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Radio 5 Live,1 min

How did Roald Dahl come up with his famous phrases?

5 Live In Short

Available for over a year

To celebrate 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl, the Oxford English Dictionary is publishing new and revised 鈥楧ahlesque鈥� entries. These include famous phrases such as 鈥極ompa Loompa鈥�, 鈥榮crumdiddlyumptious鈥� and 鈥榟uman bean鈥�. Dr Susan Rennie is a lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Glasgow University. She's also the author of a separate book, 鈥楾he Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary' and says Dahl 鈥渒new the kind of sounds that children loved saying.鈥� She told 5 live Drive鈥檚 Tony Livesey the words are 鈥済reat fun to say but children can also make sense of them because they sound like a word they know.鈥� For a word to be included in the dictionary it requires several independent examples of the word being used, along with evidence it has been used for 鈥榓 reasonable amount of time鈥�. This clip is originally from 5 live Drive on 12 September 2016.

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