Free Thinking

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: Language, the Victorians, and Us

Language, the Victorians, and Us

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Language, the Victorians, and Us

From Lancashire dialect protest poetry to Hardy's Dorset vowels. John Gallagher hosts.

A quartet of academics, Greg Tate, Louise Creechan, Lynda Mugglestone and Simon Rennie, join John Gallagher to discuss 19th-century education reform, accents and literature.

Why Hardy's spelling matters, how Lancashire reflected on the American Civil War through dialect poems printed in local newspapers, how education inspectors at Victorian schools policed pupils dropping the letter "h" : a quartet of academics: Greg Tate, Louise Creechan, Lynda Mugglestone and Simon Rennie join John Gallagher for the latest part of Free Thinking's series looking at the way we speak, accents and multilingualism.  With recent research from the Sutton Trust showing prejudice against regional accents is still rife, this conversation looks at earlier examples of attempts to standardise English spelling and speaking and at where local dialects were celebrated.   

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Other episodes include: 
What Language did Columbus Speak? Lingua franca in 15th century travel and today’s refugee camps 
Dead Languages: John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the daily language of ancient Pompeii and looks at the translation of hieroglyphics 
The Black Country: Matthew Sweet hears about the way the region has been depicted in writing which seeks to celebrate the local accent. 

And Arts and Ideas New Thinking podcast episodes on research into 
Accents: From variations in Mancunian to descriptions of the Geordie voice 
City Talk: Mapping the accents of Greater Manchester with a camper van and a laptop

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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Free Thinking

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