tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83777099135951829162024-03-14T10:31:26.980+00:00DCblogDChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-90249317347245310052018-07-18T18:32:00.000+00:002018-07-18T18:32:02.472+00:00Dreame onThe Ucheldre Centre have just sent me the leaflet with details of Ben's Dreame fortnight - an Elizabethan-style adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream - involving actors, puppeteers, choreographers, and other contacts of Ben from around the world, all gathering in Holyhead for open rehearsals (30 July - 2 Aug), two free performances (3-4 Aug), and follow-up workshops on dance, movement, and Shakespeare (6-8 Aug) and puppetry making and working (9-10 Aug).<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_BOvdJRD_E/W0-HYWFBO2I/AAAAAAAAAEw/7RJ4DX8pc4Q6wwPNOjifbpNgjyGdHItegCLcBGAs/s1600/dreame%2BA5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y_BOvdJRD_E/W0-HYWFBO2I/AAAAAAAAAEw/7RJ4DX8pc4Q6wwPNOjifbpNgjyGdHItegCLcBGAs/s320/dreame%2BA5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-29885409167556373112018-04-23T16:22:00.000+00:002018-04-23T16:31:28.609+00:00Shakespeare's Words version 3.0 launches today<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The better the day, the better the deed, as Shakespeare didn't say. But for everything he did say Ben amd I </span>are thrilled to announce that we've reached the end of a 6-month development phase and can launch the 3.0 version of <a href="http://www.shakespeareswords.com/"> Shakespeare's Words<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/null">.</a></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We’ve received many suggestions for new
features over the past decade, and all are now implemented in the new edition
of the site. These include:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The site <span style="text-indent: -18pt;">now runs up to ten
times faster than before.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">All</span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"> texts are shown in a First
Folio or Quarto edition alongside the modern text<o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">All </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Folio & Quarto
spellings of words are now in the Glossary<o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Circles showing the relationships between characters are
now interactive: click on a name to see that character's part in the play<o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">We've </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">rebuilt the search
engine, and added auto-completion functionality for word-search and
character-search - start typing a word…</span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">You </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">can now search for words
used by individual characters and in individual plays or poems<o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">With </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">rebuilt advanced search
function, it’s easy to see if a particular word is being used nearby your
search word<o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">And </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">most importantly, the site
is now mobile-adaptive, so people can explore it on their cell-phone or tablet.
Shakespeare’s Words is now pocket-sized!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In order to meet the substantial costs incurred
in developing this new site we've introduced a ticketing model: after a limited
free exploration, those who wish to carry on using the site can purchase access
for a day, a month, a year, or a decade. As before, once running costs are
covered, we intend to make donations to theatre companies that receive no
public subscription.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Please feel free to circulate this to any of your
contacts who might like to hear this news.</div>
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-76614269145839288782017-09-05T16:46:00.001+00:002017-09-05T16:46:36.457+00:00Day Courses in 2018One of the outcomes of my August 2017 weekend
on the English language was a request to have further days focusing on topics
in greater depth. As most enquiries have been made in relation to the following
topics, I will now host the following series for 2018. I haven't ruled out the possibility of repeating the general course, or covering other themes, but will wait for interest to be expressed before doing so.<br />
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>Friday, 16 February
(during half-term), 9.30--4.00</i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Grammar Day</b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Introduction to English grammar; grammar in child language
acquisition; grammar in relation to reading and writing; grammar clinic
(dealing with questions raised by participants).<br />
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>Wednesday, 30 May
(during half-term), 9.30--4.00</i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>History of the
Language Day</b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Introduction to the history of the English language; Old
English, Middle English, Early Modern English; change in pronunciation,
grammar, and vocabulary; change and variation today.<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>Saturday and Sunday,
28-29 July, 9.30--4.00 </i><i>with an evening film
or performance event</i></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Shakespeare's
Language Weekend<br /><b><o:p></o:p></b></b></b></div>
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Introduction to Shakespeare's use of vocabulary, grammar,
metre, orthography; his linguistic creativity; his influence on modern English;
the second day will be an introduction to original pronunciation, followed by a
workshop in which participants will be trained to use the accent for themselves
(and receive a certificate affirming they have taken such a course).<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>Cost: per day £150;
Early Bird £125 - includes morning and afternoon refreshment and buffet lunch</i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Certificates of attendance will be provided if required.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Booking</b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Because of the limited size and facilities of the venue,
places are limited to 50, so early booking is advised. An Early Bird discount
is available, up to two months before the event. People should book by mail to
the Ucheldre Centre, Millbank, Holyhead LL65 1TE, or directly through
boxoffice@ucheldre.org, or by phone 01407 763361. They will be sent a
registration form (via email or post, as requested) to be returned to the
Centre along with payment.<br />
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<br /></div>
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One- or two-day bespoke courses at mutually convenient times
can be programmed upon request (cost: £5K per diem), with the content decided
by the group (maximum 25 people). Six months notice is usually required.<br />
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All events are held in support of the Ucheldre Centre, a
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DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-75771430805628436482017-06-03T21:34:00.000+00:002017-06-03T21:34:02.051+00:00English language weekend updateOne never knows, with a new idea like this, whether it will appeal, or whether the people who have asked for it will actually come, given all the uncertainties in life that have to be managed. The purpose of the Early Bird registration was to establish whether, as they say, we have a 'goer'. That period is now over, and I'm pleased to report that we do.<br />
I'm told by the Ucheldre Centre that enough people took advantage of Early Bird registration to make the event viable. So it's definitely on, and I'm very much looking forward to it. It looks to be a very mixed group, with attendees coming from as far away as Japan, along with several English-language teachers from the UK. The variety of backgrounds will I think add greatly to the occasion, and I'm really looking forward to it.<br />
Details about the event can be found in the previous post. Places can be reserved by contacting the Ucheldre Centre Box Office: boxoffice@ucheldre.org<br />
phone: (+44)
1407 763361 (10 am - 5 pm weekdays, 2 - 5 pm Sundays)<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
post: David
Crystal Summer Weekend, Ucheldre Centre, Mill Bank,<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Holyhead, LL65 1TE, UK<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-80384870816552111802017-03-06T15:16:00.000+00:002017-03-06T15:18:45.246+00:00On an English language weekend<div class="MsoNormal">
I've frequently been asked to put on a summer course for
people unable to attend the various lectures I give to schools, literary
festivals, and the like, and an opportunity has now arisen to do so. The
Ucheldre community arts centre in Holyhead (the name means 'high town' in Welsh) is
having a fund-raising campaign, and I've agreed to present a weekend in
support. I paste below the flyer that has been produced for the event, which
includes contact details.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>David Crystal Summer Weekend on the English
Language</b><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For anyone interested in the English language and how it
works<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Saturday and Sunday 19-20 August 2017</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
David Crystal presents a series of his talks on the
structure, use, and history of the English language in this two-day event, to
be held in the Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead, Anglesey, North Wales. See www.ucheldre.org for the setting. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Day 1, 9.30 - 5.00 <br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Language Structure</i> - talks (including
Q&A) on the structure of English, pronunciation, punctuation, grammar,
spelling, and vocabulary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Saturday evening is free, with the option of booking for
dinner at the Ucheldre Centre and an evening musical concert.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Day 2, 9.30 - 5.00 <br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Language Variation and Change</i> - talks
(including Q&A) on accents and dialects, the internet and texting, child
language acquisition, the future of Englishes, language play and literature,
and original pronunciation (with particular reference to Shakespeare).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cost: £150 a day, to include buffet lunch, coffee and tea<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Early Bird booking by 1 June 2017, £125 a day</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reserve a place by contacting<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
boxoffice@ucheldre.org<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
phone: (+44) 1407 763361 (10 am - 5 pm weekdays, 2 - 5 pm
Sundays) <br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
post: David Crystal Summer Weekend, Ucheldre Centre, Mill
Bank, Holyhead, LL65 1TE, UK<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On receipt of your reservation, you will be sent a
registration form which will include a place to inform the Centre of any
dietary/access requirements and whether you want to take up the dinner/concert
options, as well as details of local accommodation, restaurants, and (if you
want to bring family members) a list of Anglesey attractions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Places are limited, so early booking is advised.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nearest airports are Liverpool or Manchester; direct train
service (3-4 hours) from London Euston; by road, at the end of the A55; ferry
from Dublin.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Ucheldre Centre has free wi-fi.<o:p></o:p></div>
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DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-91535764380435148052016-11-30T10:26:00.000+00:002016-11-30T10:26:44.133+00:00On myths and the making of the OED<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
I've been pulled out of blog semi-retirement by a
correspondent who watched the BBC TV show QI last week. It had a sequence on
difficult-to-understand negatives, at which point one of the panellists (Gyles
Brandreth) made a number of assertions about the size of
vocabularies in languages, which my correspondent thought were wrong. She was
right.</div>
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How many words in English? He said there were 500,000 in the
<i>OED</i>. Wrong. There are well over 600,000 in the <i>OED</i>.
And of course the <i>OED</i> doesn't claim to include every word in
the language; it has, for example, always avoided including the most arcane
scientific terms (see further below). The new presenter of QI, Sandi Toksvig,
chipped in with 'a million' or more, but the point was drowned out. In fact,
the only correct answer to the question is 'we don't know'. Once all the
abbreviations, slang, regional dialect, global English lexicon, and specialized
scientific vocabulary are added, we are talking about an unknown number of
millions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He then went on to say that English vocabulary is larger
than that of other languages, which may well be true, given its global reach
and its status as the first language of science, but then asserted that French has
only 200,000 words and German half that. Again, absurd notions, based on the
naive assumption that the words contained in the largest dictionaries equal the
words in the language.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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It's sad to see such errors still being trotted out. Still?
See my post back in April 2009, 'On the biggest load of rubbish', when somebody
claimed to have found the millionth word in English. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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But to be more positive: the most wonderful book has just
come out. I hate to use the word 'definitive' about any book, but this one justifies
it. It is by Peter Gilliver, and it is called <i>The Making of the Oxford
English Dictionary</i>. In its 625 pages we get a blow-by-blow, at times
even day-by-day account of the way the dictionary was conceived, planned, and
implemented, from its origins in the mid-19th-century to the present day. He
has trawled through all the correspondence in the Press's archives, and manages
to weld everything he found into an engaging story of all those involved - not
just the senior editors, but including everyone associated with the project,
and not forgetting the secretarial assistants. He has actually written two
books in one. Beneath the maintext is a footnote series that at times is a
story in itself. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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It is fascinating, because what comes to light is a tale of
such human and dramatic character that it's amazing the dictionary was ever
completed at all. I had no idea, for example, just how much the project was
affected by illness, throughout its development. An attack of flu might cause a
serious delay in the production schedule - and that was just one of the minor
illnesses. Nor was I aware of how many differences of opinion there were
between the editors (eg over how many scientific terms to include), between the
editors and their academic advisors (including the Philological Society), and
between the editors and the managers of the Press (over policy, deadlines, and,
of course, money). Money is a recurring theme - from the Press's point of view,
a hugely expensive project that needed to pay for itself over time, and, from
the editorial point of view, a demanding schedule where salaries were dependent
on productivity - a situation that inevitably took its toll on health and
family life. Add to this concerns about reputation, both within the University
and abroad, and the inevitable personality clashes, and we get a riveting story
that Gilliver writes up brilliantly, even to the extent of giving us
chapter-ending cliffhangers. I can easily imagine a television drama coming out
of it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Along with John Simpson's equally fascinating memoir, <i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Word Detective</i></i>, it has
been a great year for the <i>OED</i>. I'm making my own additional contribution
next May, following up my book on the historical thesaurus, <i>Words in
Time and Place</i>. The new one is to be called <i>The Story of Be</i>
- a writing-up of the amazing amount of information on this tiny word to be
found in the <i>OED</i> entry. Its sub-title: <i>A verb's-eye
view of the English language</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-7883689674942434602016-06-20T17:20:00.000+00:002017-03-06T15:21:03.637+00:00On MundolinguaLast week I finally managed to get to see the amazing <a href="http://www.mundolingua.org/"> Mundolingua</a> - the language museum in Paris founded by Mark Oremland a couple of years ago. I don't use the adjective lightly. He has managed to pack into two floors of a small building a remarkable array of pictures, books, artefacts, and interactive facilities relating to language, languages, and linguistics, all presented in a user-friendly and multingual way.<br />
I had a personal interest in making my visit, as Mark describes his museum as a three-dimensional representation of my <i>Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language</i>. That may have been the starting-point, but in its range of illustrations the museum now goes well beyond what is in my book. And the ingenuity of the presentations has to be experienced.<br />
Mundolingua is a must-see. It's on the south bank, and easy to find. Aim for the church of Saint Sulpice. Stand in front of it and Rue Servandoni is just around the corner on your right. A few metres down and Mundolingua is on your right. At the other end of the street are the Luxembourg gardens.<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--0b5mO6K0IM/V2gkxIE-ldI/AAAAAAAAACo/tcafOLyCYN8HzVNkRpMphOII2R_8LwCXgCLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--0b5mO6K0IM/V2gkxIE-ldI/AAAAAAAAACo/tcafOLyCYN8HzVNkRpMphOII2R_8LwCXgCLcB/s320/FullSizeRender.jpg" /></a><br />
The museum is open every day between 10:00 and 19:00, with a modest entrance fee of just a few euros. Don't rush the visit. There is so much material that a language buff could spend a whole day here - or even two - exploring the collections in detail. The day I was there a group of visitors was sitting around a sociolinguistic exhibit with headphones, happily listening to usages in various languages. Another couple was by the phonetics chart copying the IPA sounds represented there.<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ym2lwZqq4GU/V2glL5zKmrI/AAAAAAAAACw/hLCCY-9MAGEPWBN00y6ttd0lwC3PR8xUACLcB/s1600/IMG_2752.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ym2lwZqq4GU/V2glL5zKmrI/AAAAAAAAACw/hLCCY-9MAGEPWBN00y6ttd0lwC3PR8xUACLcB/s320/IMG_2752.JPG" /></a><br />
I spent some time trying the braille quiz: a chart in front of you gives you all the braille letter codes, and then you place your hands under a cover and feel the message hidden there. I thought it would be easy and found it really challenging.<br />
Mark has succeeded where other language museum projects, conceived on a larger scale, have failed. In a post on this blog in <a href="http://david-crystal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/on-language-celebrations.html"> 2013</a>
I described some of them, all of which have not gone ahead, usually for lack of financial support. Mundolingua is the exception, and it needs all the support it can get. The day I visited there were quite a few people looking around, but there are days, I was told, when there are no visitors at all. So spread the news. Tour Eiffel? Tick. Louvre? Tick. Mundolingua? Tick.<br />
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DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-8365709978127718732016-06-14T09:51:00.001+00:002016-06-14T09:56:52.132+00:00On a dialect labour of love, and a Hopkins illustration<i>The Disappearing Dictionary</i> (2015) has just been published in paperback. It was my attempt to celebrate the amazing <i>English Dialect Dictionary</i> compiled by Joseph Wright over a century ago - a dictionary that has been unjustly neglected. But not any more. Wright has been brought into the internet age by a team from the English Department at the University of Innsbruck (Dr Reinhard Heuberger, Dr Manfred Markus), who have put the whole work (all six volumes of it) online in a beautifully presented searchable website at <a href="http://eddonline-proj.uibk.ac.at">EDD Online</a>. It has taken them ages, but what a resource we now have! Anyone interested in English dialects will revel in it.<p>
I revelled, a few months ago. I was asked to give the annual Gerard Manley Hopkins lecture at Liverpool Hope University, so I chose as my subject to follow up the clue seen in a letter written by Hopkins to his mother on 13 March 1888:<p>
'I am making a collection of Irish words and phrases for the great English Dialect Dictionary, and am in correspondence with the editor.' <p>
No copy of what he sent has been found in his collected papers. Several scholars, as a consequence, have tried to find them all, but with around 117,500 senses in the Dictionary as a whole, many of which take up many columns, it was not an easy task. Norman Mackenzie was one who began to wade through the EDD, but gave up. Norman White, in <i>English Studies</i> 68/4 (1987) found 89 locations. Did he find them all?<p>
Hopkins must have impressed Wright, for he is not listed in the lists of voluntary readers or correspondents, but in the 'list of unprinted collections of dialect words quoted in the dictionary by the initials of the compilers'. A member of the dialect elite, in other words. And an early one: Wright wasn't approached to be editor until mid-1887 (there's a letter from Professor Skeat, 13 June, reprinted in his wife's biography, <i>The Life of Joseph Wright</i>), so Hopkins must have been one of the earliest contributors if he was in correspondence just nine months later.<p>
Thanks to EDD Online, it proved an easy matter to find a named contributor. I simply typed the string G.M.H. into the appropriate search box, and up came the answer. There are 92 entries attributed to him. Norman White was almost right.<p>
Wright used 49 of Hopkins' examples; the rest are shown simply as G.M.H. In one entry (<i>become</i>) it's unclear just how much of the preceding text came from Hopkins. In (<i>chiuc</i>) and (<i>uncared</i>), Hopkins is the only evidence for the entry.<p>
Other points. The list shows an awareness of dialect grammar (containing grammatical words such as <i>and</i>, <i>be</i>, <i>but</i>), as well as lexical items. Two entries are observations rather than illustrations: <i>avail of</i>, <i>hockey</i>. Three entries show his personal background very well: <i>bloody</i> wars, <i>boy</i>, and especially (and amusingly) <i>craw</i>. And most of the entries relate to words beginning with A, B, and C. Evidently other events in Hopkins' life soon took him away from dialects.<p>
<b>able for</b>, fit to cope with<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Ah, he'd never be able for the attornies, <i>Paddiana</i> (1848) I.28
<p>
<b>admire</b> at
<i>Limerick</i>. 'Tis to be admired at - such a long distance traversed between Ireland and America so fast.
<p>
<b>afraid</b>, <i>conj</i>, lest, for fear that<br>
<i>Dublin</i>. Run indoors, God bless you, for afraid the cows'd run over you [said to a child by a man driving cows]
<p>
<b>after</b>, <i>prep</i>, behind<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. I left him after me.
<p>
<b>after</b>, when used with a progressive tense to indicate a completed action. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. I am after dining [I have dined]
<p>
<b>to be after</b>, (5) the word also conveys the idea of a state or condition in the immediate future, and (6) of a recently completed action<br>
(5) <i>Ireland</i>. The child is after the measles. (6) I am after my dinner.
<p>
<b>again</b>, <i>adv</i>, at a future time, by-and-by<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. I didn't do it yet, but I'll do it again.
<p>
<b>alannah</b>, <i>sb, Ireland</i>. my child<br>
Alana, properly 'my child'; used as a friendly or affectionate word of address, especially to the speaker's junior
<p>
<b>all out</b>, <i>adv</i>, completely, altogether, fully<br>
Ireland</i>. Not far from sixty [years of age], if he was not sixty all out.
<p>
<b>and</b>, <i>conj</i>, to introduce a nominative absolute, sometimes with ellipsis of <i>v</i>.<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. See all the people and they laughing! How could I say it an' me an me oath? [said by a witness before the <i>Times</i> Allegations Commission] <br>
<i>Kildare</i>. I walked in the garden, and hid [it] in bloom [it being in bloom], <i>Oral ballad</i>.
<p>
<b>any more</b>, for the future<br>
<i>Northern Ireland</i>. A servant being instructed how to act, will answer, 'I will do it any more'.
<p>
<b>arrah</b>, <i>int</i>, an exclamation of surprise<br>
<i>Tipperary</i>. 'Arrah, sweet myself!' said a youth after making a good hit at cricket, as he thought, unheard.
<p>
<b>at</b>, <i>prep</i>, motion to, arrival at a place or condition<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. To call at [visit a person].
<p>
<b>at all</b>, used in positive clauses; absolutely, altogether<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. It's the greatest fun at all.
<p>
<b>at all, at all</b><br>
<i>Limerick</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>avail of</b>, to take advantage of. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Used freely in all newspapers.
<p>
<b>ballyrag</b>, <i>v</i>, to abuse violently, to scold or revile in bad language<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>bang</b>, <i>v</i>, to beat, surpass, excel, outdo<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. That bangs Bannagher, and Bannagher bangs the devil [Bannagher is a town in King's County]
<p>
<b>be</b>, <i>prep</i>, forming the first unemphatic syllable of oaths<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Begorra, bedad, begonnies. If your bees are as big as ponies and your hives no bigger than ours are, how do your bees get into your bee-hives? - Begob, that's their own affair, <i>Pop. story</i>. [also used as the example at <i>begob</i>]
<p>
<b>become</b>, <i>v</i>, in phr. it well becomes<br>
<i>Tipperary</i>. Ironical phr. 'Well becomes me, &c., that is, 'And a fool I am for my pains.' It may govern a <i>v.</i> with <i>to</i>, expressing what it was that was foolishly done; as, ' 'Twell becomes me to have taken all that trouble.' (GMH) [unclear which bits are GMH's]
<p>
<b>bedad</b>, <i>int</i>, An exclamation, a disguised oath. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>begob</b>, <i>int</i>, uses the same example as in be above
<p>
<b>begonnies</b>, <i>int</i>, an exclamation<br>
GMH [no example shown here: see <i>be</i> above]
<p>
<b>begorra</b>, <i>int</i> [no example shown here: see <i>be</i> above]
<p>
<b>behold</b>, <i>v</i>, in phr. behold you, and behold you of it, mark you, do not overlook this point. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>bet</b>, <i>v</i>, past tense of beat<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>better</b>, <i>adv</i>, in phr, <b>I am better to</b>, I had better, it is better for me to. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>beyond</b>, <i>adv</i>, yonder, outside<br>
GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>beyond</b>, in phr, <b>beyond the beyond(s)</b>, unexpected, incredible, out of the way; a very out-of-the-way place. <br>
GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>blarney</b>, <i>sb</i>, persuasive talk, flattery, humbug. <br>
GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>Blarney-stone</b>, in phr, <b>to have taken a lick of the Blarney-stone</b>, to have the gift of flattery or persuasiveness. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. A certain stone in the walls of Castle Blarney in Co. Cork, the kissing or licking of which is fabled to convey the gift of blarney.
<p>
<b>blarney</b>, <i>v</i>, to flatter, persuade; to wheedle<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>blood</b>, <i>sb</i>, in phr. <b>blood</b> or <b>blur and ouns</b><br>
GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>bloody wars</b>, <i>adj</i>, serious consequences; also used as an exclamation of annoyance. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. If the Pope makes Dr. X. Archbishop there'll be bloody wars.
<p>
<b>bo</b>, <i>sb</i>, in <b>bo-man</b>, a name used to frighten children. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH N.I. [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>bodach</b>, <i>sb</i>, an old man; a churl<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>bold</b>, <i>adj</i>, Of children: naughty fractious, ill-behaved. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>boodie</b>, <i>sb</i>, in <b>boodie-man</b>, a bugbear, a bogey<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>boreen</b>, <i>sb</i>, a narrow lane, a byroad; a passage. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. He hasn't sense enough to drive a pig down a boreen.
<p>
<b>bosthoon</b>, <i>sb</i>, a big, awkward fellow; a witless, senseless, tactless fellow. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>bouchal</b>, <i>sb</i>, a boy; a youth or young man. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. two instances of GMH [no example]; also <b>buachailin</b> [no example]
<p>
<b>boy</b>, <i>sb</i>, a male human being of any age and condition, esp, if unmarried<br>
<i>Tipperary</i>. There's a boy over from the Pope, and Archbishop Croke went on his knees to him [said by a Tipperary man of Monsignior Persico, the Commissary Apostolic 1888]
<p>
<b>bring</b>, <i>v</i>, in <b>bring and take</b>, fetch and carry. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>bugaboo</b>, <i>sb</i>, a hobgoblin, ghost; an imaginary object of terror. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>busy</b>, <i>adj</i>, in to be busy growing, to grow fast. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. The corn is busy growing.
<p>
<b>but</b>, <i>conj</i>, just, only, though; used as an exclamation. <br>
<i>Louth</i>. It is but! - It isn't but!
<p>
<b>but</b>, in phr, <b>be done or damned but</b>, actually, really; used as an exclamation. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. They won't send you a bailiff with the writ; no, but it's by post it would come, be done but.
<p>
<b>cailey</b>,<i> sb</i>, a call, friendly visit, chat, gossip among neighbours. <br>
<i>Meath, Dublin, Kildare</i>. To go on caley [to go about gossiping]
<p>
<b>call</b>, <i>v</i>, in <b>call to</b>, to call on, pay a visit<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>call</b>, <i>v</i>. in <b>call to</b>, to check, chide<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Call to this fellow; he is hitting me.
<p>
<b>care</b>, <i>v</i>, to take care of, to tend. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. To care a horse or a room.
<p>
<b>carry</b>, <i>v</i>, to take, convey, conduct. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. 'If you are going out will you carry us with you?' said by schoolboys to their master. That is the wagonette we carried to Powerscourt.
<p>
<b>castle-top</b>, <i>sb</i>, a peg-top. <br>
<i>Galway</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cess</b>, <i>sb</i>, a rate, tax. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. County cess, borough cess.
<p>
<b>cess</b>, <i>sb</i>, luck, success, gen. used in comb, <i>Bad cess</i>, bad luck. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>chiuc</b>, <i>sb, Ireland</i>. A hook or sickle to shear or cut grass with. <br>
<i>Antrim</i>. Go and get me the chiuc till I shear some grass. [sole example for the entry]
<p>
<b>clifted</b>, <i>pp</i>, fallen or thrown over a cliff. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>clout</b>, <i>sb</i>, a nail. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Heavy shoe-nail.
<p>
<b>coat</b>, <i>sb</i>, in phr <b>with his coat buttoned behind</b>, looking like a fool. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Here comes Paddy from Cork with his coat buttoned behind.
<p>
<b>cod</b>, <i>v</i>, to sham, humbug, hoax, impose upon, lie. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cod</b>, <i>sb</i>, a humbug; a hoax, imposition, lie. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cod</b>, <i>v</i>, to sham, humbug<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cod</b>, <i>sb</i>, a simpleton, dupe. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>compliment</b>, <i>sb</i>, a favour conferring an obligation; the obligation so contracted. <br>
<i>Dublin</i>. 'He is not a man that I should like to be under a compliment to' - said of someone of whom it was proposed to ask a favour.
<p>
<b>conacre</b>, <i>sb</i>, to hire or let land 'in conacre'. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>conacre</b>, <i>v</i>, the sub-letting of land to a tenant, who acquires the use of the land to raise one or two crops and nothing further. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>convenient</b>, <i>adj</i>, near. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>couple</b>, <i>sb</i>, a few, several, more than two. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. 'I cursed (or 'was drunk') a couple of times' means I have done so now and then.
<p>
<b>craw</b>, <i>sb</i>, in comp <b>craw-thumper</b>, a term of ridicule for a very devout person, who, in praying, beats his breast. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. Lit. one who thumps, heavily beats, the craw, the breast, in saying the <i>confiteor</i> or other prayers.
<p>
<b>creel</b>, <i>sb</i>, a turf-cart, crate<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>creepie</b>, <i>sb</i>, a low, three-legged stoool, gen. used by children. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>croft</b>, <i>sb</i>, a glass water-bottle for the table or bedroom. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cruel</b>, <i>adv</i>, used as an intensive: exceedingly, very. <br>
<i>Dublin</i>. I'm powerful weak but cruel easy [I am very weak but quite at my ease], said by a sickman. A cruel good lady.
<p>
<b>cruiskeen</b>, <i>sb</i>, a small jug for holding liquor; a pitcher. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>cry</b>, <i>v</i>, in phr <b>cry the mare</b>, a ritual shouted by the first farm-workers in a parish to finish the harvest. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>go with</b>, <i>v</i>, fall over. <br>
<i>Waterford</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>have</b>, <i>v</i>, followed by a direct object and <i>pp</i>.<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. 'I am sorry I have kept your book so long.' 'It is no matter: I had it read.' That woman has me annoyed. She has my heart broke.
<p>
<b>hockey</b>, <i>sb</i>, a harvest-home or supper; the last load in harvest. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. The game also called 'Hooky' and 'Crying the Mare'.
<p>
<b>let</b>, <i>v</i>, used as an auxiliary with the second person imperative, instead of <i>do</i>.<br>
<i>Limerick</i>. Let you go this way and I will go that.
<p>
<b>let</b>, <i>v</i>, in <b>let round a dicad</b>, to recite a decade of the rosary. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>let on</b>, <i>v</i>, to pretend, feign; to make a pretence or show of. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. One of the conspirators who murdered Caesar 'let on to pleas for his brother.' 'I didn't let on to hear,' I pretended not to hear.
<p>
<b>let</b>, <i>v</i>, to give out, emit; to utter, give forth. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. He let a shout.
<p>
<b>on</b>, in phr <b>to blame on</b>, to lay the blame on. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example]
<p>
<b>rise</b>, <i>v</i>, to raise, cause to rise; to lift up; to rouse, stir up. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. They rose a cheer. God will rise me a friend.
<p>
<b>shall</b>, <i>v</i>, used in the 1st person to express will or intention. <br>
<i>Dublin</i>. He should have his meat tender. His meat should be tender.
<p>
<b>shall</b>, <i>v</i>, used to express insistence or duty. <br>
<i>Dublin</i>. 'Leave it in my room.' 'I shall, Ireland.'
<p>
<b>times</b>, <i>sb</i>, in phr <b>a couple of times</b>, occasionally; more than once.<br>
<i>Ireland</i>. GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given]
<p>
<b>uncared</b>, <i>adj, Ireland</i>. Untended; uncared for. <br>
GMH [no example, and no other Irish example given] [sole reference for the entry]
<p>
<b>will</b>, <i>aux v</i>. Preterite. Used instead of 'could'. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. They had fever on board and they would not be allowed to land [and the people on shore would not allow them to]
<p>
<b>will</b>, <i>aux v</i>. Used for 'should have'. <br>
<i>Ireland</i>. 'I sat where I should have seen him' becomes 'where I would see him'
<p>
<b>yees</b>, <i>pron</i>, you; used when speaking to more than one person. <br>
<i>Dublin</i>. How long did yiz get?
<p>
<b>yerrah</b>, <i>int</i>, an exclamation of surprise. <br>
<i>Limerick</i>. Yerra, be aisy! [Come, be easy.]
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-51290058130357306722016-06-11T10:35:00.000+00:002016-06-11T10:35:54.805+00:00On the reported death of the full-stop / periodIt's amazing how a small point (literally) makes the headlines. Last week I gave a talk at the Hay Festival about my book on punctuation, <i>Making A Point</i>. Towards the end, I illustrated the way the use of the full-stop (period) was changing in fast-moving dialogue settings on the Internet and in short-messaging services - being omitted at the ends of statements, and used only when the writer wanted to add an emotional charge to what's being said. This sort of thing:<p>
John's coming to the party [statement of fact]<br>
John's coming to the party. [Oh dear!]<p>
My general point was to warn people against accepting uncritically the kinds of definition often made when children are being taught punctuation, such as 'A sentence must end with a full-stop'. It's important to draw their attention to the limitations of such a definition. To start with, it should be 'A statement...', contrasting the full-stop with other forms of sentence-final punctuation (?, !, ...), but it's also important to acknowledge that there are many exceptions. Look around you: public signs (WAY OUT - elliptical for the statement 'This is the way out'), for instance, typically don't end with full-stops. Headlines in newspapers don't end with full-stops (these days - a different story in Victorian times). Abbreviations such as <i>BBC</i> and <i>Mr</i> dropped their full-stops during the last century. And on the Internet, in certain settings where it's obvious from the layout that a sentence has ended, they are being omitted. <p>
As John Humphreys once said, in the <i>Spectator</i>, the job of a journalist is to simplify and exaggerate. And that's what happened. My point got reported on the front page of the <i>Telegraph</i> - front page, no less - and the online site had the headline 'Full stop falling out of fashion thanks to instant messaging'. Note the generalization. Whereas I was saying that the full-stop was changing in instant messaging (and the like), the paper reports it as changing everywhere <i>because of</i> instant messaging. <p>
Unsurprisingly, as papers and radio programmes steal from each other all the time, Chinese-whisper-like, the drama increased. And when it got to the <i>New York Times</i> - the front page again - the headline read 'A Full Stop for Periods?' and the opening paragraph made a summary that then spread all over the globe: 'One of the oldest forms of punctuation may be dying'. And the writer went on:<p>
The period ... is gradually being felled in the barrange of instant messaging that has become synonymous with the digital age<p>
He used no full-stop at the end of his paragraph, or elsewhere in the article. It was a clever trope, but it went well beyond what I was saying, for there is no evidence at all that the full-stop is being less used in conventional writing, such as in newspaper articles. The writer's joke worked because he restricted his piece to single-sentence paragraphs. If he had used more than one sentence per paragraph he would soon have had to rely on the full-stop to make his writing easy to read. <p>
So the full-stop is not dying, outside the circumstances I mentioned above. But in journalism, who cares about qualifying comments like that? Death always makes a good story, so why mess it up? And thus, in the last 24 hours, we see these headlines:<p>
The period is dead - but so what? (Bostom Globe)<br>
Period coming to a full stop (The Straits Times) <br>
Has the period reached the point of no return? (San Diego Uninon-Tribune) <br>
The period is dead. Long live the period. (Huffington Post) <br>
Full stop? There is no point (The Telegraph, Calcutta)<p>
Doubtless many more in the next 24. And my in-box is filling up with people who are wanting to draw my attention to the fact that the change in usage is context-restricted - which is of course what I was saying in the first place. <p>
I'm hugely impressed by the fact that punctuation makes front-page news in a way that other aspects of language don't. But the journalistic treatment reinforces my main pedagogical point: that when children are being taught about punctuation, they need to be told about the mixed usage that is part of everyday orthographic experience, and not be given (or tested on!) rules that work only some of the time. Oversimplification is the curse of orthography. Fortunately, the body-copy in the articles above did usually address the complexity to some extent. But people remember the headlines, which were as misleading as the old mantra 'A sentence must end with a full-stop'.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-73335093899975011962016-05-17T10:57:00.002+00:002016-05-17T10:57:34.050+00:00On Philomena Cunk, the nameA correspondent writes - having just watched Ben et al on Philomena Cunk's programme on Shakespeare - to ask why the name sounds so funny. Her name, that is, not Ben's.
<p>
This is all to do with the phonaesthetics of English. I've written about it before, such as in <i>The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language</i>, and about the general topic of sound symbolism in the <i>Language</i> encylopedia. There are two opposing trends:
<p>
Short vowels, plosive consonants, and monosyllables tend to be used when you want to give someone a funny or quirky (and meaningless) name - Plip, Togg, Puck ... I remember Blackadder having great fun with the name Bob once.
If the sound sequence has echoes of taboo words, so much the better. Cunk inevitably brings to mind ... well, you know.
<p>
Long vowels, continuant consonants such as /l/ and /m/, and polysyllables (three or more) tend to be used when you want to give someone a gentle or romantic (and meaningless) name - Lamonian, Manderley, Ramalini ... Real names include Mariana, Valentine - and Philomena.
<p>
So it's the juxtaposition of the opposing phonaesthetic effects that provides the effect my correspondent has sensed in the name Philomena Cunk. It's a well-tried literary trick: Roald Dahl's Amanda Thripp, J K Rowling's Arabella Figg, Dr Seuss's Bartholomew Cubbins...
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-8447386300839720822016-04-30T09:35:00.001+00:002016-05-01T17:18:45.135+00:00On a multilingual libraryI really want to head this post 'on multilingual libraries', plural, but I don't know of any others apart from the one I visited last Thursday in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There ought to be one in every city where there are multilingual communities - which means all of them. (So if you know of another, do say.)<p>
I was there because I'd agreed to become patron of the library, which was set up by the Kittiwake Trust and which opened last August. I gave a short talk about the need for libraries in general and for multilingual libraries in particular. I paste it below. It includes some of the points I made in an earlier post (January 2011) about the need to save libraries, and adds a summary of the research into the benefits of bilingualism. (For those especially interested in bilingual myths and realities, there's no better place than François Grosjean's blog, <a href= "https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual"> 'Life as a bilingual' </a>.)<p>
I paste below a couple of pictures Hilary took while we were there, which I hope hint at the scale of the project and the diversity it contains. They have books in over 60 languages so far, aimed at all ages. Many can be loaned out. Membership is a fiver a year - and for those who would find even that cost too much, they operate the beautiful 'pay it forward' system, where those who can afford it pay in advance for those who can't, such as people belonging to local refugee support groups. Parents with children are welcome to drop in, and there's plenty of space to sit, read, and play, That was one of the most noticeable things about the library: its welcoming, colourful, playful atmosphere. There's more than just books here. Artefacts from other cultures are sprinkled about, and I imagine these will grow as the project develops.<p>
A particular delight was to see that the library doesn't restrict itself to language diversity but to dialect diversity as well. The Newcastle project has books on Tyneside dialects and other varieties of English, as well as local history - an important piece of PR, as many people unfortunately still can't see the point of bilingualism, but they begin to get an inkling when they realise that their own local dialect raises precisely the same issues of identity, pride, and cultural history.<p>
The library is on the upper floor of the Eldon Garden shopping centre, in the centre of Newcastle. If you travel by car, the entrance is on the seventh floor. That sounds like a long way up, but from the inside it's just an escalator ride up, round the corner from John Lewis. Its phone number is 07776 684940. Its website is <a href= " http://www.multilinguallibrary.org.uk"> here </a>, and it's on Facebook. So, if you're in or around Newcastle, my recommendation is to call in and become a member or a volunteer. And if you have any spare books in other languages taking up space at home, a donation is very welcome.
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J5z5kzFfRgU/VyR2fBiet-I/AAAAAAAAACQ/dYg6aFTQraEaoqVLuV9YiWKUAVyOOkAoACLcB/s1600/IMG_2601.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J5z5kzFfRgU/VyR2fBiet-I/AAAAAAAAACQ/dYg6aFTQraEaoqVLuV9YiWKUAVyOOkAoACLcB/s320/IMG_2601.jpeg" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FZDJEQ7lZpQ/VyR2jJLjHNI/AAAAAAAAACU/XrYCM7-wOYsmqQ7faBZiKlCHGLQV-nB5wCLcB/s1600/IMG_2602.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FZDJEQ7lZpQ/VyR2jJLjHNI/AAAAAAAAACU/XrYCM7-wOYsmqQ7faBZiKlCHGLQV-nB5wCLcB/s320/IMG_2602.jpeg" /></a> <p>
Why multilingual libraries matter<p>
I spy, with my little eye, two words beginning with ... L.<br>
It's a languages library. <p>
L proves to be an interesting letter in English, because it introduces so many words strongly associated with the venture you have launched here: Literature. Languages. Living. Loving. Lending. Learning. Leisure. Legacy ...<p>
How best to capture the spirit, the ethos, the value of libraries? Over the centuries, people have marvelled at them. They have been called a temple, a refuge, a second home, a leisure centre, a discovery channel, an advice bureau. It is a place where you can sit and draw the shelves around you like a warm cloak. When we gain a library we gain a source of wellbeing. The inscription over the door of the library at the ancient city of Thebes read (in classical Greek): 'The medicine chest of the soul'.<p>
The lauding of libraries crosses centuries and cultures. First and foremost they are seen as repositories of knowledge, windows into history. 'A great library', said Canadian scientist George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901), 'contains the diary of the human race.' And especially when it is multilingual. <p>
The metaphor of a library as a treasure trove is a recurrent figure. Let's bring together some famous personalities, and see what they have to say. Here is British poet and journalist John Alfred Langford (1823-1903): 'The only true equalisers in the world are books; the only treasure-house open to all comers is a library.' And Malcolm Forbes (1919-90), the publisher of Forbes magazine, is in no doubt about the appropriateness of the wealth metaphor: 'The richest person in the world - in fact all the riches in the world - couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library.' And this is writer Germaine Greer (1939- ): 'libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy'. For Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) it transcends life itself: 'I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library'.<p>
I like the reservoir metaphor - a library as a source of knowledge, waiting for us to simply turn on a tap. Like water, libraries are essential to our wellbeing, whatever our language background. As the American social reformer Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87) said, 'A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.' It is a means of self-improvement, of advancement. Or, as poet and humorist Richard Armour (1906-89) put it in 1954: <p>
Here is where people,<br>
One frequently finds, <br>
Lower their voice<br>
And raise their minds.<br><p>
And it brings together people from all walks of life.<p>
Listen to the claim made by American cardinal Terence Cooke (1921-83): 'America's greatness is not only recorded in books, but it is also dependent upon each and every citizen being able to utilize public libraries.' Listen to American astronomer Carl Sagan:<p>
'The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.'<p>
Listen to science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920-92):<p>
'I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it.'<p>
Have you noticed? I've just quoted from a Roman Catholic cardinal, a scientist, and a science fiction novelist. All sending out the same message. There can be few subjects like libraries to unite such disparate and distinguished minds. <p>
As the British politician Augustine Birrell (1850-1933) once said: 'Libraries are not made; they grow.' That takes time. Behind each library, no matter how small, is a history of growth, watered by the professionalism of the library's caretakers and the enthusiasm of its readers. It is not an enterprise that can be measured by numbers. It is quality that counts, not quantity. No political body should fall into the trap of judging the success of a library solely in terms of the number of its visitors. That lone reader in the corner: who knows what personal potential will be realized in the future because of today's library experience? As American poet Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982) said: 'What is more important in a library than anything else - than everything else - is the fact that it exists.' If it exists, it will be used. And French writer Victor Hugo (1802-85) sums it up: 'A library implies an act of faith'.<p>
And a multilingual library most of all, because of all the benefits that knowing more than one language can bring.<p>
Bilingual benefits<p>
It's normal to be bilingual. When we look around the globe, we find that three-quarters of the world’s population use at least two languages in their everyday lives, and half use at least three. Only a few nations - chiefly those who once had powerful colonies - have stayed monolingual. To be bilingual is the usual human condition.<p>
You will still meet people who hold old-fashioned beliefs about bilingualism. You might hear somebody say that trying to speak more than one language will make your brain tired. Or that the two languages will get mixed up. Or that knowing two languages will slow you down when you're doing your schoolwork.<p>
None of these beliefs are true. The brain has over 100 billion connections (called neurons) that it uses to receive, store, and send information. A language doesn't take up much of that brain space. People who speak languages like English and Spanish use only a few dozen sounds, a few thousand ways of making sentences, and a vocabulary of a few tens of thousand words. That might seem like a lot, but the brain handles it all easily. The evidence lies in the millions of people around the world who speak three, four, or five languages in their everyday lives without any trouble at all. And then there are the super-language-learners, who can handle twenty or thirty languages without their brain exploding. And anyone can be a super-language-learner. You just need a really good reason for learning each new language.<p>
Many research studies have shown that learning more than one language is good for you - and learning lots of languages is especially good for you. Seven big pluses.<p>
<i>Being bilingual helps you to think more powerfully</i><br>
Languages make people think in different ways. When you're speaking Spanish you think in one way; when you're speaking English you think in a different way. The mental exercise of moving from one language to the other makes your brain more active. It makes you more creative. It helps you solve problems more easily. And researchers have found out that being bilingual helps your brain to stay healthier when you grow old.<p>
<i>Being bilingual helps you to understand the world better</i><br>
Language exists so that we can talk about the world to each other, and talk about ourselves and our feelings. Each language does this in its own way. The way Spanish talks about the world is different from the way English does. Every language, no matter how few speakers it has, tells us something unique about the way the world works. So, the more languages you know, the more you will come to understand what it is to be a human being on this planet.<p>
<i>Being bilingual helps you to feel proud of yourself</i><br>
If you find yourself in a country where you don't speak the language, you're like a baby who can't talk. Learning another language, even to a limited level, removes the frustration of being unable to communicate when you find yourself in a place where it is spoken. You also feel you've really achieved something. You're right to feel proud of yourself, when you've learned another language. <p>
<i>Being bilingual helps you build friendships</i><br>
We live in a world where a war can start because people have misunderstood each other. Learning each other's language can be an important step towards achieving cooperation among countries. Interpreters and translators are essential, but they can't replace the sense of mutual respect which comes from personal linguistic ability. Being able to speak someone else's language is the first step towards making them a friend. <p>
<i>Being bilingual stops you being scared of languages</i><br>
The more languages you know, the more you come to understand how language works. You stop being frightened of languages and you find new languages easier to learn. You also become more aware of the characteristic features of your mother-tongue. English-speaking people often say they learned a lot about English grammar by seeing how it differs from other languages.<p>
<i>Being bilingual improves your social skills</i><br>
Learning another language is to learn another culture and another way of behaving. As a result, bilingual people develop a broader range of social skills, and become more outward-looking. They are also likely to have a greater respect for the differences among cultures, and that can only be a good thing in a world where there is so much conflict.<p>
<i>Being bilingual can get you a better job</i><br>
For most people, this is the best benefit of all. These days, many companies are international, and are looking out for people who can speak more than one language - and, even more important, who aren't frightened of learning new languages. These companies know they'll be more successful selling goods if they can do this in the language of the customer.<p>
So, a multilingual library has a lot to celebrate. And perhaps at no better time than on the two big days of the year: Mother-tongue Day on 21 February and the European Day of Languages on 26 September. But the rest of the year too.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-72593740940155804822016-04-07T19:08:00.000+00:002016-04-07T19:08:43.882+00:00Further observations on the Hamlet H Quarto.Messages continue to pour in since the publication of the 'H Quarto' (see the examples following the comments of the first post on this subject), proving beyond doubt that octolitteraphilia is contagious. Here is a selection from a linguist, a Shakespeare scholar, and a novelist:
<p>
'How heavily hawked? Hope highly heeded Handschrift halfway hoodwinks whole host.' <i>Professor David Denison</i>
<p>
'Hugely hilarious - hope highly honoured.' <i>Professor Michael Dobson</i>
<p>
'Higher-order hypothesis hilarious! Here's hoping H Hamlet huge hit.' <i>Jean Hegland</i> ... whose novel, <i>Still Time</i>, incidentally, is a must-read for Shakespeare-lovers.
<p>
And from Professor Keith Johnson, who - in a post to the Shaksper website - introduces an issue that is now attracting considerable interest.
<p>
'David Crystal’s <i>Unbelievable Hamlet Discovery</i> hits on heavy and heretofore hidden hints about Hamlet’s history. Huge happenstance.
<p>
'Crystal’s H Quarto has implications for various areas of Shakespeare scholarship, including the field of Original Pronunciation, in which Crystal himself has been the guiding spirit. He has pointed out that in Early Modern English, an initial ‘h’ was often unpronounced. The first few lines of his H Quarto might then have read:
<p>
BARNARDO ’ark!<br>
FRANCISCO ’o! ’enchman? <br>
BARNARDO ’e. <br>
FRANCISCO ’ey, ’our ’eedfully ’eeded. <br>
BARNARDO ’orological ’alfnight’s ’appened. ’op ’ome. <br>
<p>
'Taken as a whole, there seems no doubt that the H Quarto gives us the longest stretch of uninterrupted h-dropping in the entire canon of English literature, including in the works of Dickens, with all his various Cockney h-droppers.
<p>
'There is, however, more to the h-dropping than phonetic quirk. The following thoughts occurred to me a couple of days ago (it is today 3rd April). The hero’s name, and the play’s title, start with a dropped h, so would have been pronounced <i>’Amlet</i>. There is, however, a little-known vowel change (known as the ‘Quite Small Vowel Shift’) that took place in just a few streets in Stratford-upon-Avon for a few months in the 1600 period. It is one of the few sound changes in English that took place retrospectively. In it, today’s vowel came to be pronounced as the one in <i>hot</i>. It was not <i>’Amlet</i> at all, but <i>’Omlet</i>.
<p>
'The word <i>omelet</i> first appeared in the language at around this period, and there is a little-known Elizabethan Cookbook entitled <i>Chippes Withal</i> (a title which, as it happens, the twentieth-century English playwright Arnold Wesker took for one of his plays). On the topic of omelets the book (written in verse) has this to say: <i>Who wolde an omelette make, Perforce must egges brake</i>. But this is just what the play previously known as <i>Hamlet</i> is about. In the process of becoming a fulfilled man, Hamlet creates mayhem. In culinary terms, eggs get broken.
<p>
'When Crystal next feels like a walk, one can only urge him to return to New House, and give his full attention to other broken drains. There may be other H Quartos to discover: <i>The Happy Housewives of Henley</i>, perhaps, and <i>Hiems’ Homily</i> (pronounced <i>’Iems ’Omily</i>: the play about Leontes and ’ermione).'
<p>
It is entirely possible. And I suspect that the disturbed earth recently shown to be present in the radar scan of Shakespeare's grave is not an indication of a removed skull, as has been claimed, but of stolen manuscripts that were buried with the body.
<p>
Some scholars have sensed that Shakespeare's disorder was more deep-rooted than I claimed. Other letters may have been affected. This from Professor Tim Connell:
<p>
'And of course Love's Labours Lost bears out your theory, as does an early
ms (doubtless amended by Condell and Heminge) of the Wicked Wives of Windsor.'
<p>
Peter Holland adds:
<p>
'David Crystal is to be congratulated on his remarkable discovery. I take it that the fact that the only non-h word I have identified is 'for' (p.76) is the consequence of its being the opening syllable of Fortinbras (the speaker of the stray word) and hence indicates Fortinbras' wish to hint at the otherwise unknown F quarto which would focus on Fortinbras' view of the whole narrative.
<p>
Or perhaps it's the long-surmised F quarto, known as the FQ. I recommend considering Midsummer Midnight's Musing too.'
<p>
Peter is to be congratulated on his close reading of the text. It is indeed the case that 'for' in the Fortinbras speech is the only instance of a non-h word, and I have long pondered the implications of this. There is some evidence that octolitteraphilia manifests itself in waves, and that, once a bout of h-activity has been released, normal letter usage resumes, temporarily. The fact that 'for' occurs at the very end of the play is indicative that this particular h-bout was about to run its course - presumably motivated by the new character name that was forming in Shakespeare's brain.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-59441989988204081542016-03-19T20:26:00.001+00:002016-03-19T20:26:06.161+00:00On HHamlet by PoDI've been really surprised by the number of enquiries I've had over the past day or so asking me to explain what PoD is and how it works. I thought it had become a well-known expression: 'print on demand'. But it seems that a lot of people aren't yet aware, and certainly have never bought a book in that way before.
<p>
Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. It took my website platform team (Librios), along with the printers (Clays of Suffolk), over a year to sort out the issues for <i>The Unbelievable Hamlet Discovery</i>. To begin with, there's a design issue to be solved. At the end of the day, the book has to look like any other printed book you'd see in a bookshop. So it has to go through the same stages of design and copy-editing and proof-reading as any other book submitted to a publisher. It has to have its ISBNs (plural, note, as printed book and ebook have to have different identifiers). Just because we (Hilary and I) are the publishers doesn't mean we can cut any corners. Fortunately we both have had plenty of editorial and design experience over the years. But it still needed a final look-through by a professional designer. And we learned an important fact: Clays are unable to PoD if a book is less than 80 pages.
<p>
A bigger problem, which took ages to sort out, is how to handle the postage. Once the book is given a price, the story isn't over. This is the biggest difference with buying a book at your local bookstore. The purchaser is typically going to buy just one copy, but the order can come in from any part of the world. This is what makes PoD so attractive to authors: their readership is worldwide. But how is the printer going to handle an order that comes in from the UK, or Germany, or Africa, or the USA...? The postage rates vary greatly. So all this has to be worked out so that orders can be processed automatically. Along with the further complications of VAT (where applicable).
<p>
Anyway, it's all sorted now, so if you order a copy, at www.davidcrystal.com, and pay via Paypal, it should arrive on your doorstep a couple of working days later. And those who prefer an e-copy will be able to do so directly, at the same site. (Here too there have been delays, as there are different design issues that have to be addressed.)
<p>
Actually, I would far rather have had the book published by a conventional publisher and sold in a conventional bookshop. I am very conscious of the need for authors to support the book-trade. So I would never self-publish without going down the usual publishing routes. I offered the <i>Hamlet</i> manuscript to two of my usual publishers and they turned it down - amazing, really, considering the significance of the discovery, but there we are. Similarly, when Hilary self-published her first children's novel, <i>The Memors</i>, it was only after we had explored possible publication with three houses. The only other books we self-publish are those in my backlist that are out-of-print, and where people are still interested in them.
<p>
Having said all that, we do find self-publishing an enormously exciting experience. We like being in control of all aspects of book production. Maybe, in another life, we would have been a publisher.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-58870448379715498392016-03-16T19:51:00.000+00:002016-03-16T19:51:09.987+00:00On an amazing Hamlet disovery, and other mattersIt's been a busy few months, and the blog has suffered. But finally, two results have appeared, both intended to celebrate the Shakespeare anniversary - and I'm not sure which is the more significant.
<p>
The first, out on 24 March, is <i>The Oxford Dictionary of Shakespearean Pronunciation</i> - the result of a decade of work presenting all the words in the First Folio in OP (original pronunciation), along with the relevant evidence of rhymes and spellings. An associated website will have some extra material and an audio file, accessed by a special code that comes inside each copy of the book.
<p>
And then, on 1 April, <i>The Amazing Hamlet Discovery</i> - my finding in a Stratford garden of a hitherto unknown early quarto of <i>Hamlet</i>, showing conclusively that Shakespeare suffered from octolitteraphilia. A most moving document, published in its entirety for the first time. An oulipian experience.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-85904408395306614392015-11-20T15:16:00.003+00:002015-11-20T15:16:58.311+00:00On grammatical facts, fictions, and The SpectatorA correspondent writes to ask if I’d seen the silly test from the grammar pedant N M Gwynne in <i>The Spectator</i> (17 October), as she’d had a problem with it. Not only had I seen it, I’d already written a letter to the magazine about it - but they didn’t publish it. The Spectator seems to be only interested in opinion, not facts, linguistic or otherwise.
<p>
I’m not at all surprised my correspondent had a problem. The test asked readers to ‘give the parts of speech, including the grammatical part of any verbs, of “boiling” and every instance of “washing” in the sentence, “She is washing in boiling water yesterday’s washing in the washing machine that she uses for washing clothes”.’
<p>
Gwynne provided the answers in the letters column of the 7 November (I give his exact words):
<p>
Boiling: present participle (verb-adjective) <br>
First ‘washing’: taken with ‘is’, continuous present tense, active voice and indicative mood. By itself, present participle. <br>
Second ‘washing’: either gerund (verbal noun) or gerundive. <br>
Third ‘washing’: noun acting as an adjective (‘noun-adjective’). <br>
Fourth ‘washing’: gerund, acting both as a noun and as a transitive verb.
<p>
A letter in the issue of 14 November tells us that only 29 people attempted it and only one got the above answers. This didn’t surprise me either. I suspect most readers of the <i>Spectator</i> were sensible enough to see through the artificial nature of the exercise, with English being forced into the categories devised for Latin. Gerunds and gerundives have no place in an English grammar. And doubtless there were those, whose grammatical knowledge is better than Gwynne’s, who were marked wrong because they didn’t conform to Gwynne’s own misanalysis of ‘washing machine’. This, of course, is a compound noun - recognized as such in every dictionary - so the first element shouldn’t be classed as a separate part of speech at all.
<p>
Heaven knows how people are supposed to make sense of the jumble of terms in the answers. A present participle is a verb-adjective. One ‘washing’ is either a gerund, or a gerundive - though it can hardly be both at the same time. Another is apparently both a noun and an adjective. Another is both a noun and a verb. No wonder people are put off grammar when presented with this kind of thing.
<p>
Fortunately, modern approaches - as opposed to these resurrected Victorian ones - present English in a much more straightforward way. ‘Boiling’ is an adjective; ‘washing’ in ‘yesterday’s washing’ is a noun; ‘washing’ in ‘washing clothes’ is a verb; and so on. That is all that needs to be said, when first introducing word classes. Introducing imagined parallels - for instance, that ‘boiling’ is an adjective that reminds you of a verb - is an unnecessary confusion when identifying parts of speech.
<p>
Gwynne is so out of touch with what is actually happening in schools today. He says on his website that grammar ‘has by now been almost entirely abolished’. Tell that to Buckinghamshire teachers, with their splendid Grammar Project - to name just one of many initiatives taking place around the country. Yes, the kind of grammar presented in <i>Gwynne’s Grammar</i> has indeed been almost entirely abolished in schools, and that’s a very good thing. But it’s been replaced by an approach which respects English for what it is, and doesn’t try to treat it as if it were a bastardized form of Latin.
<p>
By the way, while I’m in this mood, I have a second piece of evidence to support my contention that the <i>Spectator</i> isn’t interested in facts. A few weeks earlier (24 October), a writer penned a travel piece on Anglesey, where I live, praising its natural splendour but denying that that there were any art galleries on the island, and saying it was impossible to go to an opera there. I wrote a letter pointing out that Llangefni has a fine art gallery, Oriel, with a stunning Tunnicliffe collection, and that the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead has art exhibitions all year round. And Ucheldre regularly presents operas - Wales National Opera and Swansea City Opera, to name just two - as well as giving people the chance to see Covent Garden et al there too, thanks to streaming, at a fraction of the London prices.
<p>
They didn’t publish that one either. I think I'll stick to blogging.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-19467637685452957542015-10-30T09:51:00.002+00:002015-10-30T09:51:24.306+00:00On a one-word reaction to reports about drunken Aussie accentsSo the phone rings and it's a journalist from the <i>Daily Mirror</i>, wanting me to comment on the story circulating in the press this week, that the origin of the Australian accent lies in the drunken speech of the first convicts. I commented, all right. I used an ancient linguistic technical term: it's complete bollocks. Rubbish, I added, helpfully. <p>
That wasn't enough, it seemed. I then had to spend the best part of an hour doing my best to persuade the journalist, who had obviously fallen for this story hook, line and sinker, (a) that it had come from an Australian academic, Dean Frenkel, who, though described as a 'speech expert', doesn't seem to have any backround in the relevant disciplines of historical sociolingustics and phonetics (one web site describes him as a 'left field artist' among other things), (b) that it wasn't especially new - it turns up regularly, along with similar myths from other parts of the world (such as that the Liverpudilian accent is the result of fog in the Mersey, or the Welsh rising lilt is because they lived in the mountains, or that the Birmingham accent arose because people didn't open their mouths very much to avoid the dirty air), all equally rubbish, (c) that there isn't actually any evidence to show that convicts 200 years ago spoke drunkenly to their children on a regular basis, (d) that drunken speech actually has very little in common with the examples cited of the Australian accent, and (e) that if she examined those examples, she'd soon see that they don't support the case at all. <p>
For instance, <i>standing</i> pronounced as <i>stending</i> is described as 'lazy'; but [e] is higher up in the mouth than [a], and actually takes more muscular energy to produce; it's the very opposite of lazy. The characteristic [ai] in words like <i>day</i> is similarly said to be the result of lazy drunkenness - in which case all Cockneys are drunk, for this diphthong is found in that accent too (among many others). (Cockney, along with some other British accents, is actually one of the real influencers of Australian pronunciation.) To call the accent a 'speech impediment' or the result of 'inferior brain functioning', as he's reported to have said, is absolutely extraordinary. On that basis every accent is an impediment - apart, of course, from the one Dean Frankel holds in his mind as some sort of speech ideal. It's the kind of thinking that was common in the early days of prescriptivism, and it's surprising to see it surfacing again now. And appalling that the media should so readily believe it.<p>
Was my long conversation with the journalist worth it? Not in the slightest. When the article appeared, she quoted a couple of lines from me about the diversity of accents in the UK, and allowed the story to come across as if it were gospel. 'So if the Aussie accent is down to booze, why do other parts of the world speak English so differently?' The word 'rubbish' didn't appear at all. Nor the other word. <p>
It's yet another example of how the tabloid media masquerades fiction as fact, in the interests of what they think is a good story. The <i>Guardian</i>, for example, ran a piece debunking the myth, but that will hardly have an impact on the many readers of the <i>Mirror</i> and the <i>Daily Mail</i> (which also ran the story prominently) who will have read it, believed it, and repeated it. It's really depressing. This kind of journalism makes the job of a linguist so much harder.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-29786727293730231222015-10-08T12:16:00.002+00:002015-10-08T12:22:49.247+00:00On the latest LingoI'm aroused out of a period of bloglessness (explained below) by the arrival of the second issue of <i>Lingo</i> - the language magazine for young readers. This is the little sibling of <i>Babel</i>, that was aimed at older students, or indeed at anyone who has an interest in language and languages. It's not at all easy to present linguistic content to an age-range that is roughly top end of the juniors and low end of the seniors - Key Stage 3, as it were. But the editorial team at Huddersfield University have cracked it.<p>
I got to appreciate the scale of the problem a few years ago when I was writing <i>A Little Book of Language</i>, aimed at young teenagers. To check I'd got the level right, I had my first draft read by a 12-year-old. She gave me a right beating up! 'Underline any bit you find unclear', I told her. And she did. She drew my attention to words and content that I had never dreamt would cause a problem. For example, in my chapter on professional pseudonyms, I had included examples like John Wayne. She underlined John Wayne. When I asked her why, she said she'd never heard of him. I had to find different examples (eg Eminem).<p>
I see the <i>Lingo</i> team will be at the Language Show in Olympia, London, 16-18 October (stand 804). Well worth a visit, I'd've thought, if you are in the area. But if you're not, I would recommend anyone who's involved with teaching language (or languages) to youngsters to take a look at <i>Lingo</i>. I don't normally use my blog to advertise things, but I have to make an exception in this case, as it's the kind of product I've long been hoping to see getting into schools. It's visible online at lingozine.com. <p>
And now, back to a blogless life, caused by a killer project - a dictionary. There's nothing like dictionary compilation to take you away from the real world. It's not like any other kind of writing, where you are in control of your content. In a dictionary, the content controls you, in the form of the alphabet. The object in question will be out in March, <i>The Oxford Dictionary of Shakespearean Pronunciation</i>. It's at the copy-editing stage, and next month I have to record the audio version and soon after go through the proofs. Believe me, there's nothing more blog-destroying than a set of dictionary proofs.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-82732785651031597192015-07-28T18:16:00.001+00:002015-08-08T08:21:40.818+00:00On feeling closer, via Henry, to ShakespeareThe original pronunciation (OP) production of <i>Henry V</i> by Ben Crystal's Passion in Practice company went ahead on 26 July, in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe. It was a sell-out, and warmly acclaimed by one of the most enthusiastic audiences I've ever encountered there. There were three more performances to enable those who couldn't get tickets to get a taste of the production, held in The Loft at Tanner Street, 3-5 August. The company used the occasion to launch a Passion in Practice patrons appeal, to help take the company forward, so if anyone fancies becoming a PiP well-willer, shoulder-clapper, bully-rook, complice, or yoke-fellow - a rather more appropriate set of funding names, I feel, than the usual boring bronze, silver, gold, etc acknowledgements I encounter in appeals - they can get information about it via the company website - or, for that matter, from me.<p>
But, to the play... The production displayed the dramatic possibilites of OP in all sorts of fresh and unexpected ways. OP, it needs to be remembered, is just a tool, as any other original practice, and its effect on a production needs to be judged in terms of the vision of the play as a whole. Ben adapted his innovative production to suit the intimacy of the Wanamaker playhouse. Not for this space the Olivier-style fortissimos of 'Once more...' and 'Crispin's day', but an exhausted muted appeal for the first and a quietly executed cameraderie for the second, with the OP underscoring these famous speeches to make them unexpectedly moving.<p>
Nothing in the Shakespeare canon matches the stylistic variability in this play, and the company brought the OP to life in ways I'd never heard on stage before. At one extreme, there is the colloquial banter of the Eastcheap characters, with lots of elided sounds; at the other, the rounded and resonant tones of the bishops. And in between, we have Henry himself, who we know from <i>Henry IV</i> has the ability to code-switch - able to talk to tapsters in their own language as well as to match diplomats in their linguistic games. Henry also knows that kings set fashions - he says as much to Kate - so his OP reflects a formal style - for example, with word-initial h's pronounced - that the other English nobles emulate.<p>
The military scenes demand a different set of OP choices. We hear the articulatory exaggerations of the Celtic captains, which add a novel comic dimension to OP, with an energetic Welsh r-trilling Welshman, an explosively palatal Irishman, and a comically incomprehensible Scot whose speech left the other captains baffled. Then, when Henry walks around the camp, the night before the battle, he stumbles across a group of soldiers (Williams et al) being told a story to keep their spirits up: in an ingenious addition, we hear the Rumour speech from <i>Henry IV Part 2</i>, told in a mesmerising OP by a Caribbean performance-poet who had joined Passion in Practice for the occasion.<p>
Chorus is distributed around members of the company, displaying OP in a wide variety of accents, from Lithuania to California. People sometimes forget that OP is not a single accent, but a sound system that allows many accents - just as there are in Modern English today - and it is important to hear it in all its variation. From a dramatic point of view, the vocal diversity to my mind strengthens the role of Chorus as a universal observer.<p>
Several other innovations inform this unusual production. The quarrel between Nym and Pistol has the two men shouting at each other with their speeches overlapping - a technique used to great effect after Duncan's murder in Ben's <i>Macbeth</i> at the Wanamaker last year. Henry's mind wanders as he listens to the Archbishop's interminable exposition about Salic Law, so at one point his speech fades into the background and we hear characters whispering lines into his ear from earlier history plays. Then there are the songs. <p>
Songs in <i>Henry V</i>? Ben found five references to contemporary songs in the play in Ross Duffin's <i>Shakespeare's Songbook</i>, and located them at appropriate points. Hazel Askew researched them and taught them to the company. From my point of view, this was a first, as I'd never adapted OP for singing in a Shakespeare play before - least of all in Latin and French, as well as English.<p>
The character of Boy (Falstaff's page) was developed to join the pantheon of Shakespeare's later-play Clowns. Ben drew our attention to the fact that Boy does something very unusual in this play: he talks directly to the audience, in quite long speeches - just as Clown would. He therefore had him introduce the play, as a sort of Chorus-Clown, by speaking the anticipatory epilogue at the end of <i>Henry IV</i> ('our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France...'), leading directly into 'O for a Muse of fire...'. Boy-Clown is thereafter always around, hovering and observing, in the Eastcheap scenes. We see him killed, when left alone in the camp, and, in another innovative Ben Crystal twist, we see the dirty deed done by the Dolphin, disguised as Monsieur Le Fer.<p>
The handling of the French OP was also a first. What surprised me here was its stylistic diversity, ranging from the lofty tones of the French King to the semi-French used by Henry when wooing Kate. In between, we have the genteel dialogue between Katherine and Alice, and the bonhomie among the French nobles, with the Dolphin in this production opting for a speech style as distinctive in its way as Pistol's. It proved quite difficult for me to develop a way of getting the actors to speak that sounded French yet avoided having them being pale imitations of Inspector Clouseau. My solution was to have them speak OP exactly as the English characters did, but with syllable-timing - the 'rat-a-tat' rhythm that is natural to French. This then allowed the Ambassadors and the Herald (Montjoy) - who in view of their calling would presumably have been more competent English speakers - to use an OP that was 'less French'. <p>
All these choices resulted in an unprecedented kaleidoscope of OP - and revealed some new readings. For example, France is usually spelled <i>France</i> in the First Folio, but it is spelled <i>Fraunce</i> when the French are speaking (suggesting a pronunciation of 'frawnce'). Henry is also given this spelling when he is trying to speak French to Kate - and he has it just once when he is speaking English. At the point when Alice begins to interpret what Kate has said - that it isn't the fashion for ladies of 'Fraunce' to kiss - Henry interrupts with 'It is not a fashion for the maids in Fraunce to kiss before they are married, would she say?' The spelling suggests that he is mocking Alice's pronunciation. It's a tiny point, but it adds an extra nuance to the way Ben had this scene played, avoiding the lovey-dovey way it's often done, and underlining the fact that Kate is, after all, a political pawn. An interpretation where she is a reluctant player in the king's game, and where there is a great deal of tension in the room, seems wholly justified. <p>
As with all OP productions, there were surprises on the opening night. I wasn't expecting Jamy to be quite so unintelligible, so the other captains were genuinely nonplussed, but the audience loved it. And the French nobles themselves decided that, when the Dolphin was praising his horse so fulsomely, there was sufficient closeness in OP between <i>horse</i> and <i>arse</i> to poke some extra fun at him. I never taught them that, but it worked! <p>
Passion in Practice is a company devoted to recreating, as far as as is humanly possible, the work ethic of Shakespeare's company, cutting a play in the direction of 'two hours traffic', using cue-scripts, and not relying on weeks of rehearsal runs. It can be tricky when working in the Wanamaker, as - the space being so well-used - there is very limited opportunity for the actors to spend time there to see how to exploit it to best advantage. They had just the day before to explore the best ways of using the candles to point the night-time scenes and to implement one of the major insights of this production - the theme of shadows ('if we shadows have offended...'). Candles behind banners generated atmospheric silhouettes, creating the impression of many soldiers ('Into a thousand parts divide one man...'). Katherine did the whole of her English-learning scene behind a banner, as if in her boudoir, with the parts of her body displayed in silhouette ('the hand, the fingers...'). <p>
There was an opportunity on the day to 'top and tail' the scenes, so that the actors knew their entrances and exits; but the first time the company had the opportunity to present the play as a whole was when the audience was there. I was playing Fluellen, and after the battle there is a short scene where he talks to the king about them both being Welsh. The first time I had the chance to speak those lines to Henry and to hear how he would respond was during the performance. As I approached him verbosely ('Your grandfather of famous memory...'), he gave me a 'Oh no, not Fluellen going on and on again' reaction. It completely altered the way I then said the lines. <p>
It must have been like this on the original Globe stage, with the actors surrounded by friends and family as well as the public at large. Not only did the audience not know what was going to happen next: the actors didn't either. Everyone was on their auditory toes, and the result must have been an electrifying freshness, which I sensed, at that moment, we were recreating with our OP production. It was the closest I've ever felt to Shakespeare.DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-49171120651577819412015-06-21T21:25:00.000+00:002015-06-22T07:18:44.328+00:00On being a pedant with power'Michael Gove is instructing his civil servants on grammar' said the headline in today's <i>Independent</i>. And Mark Leftly went on to describe how instructions posted on the Ministry of Justice intranet, after Gove was appointed Lord Chancellor last month, warned officials about the kind of English they shouldn't be using. Nicholas Lezard in the <i>Observer</i> made a similar point. His headline read: 'Has Michael Gove dreamed up these grammar rules just for our entertainment?'<p>
It would take a book to go through every point. Here is just one example of the bizarre and self-contradictory recommendations being reported.<p>
Recommendation 1<br>
'Read the great writers to improve your own prose – George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens.'
<p>
Recommendation 2<br>
The Lord Chancellor has told officials that they must not start a sentence with 'however'.<p>
So, let's take a look...<p>
However, they must obtain food from the outside world somehow. (Orwell, <i>Animal Farm</i>)<br>
However, helped by the smooth words of Squealer, she assumes that she must have been wrong... (Orwell, <i>Animal Farm</i>)<p>
It is her nature to give people the benefit of the doubt. However, Mr. Wickham's account seems to leave no doubt that Mr. Darcy is intentionally unkind. (Austen, <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>)<br>
Mrs. Elton is disappointed. However, she decides not to put off her plans. (Austen, <i>Emma</i>)
<p>
Celia, now, plays very prettily, and is always ready to play. However, since Casaubon does not like it, you are all right. (Eliot, <i>Middlemarch</i>)<br>
When I was a girl, I was more admired than if I had been so very pretty. However, she's reason to be grateful... (Eliot, <i>Adam Bede</i>)
<p>
Laugh? I should have bust my pants. However, they've fixed things up without that. (Waugh, <i>Scoop</i>)<br>
However, it was cheaper than the Crillon, costing in fact only 17 francs a night. (Waugh, <i>Decline and Fall</i>)<p>
However, a problem presented itself at once. (Hitchens, <i>The Trial of Henry Kissinger</i>)
However, let us not repine. (Hitchens, <i>Letters to a Young Contrarian</i>)<p>
I'll leave you to find examples in Matthew Parris - or, of course, in any modern writer.<p>
Oh, and we mustn''t forget this one - one of several tracked down by the <i>Independent</i> journalist: <p>
However, I was nudged out of my reverie by the reminder that it was indeed possible to send something through the post on Tuesday and be sure it arrived on Wednesday. (Gove, 2008)
<p>
It's linguistic hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do. It's usually not difficult to show how pedants use the very constructions they condemn, and normally one can quickly see through the hypocrisy and disregard them with impunity. But it's difficult when you're being paid by a pedant with political power. I pity the poor civil servants who have to waste their time (and taxpayers' money) trying to implement such unreal and eccentric prescriptions.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-48557512176869227752015-06-10T09:49:00.000+00:002015-06-17T11:51:33.328+00:00On becoming a language teacherThe National College for Teaching and Leadership, part of the Department for Education, have just sent me an informative briefing document about their latest campaign to attract high-quality graduates into the language-teaching profession. It included several points I didn't know, and made me feel more optimistic than I was before about the future of modern language teaching in the UK. Some extracts...<p>
The Initial Teacher Training census from 2014 showed that 73 percent of language teacher trainees had a 2.1 degree or better; 20 percent had firsts. It seems to be a myth that only low achievers go in for language teaching. And the numbers are more than I thought: over 1100 postgraduate trainees were recruited last year. The NCTL say they are keen to recruit both new graduates and experienced industry professionals who are looking for a fresh challenge and may be open to a career change. And - another thing I didn't know - they say that if trainees specialise in teaching languages at secondary level, they could qualify for a tax-free bursary of up to £25,000 while training. There's more information about the training options <a href="https:getintoteaching.education.gov.uk"> here</a>. <p>
Their document mentions in passing that the number of children taking a language GCSE in 2014 was almost a fifth higher than in 2012. Several leading organizations, such as the British Academy and ALL (the Association for Language Learning), have over the past few years been emphasizing the importance of multilingualism. Is the message at last getting across, that learning a foreign language puts you in a really strong position in an increasingly competitive marketing world? I really hope so.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-21865302915469608702015-05-13T12:08:00.000+00:002015-05-13T12:08:16.304+00:00On archaeodialectologyTwo dialect stories: one bad news, one good news. <p>
Let me start with the bad. I read in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/17/cash-crisis-threatens-dictionary-of-us-regional-english"> Guardian</a> a little while ago that funding for the <i>Dictionary of American Regional English</i> - DARE, as it's known - is going to dry up this summer, unless something dramatic happens. This splendid project has been going since 1962 - a unique window into the lexical past of the USA. I gave it a double-page spread in my <i>English Language</i> encyclopedia. People have been fascinated by what it has already uncovered. Dialect words and idioms have universal appeal. <p>
It would be tragic if the ongoing systematic recording of current US dialect change were to cease. People might not notice DARE's disappearance now. But in one or two generation's time, when people ask 'how was it in those days?', as they will, they will feel the loss keenly. For nobody will know. Like undocumented endangered languages, when dialect words die, if they've never been audio-recorded or written down, it is as if they have never been.<p>
Dialect surveys are not that expensive, by contemporary standards. DARE's annual budget is $525,000 - tiny, compared with, say, the billion-dollar-plus daily profits of the world's oil companies. So I very much hope that funding will come from somewhere to safeguard the project. I don't want DARE to end up a distant memory, known only to archaeodialectologists.<p>
This is my term for the study of past dialects through the systematic analysis of their material remains. I adapt the definition from the one given by my archaeology contributor to <i>The Cambridge Encyclopedia</i>, and - as with that subject - it explores not just old artefacts (linguistic, in this case), but the people, places, and methods used in the past to discover them. My own exercise in archaeodialectology is out this month, so for me that's the good news. It's called <i>The Disappearing Dictionary</i>, published by Macmillan, and it's an anthology of some of the words recorded by Joseph Wright in his amazing six-volume <i>English Dialect Dictionary</i>, published between 1898 and 1905. You can find more information about the book <a href="http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/davidcrystal/thedisappearingdictionary"> here</a>.<p>
Wright's dictionary, and the story behind it, has been forgotten by all but a few dialect specialists, which is a shame, as it's a treasure-trove of fascinating words and phrases. I tweeted last night that I was 'mortaciously betwittered' by the Waterstone's display of Crystalia in Gower Street, and I now see my message being retweeted and favourited all over the place. Mortacious - extremely, exceedingly. Do you know it? It was recorded by Wright in Cheshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex, but I bet it had wider usage. Is it still being used anywhere, I wonder? The associated Macmillan website will give people the chance to say, when it's launched in a week or so. But already it seems to be obtaining a new lease of life. 'Mortaciously is now my favourite word', tweeted one. That's capadocious, I say (Devon, Yorkshire).
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-68812746344925533162015-04-24T15:08:00.000+00:002015-04-24T15:08:08.473+00:00On cups and mugsI wake up from a period of bard-hibernation to find a fascinating debate going on in social media about the distinction between <i>cup</i> and <i>mug</i>. It was started by Heinz, who used the word <i>cup</i> in its product name <i>Heinz Cup Soup</i>, and then cleverly got a PR campaign going by asking the question 'did we give it the wrong name?' A large survey of UK opinion showed that there is indeed a great deal of mixed usage. I wasn't surprised. Fuzzy boundaries between lexical items have a long history of study in linguistics. I have two examples in my <i>Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language</i> - one about the definition of chair (in the Semantics chapter) and the other about the distinction between a cup and a glass (in the Semantic Development chapter). The PR company asked me for a comment about the sociolinguistic history of the two terms, and this is what I wrote.<p>
In the beginning, there was only the cup. The Anglo-Saxon word was <i>cuppe</i>, a borrowed word from Latin <i>cuppa</i>, which entered many European languages (such as Spanish <i>copa</i> and French <i>coupe</i>). The original meaning was simply a drinking-vessel.
<p>
The form of the vessel developed in two directions: without a stem (as in the modern tea-cup) and with a stem and foot (as in a wine-cup or chalice, sometimes with a cover), reflecting an increasing diversity of functions. It first developed a strong religious connotation in Christianity, being used in the sense of 'chalice' in Wyclifffe's translation of the Bible (14th century), later in the Book of Common Prayer (16th century), and thus into modern usage (eg as <i>communion cup</i>). In the 17th century it also developed an ornamental sense, being used as a prize in a contest - initially, in horse-racing (the Doncaster Cup), which is the commonest modern application.
<p>
<i>Cup</i> then developed a very wide range of senses, in which its shape was applied to any rounded cavity, such as in plants (an acorn-cup), human anatomy (the cup of the hip-bone), golf (a depression in the ground), and clothing (in bras). The linguistic result was the formation of many compound words, such as <i>cup-holder</i>, <i>cup-final</i>, and <i>cup-cake</i>. Colloquially, it became a replacement for the liquid a cup might contain, as in <i>cuppa</i> (cup of tea) and to <i>drink a cup</i> (Auld Lang Syne), and that in turn led to further everyday usage. 'That's not my cup of tea.' 'He's in his cups.' It even generated a proverb: 'There's many a slip between cup and lip'.<p>
The history of <i>mug</i> is totally different. The word arrived in English much later, in the Middle Ages. Nobody is quite sure where it came from. There are similar-sounding words in German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages, all referring to some sort of open can or jug. It may be an adaptation of a Latin word for a measuring vessel (<i>modius</i>), because the notion of measurement is found in the earliest recorded use of <i>mug</i> in English in 1400.
<p>
From the outset it seemed to be used more to refer to the physical object than to the content it might contain. It comes to be used with such adjectives as <i>large</i> and <i>half-pint</i>, and with words that describe its material, such as <i>silver</i> or <i>stone</i>. The fashion for ornamental and collectible mugs also drew attention to the mug as a physical object. We are also much more likely to find the word <i>mug</i> used in relation to a location - a steaming mug of tea was left 'on the bench', 'by the fire'... Cups weren't so often 'located' in this way.
<p>
The early use of <i>mug</i> was mainly in regional dialects, and especially in Scotland, for any earthenware bowl or pot. It began to be used routinely for a drinking vessel in the 17th century, and gradually came to be distinguished from the tapering cup by its cylindrical shape and larger size. But it was the social activity that led to the main difference between the two.
<p>
In the 18th century, the taking of tea became a mark of high society. The word <i>tea-cup</i> arrives in the language (earliest recorded usage in 1700). Saucers joined cups as the norm (to ensure that any spillage was contained). Mugs then became associated with lower-class activities, where spilling didn't matter so much, and where the larger size reflected the thirstiness of the drinker - always assumed to be a manual worker. Early examples of <i>mug</i> are almost all to do with beer. Mugs of tea were drunk by people who were either blue-collar workers or - later - those who wanted to be thought of as down-to-earth, ordinary types. These connotations remain today.
<p>
As the taking of tea became less class-conscious, and a more informal occasion, it led to the shortened form <i>cuppa</i> in British regional English. There seems to have been a need to get away from the formality of 'high tea'. By contrast, there is no word <i>mugga</i> in English - presumably because <i>mug</i> was always felt to be associated with less formal settings.
<p>
The usage of the two words now differs greatly, reflecting their different social history. When people talk of <i>cups</i>, they're more likely to be thinking of the contents rather than the object. One <i>sips</i> a cup of tea, one <i>pours</i> a cup of tea, one talks about a <i>lovely cup of coffee</i>, a <i>perfect cup of tea</i>. The cup is associated with drinking as a social event: one <i>offers</i> someone a cup of coffee, and people <i>enjoy</i> a cup of tea together. It marks the passing of time: we talk about an <i>early morning cup of tea</i>, my <i>third cup of coffee</i>. Try replacing the word <i>cup</i> with <i>mug</i> in these examples, and you can sense the difference. <i>Mug</i> is actually very rare in these circumstances: in an interesting study of the 650-million-word Bank of English corpus, carried out in 2009 by Brett Laybutt, <i>cup of tea</i> was found to be fifteen times more common than <i>mug of tea</i>. (There were also, incidentally, many examples of <i>cup of soup</i>, but none of <i>mug of soup</i>.)
<p>
Some results of the Heinz survey reinforce these historical trends. <i>Cup</i> generates more diverse forms and functions than <i>mug</i>. The informants use <i>cup</i> for purposes other than for tea/coffee/soup far more than for <i>mug</i> (in aggregate, 1952 vs 1440). They don't differentiate much between <i>cup</i> and <i>mug</i> when it comes to tea/coffee, but there's a huge difference when it comes to soup, with 1093 opting for <i>mug</i> vs 344 for <i>cup</i>. This, along with a clear preference for <i>eating</i> vs <i>drinking</i> soup (three out of four people prefer the former - a trend that is most noticeable in the north-east), suggests a strong linguistic expectation that <i>eat</i> and <i>mug</i> will go together, when it comes to soup, so that the collocation <i>Heinz Cup Soup</i> immediately stands out as a departure from the norm.
<p>
When people were shown pictures and asked to name them, most opted for simply <i>cup</i> or <i>mug</i>. But those who gave a longer description were nearly four times more likely to go for <i>tea/coffee cup</i> (95 instances) than <i>tea/coffee mug</i> (26 instances). There's little sign of significant regional difference any more, but a trend is very noticeable with reference to age: the younger you are, the more you're likely to use <i>cup</i> with diverse functions. For example, less than 4% of age 55+ use <i>cup</i> as a toothbrush holder, whereas 30% of age 18-24 do. Similarly, only 2% of age 55+ use <i>cup</i> to wash paintbrushes, whereas almost 18% of age 18-24 do. By contrast, there's no such noticeable difference across age for the uses of <i>mug</i>. For older people, the distinction in relation to soup is irrelevant. The older you are, the more likely you are to take your soup in a <i>bowl</i>.
<p>
And, as a footnote: When the Japanese wanted a word to name a drinking vessel that was neither a mug nor a cup, they borrowed both words from English, put them together, and came up with <i>magukappu</i>.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-61927544582158986902015-02-20T17:40:00.001+00:002015-02-20T17:40:55.483+00:00On bard-induced bloglessnessA few correspondents have asked what has happened to my blog, as there have been no posts for a while. The answer is simple, and consists of two words: Shakespeare dictionaries.
<p>
It was rather unkind of Shakespeare to have two anniversaries in such close proximity: the 450th of the birth in 2014 and the 400th of the death in 2016. The result was an astronomical growth in the Shakespeare industry, with publishers vying to get their books out in good time. The interest will disappear on 24 April next year, I imagine - until the next big anniversary comes along (2023, the First Folio).
<p>
I was caught up in this flurry, and still am, having accepted commissions for two new dictionaries. The first is almost out: an Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary for schools, co-written with Ben Crystal and stunningly illustrated by Kate Bellamy, published by OUP next month. This contains some 4000 of the words students find difficult, taken from the 12 most popular plays studied in schools. We've devised some new thesaural features for it and spent a lot of time creating contextual explanations, adding theatre notes, and the like. It's been a lot of fun.
<p>
And later in the year, I will say that the second dictionary was a lot of fun - but not right now, while I'm still slogging through it. This is going to be the Oxford Dictionary of Shakespearean Pronunciation (also OUP) - a response to the extraordinary demand for OP materials that has emerged over the past couple of years. At least three plays are being performed in OP this year - <i>Pericles</i> (just happened in Stockholm, performed by Ben's Shakespeare Ensemble), <i>The Merchant of Venice</i> in Baltimore in March at the Shakespeare Factory, and <i>Henry 5</i> at the Globe in July (Ben's Ensemble again). I've had hints of other productions from correspondents. And everyone is clamouring for help, in the form of recordings or transcriptions. The aim of the OP Dictionary is to enable people to cope with OPs for themselves. It will contain every word in the First Folio, along with the evidence from spellings and rhymes, so that people can see how I arrived at my recommendations. It's been a project that, on and off, I've been engaged in for the past ten years, but the last year has seen it come to the boil.
<p>
And when dictionaries approach boiling point, everything else that is optional stops. Dictionary compilation (and, I recall, encyclopedia compilation) is unlike any other kind of writing, as you are in the hands of an impassive and uncaring force: the alphabet. With an 'ordinary' book, the author is in control. I can choose how much to include or exclude. With a dictionary, you have to reach letter Z before you are done, and leave nothing out. If the aim is to include all words in the First Folio, then that is an absolute: no tolerances are possible. So, as one slogs through the big letters - C, P, and the gigantic S... - there is no time or energy available for luxuries such as blog posting. It would perhaps be different if I were blogging casually, on everyday topics. But my blog has always been a reactive one, responding to linguistic questions that I am sent. I choose topics where the answers are not already easily available online or in the literature, and so the posts are mini-research projects, with some taking many hours to write. That luxury disappeared towards the end of last year - in the middle of letter S, as I remember.
<p>
All being well, I hope to finish the OP Dictionary around Easter-time, and expect to resume posting then. In the meantime, for those who noticed my bloglessness, thank you for asking.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-60824354986546310382014-10-09T09:39:00.000+00:002014-10-09T09:39:51.475+00:00On saying potato<i>You Say Potato</i> is out today.<p>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oQXCvBuq46Y/VDZVhDcK5WI/AAAAAAAAABs/1v81Rk3w8KE/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oQXCvBuq46Y/VDZVhDcK5WI/AAAAAAAAABs/1v81Rk3w8KE/s320/Unknown.jpeg" /></a><p>
The associated 'record your accent' survey is gathering pace, with over a hundred recordings up already at <a href="http://yousaypotato.net">this website</a>. My idea is to collect as many versions of the way people say a single word ('potato') as possible, on a worldwide scale, so that we can hear the subtle gradations that occur from place to place, and of course even within a place.<p>
My thanks especially to Stephen Fry, Michael Rosen, John Humphrys, Benjamin Zephaniah, Nicholas Parsons, Brian May, and Pam Ayres, who were among the first to let me know how they say potato - often with some unexpected additional remarks!DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377709913595182916.post-49161964704459346942014-09-26T09:29:00.000+00:002014-09-26T09:29:51.312+00:00On word-cloud calligramsMy correspondent this time is Nicola Burton of Oxford University Press, who's been looking after the publicity for my recently published <i>Words in Time and Place</i>, and who has come up with a novel way of presenting the word-clusters in the book. She's taken the word-cloud motif on the cover - all the words for <i>nose</i> formed into the shape of a nose (with more than a passing resemblance to my own hooter) - and extended it to the other thematic categories covered by the book. You can see them <a href="http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/09/historical-synonyms-word-clouds">here</a>, but this is an example, using the words covered in the category 'terms of endearment'. <p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XiF8fhVSaDI/VCUxXTDkIuI/AAAAAAAAABc/-UAhd5vO3WQ/s1600/ODO_WordClouds_Sep14_2-Endearment-566x736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XiF8fhVSaDI/VCUxXTDkIuI/AAAAAAAAABc/-UAhd5vO3WQ/s320/ODO_WordClouds_Sep14_2-Endearment-566x736.jpg" /></a></div>
I've been wondering what to call them. They clearly fall into a tradition of visual poetry, sometimes called 'altar poems' (after the poem by George Herbert), and they are the hallmark of concrete poetry. But the practice of making words or sentences visually resemble entities in the real world goes well beyond poetry. Lewis Carroll's famous mouse-tail is an example. The term that is most obviously applicable is <i>calligram</i> - from calligraphy. I have examples in my <i>Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language</i> of some of Apollinaire's. But word-cloud calligrams are so distinctive that I think they deserve a term of their own. Any suggestions?<p>
Since the OUP blog post went up (yesterday), the calligrams have entered social media, and have been significantly retweeted. I sense a new art-form here. My book was commissioned to provide a general introduction to the enormous <i> Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary</i>, and <i>any</i> semantic category of that work, large or small, could receive this treatment - and there are tens of thousands available. They can all be accessed through the <i>OED</i> online site, where there's a button allowing any word to be related to its location in the <i>HTOED</i> lists. Concrete words like <i>nose</i> or <i>lavatory</i> are likely to be relatively straightforward to handle (though they still need artistic ingenuity to be appealing). It'll be the abstract words that present the real challenge. But seeing as Nicola managed effectively to deal with <i>death</i> and <i>endearment</i>, I doubt whethere any word will be beyond the reach of the new generation of word-cloud calligrammers.
DChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192779827863835310noreply@blogger.com11