The first programme, titled ‘The Mouth’ talks about the origins of speech and language. Stephen Fry asks “if you were an intelligent designer, would you combine the food processor and the word processor in the same unit?”
The programme also hears from
Ventriloquist Nina Conti explains how she has learned to over-rule the automatic functions of her mouth. A facial surgeon gives us the tour of the inside of the mouth and a psychologist discusses humanity’s earliest form of happy oral communication – or language. (Source: BBC)
The new series is on BBC Radio 4 on Monday’s and also available on iPlayer.
A list of rare regional words and phrases has been compiled by the British Library as part of their Evolving English exhibition.
Around 4,000 words are in the ‘wordbank’, all of which were contributed by visitors to the exhibit at the British Library in London or at regional events. One the bank is complete and has been analysed by linguists, it will be opened up to language academics and others wishing to study the words it contains.
Among those to have been added to the wordbank are bobowler, a Birmingham and Black Country term for a large moth, tittermatorter – or see-saw, in Norfolk – and tranklements, another Black Country expression meaning ornaments.
Some of the words have been in existence for generations. For instance, bishybarnabee – a Norfolk term for a ladybird – is thought to derive from a notorious bishop, Edmond Bonner, known as “Bloody Bonner” for his role in the persecution of heretics under the Catholic government of Mary I in the sixteenth century. (Source: The Telegraph)
Other words have much shorter histories – spoggy for example is the Grimsby term for chewing gum.
What local variations would you add to the wordbank?
In my experience, Americans often see my southern English accent as ‘cute’. They also confuse it for being ‘British’, no matter how many times I explain there is no such thing.
I came across this funny video today of the American comedian Elon Gold talking about accents, including English ones. Take a look:
Apparently there’s a new craze in London, and it’s to do with words. “Newlogism” is splicing together two unrelated words to make a new one (see what they did there?).
According to Dan Clayton, English language researcher on UCL’s Survey of English Usage, these words circulate very quickly because of the way people use technology (particularly social networking) but also disappear very quickly, with 80% of new slang words disappearing within a year.
Examples of newlogisms that you should know include “psycho-lists – those mad bikers ready to run over pedestrians with the temerity to cross the road”, “email courier …the time-waster who trots over to your desk across the office just to ask if you’ve seen their latest missive in your inbox” and “x-sessives… people who Won’t. Stop. Sending. Xs”. (Source: This is London)
And what’s a childibore? It’s a parent who won’t stop going on about their offspring.
Interested in the history of English but not got much time?
Then take a look at this set of short videos from The Open University! The videos take you from Anglo-Saxon English through English and the Empire up to modern-day Global English via some amusing illustrations and a great voice over.
There’s a great piece in The Globe and Mail (a Canadian newspaper) about how different the English language can be in the various countries that speak it.
The Canadian writer moved to Britain and has found she is forgetting many of the Canadian-English words and pronunciations she grew up with. In order to be easily understood she uses British English words and phrases rather than their Canadian equivalents.
I’ve referred to hockey as “ice hockey” – even to Canadian friends – a sure sign that my cultural boundaries have shifted. In Britain, field hockey is the more popular sport and retains the generic “hockey” title.
I now live “in” a road, not “on” it, and when I’m under pressure I’m “under the cosh.” I ask “y’all right?” instead of “how’re you?” I say “cheers” instead of “thank you.” And I ask for a tomato and basil panini without any hard As. (Source: The Globe and Mail)
I was born and grew up in England but I’ve lived in a number of different English-speaking countries, from Canada to New Zealand. I’ve always enjoyed picking up local terms and using them, from kia ora in New Zealand to toque in Canada. Like the writer, this has had some impact on my life – people in my native country often ask if I’m Australian!
Communication across the world has never been easier – I wonder what impact this will have on the English language worldwide?
Over half of EU internet users occasionally use a language online that is not their native tongue, according to research by Eurobarometer. However, the study also found the majority of users prefer to use the internet in their native language.
The survey, conducted by the public opinion research wing of the European Commission, polled a total of 13,500 people – 500 for each of the EU member states. It showed that many users thought they might be missing out on something because they could not understand the language used on a website.
English is the dominant language used online, with 48% of those interviewed saying they use it “occasionally”. Usage varied across the continent though, with countries such as Greece, Malta and Sweden (with either strong English education or ties to the language) having a much higher usage rate than Italy.
Enabling user to understand content is an issue the EU is addressing:
“If we are serious about making every European digital, we need to make sure that they can understand the web content they want,” wrote Neelie Kroes, the EU’s comissioner for the digital agenda, in a statement. “We are developing new technologies that can help people that cannot understand a foreign language.”
The European Commission is currently investing 67 million euros ($96 million) across 30 research projects that investigate improved techniques for translation of digital content, including 2 million euros to the iTranslate4 website, a relatively new site that provides machine translations of many European languages. (Source: Deutsche Welle)
Everyone knows the famous “you’re fired” catchphrase from popular TV show The Apprentice. Popularised by The Donald in America, it’s used in the UK by Lord Alan Sugar.
The show is also known for the cringeworthy things that contestants say. Who can forget Stuart Baggs from the last series, with the classic “I’m not a one-trick pony, I’m not a 10-trick pony – I’ve got a field of ponies waiting to literally run towards this job.” Love it.
This BBC article has complied some other classics, here’s a few of my favourites:
“The spoken word is my tool,” said silky-tongued Raef Bjayon in series four.
“Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there’s footsteps on the moon.” Yes, we’ve sneaked in a line from one of this year’s candidates.
“I think outside the box, if I was an apple pie the apples inside me would be oranges” (said by Alex in series six).
An interesting piece in the Guardian looks at urban dictionaries (well, mainly at the Urban Dictionary). Whilst well-known print dictionaries like the OED can take years to update, urban dictionaries are on the web and can be updated as and when new words and phrases appear.
But, as the article suggests, there are issues with this:
“..slang expert Green’s problem with Urban Dictionary isn’t that it contains offensive words. “It’s amateur hour. They set themselves up as an authority and I don’t believe they are. There aren’t 2,000 new slang words a day – they don’t exist. It undermines the whole point of a dictionary. If you want to have something called The Book Of Amusing Words That Young People Come Up With, then fine, let’s have that. I’ll stick with [Viz comic's] Roger’s Profanisaurus.”
Over 3,500 volunteers edit submissions to Urban Dictionary – but there are masses of them. According to the article, “in the past 30 days 67,000 people wrote 76,000 new definitions”. As Jonathon Green points out, there can’t be that many new words created constantly.
One thing urban dictionaries do better than traditional dictionaries though, is to publish slang words and definitions, and keep them up to date. When the new OED is published (around 2037), many of the slang words we use today will likely have fallen out of favour. In the meantime, we can use Google or the Urban Dictionary to satisfy our curiosity.
You may not have heard, but a small wedding happened in London today. A small wedding where William and Kate became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
But why are they the Duke and Duchess and not Prince William and Princess Catherine?
According to a BBC News article, “[Kate] will automatically become Her Royal Highness, Princess William of Wales” but will not be Princess Catherine as she is not “of royal blood”. Similarly, whilst many thought of Diana as ‘Princess Diana’, she was in fact Princess of Wales and, after her divorce, her official title was “Diana, Princess of Wales”.
So, instead of making new princes and princesses, ‘ducal titles’ are used. These give a rather grand (if old-fashioned title) to the new member of the royal family. Hence the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The BBC have also talked about this issue during the wedding coverage today, with a member of the royal household saying that it was fine for the public to call Kate ‘Princess Catherine’ as that is how they think of her.
