Ever wondered why how the pronunciation of words evolves, why accents are formed – and why the way we talk differs depending on who we're speaking to? Rob Drummond discusses this and also phenomena like the Australian tendency to “uptalk” at the end of sentences, the Great Vowel Shift and whether Julia Gillard’s accent really was “too Australian”!
Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he researches and teaches about the relationship between how we speak and who we are. He recently completed a large project exploring the accents and dialects of Greater Manchester, touring the region in his Accent Van. He appears regularly on radio and TV talking about language-related issues and spent some time as ‘resident linguist’ on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, as well as appearing on the BBC Breakfast sofa.
