E7: July Doldrums: How languagingHR got its name

Languaging Episode #7 Notes: July doldrums

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/languaginghr

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads

Episode 7 : July doldrums

Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky

Date: August 9, 2024

Length: 18:40

Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday of each month

In this off-the-cuff mini-episode, hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky give listeners information on the name and whereabouts of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and its “rival” Tidewater. They also reveal that the podcast’s title, languaging, “is a word” and divulge its meaning - to solve complex problems through the use of language.

In laid back summer mode, the duo reflect on their six prior episodes that started with a spotlight on Tidewater Voices in January 2024. The online archive, available at Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia | Old Dominion University Research

is an ongoing 20-year ethnographic project by Old Dominion University linguistics students, under the supervision of Dr. Bridget Anderson. That first episode focused on identifying a Tidewater accent and the history of the region. 

Jill and Prue go on to recount the scope of their episodes to date: an exploration of the roots of the word ‘menhaden’; learning about the work of a coalition of local tribes to revive the Algonquian language; raising awareness of research on patient/health provider interactions; a discussion of the development of sign language dialects; and, most recently, interviews with performers in the spoken word poetry scene in Hampton Roads. 

Finally, Jill answers her question about the role of the present perfect, while Prue poses a new question for listeners – is it true that the labio-dental fricative [v] is the only letter in the English alphabet that is never ‘silent,’ as in ‘g[h]ost, thum[b], etc.?

Send your answer and any feedback via email to [e-mail].

Listeners can also visit their new website, www.languaginghr.wordpress.com, with access to all episodes of languaginghr as well as full interviews with those featured on the podcast.