A rough diamond. Continue reading
A word to eat dry flesh with. In fact, a word that eats flesh, dry or otherwise. Continue reading
Well, if we can have tasting notes on wine, cheese, beer, vodka, etc. ad inf. ad naus., why the heck not on words? My first three were chosen completely randomly (with the aid of random.org and Merriam-Webster). I welcome suggestions for future tastings. I do not think we will run out of words to taste.
An inky and pious and yet, in some circles, lately deprecated word, Continue reading
Familiar, yet intrinsically mysterious. Continue reading
A pungent, acrid, not altogether pleasing word. Continue reading
A colleague mentioned another colleague’s having found a sentence with sixteen commas in it – “what may have been a record.” Well, who can pass up a challenge like that? Continue reading
An email sent around to members of the Editors’ Association of Canada enjoined members to “Convince [a fellow] editor to become a member of EAC,” which sparked a debate among members as to whether “convince” could – or should – be used there rather than “persuade.” It was pointed out that usage guides note that some people find “convince someone to do something” objectionable, but it was also pointed out that the distinction was unfamiliar even to some EAC members. This provoked a response that ignorance of the law is no defense. Which provoked a response from me on the nature of laws of language: Continue reading
A colleague mentioned an exercise she was editing in which adult ESL students are asked to sort words according to whether the vowel sound is short or long. She asked, “Where did this terminology come from, anyway? And is there any other way of effectively describing this sound-spelling relationship?” Continue reading
Posted in editing, language and linguistics
Tagged English vowels, long vowels, phonology, short vowels, vowels
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