This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Global English

USA: Top cop apologizes for ‘no-English’ ticket.
‘What I want people to know is that we do not give tickets for speaking Spanish, especially when you’re driving a car.’

Bill 104: ambivalence toward bilingualism is a problem for Canada.
New immigrants to Quebec are not necessarily invested in the maintenance of either the French language or culture.

Korean language evolves into dialects abroad.
‘And South Koreans seem to want it ― look at how much they spend on English and then compare that with what they spend on promoting Korean (language) overseas,’ the professor said.

Q & A: English as an international language.
Is it right for language teachers to impose the communication style of a native speaker culture on the language learner?

Language change and slang

Why save dying languages?
‘Would it be inherently evil if there were not 6,000 spoken languages but one?’ It’s illogical to try to save dying languages, a linguist and commentator says.

Let stalk some more Strine.
Way back in 1965 a peculiar little book became an Australian publishing sensation. Let Stalk Strine, a lexicon of modern Australian usage by Professor Afferbeck Lauder.

Satirical Twitter book focuses on Shakespeare.
Two university students have written a book of Twitter entries that summarise and satirise works of literature, including that of William Shakespeare.

Obamu.
A newly-coined Japanese verb – ‘to Obama’ – which means to persevere with optimism, ignoring all obstacles.

Improve your English

The difficulties of learning English.
While Americans are linear thinkers, Asians tend to be circular thinkers, and speakers of the romance languages have a zigzag pattern of thinking.  These embedded styles can be impediments for anyone trying to master a new language.

Things people say that I hate

Look ma, I knows grammar!
I wanted to take time to apologize for my irreverence towards these kind souls who roam the Internet selflessly correcting all of us who dare to misspell something…

Grammar: let me spell it out for you.
Tales abound of children coming home from school with letters about “you’re child” or being given misspelt words to learn.

Opinion: BBC PC idiots rewrite Humpty Dumpty.
The real horror of PC rewrites is that it misrepresents the entire culture. “Everything’s fine” isn’t the message of this culture, or this time in history. The average infant, if able to eat properly, and missed by most of the bullets, diseases and psychoses, might have managed to figure that out by the time it’s taking an interest in Humpty’s welfare.

Grammar gurus and Muphry’s Law.
A perfect illustration of Muphry’s Law: the principle that any criticism of the speech or writing of others will itself contain at least one error of usage or spelling.

Books, words, science and the history of language.

Web to be truly worldwide at last.
For the first time in its history, users will be allowed to create full web and e-mail-addresses using non-Latin characters.

How computers are changing language.
Let’s start with the case where the usage of computers has changed (or better put, is changing) Dutch punctuation.

A language of smiles.
‘Which made me wonder: do some languages contain an intrinsic bias towards pulling happy faces? In other words, do some languages predispose — in a subtle way — their speakers to be merrier than the speakers of other languages?’

The healing power of positive language.
At the very least, she says, developing these positive metaphors made a difference to her ability to endure her treatment.

Ask LL: parents’ beliefs or infants’ abilities?
‘… Parents totally assume their babies are talking about them.’

Funny Image

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Global English

Poor language skills hamper UK.
The UK will be held back as it seeks to emerge from recession unless it boosts the number of language graduates, campaigners say.

UK: Universities ‘forced’ to stop teaching languages.
Applications for language degrees are drying up, says head of vice-chancellors group.

UK: Pupils play madame in language class.
‘The children doing the language of the month are treated like little movie stars and that’s the way they get to see themselves.’

Canada: Official Languages Act’s 40th year marked.

USA: Not English only.
‘This is America! Speak English!’

Children can learn a second language in preschool, study finds.

English is toughest European language to read.

Common errors in English

5 grammar mistakes that make you sound like a chimp.

Grammar gaffe at Google apps for students.

One in the eye for slipshod signwriters.
“Thank you for your patients whiles we improve your store.”

Language change and slang

‘Bailout,’ ‘climate change’ top buzzwords.
What have been the USA’s busiest political buzzwords since the inauguration of U.S. president Barack Obama?

Things people say that I hate

George W. Bush tops English gobbledegook poll.
Former U.S. president George W. Bush topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English released Wednesday, followed closely by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld.

Atrocious.
Adjective control is getting lax at Broadcasting House.

Books, words and the history of language

It’s a woman thing.
The word ‘woman’is not derived from (or a mere variation on) the term ‘man’. The story is much more complicated.

Children’s illustrations of idioms.

Missing the nuance.
The most effective writing uses words sharply and precisely.

Are dictionaries becoming obsolete?

Word games.

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Global English

USA: Clunkers.
‘Cash for Clunkers’ has now achieved at least informal status as an American English word. How did this come to pass? Government did it.

USA: A mannah of speaking.
No one else from Boston, or anywhere in New England, has imprinted the regional accent on the national consciousness as Senator Kennedy did.

China: Crazy English. How China’s language teachers became big celebrities. This year it will be announced that China now has more English speakers than any other country in the world. And such is the demand for their services that top teachers have become big stars.

UK: Councils issue ‘idiot’s guide‘ to grammar.
Council staff are being issued with an “idiot’s guide” on how to use apostrophes and other punctuation marks correctly in a bid to stem their misuse in street signs and official notices.

Language change and slang

Lexicographers prefer a mankini.
Twitter, soz and gourmet sex are just some of the terms that are due to make their first appearance in the Collins English Dictionary.

‘Our language is funny – a fat chance and slim chance are the same thing.’
I love oxymorons, and I love that more and more of them keep appearing as the world changes.

NIV Bible to be revised with gender neutral language.
The most controversial aspect of the revision is the inclusion of gender neutral language.

The recession lexicon competition at the New York Times.
There have been some very smart and funny responses to the competition word maven Ben Schott has been holding this weekend at his New York Times blog.

Things people say that I hate

‘Irregardless’ has a posse.
With the passion of a thousand suns do grammarians hate irregardless.

New Zealand woman fired for using bolded ALL CAPS in e-mail.

The most irritating phrases in the English language.
Amis’s essays indict John Fowles for phrases like “He managed a wan smile” and Michael Crichton for “stunned silence” as well as “unearthly cry” and “deafening roar.”

Words you should never use at the office unless you have to.
Fortunately for all cubicle rats, staffing firm Accountemps periodically surveys executives to find out what they deem the most annoying and overused office clichés.

Books, words and the history of language.

More than friends.
What it means to be ‘an item’.

The origin of language.
Many a linguist has pondered long and hard about when the first human would have said the first real word of the first real language.

Dr. Ragab’s Universal Language by Robert Twigger.
Dr Ragab’s Universal Language is thus part allegorical quest, part philosophy and part pure hokum.

Language video

What is lexicography? What does a lexicographer do? Starring our very own Michael Rundell.

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Global English

UK: Cor blimey guv’nor, cockney cash machines? You’re ‘avin a giraffe!
If the rhyming slang ATMs are a hit, next up could be Brummie, Geordie and Scouse. Genius, or a load of Watford Gap?
Sent in by Stephen Bullon.

UK: Learning: sounds familiar.
Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, batch, bread cake, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? And are you sitting or sat at this computer?
Sent in by Stephen Bullon.

France: French flunk Europe-wide English language test.
In total, 109 countries sat down for the English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test, compulsory for foreign students wishing to study in an English-speaking country.

China: Could it be the end of Chinglish?
Authorities in China have launched another campaign to wipe out amusingly misspelt English. Will it work?

Common errors in English

Ask Language Log: prescriptivism in Europe.
An idle question from a big Language Log fan:  Do you have any idea if the nice folks in, say Germany or Italy or Spain, go as nuts as Americans seem to when native speakers make “fundamental” grammar errors?

Language change and slang

12 words you can never say in the office.
We’ve put together a list of outdated tech terms, phrases that you shouldn’t be using at work anymore because they will make you seem old.
Sent in by Kati Sule.

Dude, you are so (not) Obama.
Last week, if you wanted to use the latest slang to tell a friend he was cool, you could have called him “Obama,” as in: “Dude, you’re rocking the new Pre phone? You are so Obama.”
Sent in by Stephen Bullon.

Evolution of English.
Language exists for the need of the user, not the other way. Modern English has changed and will continue to do so. This is what makes it the “coolest” language in the world.

Watching our language.
If you are as old as I am, you probably talk about dialing a number on the telephone. None of my phones has a dial, but I still usually say it.  Weird, huh?  What is the correct term now, anyway?

A serious case of hipatitus.
“The bozone layer” which means “the layer surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating their consciousness”. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future, especially in financial and political districts.

Quangos blackball … oops, sorry … veto ‘racist’ everyday phrases.
Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.

TV meerkat launches dictionary campaign.
Fans of TV meerkat Aleksandr Orlov are campaigning for his “Simples!” catchphrase to enter the dictionary.
Sent in by Stephen Bullon.

Things people say that I hate

Back to plain English.
I’ve just come across an example of the type of thing that needs to be derided out of commerce and public life.

Cinema

Basterds all about language.
The filmmaker’s unique language, obscure cinematic references, flamboyant approach to genre, the zeitgeist — they are all signature Tarantino.

Language video

An excellent talk about words and dictionaries by Erin McKean.

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Language and words in the news

Language watch: is Gibbs striking the wrong “denote”?
The word is “denote.” And White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sure likes it a lot, which has not gone un-denoted by political observers and the White House press corps.

Colorful language.
I’ve often referred to the comics page as the last bastion of Victorian thought, but even I am still baffled from time to time at what you can NOT say on the comics page.

Five reasons (and 9,000 words) on why newspapers are tanking.
Newspapers and the people who work at them are reflexively change-averse — “Journalists like to affect a garrulous Ludditism.”

Fry’s English Delight, Radio 4.
The Independent on Fry’s new radio show.

Language change and slang

Dictionary removes beaver, replaces with blog and blackberry.

New words are signs of the times.
Bird’s nest, water cube and SARS are some of the new phrases included in the latest edition of China’s most authoritative dictionary.

Interesting new words are the ones most likely to fail.
Brangelina, octomom, infotainment etc. have really short lives, yet more interesting are some of the reasons why.
Sent in by Kati Sule.

The birth of ‘Just Do It’ and other magic words.
Mr. Gilmore, the notorious spree-killer, uttered the words “Let’s do it” just before a firing squad executed him in Utah in 1977.

I’m not hanging noodles on your ears and other intriguing idioms from around the world.

Things people say that I hate

Think b4 you speak.
Lexically speaking, the word Gay is a battleground of warring meanings, uses, and baggage.

A manner of speaking: ten (usually) empty phrases.

Books, websites, language history and blogs

Garnish.
The word comes from an old form that meant to ward off, to prevent, to protect, to prepare.

We are working on a list of words that can replace the word ‘baby’ in song lyrics.

Language Video

Peter Sellers does various English accents.

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Language and words in the news

UK: English as a second language for 900,000 children.
Nationally, English is no longer the mother tongue for a record 900,000 schoolchildren, around double the number a decade ago.

Dictionary of Castro’s thoughts published in Cuba.
Sent in by Kati Sule.

Language change and slang

Discovery of new words a fascinating aspect of lexicography.
In San Juan, he and his wife, Betsey, found “a dish of uniquitously alluring banana-coconut ice cream with shaved chocolate.”

How fail went from verb to interjection.
In a few years’ time, the use of fail as an interjection caught on to such an extent that particularly egregious objects of ridicule required an even stronger barb: major fail, überfail, massive fail or, most popular of all, epic fail.

Things people say that I hate

New ad campaign attempts to discourage use of ‘gay’ as disparagement.
In today’s society, “gay” is often used as a pejorative, losing all meaning and gaining a negative slant.

Language science

WOW: Google to launch a new version of Google Search.

Texting is making English a foreign language.
Baroness Greenfield, the neuroscientist, is worried that sending text messages may cause young people to have shorter attention spans.

One for the parents: Firefox plugin for filtering profanity.

Books, websites, language history and blogs

Wikipedia approaches its limits.
Today, they discovered, a stable group of high-level editors has become increasingly responsible for controlling the encyclopedia, while casual contributors and editors are falling away.

Anxiety in the time of influenza: a flu literary review.
In her 1926 essay, “On Being Ill,” Virginia Woolf lamented that sickness hadn’t become a central theme in literature, along the lines of love, battle or jealousy. After all, illness gives rise to equally potent spiritual awakenings.

Language Video

Eddie Izzard on languages (Note: it includes some strong language).

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Language and words in the news

Know your idioms?
‘Only when you know a country’s idioms can you really know its culture. Here is a quiz that will establish whether you’re a walking donkey killer or simply carrying owls to Athens.’

The idiotic joys of idioms.
From The Guardian: idioms are not only great fun, they also cast fresh light on the less rational workings of the human mind.

New Zealand: international students spending longer studying.
‘Saudi Arabian students were now the third biggest spenders on tuition, replacing Japan, while China had pushed Korea out of first place.’

Language change and slang

Woman receives first ever PhD in texting.
‘And she discovered from her 80,000 word thesis that there is more to texting that just abbreviations—something most people associate with texting.’

Bushisms and the dark art of political language.
‘Hunter S. Thompson described politics as “the art of controlling your environment.” This is done by a deliberate endeavor to create a desired reality, or at least the perception of one. Language is the single most effective tool toward accomplishing this goal.’

In Britain, a high tolerance for salty.
‘And while it’s difficult to predict who would win a swear-off between Rahm Emanuel, the White House’s chief of staff, and Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s fiery former press secretary, when it comes to politicians swearing, there is “much less fake outrage in the U.K.,” Sheidlower said.’

Things people say that I hate

10 words I would love to see banned from press releases.
‘My biggest gripe with press releases is that for basically as long as they’ve been around, they’ve contained the same damn words, rendering them completely meaningless in most cases and contexts.’

English grammar

Lepidopterist grammar question.
‘I turned around to see a long manicured finger pointing at my feet.  I looked down to see a non-descript brown butterfly had lighted on the stones next to my tire.’

Terminal prepositions.
A poem about prepositions.

Grammar tweet tips.
Sent in by Finn Kirkland.

All-purpose pronoun.
‘Scores of tweets in recent months — enough to inspire a CNN segment earlier this year — have agonized over the lack of a universal pronoun.’
Sent in by Finn Kirkland.

Common errors in English

Homophones for the dog daze* of summer.
Some funny errors from The Guardian newspaper.
Seen at: Richard’s grammar and composition blog

Language science

Dolphin body language ‘follows human verbal communication‘ .
‘As a general rule, the most frequently used words in human languages tend to be the shortest.The same law applies to dolphins…’

Apple’s next censor victim: the English language.
‘Apple has taken its role as protector of what gets admitted to the App Store to a new level after censoring an app that contained only words from an English language dictionary.’

Plan to introduce internet addresses in local language.
‘The new initiative of introducing domain names in local languages may attract new audience to the internet, said officials of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).’

Books, language history and blogs

How to change the world.
An enjoyable read about the linguist Saussure.’…his compelling doctoral thesis on the use of the genitive case in Sanskrit…. It just seems to me faintly incredible, like an interest in the sport of extreme ironing’.

Big words and little words.
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” – William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

Read any good books lately? (Pick up a dictionary!).
‘What is particularly devastating … (is) that the age group that used to read the most – Americans between 15 and 34 years of age – now reads the least.’

Logophilia runs in the family.
‘Every Salter I know is a bouquieur (lover of old books) at heart who loves chatting with a knowledgeable bouquiniste (second-hand bookseller) in a tiny, out-of-the-way bouquinerie discovered quite by chance.’

Language video

A guide to political language.

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Global English

Misunderstood? When English isn’t English when you travel.
“American English is about as tough as it gets,” he said, admitting he has been studying the language for two decades. “You’ve got your street slang, your made up words, your oxymorons, your political jargon. That’s just the beginning. Even my brilliant British friends cannot figure you out.”

Lost in translation.
Nurses from EU countries don’t have to show they can speak English, yet a lack of understanding can affect the care they give.

The 100 greatest writers of all time: 100-76.
‘Other lists of this kind have been attempted, none very successfully. We would like to stress that there is a crucial difference between “an important writer” and “a great writer”; the latter is at this time our sole interest.’

Language and words in the news

Parsing what the enemy’s up to.
“The cadre of intelligence professionals capable of speaking, reading, or understanding critical regional languages such as Pashto, Dari or Urdu remains essentially nonexistent.”

Endangered ethnic languages — reviving or archiving?
“We haven’t yet found an effective way to revive dying languages.”

English language saves lady from Chinese robber.
A woman is said to have saved herself from being robbed by a Chinese-speaking robber by using her knowledge of the English language.

Louvre online to open database in English.
The database, called Atlas, will provide information on 22,000 works of art from the Louvre, as well as high-resolution images and the locations of works and galleries within the museum.

Spammers go multilingual, use automatic translation services.

Language change and slang

The new linguistics war heats up and deals with our aging population.
‘The battle lines are drawn and the mission is clear: eliminate insidious and harmful ageism, starting with ageist language.’

Are your words holding you back?
‘Do yourself a favor and read on. Because if you’re like most women, you regularly use some of the self-defeating speech habits illustrated above.’

To revise Shakespeare or not to revise?
‘Since Shakespeare’s language is Greek to many of us, should we adapt his works for better comprehension?’

Notes to home brewers: your fun new vocabulary.
‘People who brew beer don’t make up funny new words to describe our techniques, the way we do to name our recipes.’

Faux localization: the new greenwashing?
‘The big word these days in green and sustainability circles is relocalization.’

Language science

Colouring the other side of the brain.
‘Infants perceive colour in the right hemisphere of the brain, researchers report, while adults do the job in the brain’s left hemisphere.’

Linguist’s preservation kit has new digital tools.
‘Africa has about 2,000 of the world’s 6,000 languages. Many are still unwritten, some have yet to be named and many will probably disappear.’

Parents go gaga over baby sign language.
‘We found that babies encouraged to sign learned to speak earlier,’ said Acredolo, professor emeritus of psychology at UC Davis.

Researcher seeks common language for pain.
‘When it comes to pain, doctors and patients may not be speaking the same language.’

Language video

A bit of Fry and Laurie: Tricky Linguistics

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This post contains a weekly selection of links related to English language today. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting related websites. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

News

Stockholm reported for using too much English.

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily.

Slovaks defiant over language law.
Slovakia has dismissed protests by neighbouring Hungary over a new language law which would impose fines for using minority languages.

Unpublished C.S. Lewis manuscript discovered.
In the opening sentence, Lewis states that he is writing a book about the nature and origins of language.

Choose your headline:
Monkeys recognise ‘bad grammar‘.
Monkeys recognise changes in their auditory environment.

Blogs and columnists

A virtual game to teach children languages.
The star video game developer behind Age of Empires has turned his gaming talents to something new: teaching children languages.

Verbing up in the trademark business.
It’s common practice in the trademark world to never, never, never use your trademarked name as a verb or a noun.

Icons aren’t what they used to be.
This is just another case of hyperventilating journalists hijacking an otherwise admirable language because they are desperate to insert an infectious banality into their work and don’t care if it belongs there.

Shakespeare’s storm.
The Tempest: though scholars have squabbled over its exact source, there is general agreement that it is based on the hurricane that caused the wreck of the ship Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609.

New words for a new economy.

Study calls for new approach to teaching English as a lingua franca.
It is suggested that the emphasis on ‘correct’ pronunciation of English should be discontinued in favour mutual intelligibility among non-native speakers, as well as celebrating the national identity of non-native speakers.

German language adds 5,000 words.
Around 5,000 new words have been officially added to the German language – many of them from the English-speaking world.

Five of the most commonly misspelled expressions in the English language.

18 great sites to learn a new language.

Video: Busting the Mehrabian myth.

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to English language today. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting related websites. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.

Blogs and columnists

Steep learning curves.
Does this phrase refer to the learning rate or difficulty?

Time for slow reading and slow writing.
‘In his preface to Daybreak (1887), German philosopher and philologist Friedrich Nietzsche recommended the practice of slow reading.’

English language is full of fun stuff.
So I’d like to put a bug in your ear about something that just has me rolling in the aisles. It’s been a month of Sundays since I heard it through the grapevine but if I don’t dish the dirt on this soon I’ll be beside myself.

Holy f*@!: Swearing alleviates pain.
An experiment by Richard Stephens of Keele University in the UK found that people were able to tolerate placing their hand in ice water for longer when continually swearing than another group that did not cuss.

I was born on a pirate ship.
Who wouldn’t want to read a blog post which talked about pirates and swashbucklers?

Chinese student uses 3,000 year old script in final exams.
Although I applaud his risky performance, I wonder if the results would be as positive if a British student wrote an essay in Middle English, or a French student in Gaulish.  I kind of like to hope so.

IT change is hard: typewriters still in use at NYPD.
The NYPD made unfortunate news this week when the New York Post reported that New York City had signed a nearly $1 million contract with a vendor to purchase thousands of new manual and electric typewriters during the next three years.

We need to be proactive when it comes to prioritizing our word usage.
The Pythagorean Theorem is 24 words. The Lord’s Prayer is 63 words. The Ten Commandments are 179 words. The Gettysburg Address is 286 words. The Declaration of Independence is 1,300 words. Federal regulations on the sale of cabbage amount to 26,900 words.

So many situations that words could not describe – until now.
How do you describe battles for umbrella-space on crowded pavements? Or the politics of escalator-use?

Video: funny English language sketch