English spelling according to a 102-year-old

The History of English in 10 Minutes

An entertaining animated history of the English language created by the Open University.

(Click ‘Up next’ at the end of each part to watch the next part)

Roald Dahl Day (and saving his writing hut)

Roald Dahl was born on this day in 1916. The 13^th of September is now Roald Dahl Day every year.

Dahl wrote in a hut at the bottom of his garden. He built it after seeing Dylan Thomas’ writing shed. He described it as his nest and nobody else was allowed inside (he told his children and grandchildren there were wolves inside it to stop them entering!). It’s still exactly as it was before he died, with notebook pages scattered on the floor, and eccentric things like a huge ball made from foil sweet wrappers and his hip bone. Unfortunately the hut has started to fall apart, but there are plans to move it to the Roald Dahl Museum where they hope to ensure its magical atmosphere is kept. A fundraising campaign has already raised £250,000, but another £500,000 is needed to do the relocation and restoration work. Read more about the campaign…

Test your knowledge of Dahl’s wonderful children’s stories and see if others feel the same about your favourite characters.

What’s the plural of email?

While ‘letter’ is a countable noun (She sent me two letters last week), ‘mail’ is uncountable and therefore we can’t use ‘mails’. But can you write ‘emails’?

Yes you can. ‘Emails’ is now standardly used.

The New York Times’ Ben Zimmer gives an excellent comprehensive answer here.

Is your accent sexy?

What do you think are the sexiest accents in the world? I’m not giving anything away; you’ll have to read and find out yourself! But do let me know if you agree or not.

How a Japanese linguist is teaching Aboriginals their own language

It’s believed that before Australia was ‘discovered’ by white man there were 250 separate Aboriginal languages spoken. And now? Well the number that’s considered to be ‘alive’ and spoken as a mother tongue today is about 60.

On Palm Island, in Northern Queensland, the Worrongo language died out in the 1970s. However, there’s still a living speaker of it… in Japan!

Linguist Professor Tasaku Tsunodo travelled to Palm Island in the early 1970s as part of his university studies where he worked with Alf Palmer, one of the last two native speakers of Worrongo. Alf was very keen on Tasaku recording and preserving his language as he knew it wouldn’t survive. Tasaku learnt the language and also wrote a Worrongo dictionary.

Tasaku Tsunodo: ‘Language connects you with your ancestors… When a language disappears, it’s very difficult to transmit traditional knowledge… There are certain aspects of culture that cannot be translated into another language.’

Read more…

How Tim Berners-Lee changed the English language

The term ‘World Wide Web’ was used as a “temporary measure” by Tim Berners-Lee to describe his system of sharing information via the Internet. Other possibilities he considered were ‘Mesh’ and ‘The Information Mine’. ‘World Wide Web’ was considered good enough until he could think of something better.

As we all know, that never happened and the English language hasn’t been the same since. We have websites, web designers, web browsers and webcams, not meshsites or mine browsers.

Read more from the New York Times’ On Language column…

“The The Impotence of Proofreading”

Wonderful video of Taylor Mali performing at the Bowery Poetry Club.

The most common misspelt words

A recent study of 3,500 Britons by market research company One Poll, has discovered the most difficult words to spell in the English language.

Before I looked at the list I thought about the words that cause problems for my students studying English: strength, bicycle, occasion, accommodation, believe, pronunciation, forty and until came to my mind first. And, of course, there’s misspell itself.

I was surprised that none of the words I immediately thought of were in One Poll’s top twenty. Their top five: separate, definitely, manoeuvre (a word I always need to check!), embarrass and occurrence.

It was interesting that almost half the people surveyed judge other people on their spelling, with over a quarter admitting they think people who can’t spell are stupid. That’s something to remember the next time you write something without checking your spelling.

The Oxford English Corpus has a handy list of common misspellings with advice on getting it right. Also Masha Bell (the author of ‘Understanding English Spelling’) has written an interesting post on some of the reasons for all the irregularities in English spelling.

But what words do you have problems spelling?

How to understand British slang

Growing up in Australia, my childhood was spent watching a lot of British television programmes. I thought I had quite a good grasp of how people in England spoke. But after moving to Britain I started hearing words and phrases which I had no idea what they meant. Here are just a few of the ones that puzzled me.

Bespoke

It amazes me how much ‘bespoke’ is used in the UK; you can have a bespoke kitchen, a bespoke suit, bespoke jewellery, bespoke software, a bespoke holiday and even bespoke music. It means the same as ‘custom’ or ‘custom made’ and is something that has been created to an individual’s specific personal requirements.

According to bespoke tailor Thomas Mahon, the word dates from the 1600s. A customer would go to a tailor and choose a length of material to be made into clothing exactly to their requirements. The material was then said to have “been spoken for”.

Chav

A derogatory term for someone, usually unemployed and with a low level of education, from a white working class background and sometimes referred to as ‘white trash’ or ‘non-educated delinquents’. They often engage in anti-social behaviour and wear lots of flashy gold jewellery

It’s commonly thought to be an acronym of ‘Council Housed And Violent’. However, it’s probably more likely to have come from another and much older underclass, the gypsies, the Romany word for child being ‘chavi’.

Cheers

This word is used as a toast when drinking with others, but it also has other meanings. You can use it to say ‘thank you’ (“Here’s your beer.” “Cheers, mate.”). You can also say “cheers” or “cheers then” to say goodbye, and it’s common to write it in informal emails as an closing salutation.

Flyover

I was confused the first time I read this on a sign, thinking it literally meant something would be flying over us. In British English it means a bridge that takes one road over another (an ‘overpass’ in American English).

Gutted

Meaning very disappointed or upset, it’s used a lot on reality TV shows when contestants leave the competition – ”I’m gutted. I have so much more to give.” A very good friend of mine, a primary school teacher, banned the word from her classroom because her students were using it so much!

Lay-by

When I was a teenager and very fashion conscious, I would save up my money to buy pieces of designer clothing. If I didn’t have enough money I’d put the item on lay-by, the shop keeping it for me as I paid it off in instalments.

In British English though, a lay-by is a widened section on the side of a road where you can stop in an emergency.

Pants

English people call their underwear ‘pants’ (I would have said ‘underpants’ or even ‘undies’ which is probably very Australian). For me, ‘pants’ are what you wear over your underwear, but Brits call these ‘trousers’. I remember an English friend getting very embarrassed when I asked her if she was going to wear pants the following day. Now I know not to say this!

Pukka

Said a lot by the famous English TV chef Jamie Oliver, it means brilliant or genuine. It’s a Hindi word that means ‘good’ or ‘proper’.

Swotting

Not to be confused with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis used in business, swotting is studying hard, often just before you have an exam or big test. I would have said ‘cramming’.

A student who studies a lot, perhaps too much, can be referred to as a ‘swot’ which has a negative meaning. Therefore swotting is fine, but you don’t want to be a swot!