Language Museum

Scientists have found that the ability to detect sarcasm is a really useful skill.

Over the past 20 years, researchers have found that exposure to sarcasm increases creative problem solving; brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm, possibly increasing our mental abilities; and children understand and use sarcasm by the time they start attending playschool.

There’s also a geographic divide between those who find sarcasm funny and those who don’t.

A study that compared college students from upstate New York with students from near Memphis, Tennessee, found that the Northerners were more likely to suggest sarcastic jibes when asked to fill in the dialogue in a hypothetical conversation.

Northerners also were more likely to think sarcasm was funny: 56 percent of Northerners found sarcasm humorous while only 35 percent of Southerners did. The New Yorkers and male students from either location were more likely to describe themselves as sarcastic. (Source: Smithsonian Magazine)

For more fascinating insights into sarcasm, take a look at the full article from Smithsonian Magazine.

Still think Twitter’s just people saying what they have for breakfast?

Not any more – the microblogging site’s users tweet about a diverse range of topics, as shown by the top hashtags of the year. Hashtags (#) are used to identify the topic of tweets and can be used to see all the tweets about that particular topic.

Top of this year’s list was #egypt, referring to the unrest in the country in the spring of 2011. This was followed by #tigerblood, referring to the actor Charlie Sheen.

Other top hashtags were:
#threewordstoliveby
#idontunderstandwhy
#japan
#improudtosay
#superbowl
#jan25
I wonder what tags will trend next year?

Slang is to be included in the updated Scots dictionary.

The Scottish Language Dictionary charity is compiling the update of the Concise Scots Dictionary, which was first published in 1985. But according to one researcher, it’s not going to be easy:

“It’s difficult enough to decide if Scots is a dialect or a language. The fleeting nature of a word can determine if it’s slang or not.

“If it’s a word you can use with three different generations of your family, it’s more likely become part of the language.

“Slang is never going away. It shows the vibrancy of Scots and that it’s a living language, not just quaint terminology.” (Source: Scotsman)

Some examples of Scots slang:
Spraff: to talk at length
Dingie: to deliberately ignore someone
Cooncil curtains: boarded-up windows

The Academie Francaise, protector of the French language and notoriously hostile to English encroachments, has been challenged to accept new words into their dictionary.

Members of the public have been invited to make suggestions for additions to the language as part of the 2011 Festival XYZ, now in its tenth year. The festival of new words was founded by a French sociologist who says the idea is to bring new life to the language.

The festival’s word of the year was announced as “attachiant(e) – a combination of attachant (captivating, endearing) and the slang word chiant (bloody nuisance) to denote someone you cannot live with but cannot live without” (Source: The Guardian).

Other offerings include bête seller (a book that is badly written but a best seller) and eurogner – euro plus rogner (to cut down).

Let’s hope the Academie sees sense and adds these delightful new words!

Oh yes, it’s that time of the year again… Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is (drum roll) squeezed middle!

Yes, I know that’s two words. This is explained by Oxford University Press:

From a dictionary-maker’s point of view, a two-word expression is called a ‘compound’ and is treated as one word [a 'headword'] in the dictionary. This is not the first time that a two-word expression has been selected as our WOTY. In 2010, the UK Word of the Year was big society. (Source: Oxford University Press)

There has been much debate about this explanation. Nevertheless, squeezed middle is the Word of the Year, and it’s defined as “British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband’s term for those seen as bearing the brunt of government tax burdens while having the least with which to relieve it”. So squeezed in the middle of the rich (who can afford to relief from tax burdens) and the poor, who are eligible for benefits and other government assistance.

What’s your word of 2011?

Linguist David Crystal set himself a difficult challenge – covering the history of English in just 100 words. He met the challenge and the proof is in his latest book – The Story of English in 100 Words.

In an interesting article in the Telegraph, Crystal explains what his 100 words tell us about the origins and evolution of English:

At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. The story of English has to show these differences too. In particular, the words we use when we speak are not the same as those we use when we write. It’s the colloquial words which tend to be neglected, and so in my list along with dialect and debt we find doobry and dilly-dally. And I include words that represent a history of debate over usage, such as ain’t and disinterested, as well as words that tell the story of regional dialects, such as brock, egg and wee. Far more people speak a non-standard variety of English than speak standard English, and their story must also be told. (Source: Telegraph)

Some of the words on his list include the earliest example of a written English word – roe from the 5th Century; matrix, from the 16th Century, and ain’t, which dates back to the 18th Century. It looks like a fascinating read.

We all use slang terms for going to work and the things we do there – “the daily grind” for example.

These terms have been collected in a dictionary called The Wage Slave’s Glossary by Joshua Glenn, Mark Kingwell, and the cartoonist Seth. In the dictionary are words borrowed from other languages that reflect office life, new words appropriate for our current economic situation and historic words whose meaning has changed (career for example).

The Atlantic has a slideshow of words from each letter of the alphabet, I recommend you take a look. I’m off to take an inemuri.

Back in August I posted about words that have no English equivalent. Now there are 14 more to share!

This time my favourites are:

1. Shemomedjamo (Georgian)
You know when you’re really full, but your meal is just so delicious, you can’t stop eating it? The Georgians feel your pain. This word means, “I accidentally ate the whole thing.”

I can really relate to that one!

2. Pelinti (Buli, Ghana)
Your friend bites into a piece of piping hot pizza, then opens his mouth and sort of tilts his head around while making an “aaaarrrahh” noise. The Ghanaians have a word for that. More specifically, it means “to move hot food around in your mouth.”

Again, this happens to me all the time! Why don’t we have equivalent words in English??

The next one is not something that has happened to me, but is nevertheless lovely. And we should definitely have a word for it!

9. Koi No Yokan (Japanese)
The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love.

Awww. Just like last time, you can see the full list here.

How seriously do you take Scrabble games? Think of them as a fun pastime that also may improve your vocabulary?

Well, however seriously you treat your home Scrabble games, competitors at the World Scrabble Championships are much more serious than you. A Thai player this week demanded his opponent be strip searched to try and find a tile that went missing during the game.

Luckily for his English counterpart, the referee did not grant this request. But the mystery remains – what happened to the ‘G’?

Stephen Fry’s looking into languages again, with a new TV show called Fry’s Planet Word on the BBC.

The first episode was broadcast on Sunday but is also available on BBC iPlayer. The five-part series will see Fry exploring various languages and come “to understand how we learn it, write it, sometimes lose it, why it defines us to the very core of our being and can make us laugh, cry, tear our hair out and simply inspire us.”

Episode one seeks to discover the origins of human language and why we are the only species to have this ability. It includes Fry taking part in a Klingon version of Hamlet – definitely worth a watch!