Tom Scott: Tom's Language Files

S۱ E۱ · ۲۴ مه ۲۰۱۳

Why Jonathan Ross Can´t Pronounce His Rs قسمت ۱

S۱ E۲ · ۳۱ مه ۲۰۱۳

Fantastic Features We Don't Have In The English Language قسمت ۲

S۱ E۳ · ۰۷ ژوئن ۲۰۱۳

All The Colours, Including Grue: How Languages See Colours Differently قسمت ۳

S۱ E۴ · ۱۴ ژوئن ۲۰۱۳

Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: Registers قسمت ۴

S۱ E۵ · ۲۱ ژوئن ۲۰۱۳

There's Nothing Wrong With Saying "10 Items or Less": Descriptivism vs Prescriptivism قسمت ۵

S۱ E۶ · ۲۸ ژوئن ۲۰۱۳

Ghoti and the Ministry of Helth: Spelling Reform قسمت ۶

S۱ E۷ · ۰۵ ژوئیه ۲۰۱۳

Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them قسمت ۷

S۱ E۸ · ۱۲ ژوئیه ۲۰۱۳

Mele Kalikimaka: Why You Can't Say "Christmas" in Hawaiian قسمت ۸

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.

S۱ E۹ · ۰۴ دسامبر ۲۰۱۳

Why Do We Have "Ye Olde"? Obsolete Letters, and the Mysteries of Ye Olde Ming قسمت ۹

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

S۱ E۱۰ · ۱۱ دسامبر ۲۰۱۳

Adjectival Order: Why A "Big Red Balloon", not a "Red Big Balloon"? قسمت ۱۰

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

S۱ E۱۱ · ۱۷ دسامبر ۲۰۱۳

Why You Can Tweet More In Japanese: What Counts As A Character? قسمت ۱۱

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.

S۱ E۱۲ · ۲۰ دسامبر ۲۰۱۳

Making Flaps Vibrate In Your Throat: Voicing قسمت ۱۲

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.

S۱ E۱۳ · ۲۱ مه ۲۰۱۵

Why Computers Suck At Translation قسمت ۱۳

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?

S۱ E۱۴ · ۲۸ مه ۲۰۱۵

Crash Blossoms and Being Drunk: Ambiguity قسمت ۱۴

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

S۱ E۱۵ · ۰۴ ژوئن ۲۰۱۵

Why Can't Adults Learn Languages Like Children? قسمت ۱۵

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.

S۱ E۱۶ · ۱۱ ژوئن ۲۰۱۵

Long and Short Words: Language Typology قسمت ۱۶

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.

S۱ E۱۷ · ۱۸ ژوئن ۲۰۱۵

What Counts as a Word? قسمت ۱۷

"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?

S۱ E۱۸ · ۱۵ ژوئیه ۲۰۱۹

why typing like this is sometimes okay. قسمت ۱۸

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

S۱ E۱۹ · ۰۵ اوت ۲۰۱۹

Why “No Problem” Can Seem Rude: Phatic Expressions قسمت ۱۹

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

S۱ E۲۰ · ۰۲ سپتامبر ۲۰۱۹

The Language Sounds That Could Exist, But Don't قسمت ۲۰

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

S۱ E۲۱ · ۰۲ دسامبر ۲۰۱۹

Can The Words You Read Change Your Behavior? قسمت ۲۱

"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.

S۱ E۲۲ · ۲۳ دسامبر ۲۰۱۹

Why Do We Move Our Hands When We Talk? قسمت ۲۲

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

S۱ E۲۳ · ۱۷ فوریه ۲۰۲۰

The Sentences Computers Can't Understand, But Humans Can قسمت ۲۳

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

S۱ E۲۴ · ۱۳ آوریل ۲۰۲۰

Abso-b████y-lutely: Expletive Infixation قسمت ۲۴

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...

S۱ E۲۵ · ۰۴ مه ۲۰۲۰

The Hidden Rules of Conversation قسمت ۲۵

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.

S۱ E۲۶ · ۲۵ مه ۲۰۲۰

Ə: The Most Common Vowel in English قسمت ۲۶

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

S۱ E۲۷ · ۲۴ اوت ۲۰۲۰

Which Is "Bouba", and Which Is "Kiki"? قسمت ۲۷

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

S۱ E۲۸ · ۱۹ اکتبر ۲۰۲۰

It’s pronounced GIF. قسمت ۲۸

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

S۱ E۲۹ · ۰۷ دسامبر ۲۰۲۰

How Many Languages Are There? قسمت ۲۹

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

S۱ E۳۰ · ۲۲ مارس ۲۰۲۱

Why Shakespeare Could Never Have Been French قسمت ۳۰

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

S۱ E۳۱ · ۱۸ سپتامبر ۲۰۲۳

How languages steal words from each other قسمت ۳۱

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

S۱ E۳۲ · ۱۶ اکتبر ۲۰۲۳

there’dn’t’ve قسمت ۳۲

This script was a nightmare to pronounce.

S۱ E۳۳ · ۰۶ نوامبر ۲۰۲۳

Does the language you speak change how you think? قسمت ۳۳

No. Mostly.