How did Language Start? - Part 3: Universal Grammar Simon Roper 2024-10-21 | How did Language Start? - Part 3: Universal Grammar
Why Do Sound Changes Have Exceptions? Simon Roper 2024-10-04 | In this video, I discuss some of the reasons why conditioned sound changes sometimes have exceptions, using both modern and historical examples. Thank you very much to my friend Scott Burchell for teaching me how to do the film emulation that I used in the 'skit' at the end. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
1970s vs. 2020s Southeastern English Speech Simon Roper 2024-09-17 | In this video, I compare the speech of Margaret Wilkins (born c.1935) to my own (born c.1998), picking up on some aspects of 1970s speech which I'd say have become rarer, at least in this part of the country, since then. Mrs Wilkins was recorded as part of a 1974 television series called 'The Family', which sought to document ordinary working-class family life at the time in a naturalistic and socially realistic way. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Is Everyone Conscious in the Same Way? Simon Roper 2024-08-24 | In this video, I explore some of the possible reasons for debates or discussions about consciousness breaking down. I postulate that major differences in the form of people's conscious experiences might lead to people talking past each other during discussions about consciousness. ____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Old English Pronunciation: A Comprehensive Reconstruction Simon Roper 2024-08-02 | In this long video, I try to cover almost all elements of Old English pronunciation, and how the phonetics of the language are reconstructed by historical linguists. Naturally, as it is only preserved in written form, plenty of things are uncertain - here, I try to make clear where we are quite sure about things, and where we are unsure.I use a ground-up approach and try to take fairly few things for granted, but of course I didn't do this reconstruction work myself, I am only presenting it here (except in a few cases, where I specify that I'm giving my own opinion). Much of this work was done decades ago, but one of the best recent resources on Old English phonology, which helped immensely with this video and with learning about this field myself, is:Hogg, R. (1992). A Grammar of Old English, Vol 1: Phonology. In the video I think I cite it as 'Hogg 2011' by mistake - I think my copy of it must be an updated version. 00.00 - Start01:04 - Introduction06:39 - Stress, prosody14:42 - Monophthongal vowels19:22 - 'i'28:23 - 'u'30:03 - 'e'30:43 - 'o'31:29 - 'a'31:46 - 'æ'35:38 - 'y'36:07 - The exact pronunciation of the vowels40:29 - 'oe'41:53 - Vowel quality and length48:17 - 'an'/'on' sequences50:29 - Diphthongal vowels52:43 - 'eo' and breaking1:00:42 - 'ea'1:01:52 - 'io'1:03:47 - 'ie'1:04:59 - Quality of diphthongs1:12:37 - Short diphthongs?1:16:10 - Unstressed vowels1:20:49 - Nasal consonants 'n' and 'm'1:24:32 - Doubled consonants1:26:40 - Plosive consonants: 'p', 'b', 't', 'd'1:34:42 - 'c'1:40:16 - 'g'1:46:49 - Fricative consonants: 'f, 's', 'þ/ð', 'h'2:00:00 - The semivowel 'w'2:06:17 - 'wl', 'wr'2:07:53 - 'ig', 'eg', 'aw' - vowels followed by semivowels2:11:12 - 'r' and 'I'2:16:30 - Development and dialects2:24:28 - Spoken example: Very early Old English2:25:19 - Spoken example: 'Textbook' Old English2:25:59 - Spoken example: 'Alternative' Pronunciation2:27:32 - West Saxon dialect2:28:16 - Kentish dialect2:29:31 - 'Anglian' dialects2:31:07 - Mercian dialect2:31:42 - Northumbrian dialect2:32:54 - Less palatalisation in more northerly dialects2:35:38 - Spoken Example: the poem 'Deor'____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
A Conversation with Dave Huxtable about the Origins of US and UK English Simon Roper 2024-07-24 | In this video, Dave Huxtable and I discuss the divergence between American and British English (in their many forms). The other half of this conversation is on Dave's channel at this link:youtube.com/watch?v=lzH_b3bsQDY&
Time in Different Cultures Simon Roper 2024-06-18 | In this video, I explore a few anthropological and philosophical views of time, considering the ways in which two cultures might view time very differently. I only dent the topic here, and would highly recommend Alfred Gell's book 'The Anthropology of Time' for a more thorough analysis. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who chooses to donate): patreon.com/simonroper
My Experience with Cognitive Issues (Coeliac) Simon Roper 2024-06-03 | In this video, I talk about some personal experience I've had with the cognitive changes associated with coeliac disease. This includes an account of my emotional reaction to somebody's death, so is worth avoiding if you'd rather not hear about that kind of thing. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Are Historical Accent Reconstructions Just Nonsense? Simon Roper 2024-05-20 | In this video, I explore an often-made criticism of my videos: that historical accents cannot be reconstructed if they were spoken before the era of audio recording, and that some of my most popular videos are just based on speculation and guesswork. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Making Films Set in the Past Simon Roper 2024-05-06 | In this video, I explore some things I usually consider when making films set in the past - from practical considerations about camera angles and colour grading, to the presentation of characters and story.Scott's video on Dehancer: youtube.com/watch?v=ilI98eyZfg8________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
What if Old Names for Gods had Survived into English? Simon Roper 2024-04-23 | In this video, I explore the hypothetical topic of how words for older gods (and other religious concepts) would have sounded if they had natively developed in English. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Conversational English in 1586 Simon Roper 2024-04-09 | In this video, I explore a 1586 work by Jacques Bellot, and what it can tell us about 'street English' in the early modern period. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who subscribes): patreon.com/simonroper
How Does the Brain Understand Speech? An Overview Simon Roper 2024-03-28 | In this video, I explore some of the basics of auditory neuroscience, with an emphasis on speech perception. The video briefly explains how sound works, and then how it's transposed into electrical signals that the brain can work with, before briefly touching on how the brain processes speech. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Descriptivism and Prescriptivism Simon Roper 2024-03-12 | In this more rambly video, I cover the often-misunderstood concepts of descriptivism and prescriptivism; whether you approach language as something which can be 'right' or 'wrong', and how this concept extends to other areas of anthropology._____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates):patreon.com/simonroper
An Edinburgh Accent from 1617 Simon Roper 2024-02-26 | In this video, I explore one particular Scots speaker's account of their own accent, written in 1617. Alex Foreman's channel: youtube.com/@a.z.foreman74 ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Why does Sound Change Happen? Simon Roper 2024-01-20 | In this video, I'll explore the process of sound change on a couple of different levels, from phonetic and phonemic changes to larger-scale social changes. _____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroperMy Instagram: instagram.com/simon.roperr
Progressing Some Words from Proto-Germanic to English Simon Roper 2024-01-06 | In this video, I show how several words are likely to have progressed from Proto-Germanic to modern English (using my own dialect as an 'end goal'), through the series of sound changes that historical linguists have surmised most straightforwardly explain the relationship between the modern Germanic languages.____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
An Upper-Class Southern British Accent, 1673 - 2023 Simon Roper 2023-12-25 | In this video, I run back through the phonetic evidence for upper-class southeastern British accents from the last four hundred years. Please feel free to ask in the comments if there's anything you'd like clarifying, or let me know if you notice anything that might be a mistake! My current email address: simonroper@ntlworld.comMy Instagram: instagram.com/simon.roperr ________This channel's Patreon (thank you to everybody who has helped this year): patreon.com/simonroper
Celtic Influence on English Simon Roper 2023-12-15 | In this video, I explore a few ways in which people have suggested that Celtic languages - such as Common Brittonic - may have influenced English.________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who contributes): patreon.com/simonroper
Rodents and Small Mammals in Early Medieval England Simon Roper 2023-11-29 | In this video, I explore the semantic ranges of several Old English rodent words, and how they map onto different species of rodent (and non-rodent) in Britain. ________This channel's Patreon: patreon.com/simonroperAn online shop where I have some designs on T-shirts: zazzle.com/store/simon_roper
Spiders in Early Medieval England Simon Roper 2023-11-15 | In this video, I explore textual and archaeological evidence relating to spiders in early medieval England. ________The Zazzle shop: zazzle.com/store/simon_roper/productsThis channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Old English: Mistakes to Avoid Simon Roper 2023-11-02 | In this video, I go through some mistakes to watch out for when learning Old English. Some of them are thing I've done myself, and others are things that I've seen other learners do. ________This channel's Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
What was Wrong with Vincent van Gogh? Simon Roper 2023-10-19 | In this slightly left-field video by my usual standards, I'll explore the extensive literature around what illness(es) Vincent van Gogh had during his life, and to what extent it is possible to diagnose somebody with an illness after they have died. 'Like Dreamers Do', the short film mentioned at the beginning: youtube.com/watch?v=sBzNYoC1tHI___This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Beowulf with Dr Jackson Crawford | Fits 16 - 19 Simon Roper 2023-10-05 | Jackson's fantastic channel on Old Norse myth and literature:@JacksonCrawford His books: jacksonwcrawford.com/books His Patreon: patreon.com/norsebysw________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Is It Possible to Describe Somebodys Entire Language? Simon Roper 2023-09-22 | In this video, I explore whether it's possible to completely describe somebody's entire linguistic system. _____This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Consciousness: Why Cant We Describe It? Simon Roper 2023-09-11 | My sister's Kickstarter project (thank you to anybody who pledges): kickstarter.com/projects/ghostpin/ghost-enamel-pinHer Etsy shop with some other things she's made: etsy.com/uk/shop/CryinginClassThis video started off as a follow-up to a previous one about consciousness, and sort of evolved into a proper video in its own right. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
How We Know Languages like Proto-Indo-European Existed Simon Roper 2023-09-04 | In this video, I delve into the reasons that historical linguists reconstruct Proto-Indo-European, and more generally, why they're so confident that proto-languages existed. World of Antiquity's video on how cuneiform was deciphered: youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_wjO4TKrE&________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Do you remember Britain in 1949, or know somebody who does? (More details in description) Simon Roper 2023-08-18 | I am once again asking for your help in getting historical dialogue to be more accurate! Me and a friend are working on a longer-form project which probably won't be out for a couple of years yet, but this particular scene is set in 1949 in Surrey. We were wondering if anybody has any relatives of roughly the right age or from the right area to comment on what we may have got right and wrong so far. We will combine this with data from any recordings we can find to create the finished scene. Of course, even if you don't remember that time period, any general advice like 'I was around in the 1960s and that phrasing didn't exist yet' is also much appreciated. The characters are supposed to be around 20 years old.My main concern at the moment is that my accent in it might be a bit too London. I tried to adjust the 'bath' vowel to something I've heard from recordings of people about that age from Reading, but I realise even that's a little distance away from Guildford. I can be contacted as simonroper@ntlworld.com if you'd prefer to write there than in public comments - and if you'd like to be credited with your name or anything when we get round to making the project, that's a good place to send it to, as I think YouTube may delete comments if it thinks they have personal information in them. Either way, thank you to anybody who contributes, and I hope we haven't made too many silly mistakes!
Did Proto-Indo-European Really Only Have 2 Vowels? Simon Roper 2023-08-15 | In this video, I explore the reasons why a lot of modern reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European only have two vowels: *e and *o. ________This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Proto-Germanic Reconstructed Pronunciation Guide Simon Roper 2023-08-01 | In this video, I go into detail about the reconstruction of Proto-Germanic currently used by historical linguists. Luke's video on retracted 'S' (which I missed the mark on a few times in this video): youtube.com/watch?v=NqbV6bLpC-U&His video on Latin 'V': youtube.com/watch?v=hovf-UK-toQ&________This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Footage of birds, insects and rain Simon Roper 2023-07-21 | As a little breather, here's some footage of birds, insects and rain :)In this video, you'll see house sparrows, starlings (including a brown juvenile), magpies, collared doves, and a robin near the end.
Nick & Laura | 2023 Film Simon Roper 2023-07-07 | Two strangers are accidentally trapped in a room with each other after a house party. Connected only by the mutual friend who hosted the party, and with no idea when they will get out, they are given a unique opportunity to explore each other's perspectives on things. Starring: Scott Burchell, Juliet Ibberson & Simon Roper. 'Away' Music Video on The Paperwaits' channel: youtube.com/watch?v=8fmYSCgSELY The Lipmouth website has a box at the bottom where you can enter your email if you'd like to be told about new things we've done - of course, this is free and you can ask us to stop sending you emails at any time! Thank you so much to everybody for putting so much into this slightly unusual project!
Consciousness, Qualia and Internal Monologues Simon Roper 2023-06-26 | This is another video that breaks away from my usual topics a little bit. I realised that I didn't go very far into religious explanations of consciousness (unless you count panpsychism), because I don't know much about them - but in a 30-minute video I think there are only so many things you can cover! Thank you very much to everybody who comments, critically or supportively. ________This channel's Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
Crawford, Ranieri and Roper Try to Learn Each Others Accents Simon Roper 2023-06-19 | Jackson's channel: @JacksonCrawford One of Luke's various channels: @polyMATHY_Luke
What Was the Great Vowel Shift? Simon Roper 2023-06-12 | A more complete video on the great vowel shift that hopefully incorporates some more detail than the last one I did three years ago. Geoff Lindsey's video involving the New Zealand shift: youtube.com/watch?v=3TfbtouLm14My video on how a couple of examples of Early Modern English vowels are reconstructed: youtube.com/watch?v=0O7H8FYZOkw_____This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Exploring Two Northern Irish Accents Simon Roper 2023-06-03 | A little foray into two Northern Irish accents, because I thought it would be interesting to talk through the research process - I'm glad to have finally looked at Northern Irish accents a little bit, and I hope I have more excuses to do so in future!_____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who decides to donate): patreon.com/simonroper
What is Historical Accuracy? Simon Roper 2023-05-27 | A video exploring the nature of historical accuracy, and when it matters. 'Fly Trap': youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4jGabyFWs&Princess Diana video: youtube.com/watch?v=p0qMxFY29WA&Paul McCartney 'y'know': youtube.com/watch?v=2N4djGTnJsM&William Hartnell interview: youtube.com/watch?v=bPQaaXBsUg0________This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who considers donating): patreon.com/simonroper
Unpicking Some Aspects of Þæs Anhagas Siþ Simon Roper 2023-05-19 | Eadwine's video on the pronunciation of Old English vowels: youtube.com/watch?v=yvlj3JYTN80
Þæs Anhagas Siþ | Early Medieval Short Film | 2023 Simon Roper 2023-05-12 | Bealdric has lost his house. Rather than live in an undignified situation, he has made the decision to live on the holt. From the beginning, he knows that he is out-of-place. Here, while I will have made some mistakes in the aspects of this period I am less familiar with, I have tried to shed a bit of a unique light on part of what we think of as the Anglo-Saxon period - although 'Anglo-Saxon' is used to cover such a large broad cultural spectrum. Paul Kingsnorth said at one point that it is difficult to capture a time period without stepping into the language a little bit - this is my own little answer to that :)________Thank you to Scott Burchell for all of his help with this film. Here is the link to the Lipmouth Studios YouTube channel: youtube.com @lipmouth Scott's personal channel with several of his short films (with more set to be released in the next few weeks): youtube.com/@Scott.BurchellAnd an album that he and his band, The Paperwaits, have released in the last few days: youtube.com/watch?v=75Bgv1vI3p0&t=284s________Thank you as well to Butser Ancient Farm for inspiring this project, and to everybody who offered me advice. I haven't been there in a while and can't vouch for everybody on there, but the admins of this Discord are extremely helpful and it has a lot of helpful information for anybody who does want to pursue Old English: discord.gg/englisc-discord-283438110006706178
Clarifying my Support of Trans Rights Simon Roper 2023-05-02 | This page has some of the statistics I referenced in the video, with links to academic research: stonewall.org.uk/the-truth-about-trans I found this PhilosophyTube video useful in better understanding the experience of at least one trans person: youtube.com/watch?v=AITRzvm0Xtg A PDF on different ideas of gender identity across a few indigenous American groups: soginursing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hunt-2016-Health-of-Two-Spirit-Health.pdf This Historic England article runs through a few examples of openly trans people throughout the 20th century: historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/lgbtq-heritage-project/trans-and-gender-nonconforming-histories/trans-pioneers This PDF explores a few examples of people who do not conform to the gender binary in the late medieval and postmedieval periods - https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/outcasts/downloads/betancourt_transgender_lives.pdf
Crows and Corvids in Early Medieval England Simon Roper 2023-04-15 | A lot of the bird calls were found on xeno-canto: xeno-canto.orgThe Cornell Lab also has a useful website where I found the raven sounds: allaboutbirds.org/newsMER Lacey's thesis can be found here: discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1431318 And Ramirez's is here, although I'm not sure whether it needs an institution login: ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432238 _____This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who has donated): patreon.com/simonroper
Beowulf with Dr Jackson Crawford | Fits 8 - 11 Simon Roper 2023-04-11 | Jackson's channel: / @jacksoncrawford Eadwine's videos on pronunciation for anybody interested: • Old English Pronu... • Old English Pronu... The Benjamin Slade translation that I defaulted to a couple of times: https://heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.htmlSome of Jackson's published translations of Old Norse texts:amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YZMA86A/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075DY8K49/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WS4447M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09FX33D97/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2____Jackson's Patreon: patreon.com/norsebyswMy Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
Evolution of a Northern and Southern English Accent, 1586 - 2006 Simon Roper 2023-03-24 | The MEG-C from Stavanger University: https://www.uis.no/en/middle-english-grammar-corpus-meg-c-0Warren Maguire's fantastic site on Ellis's 1889 survey: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/EllisAtlas/About.htmlThe video on the TRAP-BATH split: youtube.com/watch?v=zl7nYepuCoI&t=2sThe video on 'R': youtube.com/watch?v=bq4XbdA3dTk&t=760s_____This channel's Patreon (thank you to anybody who's donated): patreon.com/simonroper
Why do Some People Pronounce Off as Awf? | The LOT-CLOTH and TRAP-BATH Splits Simon Roper 2023-03-08 | Dr. Geoff Lindsey's video on the IPA symbols used to transcribe modern British English, and where their arrangement is outdated: youtube.com/watch?v=gtnlGH055TA&An article by John Booth on how outdated IPA symbols still dominate the teaching of British English to second-language speakers: cambridge.org/core/journals/english-today/article/abs/fossilization-of-noncurrent-english-pronunciation-in-german-efl-teaching1/3D9A4782F43FEB1FBE51520794D50E1D____This channel's Patreon (thank you very much to anybody who donates): patreon.com/simonroper
Questions and Answers Simon Roper 2023-02-24 | Eadwine's Old English channel: youtube.com/@EngliscMidEadwineWatch Your Language's video which includes a nice intuitive explanation of PIE laryngeals: youtube.com/watch?v=7My8EnkJEDU&t=474s My video on the history of 'R' in English: youtube.com/watch?v=bq4XbdA3dTk _____This channel's Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
What was a Northern Accent Like in Old English? Simon Roper 2023-02-08 | My sister's Etsy shop: etsy.com/uk/shop/CryinginClassThe fantastic resource on Cædmon's hymn: caedmon.seenet.org/htm/toc.html___This channel's Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
Beowulf with Dr Jackson Crawford | Prologue, Fits 1 - 3 Simon Roper 2023-01-27 | Jackson's channel: youtube.com/@JacksonCrawfordEadwine's videos on pronunciation: youtube.com/watch?v=yvlj3JYTN80&t=105s youtube.com/watch?v=nkQQ37V5aEwThe Benjamin Slade translation that I defaulted to a couple of times: https://heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html____Jackson's Patreon: patreon.com/norsebyswMy Patreon: patreon.com/simonroper
