From grunts to grammar. The Irish 'after doing.' The winning NGD poem!

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

972. How did humans evolve from grunting ancestors to masters of language and poetry? This week, we explore fascinating theories on the origins of human language, including the laugh-inducing Bow-Wow and Pooh-Pooh theories. We also delve into Irish-English calques for St. Patrick's Day (and in response to a question from a Grammarpaloozian) and celebrate Leslie F. Miller's winning limerick from the National Grammar Day contest.

Miller works as a health care writer in Baltimore. She is the author of the nonfiction book "Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and Pinch of Salt," which is not about BAKING cake, but about EATING cake; a chapbook of "arty and electric" poems called "BoyGirlBoyGirl"; and a forthcoming full-length poetry book called "Words with Friends."

The "language theories" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.

| Edited transcript with links: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/bow-wow-theory/transcript

| Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to [phone].

| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.

| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.

| Peeve Wars card game.

| Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

• Audio Engineer: Nathan Semes
• Director of Podcast: Brannan Goetschius
• Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
• Marketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina Tomlin
• Digital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.