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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!

September 13, 2024 The Allusionist

I can scarce believe that I've made 200 episodes of this show, but here we are! To celebrate, here is a quiz about language where all the questions were set by YOU, the beautiful brainy listeners.

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In episodes, quiz Tags words, language, history, etymology, vocabulary, ducks, moths, names, eponyms, traffic, driving, mathematics, writing systems, syntax, Korean, Hangul, G, creatures, sewing, sewing machines, bread, cloak, hood, St Martin of Tours, saints, holy relics, Portuguese, run, Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff, Canada, Canadian, double double, sign language, American Sign Language, Nicaraguan Sign Langage, French Sign Language, Jamaican Sign Language, British Sign Language, Lesle Hore-Belisha, road safety, loaves, yogh, letter G, lost letters, Normans, caput, French, dart, coffee, influence, influenza, town names, belisha beacon, calculus, chaplain, cobra, embarrass, ewer, flux, Ludlow, Milkshake Duck, monodon monoceros, mortgage, narwhal, rhinoceros, sewer, shampoo, toucan crossing, vilify, villain, vindaloo, acronyms, care package, Io, quiz, Greek deities, Zeus, Hera, cows, Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, Greek gods, Herakles, Johan Christian Fabricius, suckmother, squid, Irish, dewclaw
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Allusionist 166. Fiona part 2

December 5, 2022 The Allusionist

“I don't think that anyone should come away from this conversation not wanting to use the name Fiona. I think this is a beautiful and rich history. It might not be quite the history that you imagined, but I think it's a beautiful history," says writer and performer Harry Josie Giles. She and PhD researcher Moll Heaton-Callaway investigate this complicated name with fascinating history, in this second of a pair of episodes about the name Fiona.

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In audio Tags history, Harry Josie Giles, Moll Heaton-Callaway, Fiona Macleod, William Sharp, Elizabeth Sharp, Wilfion, Scotland, Scottish, Gaelic, Celtic Revival, Celtic, Highlands, Lowlands, WB Yeats, poetry, novels, letters, correspondence, handwriting, LGBTQIA+, pseudonyms, alter egos, trans, gender, gender fluidity, authors, literature, writers, writing, cultural appropriation, names, naming, census, boats, arts, lexicon, vocabulary, words, language, fiona, linguistics, education, society & culture, etymology, Fiona, Willfion, Celticism, Flora, Ffion, Fionnuala, Finn, white, publishing, colonisation, colonial, authenticity, James Macpherson, Tales of Ossian, translation, myths, Irish, Sharon Krossa, Caledonian Antisyzygy, Wikipedia, hyperbaton

Allusionist 9: The Space Between

April 22, 2015 The Allusionist
Space Between Boggle board.jpeg

I know this is a show about words, but forget the words for a moment; look at the spaces between the words. 

Without the spaces, the words would be nigh incomprehensible. And yet, they're a relatively recent linguistic innovation.

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In episodes Tags language, words, Anglo-Saxon, Old English, Latin, Irish, Ireland, scribes, monks, medieval, Normans, spaces, punctuation, layout, nombril, disgruntled, gruntled, runes, runic, Ogham, Kate Wiles, history, writing, text, manuscripts, Old Irish, Romans, Christianity, email, URLs, hashtags, internet, Aristophanes, spelling, letters, phonemes, Chinese, oral tradition, spoken language, reading, pauses, lower case, upper case, majuscule, capital letters, carving, inscriptions, Anchorman, quills
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Featured
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
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The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.