My latest piece for TheWeek.com looks at “foreign” words that have come to be important in our political and military English, and how they got there:
My next article will be about annoying noises people – adults, even – make and should stop making. Do you have any favourites? Let me know today or tomorrow if you can!
TheWeek.com has posted another article by me, this one on city names that may sound exotic but actually mean something rather plain in the language their residents speak:
Kuala Lumpur just doesn’t sound as magical when you translate it to Muddy Confluence
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Addis Ababa, Baton Rouge, Beijing, city names, El Paso, Honolulu, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto, La Paz, Lagos, Las Vegas, Nanjing, Nanking, Peking, Reykjavik, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, The Week, Tokyo, translations
My latest article for TheWeek.com is in response to a suggestion made in a comment on my article on noises teenagers make. Someone asked for an analysis of the sounds beatboxers make. That’s a pretty tall order, but there are few little things that stand out, and I cover them:
Posted in The Week
Tagged beatbox, beatboxing, linguistics, phonetics, phonology, The Week
My latest article for TheWeek.com is on baby babbling: the different kinds, and whether – or to what extent – it’s really language:
Your linguistic guide to baby babbling
My latest article for TheWeek.com was published today, and it comes with another video. This time it’s a quick look at sound change, specifically as expressed in the sounds in the words night out:
And how to tell if it’s a Canadian or an Australian asking you out
If you have a smart phone, it’s quite a handy device, with a combination of features inconceivable two decades ago: phone, camera, computer, internet browser. All new things in the grand scheme. And yet we’re using ancient words to speak about them. Find out more in my latest article for TheWeek.com:
My latest article for TheWeek.com takes a look at prepositions – their many and often somewhat arbitrary uses.
Prepositions: The super-handy and horribly confusing widgets of language
To, from, of, by: The little linguistic bits that we use to fit in gaps and hold things together or keep them apart. But it’s all rather arbitrary.
Today: my latest article for TheWeek.com, on other languages with weird spelling, and how they get that way.
Many languages use an alphabet borrowed from a different language. It’s like building a dining room set using an IKEA kit for a dresser.
One little correction, a typo I spotted too late: in the Irish Gaelic, shuiamhneas should be shuaimhneas. Of course.
I expected my latest article for TheWeek.com to generate some reaction in the comments, and I was not disappointed. Not that I wrote it just to troll people, but when you venture into certain territory…
The idea behind the article was to look at some famous quotes – sayings that are well known and often said – that break rules that are often learned in schools at about the same time as the quotes are. And then, of course, to look at whether those rules are really rules or not. But I didn’t explain that in an introduction. I just dove right in (or, if you’re a hoary prescriptivist, dived right in). Which may not have been the best idea, since – in combination with an eye-catching but slightly misleading headline (I don’t write the headlines, by the way, but I do get to see them in advance and could always suggest a change) – this approach provoked a variety of reactions in the comments section.
Here, for better or worse, is a link to the article:
And feel free to tell me what you think!
Posted in The Week
Tagged English grammar, grammar, prescriptivism, quotations, quotes, rules, The Week
My latest article for TheWeek.com is up, and it’s on the oft-maligned “sentence fragments”:
A few readers have pointed out, as I rather thought someone might, that Shakespeare isn’t really the best example. This is true, but I needed an example that I could be confident readers would be familiar with and would not dismiss as too modern, and I also had a length limit. So there it is. The compromises always get you in the end.
You can also see this article on Salon.com, and I don’t even know where else.
Posted in The Week
Tagged English grammar, English syntax, grammar, incomplete sentences, sentence fragments, syntax, The Week
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