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Stephen Fry’s Planet Word

 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
DaraghM
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 Message 1 of 8
03 October 2011 at 12:49pm | IP Logged 
I stumbled across this on the British channel BBC2 at 9:00pm on Sunday. In the first episode, he managed to discuss conlangs including Klingon and Esperanto, as well as interview a UN translator. In last night's episode, he discussed minority languages visiting Ireland and the Basque region. In the Irish section he appeared in the Irish language soap, Ros na Rún. He also visited Israel to discuss the development of modern Hebrew. I haven't enjoyed a program like this in a long time. He managed to touch on so many topics we discuss here, I wonder if he knows about this forum.

Has anyone else seen this program, and what did they think ?

Edited by DaraghM on 03 October 2011 at 12:50pm

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Arekkusu
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 Message 2 of 8
03 October 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged 
I think you can watch it here; however, it's only available within the UK.

It's also on Youtube

Edited by Arekkusu on 03 October 2011 at 4:36pm

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boon
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 Message 3 of 8
03 October 2011 at 7:11pm | IP Logged 
I'm a fan of Stephen Fry. I saw bits of both episodes. The second episode seemed better than the first. I recorded the first episode though, so I must watch the whole thing.

I saw the Ros na Rún episode when it was aired. He was good in it. Shame about the programme itself! Well, I hate all soaps so I'm not the best judge.

In episode 2, the discussion of Hebrew was very interesting. He was talking to a mechanic about the names of car parts in Hebrew. Some words came from Biblical Hebrew, others were constructed and many were borrowed from English.

The "immortal" from the French Academy had some weak arguments to support the Academy's negative position on minority languages in France. Basically he said "Ooo, French is wonderful and widely spoken. Why bother with your provincial non-entities?".

The bit about North African rap music was good too. They use their own French idiom, with Arabic and Portuguese loan words. European French has absorbed some of these words because of the music.
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Arekkusu
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 Message 4 of 8
04 October 2011 at 4:22pm | IP Logged 
I watched the first episode yesterday and quite enjoyed it! A little succinct at times, but still entertaining.
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pesahson
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 Message 5 of 8
02 November 2011 at 10:28am | IP Logged 
I noticed that it has been taken down from the channel that Arekkusu linked. But all five episodes are here.

I liked this show, but I was hoping for something that would investigate languages deeper I guess. I knew many of the things he talked about, although some facts about some languages were very interesting. I think it was great as a introduction to the subject and it is a TV show so I can't expect too much.

All in all, I'd like to see more shows like that.
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Ari
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 Message 6 of 8
02 November 2011 at 10:44am | IP Logged 
Here is a Language Log post about the series, called "Around the world of words, without a linguist". Do read it if you watch the series.
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Alexander86
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 Message 7 of 8
02 November 2011 at 3:30pm | IP Logged 
I enjoyed all 5 episodes and was expectantly awaiting the sixth when I found out it was only a 5 part series. You
can't treat 6,000+ languages in 5 parts!!! But it was at least of interest to me and hopefully to the non-language
learner who now feels a little curiosity...
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WentworthsGal
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 Message 8 of 8
02 November 2011 at 5:52pm | IP Logged 
I've watched the first 3 episodes so far (thank you to Harry Hill's TV Burp for pointing this show out to me!) and I'm loving it! It was especially interesting to hear about swear words and insults, and how they came about in different languages and cultures.


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