new and better ways to communicate.

Expect to learn why languages evolved to be so complex, how to stop saying ‘like’ so much, how social media has impacted the way we speak, why you keep using “um” and “uh” all the time, why Black Twitter is at the forefront of all cool new lingo, the unexpected origin story of the word ‘Hello’, why I apparently have hard time pronouncing my R’s and much more...

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#linguistics #speech #communication

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00:00 Intro
00:20 The Work of a Sociolinguist
04:27 Has English Become Simpler?
14:51 Why We Say ‘Um’ and ‘Uh’
26:27 Is it Better to Be Silent Than Use Fillers?
30:39 How to Be a More Conscientious Listener
34:26 Why We Say ‘Like’ So Often
44:46 The Cause of Vocal Fry
52:12 Has Social Media Caused a More Informal Language?
1:01:43 Strange Word Developments
1:10:24 Where to Find Valerie

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