# 'Why We Talk Funny.' The reasons behind our accents, with Valerie Fridland Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/why-we-talk-funny-the-reasons-behind-our-accents-with-valerie-fridland Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/why-we-talk-funny-the-reasons-behind-our-accents-with-valerie-fridland.md Podcast: [Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.](https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700) Published: 2026-04-23T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/grammar-girl/episodes/1179 Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69c1476c007cdcf83fc0964b/e/69e1306d6e5b90839aa1f731/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/episodes/why-we-talk-funny-the-reasons-behind-our-accents-with-valerie-fridland Duration seconds: 1980 ## Resource 1179. This week, we talk to Valerie Fridland, a linguist and professor who grew up in Memphis surrounded by Southern accents and now researches the history and social power of speech. We look at her new book, "Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents," which explores the history of how American speech developed and how colonial settlement patterns shaped regional identities. Then we look at the decline of regional accents, the mechanics of speech sounds like "L" and "R," and the psychological impact of accent bias. Get Valerie’s new book, " Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents." More from Valerie at valeriefridland.com πŸ”—  Join the Grammar Girl Patreon. πŸ”—  Share your familect recording in  Speakpipe  or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) πŸ”—  Watch my  LinkedIn Learning writing courses . πŸ”—  Subscribe to the  newsletter . πŸ”—  Take  our advertising survey . πŸ”—  Get the edited  transcript here . πŸ”—  Get  Grammar Girl books . | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | Grammar Girl is part of  the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network . Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb | Theme music by  Catherine Rannus . | Grammar Girl Social Media:  YouTube .  TikTok .  Facebook .  Threads .  Instagram .  LinkedIn .  Mastodon .  Bluesky . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/episodes/why-we-talk-funny-the-reasons-behind-our-accents-with-valerie-fridland/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/grammar-girl-for-writers-and-language-lovers-159700/why-we-talk-funny-the-reasons-behind-our-accents-with-valerie-fridland.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.