Aug 16, 2022 • 46M

Throw Up, Turn Out & Believe

More about how new words are formed and what they might say about how long a language has been around.

3
 
0:00
-45:35
Open in playerListen on);

Appears in this episode

John McWhorter
Episode details
3 comments

Words like chit-chat, pitter-patter and wishy-washy are formed that way for a reason beyond the pleasing way that they sound. The vowel change actually signifies something more meaningful to our human way of thinking. John explains.