Interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” about verbal anachronisms on Downton Abbey. (Feb. 13, 2012)
PBS’s hit series Downton Abbey has been praised for its subtle and witty dialogue. But a few anachronisms have slipped into the characters’ conversations, and spotting them has become a hobby for many fans.
Linguist Ben Zimmer, executive producer of Visual Thesaurus and language columnist for the Boston Globe, talked with NPR’s Renee Montagne about snippets of dialogue that British people of the time would’ve been very unlikely to say.
(Show page, audio, transcript, related Word Routes column, Boston Globe column)