We use words on a day to day basis to communicate with other people. Fairly obvious really. The words that you use in everyday speech are probably basically the same as those your parents would have used 20 or 30 years ago. So why is it that parents sometimes have difficulty in understanding some of the things their children say? It's not a new phenomenon: language changes constantly and misunderstanding could be due to the inclusion of words that have arrived in the last fifteen, ten or even five years. In fact, this year’s coolest piece of literary bling may well be included in your speech . . . but it certainly will not be part of your parent’s vocabulary. This is why the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is involving itself in a study with Leeds and Cardiff Universities. The aim is to try to capture the words used in everyday language as they develop and before they are lost. Think about it: there are certain words that you might not use because they are ‘unfashionable’, but just a few years ago they were very well used and on everyone’s lips: well almost! The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ will be gathering the audio and recording those all-important voices; we also want them to become part of our programmes. In Herefordshire we’ve captured the thoughts and words of a group from the Newton Farm Advice Centre who sat round a table and gave their views on the words they’d used as children and some of the words they used now. In the group there was a wide age range from early thirties to late seventies and all of them were volunteers at the advice centre - but other than that their roles in life differ from single parent to councillor! In Worcestershire, we gave coffee and biscuits to four friends who knew each other very well. They all live in the village of Hallow and they are all members of the local Women’s Institute. Over the coffee cups, they talked about the language they used and how they applied it in different circumstances. They also discovered words from their childhood that they thought they’d forgotten - words they hadn't used for years! There will be a great deal happening with Voices in 2005, because all the material we collect here in Herefordshire and Worcestershire will become part of our radio programming. Some of it will be featured on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4; work will go on collecting the audio from different groups; we'll be finding new uses for old words and of course new words with new meanings.
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