Tom Scott: Tom's Language Files

S١ E١ · ٢٤ مايو ٢٠١٣

Why Jonathan Ross Can´t Pronounce His Rs الحلقة ١

S١ E٢ · ٣١ مايو ٢٠١٣

Fantastic Features We Don't Have In The English Language الحلقة ٢

S١ E٣ · ٧ يونيو ٢٠١٣

All The Colours, Including Grue: How Languages See Colours Differently الحلقة ٣

S١ E٤ · ١٤ يونيو ٢٠١٣

Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: Registers الحلقة ٤

S١ E٥ · ٢١ يونيو ٢٠١٣

There's Nothing Wrong With Saying "10 Items or Less": Descriptivism vs Prescriptivism الحلقة ٥

S١ E٦ · ٢٨ يونيو ٢٠١٣

Ghoti and the Ministry of Helth: Spelling Reform الحلقة ٦

S١ E٧ · ٥ يوليو ٢٠١٣

Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them الحلقة ٧

S١ E٨ · ١٢ يوليو ٢٠١٣

Mele Kalikimaka: Why You Can't Say "Christmas" in Hawaiian الحلقة ٨

It's not that Hawaiian has a completely different word for Christmas -- it's just that Kalikimaka is the closest that Hawaiian can possibly get to the word Christmas.

S١ E٩ · ٤ ديسمبر ٢٠١٣

Why Do We Have "Ye Olde"? Obsolete Letters, and the Mysteries of Ye Olde Ming الحلقة ٩

Why do we say "Ye Olde"? Why is "Menzies" pronounced "Mingis"? To find out, we have to go back into history.

S١ E١٠ · ١١ ديسمبر ٢٠١٣

Adjectival Order: Why A "Big Red Balloon", not a "Red Big Balloon"? الحلقة ١٠

The order of adjectives is one of those wonderful linguistic things that no-one really notices until it's pointed out to them.

S١ E١١ · ١٧ ديسمبر ٢٠١٣

Why You Can Tweet More In Japanese: What Counts As A Character? الحلقة ١١

Twitter was set up to support 140 characters. And in the English alphabet, that's easy to understand: a character is a letter, number, space or punctuation mark. People more or less agree with computers there. And if it was twenty years ago, that's exactly how the system would work. That far, no further.

S١ E١٢ · ٢٠ ديسمبر ٢٠١٣

Making Flaps Vibrate In Your Throat: Voicing الحلقة ١٢

There's an interesting thing about English that hardly anyone thinks about. There are two "th" sounds. And if you want to know why it took me twenty-one takes to record this intro, you try switching them round.

S١ E١٣ · ٢١ مايو ٢٠١٥

Why Computers Suck At Translation الحلقة ١٣

Machine translation's a useful tool, don't get me wrong. But if you actually try to use it for regular conversation, it'll fall down really quickly. Why? What makes it so difficult?

S١ E١٤ · ٢٨ مايو ٢٠١٥

Crash Blossoms and Being Drunk: Ambiguity الحلقة ١٤

One comma can make a lot of difference. Language is ambiguous -- but in some very specific ways. Here's how.

S١ E١٥ · ٤ يونيو ٢٠١٥

Why Can't Adults Learn Languages Like Children? الحلقة ١٥

Kids learn languages really easily, don't they? There's this thing in your brain that just works it out -- but it switches off when you're an adult. Right? Well, maybe. But it's not that simple.

S١ E١٦ · ١١ يونيو ٢٠١٥

Long and Short Words: Language Typology الحلقة ١٦

Some languages have longer words than others -- but that's not just a simple choice. There's a lot of different ways to mix up morphemes, even if they all mean the same thing in the end.

S١ E١٧ · ١٨ يونيو ٢٠١٥

What Counts as a Word? الحلقة ١٧

"Word Count" is going to count plenty of things that aren’t words too -- and it doesn’t get to a more fundamental question: what actually is a word?

S١ E١٨ · ١٥ يوليو ٢٠١٩

why typing like this is sometimes okay. الحلقة ١٨

Language changes over time, and that's fine. Time for a dose of descriptivism, as the Language Files return.

S١ E١٩ · ٥ أغسطس ٢٠١٩

Why “No Problem” Can Seem Rude: Phatic Expressions الحلقة ١٩

"Hello!" "Thank you!" "You're welcome!" These are all phatic expressions, and people can argue about them.

S١ E٢٠ · ٢ سبتمبر ٢٠١٩

The Language Sounds That Could Exist, But Don't الحلقة ٢٠

The International Phonetic Alphabet: one sound for each symbol, and one symbol for each sound. Except for the sounds we can't make.

S١ E٢١ · ٢ ديسمبر ٢٠١٩

Can The Words You Read Change Your Behavior? الحلقة ٢١

"Priming" is the idea that the words you read can change the way you act. And yes, there are papers that show an effect: but we also need to talk about the Replication Crisis.

S١ E٢٢ · ٢٣ ديسمبر ٢٠١٩

Why Do We Move Our Hands When We Talk? الحلقة ٢٢

Gestures are a really important part of language. But how do we use them, and why?

S١ E٢٣ · ١٧ فبراير ٢٠٢٠

The Sentences Computers Can't Understand, But Humans Can الحلقة ٢٣

The Winograd schema is a language test for intelligent computers. So far, they're not doing well.

S١ E٢٤ · ١٣ أبريل ٢٠٢٠

Abso-b████y-lutely: Expletive Infixation الحلقة ٢٤

There are rules in the English language that you've probably never been taught, but you know anyway: how to split apart words with "infixes". But you've never been taught it because some of those infixes are words you probably shouldn't use in front of your high school English teachers...

S١ E٢٥ · ٤ مايو ٢٠٢٠

The Hidden Rules of Conversation الحلقة ٢٥

Gricean Maxims are a vital part of how we understand each other: a set of... well, maybe "rules" is a bit strong. They're guidelines that we follow without realising it. And it's the reason that "asbestos-free cereal" sounds suspicious.

S١ E٢٦ · ٢٥ مايو ٢٠٢٠

Ə: The Most Common Vowel in English الحلقة ٢٦

"Schwa" is the most common vowel in English. Every English speaker uses it, all the time, but most people have never heard of it.

S١ E٢٧ · ٢٤ أغسطس ٢٠٢٠

Which Is "Bouba", and Which Is "Kiki"? الحلقة ٢٧

Sooner or later, I was going to get around to this: it's one of the most famous experiments in linguistics.

S١ E٢٨ · ١٩ أكتوبر ٢٠٢٠

It’s pronounced GIF. الحلقة ٢٨

Is there a "right" way to pronounce it? And why is it so complicated?

S١ E٢٩ · ٧ ديسمبر ٢٠٢٠

How Many Languages Are There? الحلقة ٢٩

The answer is, of course, a bit more complicated than you might think.

S١ E٣٠ · ٢٢ مارس ٢٠٢١

Why Shakespeare Could Never Have Been French الحلقة ٣٠

Shakespeare sounds a certain way. Why? And why could it only work in English?

S١ E٣١ · ١٨ سبتمبر ٢٠٢٣

How languages steal words from each other الحلقة ٣١

This is the only pirate reference you're getting from me.

S١ E٣٢ · ١٦ أكتوبر ٢٠٢٣

there’dn’t’ve الحلقة ٣٢

This script was a nightmare to pronounce.

S١ E٣٣ · ٦ نوفمبر ٢٠٢٣

Does the language you speak change how you think? الحلقة ٣٣

No. Mostly.