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language use, etymology, and historical change

language use, etymology, and historical change

Oxford Guide to Word Games

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puzzles, puns, acrostics, charades, and palindromes

If you like words, wordplay, and peculiarities of the English Language, you’ll love The Oxford Guide to Word Games. What is the difference between elephants and fleas? Answer: an elephant can have fleas, but fleas cannot have elephants. Each chapter deals with a different play on words – ranging from the lowly pun to extremely sophisticated word squares. And there are plenty of surprises along the way. I didn’t realise that charades started out in written, not acted form.

The Oxford Guide to Word Games There are also lots of unusual cases along the way, such as words which can be split into three and even four separate words – as when sometime becomes So-Met-I-Me. An acrostic is formed from the first letter of each line, but it can also be the last, and in more complex examples, elsewhere in the line, including ‘double acrostics’ in which the first and last letter (reversed) of each line are related to each other. The example given is attributed to Queen Victoria.

This leads into the immensely complicated world of word squares, which were the origin of the surprisingly recent (1913) crossword puzzle – now the most world-popular word game. This section actually teaches you how to solve common types of crossword clues.

There’s also a brief history of Scrabble – one of the most commercially successful word games. Here you get tips on how to increase your score, plus a consideration of rare and exotic words – zoae and qibla and more interestingly of the dictionaries that contain them.

The rebus seems to anticipate the text message by five thousand years or so, using a printed symbol to represent a phrase, as in If the gr8 B mt, put : – in other words, ‘If the grate be empty, put coal on’.

Palindromes can be single words (Eve) or sentences – as in the famous Madam, I’m Adam. The general quest seems to be for the longest palindromic utterance, but interestingly, sense recedes as the sentences lengthen, as this example begins to show – Marge lets Norah see Sharon’s telegram.

All sorts of word games are illustrated – pangrams, lipograms, and chronograms – many of which are no longer fashionable, but which retain a period charm. There’s also plenty on tongue-twisters, Spoonerisms, alphabet games, and malapropisms.

Prostitutes appeal to Pope
Doctor Fuchs off to South Pole
March planned for April

This is a witty and entertaining book which manages to include etymological scholarship alongside how to play lexical ping-pong or how to crack a rebus such as EGNC for Aegean Sea. It’s great fun for anyone interested in word play, etymology, and a fun and games approach to language.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Tony Augarde, The Oxford Guide to Word Games, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.304, ISBN: 0198662645

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Oxford Guide to World English

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modern English language in use throughout the world

English is now effectively a global lingua franca. But even as it enlarges its influence, it is assimilated and changed by the nations where it comes to rest. Tom McArthur’s new Oxford Guide to World Englishis a survey of English both as a pre-eminent world language and as an increasingly divergent language. It is both a compendious work of reference and a very readable series of essays detailing the way in which the language is changing and growing as it spreads from one country to another.

Oxford Guide to World English Each section is structured in a similar manner. First there is a brief historical account of the region’s connection with the English language; then he offers notes and examples of peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar , and vocabulary.

These prefatory remarks are like mini-essays on language history and development. He explains how Old English became modern, how English changed when it reached America, and even how it changed as it moved westwards. He also explains the social and cultural forces which lead to the development of a language.

At the center of his five hundred pages he confronts the issues which will be of interest to the two biggest user groups – the differences between English English and American English. All the basics of ise/ize and colour/color are explained, as well as a detailed history of the expression OK. There is also coverage of the huge variety of immigrant languages which have enriched the American vocabulary.

The range of countries he covers is truly astonishing. They range from whole continents such as Australia and Africa, to tiny islands such as Tuvalu and Tristan da Cunha. He illustrates a range of dialects and languages, including UK dialects, Spanglish, Jamaican Creole, Chicano English, Maor English, and even Chinese English.

Oxford Guide to World English Even though it is based on sound scholarship, and comes with a very useful bibliography and chronology of English language development, the book is accessible for general readers, especially those interested in dialects and the history of world English. It will also be useful for students of A-level English Language in the UK and first-year undergraduates internationally; academics concerned with international English; and advanced foreign learners interested in developing an awareness of the differences in English around the world.

This is a wonderfully comprehensive resource which will appeal to anyone interested in language – and which OUP can justifiably feel proud to have produced.

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© Roy Johnson 2002

Tom McArthur, The Oxford Guide to World English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.501, ISBN: 0198662483

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Pardon My French

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Unleash your inner Gaul

Don’t be misled by the title. This book isn’t about swearing or euphemism. It comes from the long tradition of the English writing about French language and culture as if it were that of another planet – but with a certain amount of self-deprecation and lots of affection. Charles Timoney went to live in France speaking only a few remnants of his GCE French – and what he offers here is what he’s learned in the years since – working in the country and learning from his French wife and in-laws. You can avoid making the same mistakes, and even get to understand some of the slang, idioms, and puzzling anomalies which he writes about so amusingly.

Pardon My FrenchThe entries are arranged in themes such as food and drink, travel, education, the office, history, slang, and the family. What you get is not only an explanation of linguistic oddities, but an insider’s glimpse into a foreign culture too. He explains how to survive in a French restaurant for instance, how to order steak well done and even ask for tap water, and why you should not call the waiter ‘Monsieur’.

There are also warnings that gateau doesn’t always mean cake (more likely a biscuit) and how French vegetable names are used as slang insults (Banane = idiot)

Because the French (like the English) have a habit of changing and abbreviating words, this guide is useful for explaining the quasi-slang terms for everyday things – such as apéro (aperitif) DOM – TOM (former colonies) Bac (A levels). He also explains why people in the provinces refer not to Parisiens but to les neufs trois (ninety-three being the number of a particularly low-rated parisian département).

He explains why nobody in their right mind would use the full name L’aéroport Charles de Gaulle when they can more easily use it’s original name of Roissy.

Buried within all the jokes there’s actually a lot of useful information regarding French culture such as getting married, driving round roundabouts, where to sit in a football stadium, and the fact that French cinemas change their films on a Wednesday, not Thursday as they do in the UK.

There’s an excellent chapter on slang (Mec = chap) backslang (Meuf = girl) and even instructions on how to use Merde! politely. It’s the sort of book you read with a permanent smile on your face.

© Roy Johnson 2007

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Charles Timoney, Pardon My French, London: Penguin, 2007, pp.233, ISBN: 1846140528

Port Out, Starboard Home

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folk etymologies and false word histories explained

This is a book of folk-etymologies, false-etymologies, pseudo-etymologies – call them what you will. As Michael Quinion explains, once a colourful explanation for the origin of a term is offered, it’s hard to shift, no matter how flawed it might be. His book title Port Out, Starboard Home is taken from one of the most famous – the assumption that the word ‘posh’ is an acronym from reservations made with the old steamship companies servicing the British Empire. The story seems plausible, and it’s attractive – but it’s not true.

Port Out, Starboard Home He covers lots of others such as honeymoon (nothing to do with honey) Elephant and Castle (which actually has connections with one of my local towns, Bolton) and Jerusalem Artichoke, which is not an artichoke and isn’t from Jerusalem. En route he takes you through some interesting byways – such as the reasonably well known example of British servicemen in the First World War converting ca ne fait rien into san fairy ann.

Entries run from akimbo to Zzxjoanw, which was passed off for years as a Maori name for a drum – despite the fact that there is no Z, X, or J in the Maori alphabet.

He gives detailed and plausible explanations for difficult cases such as the Big Apple (New York) and you would hardly believe how much can be written about the origins of apparently simple words such as aluminium and jazz.

So in a typical example, such as Ballyhoo for instance, he lists all the supposed explanations for the word’s origins – then quietly explodes them as myths, and substitutes either a reasonable explanation, or an admission that we simply don’t know. The same is true for expressions such as break a leg, for which he gives several possible explanations, before coming up with the the most plausible.

Michael Quinion is a scholar, and as a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary he knows his stuff. He cites his sources and he knows the etymological history of language back to the early Renaiassance. But I don’t agree with him that the negative should be removed from all mouth and no trousers.

And he also keep a very good web site at www.worldwidewords.org – from which many of these examples are drawn. I visit regularly when I get stuck, and I’m rarely disappointed. The site also has a weekly newsletter which gives updates on issues to do with problems, difficult words, and complications in English Language. But like most people, I like having something between hard covers.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Michael Quinion, Port Out, Starboard Home and other language myths, London: Penguin, new edition 2005, pp.304, ISBN: 0141012234

Punctuation

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beginner’s guide to the basic principles of punctuation

Oxford University Press have just brought out a series of short beginners’ manuals on communication skills. Their emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. Punctuation in English can be almost as tricky as spelling. Robert Allen cleverly approaches the topic by explaining what punctuation is for, and how it can help you to write more effectively.

Punctuation He recognises that choices are not always clear cut. Does a pause in a sentence warrant a comma, a semi-colon, or maybe even a dash? And his explanations of the answers are illustrated throughout by everyday, practical examples. Beginners in particular will find his explanations very reassuring. He describes the basics of constructing statements and how they are best expressed using the basic elements of punctuation – from the comma to the full stop. Next comes the more complex issues of representing speech and using such punctuation marks as the colon and the semicolon. Don’t worry – everybody has problems with that one!

In fact there’s a useful section on how to avoid the most common mistakes in punctuation – such as using too many commas, or using the comma as a substitute for the full stop.

The second part of the book is a simple checklist of each common mark of punctuation – showing how each is used. And he ends with comments on the most popular problems – including what he calls ‘the grocer’s apostrophe’.

This is easy to read and understand. It’s a book which will be suitable for anyone unsure about what is ultimately a matter of taste and style.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Robert Allen, Punctuation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.104, ISBN: 0198604394

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Quite Literally

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problem words and how to use them properly

Do you know the difference between blatant and flagrant? Do you know the plural of cul-de-sac? This is one of those books which is supposed to be a source of reference, but which for any language enthusiast is so entertaining, you can’t put it down. In this sense it’s rather like Bill Bryson’s Troublesome Words and Mother Tongue, Keith Waterhouse’s Newspaper Style and Lynne Truss’s recent Eats Shoots and Leaves.

Quite LiterallyWynford Hicks offers a comprehensive tour – from accede to zucchini. His examples are very up to date, taken from recent newspapers, magazines, and fiction – and not all of them positive. There’s a bad example of ‘due to’ quoted from the second sentence of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for instance. He takes a lot of trouble over words of foreign origin which do or do not need their accent – cafe, pate – and he takes the trouble to illustrate all his points with practical examples:

adapter, adopter
an adapter is someone who adapts, eg a novel for the stage, while an adopter is what you need when your electric plug doesn’t match the socket.

Some of his judgements I would take issue with. For instance, I think he is wrong to suggest that there’s no capital in achilles heel, though we can see why there is no need for an apostrophe; and I don’t see why dover sole doesn’t need a capital either, as he claims.

But of course a lot of these terms are ‘disputed’ – and different style guides offer different interpretations. For instance, celibate can mean either unmarried or abstaining from sex. It doesn’t matter if it’s voluntary or not. There’s lots of scope for controversy here. For this reason, I’m going to keep this guide alongside all the rest.

Like most style guide compilers, he has his own favourites – such as a reliance on the Longman Guide for matters of judgement, and an amazing confidence in Salman Rushdie for an ear to good usage. But I liked the fact that he was able to quote grammatical mistakes from the work of Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing, and Margaret Drabble.

He’s good on those many words in English which look deceptively similar, but which have quite different meanings:

definite, definitive
definite is precise, definitive is precise and conclusive

And he offers a ruling on one of the most difficult punctuation cases I know:

dos and don’ts
which once had three apostrophes, but now only needs one

He takes into account the differences between American and English usage, and foodies might be interested in his distinction between two terms which are often confused:

marinade, marinate
meat or fish is marinated (soaked) in a marinade, a mixture of wine/vinegar, oil, herbs, and spices. Fruit is macerated, soaked in alcohol and sugar.

He’s very good at spotting persistent misuses – parameter for boundary, militate/mitigate, rebut/refute, sensual/sensuous, and so on.

This is a useful, humane, and non-pedantic guide to good English, and a thoroughly entertaining book. Even though I disagreed with the occasional item, I read it from first page to last.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Wynford Hicks, Quite Literally, London: Routledge, 2004, pp.251, ISBN: 0415320194

Secret Language

by

Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols

Language is itself a code. In its written form it’s an abstract set of signs to represent speech, and in its spoken form an extremely complex set of rules for making intelligent communication using sounds. But if that isn’t complex enough, human beings seem to have a natural tendency to make things even more complicated by inventing all sorts of games, variations, and tricks with language. It’s amazing how far the examples in Barry Blake’s Secret Language go back – certainly to the earliest days of written languages, which have themselves now become a sort of secret code which must be deciphered.

Secret LanguageRather surprisingly, many of the early examples of word squares and double acrostics he discusses come from curse tablets which people believed were effective for anything from defeating fellow athletes in competition, to curing the bite of a rabid dog.

Anagrams, palindromes, acrostics, and riddles all come together in his discussion of the cryptic crossword. These are a surprisingly modern invention, appearing first in 1913, and immediately becoming popular world-wide. There is an entire section devoted to explaining how linguistic tricks inform the setting of clues. He reveals how to interpret them (‘French frock to take off’ = undress) and he throws in some fun examples of word puzzles to solve.

There’s quite a lot on riddles, which are often combined with poetry to create enduring gems such as the Exeter Riddles, and he explains the classic forms of secret codes used by spies and government agents for making messages secure. These are of two types: steganography (which is hiding one text inside another) and cryptography (using a substitution of letters).

Another surprising form of language use he explains is ‘respect language’:

Respect forms of language are often referred.to as ‘mother-in-law languages’, since they are mostly used when a mother-in-law is within earshot. They have the same phonology, morphology, and syntax as the everyday language, but a separate lexicon.

Some people believe that sacred texts contain hidden messages – so when these forms of secret language are used as analytic tools for interpretation of the bible (the Kabbalah) the field is ripe for speculation – though it should be noted that encryption may be suspected more frequently owing to the fact that no vowels were used in classical Hebrew.

Such is belief in the power of words that at its most extreme it takes the form of eating words witten on paper or food – an anthropological form known as ‘contagious magic’. This is still in regular practice of course in the ritual of transubstantiation in the host in Christian churches, where words are transferred (orally) onto wafers for human consumption.

The part of the book I found most entertaining was that on forms of popular secret language – which include rhyming slang, Pig Latin, Polari, back-slang, Tic-Tac, and even L33t – the computer jargon which combines extreme compression, omission, letter substitution, and deliberate mis-spellings.

He concludes with examples of language which are not exactly secret, but in which the communication is not direct – as in the use of irony, euphemism, and deliberate obscurity. These are what he quite rightly puts in the category of ‘everyday oblique’.

And he finishes, logically enough, with instances where language says one thing but references another – as in the use of allusion, quotation, and cultural echoing in which an author or speaker signals a reference to a well known source.

This is a fascinating excursion into an aspect of language studies which includes everything from fun and games to the deadliest forms of subterfuge and political deception.

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© Roy Johnson 2010

Barry J. Blake, Secret Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.328, ISBN: 0199579288

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Spelling Guide

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beginner’s simple guide to spelling and language

Spelling worries many people. Understandably so, because mistakes in spelling are often regarded as a black mark in terms of literacy and written competence. Oxford University Press have just brought out a series of short beginners’ guides on communication skills. The emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. In his Spelling Guide Robert Allen takes a reassuring line in explaining why spelling is difficult in English, and he offers a variety of solutions to the problem.

Spelling Guide Beginners in particular will find his approach very helpful, and even advanced users will probably learn a thing or two. He starts by showing you how to use dictionaries, then how to use spell-checkers. He explains how and why English spellings have often become so irregular. And fortunately, he also explains the cases where some rules do apply.

Some of his advice tips over into tutorials on the nature of language – quite rightly. For instance, one good tip for many people is that the apostrophe in terms such as who’s and it’s stands for a missing letter. Knowing this might help you to understand the spelling, and help you put the apostrophe in the right place.

He deals with all the most common problems – not only the most notorious misplaced apostrophe, but the s/z issue in words such as realise/realize, and word endings, especially the doubling of consonants in words such as regret/regretted. (Yet it’s target/targeted – how strange!)

There’s a whole chapter explaining why spelling is such a complex issue. Basically, it’s because English is comprised of so many different languages. The influence of Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, French, and German are all still actively present.

The second half of the book is a series of checklists of ‘problem’ words – short (weird) long (accommodation) confusables accept/except) noun and verb forms (advice/advise) how to choose the right ending (stationary/stationery) verb endings (finalize/surprise) irregular plurals (banjos/zeros) and words with Latin and Greek endings (addendum/vortex).

The chapters of this book are short, but almost every page is rich in hints and tips. The strength of this approach is that it avoids the encyclopedic volume of advice which in some manuals can be quite frightening. This is a book which will reassure those who need it.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Robert Allen, Spelling, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.128, ISBN: 0198603835

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Teacher’s Guide to Grammar

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teaching language and the national curriculum

The other day I overheard a young girl of around eight ask her mother “What’s a phoneme?” Not surprisingly, her mother didn’t even understand the question. And the girl added, “I think it’s part of a word” – which was not a bad shot. This made me realise just how firmly traditional English grammar was back in our national curriculum. And when I thought of the poor teachers having to implement this policy, my heart sank on their behalf. I think Deborah Cameron would understand and sympathise with this feeling, because this teacher’s guide to grammar is aimed specifically at existing and would-be classroom workers. They now have the unenviable task of introducing what is essentially the study of linguistics into the daily life of schoolchildren.

Teacher's Guide to GrammarCameron starts by dispelling some of the common misconceptions and myths about grammar, and making the important distinction between written and spoken English. Instead of looking at grammatical rules then giving examples, she works the other way round, examining the way language is actually used, then drawing some general lessons from it. First the way words are formed (morphology) then how sentences are built up via regular syntax and well organised phrases.

All the points she makes are illustrated by short modern examples drawn from the way people actually speak and write, and she offers some quite useful tables which I can easily imagine teachers using in their classes.

She delivers some interesting analyses of scientific writing, newspaper headlines, and children’s creative prose to illustrate the use of compression in writing by using noun phrases. The same is true of her treatment of verbs. Instead of dry grammatical definitions, we get a more useful account of the function of different verb forms and modality – making statements about different periods of time and various shades of possibility and probability.

She also offers careful analyses of real examples of student writing – not merely to point out grammatical errors, but to reveal the real structure of the language holding together the meaning underneath the surface. And many of these ‘mistakes’ are features of language which novelists and poets use deliberately for artistic effect.

The whole of the debate over Standard English and dialect/received pronunciation is put into refreshing historical context, as is the use of different registers (which interestingly enough are not a prescribed requirement of the national curriculum).

She demonstrates in a way which classroom teachers will find useful that non-standard speech can co-exist quite easily along with standard writing. And she concludes with an examination of the special circumstances surrounding English as an additional language (EAL).

Anyone faced with the need to understand grammar or explain it to others will find this book useful. It’s good that linguists of Deborah Cameron’s stature are putting their intellectual shoulder to the wheel in helping the classroom teacher.

© Roy Johnson 2007

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Deborah Cameron, The Teacher’s Guide to Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp.163, ISBN: 0199214488

The Economist Style Guide

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best-selling guide to English usage and style rules

The Economist prides itself on good quality writing. The Economist Style Guide is the print version of their in-house guide on grammar and English usage which they issue to all their journalists. It’s designed to promote precision and clarity in writing – and the advice it offers is expressed in a witty and succinct manner. It gives general advice on writing skills, points out common errors and cliches, offers guidance on consistent use of punctuation, abbreviations and capital letters, and contains an exhaustive range of reference material.

The Economist Style GuideIt also includes a special section on American and British English, a fifty-four page fact checker, and a glossary. I particularly like the section called ‘Common Solecisms’ which warns against popular misunderstandings and points to words often used incorrectly.

Anticipate does not mean expect. Jack and Jill expected to marry; if they anticipated marriage, only Jill might find herself expectant.

The emphasis of the illustrative examples is on current affairs, politics, economics, and business – but the lessons in clear expression and the examples of tangled syntax and garbled journalese will be instructive to all writers who wish to sharpen their style.

It takes quite a tilt at the language of political correctness – and I think some of the following advice might be challenged. But it is so refreshingly un-stuffy, one reads on with a smile in the mind.

Avoid, where possible, euphemisms and circumlocutions promoted by interest-groups. In most contexts the hearing-impaired are simply deaf. It is no disrespect to the disabled sometimes to describe them as crippled. Female teenagers are girls, not women. The underprivileged may be disadvantaged, but are more likely just poor.

The guidance is arranged in logical, separate sections – political terms, metaphors, apostrophes, spelling, Americanisms – so you can easily find what you need. The bulk of the advice deals with common problems of English such as the difference between ‘compare with‘ and ‘compare to‘, but I was glad to see that rather like Keith Waterhouse (Waterhouse on Newspaper Style they do not leave the excesses of their own profession unexamined.

Avoid expressions used only by journalists, such as giving people the thumbs up, the thumbs down or the green light. Stay clear of gravy trains and salami tactics.

© Roy Johnson 2010

The Economist Style Guide   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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The Economist Style Guide, London: Economist Books, 10th edition 2010, pp.272, ISBN: 1846681758

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