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"Sluffing School" and Other Utah-isms

KUER

Wanna talk like a real Utahn? Well, pour yourself a glass of “melk” and head on up to the “ruf.” We’ve got some “explainin’” to do.

It’s actually not so easy to describe just what is — and isn’t — a Utah-only accent, or Utah-only vocabulary for that matter. One of our guests this week is the linguist David Eddington. He recently completed a large language survey, with participants from all over the state. And he discovered that it isn’t just that Utahns talk differently than other people — we also talk differently than each other, depending, say, on where in the state we’re from or how old we are. One thing’s for sure, though: there’s music in how we speak, but it’s changing over time. Join us at 11 a.m. for a conversation about Utah English.

GUESTS

  • Phillip Bimstein | Alternative classical music composer and assistant professor at the University of Utah’s Honors College. You can find his work here
  • David Ellingson Eddington | Emeritus professor in the department of linguistics at Brigham Young University. His new book is “Utah English” [ University of Utah Press | Amazon | Bookshop]
  • David Bowie | Linguist and chair of the Department of English, University of Alaska Anchorage
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