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Why Hardy's spelling matters, how Lancashire reflected on the American Civil War through dialect poems printed in local newspapers, how education inspectors at Victorian schools policed pupils dropping the letter "h" : a quartet of academics: Greg Tate, Louise Creechan, Lynda Mugglestone and Simon Rennie join John Gallagher for the latest part of Free Thinking's series looking at the way we speak, accents and multilingualism. With recent research from the Sutton Trust showing prejudice against regional accents is still rife, this conversation looks at earlier examples of attempts to standardise English spelling and speaking and at where local dialects were celebrated.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Other episodes include:
What Language did Columbus Speak? Lingua franca in 15th century travel and today鈥檚 refugee camps
Dead Languages: John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the daily language of ancient Pompeii and looks at the translation of hieroglyphics
The Black Country: Matthew Sweet hears about the way the region has been depicted in writing which seeks to celebrate the local accent.

And Arts and Ideas New Thinking podcast episodes on research into
Accents: From variations in Mancunian to descriptions of the Geordie voice
City Talk: Mapping the accents of Greater Manchester with a camper van and a laptop