Episodes
Wind, clouds and rain... ABC's Roly Sussex discusses weather words alongside ABC TV Weather Presenter Jenny Woodward.
Published 05/14/24
Flat out like a lizard drinking! ABC's Roly Sussex discusses catchy phrases.
Published 05/07/24
Lips, tongue, teeth and cheeks... ABC's Roly Sussex discusses the sounds of language.
Published 04/30/24
Tell me a furphy... What is a brass razoo? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses language used during wartime.
Published 04/23/24
Omnishambles? Yoghurt? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses new words and how to pronounce yoghurt.
Published 04/16/24
A frog and toad for the road? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses avoidance language and rhyming slang.
Published 04/09/24
Catchy slogans. Memorable jingles. ABC's Roly Sussex discusses advertising language and memorable catchphrases.
Published 04/02/24
The Easter Bunny? It's raining cats and dogs? ABC's Roly Sussex discusses weather phrases and the origins of Easter.
Published 03/26/24
Hang in there. Get over it. Put up with it. How did these peculiar and 'improper' phrases come to pervade the English language?
Published 03/19/24
Football or soccer? From kicking goals to putting the ball in their court, Roly Sussex discusses his favourite sports idioms.
Published 03/12/24
White house? Mardi Gras? Roly Sussex discusses the muddling of syllables, and the changing face of the full stop.
Published 03/06/24
Catfishing? Dogfishing? And what about breadcrumbing? Roly unveils the surprising origins of animal-based words, and the unexpected impact those words have had on the language of dating.
Published 02/28/24
Feb-RAR-y? Feb-RY? Feb-YOR-ary? How do you say February?
Published 02/21/24
I love you. I adore you. I'm smitten. You drive me crazy. I need you. But why?
Published 02/14/24
Should you stress about stress in words? Roly Sussex explains the surprising origins for why we emphasise the things we do.
Published 02/07/24
Kilometre or KILO-metre? Addicting or addictive? And should you drop the 't' in comfortable?
Published 01/31/24
From utes to the quirks of the English language, Roly Sussex is here to answer all your linguistic questions.
Published 01/24/24
From "authentic" to "Matildas", Roly Sussex returns with some of his favourite words of the past annum.
Published 01/17/24
What are the cultural origins of our names? What makes them more feminine or masculine? And when did middle names become a thing?
Published 11/30/23
From jingles about sun safety to songs about vegemite, Australia's advertising history is full of iconic earworms. But why were they so successful?
Published 11/23/23
Insults are hardly features of polite conversation, but some might say we've gotten a bit soft.
Published 11/16/23
How did we decide what should be capitalised, and what should be lowercase? And why do we capitalise 'I' but not 'me'?
Published 11/09/23
Is it exclamation points, or exclamation marks? What's the deal with the full stop, apostophe and comma?
Published 11/02/23
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses American influences on the English language.
Published 10/26/23
The ABC's Lord of Language, the Emeritus Professor Roly Sussex, discusses where to put the emphasis on words.
Published 10/19/23