Sunday, January 30, 2011

Language Barriers

How the Chinese stayed put in Italy

About a century or two ago, the Pope decided that all the Chinese had to leave Italy . Naturally there was a big uproar from the Chinese community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate with a member of the Chinese community. If the Chinese win, they could stay. If the Pope wins, the Chinese would have to leave.
The Chinese realized that they had no other choice. So they picked an old man named Ah Pek to represent them. 
 As Ah Pek was not conversant in Italian language, he asked for one condition to be added to the debate.
'To be fair', he said, 'neither side would be allowed to talk'.

The Pope agreed.
On the day of the big debate, Ah Pek and the Pope sat opposite each other for a full minute.
Then the Pope raised his hand and showed
three fingers.
Ah Pek looked back at him and raised
one finger.

The Pope waved his fingers in a circle around his head.
Ah Pek pointed to the ground at where he sat.

The Pope pulled out a loaf and a glass of wine.
Ah Pek pulled out an apple.

The Pope stood up and said: 'I give up. This man is too good in religious knowledge. The Chinese can stay.'
An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what happened.
The Pope said, 'First I held up three fingers to represent the holy trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there was still one God common to both our religions.
Then I waved my finger around me to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground and showing that God was also right here with us.
I pulled out the wine and loaf to show that God absolves all sin. He showed me an apple to remind us of the original sin.

He had an answer
for everything. What could I do??'

Meanwhile, the Chinese community also crowded around Ah Pek and asked him what's happened in the debate.
'Well', said Ah Pek. 'First he indicated to me that all Chinese had 3 days to get out of here. I raised my third finger and asked him to f*** off, and that none of us was leaving.
Then he pointed that this whole city would be cleared of Chinese. I showed him that we are staying right here.'
Yes? And then, asked the crowd

'I don't know', said Ah Pek, 'He took out his lunch, and I took out mine.'

"Up, up, up!"

Most Used Shortest Word in English

What is the world UP TO ????
 
Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language.  Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)  
 
There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'
 
It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
 

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
 
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
 
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is choked UP.
 
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
 
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes  UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add  UP to about thirty definitions
 
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
 
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
 
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now........ my time is UP, so time to shut UP
 
Oh...one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U    P
 
Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book.  
 
Now, I'll shut UP.

British English vs. Malaysian English

British English vs. Malaysian English

Who says our English is teruk? Just read below - Ours is simple, short, concise, straight-to-the-point, effective etc.


WHEN GIVING A CUSTOMER BAD NEWS
Britons: I'm sorry, sir, but we don't seem to have the sweater you want in your size, but if you give me a moment, I can call the other outlets for you.

Malaysians: No stock.


RETURNING A CALLBritons: Hello, this is John Smith. Did anyone call for me a few moments ago?

Malaysians: Hello, who call?


ASKING SOMEONE TO MAKE WAYBritons: Excuse me, I would like to get by.. Would you please make way?

Malaysians: S-kew me.


WHEN SOMEONE OFFERS TO PAY Britons: Hey! Put your wallet away, this drink is on me.

Malaysians: No need lah.


WHEN ASKING FOR PERMISSIONBritons: Excuse me, but do you think it would be possible for me to enter through this door?

Malaysians: (pointing at the door) Can ah?


WHEN ENTERTAININGBritons: Please make yourself right at home.

Malaysians: No need shy shy one lah!


WHEN DOUBTING SOMEONE Britons: I don't recall you giving me the money.

Malaysians: Where got?


WHEN DECLINING AN OFFERBritons: I would prefer not to do that, if you don't mind.

Malaysians: Don't want lah.


IN DISAGREEING ON A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION
Britons: Err...Tom, I have to stop you there. I understand where you're coming from, but I really have to disagree with what you said about the issue.

Malaysians: You mad ah?


WHEN ASKING SOMEONE TO LOWER THEIR VOICE.Britons: Excuse me, but could you please lower your voice? I'm trying to concentrate over here.

Malaysians: Shut up lah!


WHEN ASKING SOMEONE IF HE/SHE KNOWS YOU..
Britons: Excuse me, but I noticed you staring at me for sometime. Do I know you?

Malaysians: See what, see what?


WHEN ASSESSING A TIGHT SITUATION.
Britons: We seem to be in a bit of a predicament at the moment..

Malaysians: Die lah!!


WHEN TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED
Britons: Will someone tell me what has just happened?

Malaysians: What happened ah?    or    Why like that one lah?


WHEN SOMEONE DID SOMETHING WRONG
Britons: This isn't the way to do it. Here, let me show you.

Malaysians: Like that also don't know how to do!


WHEN ONE IS ANGRYBritons: Would you mind not disturbing me?

Malaysians: Celaka you!

Fractured English

To get the full effect, this should be read aloud. You will understand what
'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation. This has been
nominated for the best email of 2005.
The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and
room-service,at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East
Economic Review:

Room Service (RS): "Morrin. Roon sirbees."


Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service."


RS: "Rye..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??"

G: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs."


RS: "Ow July den?"

G: "What??"

RS: "Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?"

G : "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them?
Sorry, scrambled please."

RS: "Ow July dee baykem? Crease?"

G: "Crisp will be fine."

RS : "Hokay. An Sahn toes?"

G: "What?"

RS:"An toes. July Sahn toes?"

G: "I don't think so."

RS: "No? Judo wan sahn toes??"

G: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo wan sahn toes'
means."

RS: "Toes! toes!...Why jew don juan toes? Ow bow Anglish moppin we bodder?"

G: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an
English muffin will be fine."

RS: "We bodder?"

G: "No...just put the bodder on the side."

RS: "Wad?"

G: "I mean butter...just put it on the side."

RS: "Copy?"

G: "Excuse me?"

RS: "Copy...tea...meel?"

G: "Yes. Coffee, please, and that's all."

RS: "One Minnie. Scramah egg, crease baykem, Anglish moppin we bodder on sigh and copy....rye??"

G: "Whatever you say."

RS: "Tenjewberrymuds."

G : "You're very welcome."

The Art of Political Correctness

Politically Correct Dictionary This dictionary will keep you out of trouble. Actor: metamorphosing being, possessing great wealth

Actress: metamorphosing being, possessing great wealth (and occasionally great beauty)

Android: bipedal, non-human associate, bearing immense knowledge and skill

Bag boy: agricultural product organizer

Bald: follicularly challenged

Bomb: vertically deployed antipersonnel device

Boy: oppressor-to-be

Brainwashing: cognitive accommodation

Cafeteria: dining facility

Car: earth-unfriendly, vertically-challenged mode of transport

Car Wash Worker: vehicle-appearance specialist

Cat: quadruped non-human associate

Cheating: cooperative assignment

Computer: machine bearing immense power and fallibility

Criticism: unjust self-esteem reducer

Dead: metabolically challenged

Demand: propose strongly

Derision: nontraditional praise

Dirty Old Man: sexually focused, chronologically gifted individual

Dumb: cerebrally challenged

Evil: niceness deprived

Exercise: body enhancement through exertion

Failure: non-traditional success

Fart: human ozone depletor; ecologically incorrect expression

Fat: horizontally challenged: person of substance

Garbage collector: sanitation engineer

Gas Station Attendant: petroleum transfer technician

Girl: pre-woman

Guess: anomaly maneuvers: repetitive predictions

Handicapped: physically challenged

Heroine: hera

Homeless person: residentially flexible individual

Hurricane: himmicane (non sexist)

Ignorant: factually unencumbered

Incorrect: alternative answer

Individualism: uncooperative spirit

Information: overly structured trivia

Insane: reality challenged

Kill: creating a permanent state of metabolic dormancy; servicing the target (military)

Lazy: motivationally dispossessed

Lost: locationally disadvantaged

Man: oppressor

Manhole: maintenance portal

Misunderstand: personalized interpretation

Monster: person of scales

Mugging: unforeseen funding of underclass

Murderer: termination specialist

Nerd: under-attractive, cerebrally gifted individual

Numismatist: capitalist monetary acquisition expert

Nut: hexagonal rotatable surface compression unit

Off: energy efficient

Old: chronologically gifted

Perfume: discretionary fragrance

Pervert: person engaged in nontraditional espionage

Pissed off: satisfaction deprived

Political: amorally gifted

Poor: economically marginalized

Prisoner: client of the correctional system

Prostitute: body entrepreneur

Redneck: rustically inclined

Rich: economically maximized

Secretary: stationery engineer

Sex: cooperative physical fitness

Sexist: gender biased with niceness deprived overtones

Short: altitudinally disadvantaged: vertically challenged

Sleepy: under-alert

Smart: cerebrally gifted

Specialist: physician having concentrated on a particular field of tax shelters

Structure: impersonal hindrance

Tall: vertically gifted: altitudinally endowed

Teacher: volunteer knowledge conveyor

Teaching: personality repression

Television: medium of electrons moving in disorganized patterns

Tired: rest-challenged

Uglier: over under-attractive

Ugliest: over-under-attractively gifted

Ugly: under-attractive

Unemployed: non-waged

Unsure: conceptual conflict

Waiter: waitron

Waitress: waitron

White: melanin-impoverished; member of the mutant albino genetic-recessive global minority

Woman: w/o man; womyn

Zipper: interlocking slide fasteners





Source: http://www.funny2.com/dictionary.htm

Alay - 5ay wH4+!?

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

Is Alay your ally?

Posted by Beth Penfold on January 20, 2011 



Alay is a way of writing that allows you to use capital letters and numbers wherever you jolly well like in a word and it’s currently trending on Twitter. Alay started in Indonesia in about 2004; it seems that it has provided a root for a phenomenon that pervades many areas of popular culture, such as fashion and music. The main aim of Alay culture seems to be narcissism. It’s all about getting noticed and that includes what you write.

There is also an ‘I hate Alay’ website, which, to me, shows the influence of this social medium – it is obviously engaging people, whether negatively or positively. I quite like the Alay way of writing: it’s funky and useful because it allows me to stress parts of different words and it is another method of enriching the nuances of any digital message I might send, rather like an emoticon would. However, I’ve also seen passages of Alay that are so altered that they are almost indecipherable and that is not so helpful. So WH4t dO y00 th1NK?

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/is-alay-your-ally

Saturday, January 29, 2011

"Literally, literally, literally"

Compilation of Rachel Zoe Literally Repeating Herself



The Singaporian Weird Al Yankovic

A Singaporian Parody of the Black Eyed Peas' hit song, "I got a Feeling", from the Mr Brown Show:

the mrbrown show: i got a fewling MUSIC VIDEO




Join us and sing with fewling!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Email Sign-Offs

Following my earlier post on adressing messages, this post is detailed on the signing-offs in an email.

In France, when signing off a formal letter, courteous, set phrases are always used and to and English speaker, appears quite flowerly. eg. Je vous prie de croire, Monsieur, à l’assurance de mes salutations distinguées (I beg you to believe Sir my most distinguished salutations).



‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations


CHAD TROUTWINE, an entrepreneur in Malibu, Calif., was negotiating a commercial lease earlier this year for a building he owns in the Midwest. Though talks began well, they soon grew rocky. The telltale sign that things had truly devolved? The sign-offs on the e-mail exchanges with his prospective tenant.
 
The sign-off of an e-mail message can be a land mine involving the subtleties of relationships and hierarchies. Richard Kirshenbaum, above, responds "Warmly, RK."
 
"Chat Soon," - Kim Bondy
"All the best," - Chad Troutwine

“As negotiations started to break down, the sign-offs started to get decidedly shorter and cooler,” Mr. Troutwine recalled. “In the beginning it was like, ‘I look forward to speaking with you soon’ and ‘Warmest regards,’ and by the end it was just ‘Best.’ ” The deal was eventually completed, but Mr. Troutwine still felt as if he had been snubbed.

What’s in an e-mail sign-off? A lot, apparently. Those final few words above your name are where relationships and hierarchies are established, and where what is written in the body of the message can be clarified or undermined. In the days before electronic communication, the formalities of a letter, either business or personal, were taught to every third-grader; sign-offs — from “Sincerely” to “Yours truly” to “Love” — came to mind without much effort.

But e-mail is a casual medium, and its conventions are scarcely a decade old. They are still evolving, often awkwardly. It is common for business messages to appear entirely in lower case, and many rapid-fire correspondences evolve from formal to intimate in a few back-and-forths.

Although salutations that begin messages can be tricky — there is a world of difference, it seems, between a “Hi,” a “Hello” and a “Dear” — the sign-off is the place where many writers attempt to express themselves, even when expressing personality, as in business correspondence, is not always welcome.

In other words, it is a land mine. Etiquette and communications experts agree that it is becoming increasingly difficult to say goodbye.

“So many people are not clear communicators,” said Judith Kallos, creator of NetManners.com, a site dedicated to online etiquette, and author of “Because Netiquette Matters.” To be clear about what an e-mail message is trying to say, and about what is implied as well as what is stated, “the reader is left looking at everything from the greeting to the closing for clues,” she said.

Mr. Troutwine is not alone in thinking that an e-mail sender who writes “Best,” then a name, is offering something close to a brush-off. He said he chooses his own business sign-offs in a descending order of cordiality, from “Warmest regards” to “All the best” to a curt “Sincerely.”

When Kim Bondy, a former CNN executive, e-mailed a suitor after a dinner date, she used one of her preferred closings: “Chat soon.” It was her way of saying, “The date went well, let’s do it again,” she said.
She may have been the only one who thought that. The return message closed with the dreaded “Best.” It left her feeling as though she had misread the evening. “I felt like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of formal. I don’t think he liked me,’ ” she said, laughing. “A chill came with the ‘Best.’ ” They have not gone out since.

“Best” does have its fans, especially in the workplace, where it can be an all-purpose step up in warmth from messages that end with no sign-off at all, just the sender coolly appending his or her name.

“I use ‘Best’ for all of my professional e-mails,” said Kelly Brady, a perky publicist in New York. “It’s friendly, quick and to the point.”

Because people read so much into a sign-off, said Richard Kirshenbaum, chief creative officer of the advertising firm Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, he has thought deeply about his preferred closing to professional correspondence, “Warmly, RK.” He did not want something too emotional, like “Love,” or too formal, like “Sincerely.” “ ‘Warmly’ fell comfortably in between,” he said. “I want to convey a sense of warmth and passion, but also be appropriate.”

Which is just what a professional e-mail message should be, many executives say. Surprisingly, the sign-off “xoxo,” offering hugs and kisses, has become common even for those in decidedly nonamorous relationships. Ms. Bondy, who received from 300 to 500 e-mail messages a day while at CNN, was no fan of the “xoxo” farewell, especially when it came from a stranger pitching a story idea. “They’re trying to be warm and familiar when they shouldn’t be,” she said. “It’s inappropriate, and that’s probably the e-mail I’m not going to return.”

Robert Verdi, a fashion stylist and a host of “Surprise by Design,” a makeover reality show on the Discovery Channel, is a self-described “xoxo offender.” “Never in the first or second communication,” he clarified. But after a few friendly phone conversations or e-mail exchanges, he feels comfortable with the affectionate and casual sign-off, though he generally waits for the other party to make the first move. “The other person gives you the cues,” he said. “They send a ‘You’re the best! Love, Alison,’ and you send a ‘Hugs and kisses’ and all of a sudden you’re over that awkward hump and you’re best friends.”
 
 Ms. Kallos said Mr. Verdi’s approach is the correct one. “In business you want to maintain the highest level of formality until the other person indicates otherwise,” she said. “Mirroring isn’t a bad thing to do. You’re letting the other side set the level of familiarity.”

It is also important that the closing is in keeping with the spirit of the message or it may create some sort of cognitive dissonance, said Mary Mitchell, the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette.” “If you’re complaining to a company about a product and you sign off with ‘Warmly,’ you are miscommunicating,” she said.

Many e-mail users don’t bother with a sign-off, and Letitia Baldridge, the manners expert, finds that annoying. “It’s so abrupt,” she said, “and it’s very unfriendly. We need grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace. We should try and be warm and friendly.”

But it is important not to have too much fun with sign-offs, Ms. Baldridge cautioned, before recalling a closing from a man in his early 20s that read, “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” It was “so pedestrian and boring and such an unattractive image to leave with people,” she said. “You want to leave an attractive warm image. Bedbugs are disgusting.”

Not to mention they prove a point Ms. Mitchell makes about e-mail correspondence. “While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write,” she said, “on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/fashion/26email.html

The Language of Diplomacy

From the Economist Johnson Blog:


The language of diplomacy

Jan 27th 2011, 10:06 by Bagehot

WHAT has happened to the language of diplomacy? It is reported in London that William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, has been shocked by the poor spelling and jargon-infested English he finds in notes from his diplomats. Conservative commentators, such as Charles Moore of the Spectator, detect a broader slippage of good manners and education across the civil service. That may be so—Mr Moore, an unusually polite man by the standards of his trade—is shocked to learn that Labour ministers rarely sent letters of thanks after official visits, leaving younger civil servants at a loss when asked to draft such notes for their new, Conservative bosses.

Friends of mine inside the Foreign Office concur with this gloomy assessment of their youngest colleagues, who—though bright and often expensively educated—struggle to write English with clarity, let alone flair.
I wonder if blaming the juniors is entirely fair. My experience is that even rather grand figures in the world of foreign policy have been steeped in jargon and human resources gibberish for ages. I was recently at a private meeting for diplomats and foreign policy types (I had better not say where). It was a festival of what one ambassador I know calls "bullshit bingo", with certain buzzwords coming up again and again.

The worst? "Going forward" has infected the world of diplomacy just as thoroughly as the world of business, as has talk of "stakeholders". I am alarmed at the rise and rise of "piece", as in "when it comes to the trans-Atlantic relationship, we need to focus on the energy piece, and not just the strategic piece." For that matter, "strategic" now seems to mean little more than "important". I am told that "granular" is increasingly popular, and means the opposite of "big picture".

I have yet to recover, though, from a comment made about a recent international summit. It was, we were told, marked by few "benchmarkable deliverables."

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/01/foreign_policy_english


Note: Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language - Don Watson, is a good read. Buzzwords in the corporate world also include: commitment, enhance, flexibility, in terms of, outcome

Australian English Slang: Originality - Pt.3

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

Australian English slang – part three: originality

Posted by Susan Butler on September 27, 2010 


From origin to originality … In the first two blog posts about Australian English slang, author Susan Butler explored the roots and British English influences of Aussie slang. In this final part, she answers the question: ‘What makes Australian slang special and original?’. Susan Butler is Publisher of the Macquarie Book of Slang (Revised Edition 2000).
________

Australian English’s special areas of creativity would seem to be sport, in particular Aussie Rules, e.g. boundary rider, desperation football, fresh air shot, mongrel kick, rainmaker. From sport it is a short distance to politics where older colloquialisms like dorothy dixer and donkey vote have now become standard terms. Others are: duchess (to treat as if a duchess, lavish largesse on), free kick (transfer from the football use to mean ‘an easy opportunity to score off the opposition’), rort (as in ‘rorting or stacking the branches’).

Australian slang in popular belief is recognised for two attributes, the first being its black humour and pervasive irony, its constant downplaying of events and downsizing of people. The second is its reportedly huge range and vast lexicon.

The black humour comes from its colonial origins where grim humour was a strategy for coping with grim situations. It is particularly evident in phrases allowing for an allusive surprise such as the following found at the headword useful in the Macquarie Book of Slang:
useful as …
a bucket under a bull
a dead dingo’s donger
a dry thunderstorm
a glass door on a dunny
an arsehole on a broom
an ashtray on a motorbike
a piss in a shower
a pocket on a singlet
a roo bar on a skateboard
a sore arse to a boundary rider
a spare dick at a wedding
a submarine with screen doors
a third armpit
a wart on the hip
a wether at a ram sale
a witch’s tit
the bottom half of a mermaid
tits on a bull
two knobs of billy goat poop
The belief that Australians have more slang at their disposal than any other English language community I think springs from the Australian habit of using slang in situations where other cultures would stick to a formal register. This has the effect of making Australian slang more notable and noted. A moment’s reflection on the wealth of American slang would make one query the pre-eminence of Aussie slang. There is no scientific measurement of language varieties in these terms, but it would seem that we are all equally gifted in all the registers of our variety.

There is plenty of evidence in the Macquarie Book of Slang of our reliance on American slang, as for example in such catchphrases as HeLLO with a heavy emphasis on the second syllable, and Don’t go there! as an attempt to avoid an undesirable topic of conversation. But there is still an awful lot of American slang that we don’t touch, because it doesn’t come our way or it seems irrelevant to our circumstances or it just doesn’t take our fancy.

Australia is still building on its heritage with, for example, boundary rider.  In colonial Australia the boundary rider patrolled fences that stretched for hundreds of miles.  Today we have the boundary rider at an Australian Rules Football game – the mediaperson who patrols the sidelines, occasionally reporting to the commentary box.

We borrow, we adapt, we interpret, we bend things to our use. It’s a skill that we should be proud of. It’s probably Australian culture. The end result is still a unique Australian blend and a unique Australian view.

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/australian-english-slang-part-three-originality

Australian English Slang: British Influence - Pt.2

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

Australian English slang – part two: hand-me-downs

Posted by Susan Butler on September 23, 2010 

In the first part of our short series on Australian English slang, author Susan Butler talked about the origins of Aussie slang. In this second part, she explores the influences of colonial British English. Susan Butler is Publisher of the Macquarie Book of Slang (Revised Edition 2000).
___________

It is not surprising that colonial society in Australia remained attuned to the colloquialism of British English throughout the 1800s. London was the centre of Australia’s colonial universe. British English was our model, our aspiration then, as American English is now, at least for the young.

It comes as a bit of a shock to realise that some of the key items of Australian English are hand-me-downs from elsewhere. Iconic terms such as the bush and bushranger are in fact borrowings from American English. And a colloquialism that we think of as being central to our culture – fair dinkum – is in fact a borrowing from British dialect.

The following are some common items in Australian English for which we have to acknowledge our debt to British English. It is true however that in some cases we have made more of these words than the British have done. Some of them are still limited to British dialect, the word chook being a notable case in point. Others have died out of British colloquialism while remaining strong here. Mongrel in the sense of despicable was a colloquialism of the 1700s in British English but is alive and well in Australian English, particularly in the expression a mongrel act.
Some examples of British English hand-me-downs:
bloke
boomer
go for a Burton
chiack
chook
chuffed
have a derry on someone
cobber
dink double
on a bicycle
duffer
(of cattle)
dunny
flummox
a fluke
fossick
a geek
a look
give someone gip
golly
mucus
josh
tease
mollydooker
mullygrubber
nick
steal
nincompoop
ning nong
purler
Rafferty’s rules
a punt
a kick
the rozzers
shivoo
skerrick
skite
slummocky
smidgin
smoodge
sook
sool
little tackers
tiddler
tootsy
waffle
talk at length
wonky
In the final part of the series, I’ll be looking at the creativity so characteristic of Australian slang.

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/australian-english-slang-part-two-hand-me-downs

Australian English Slang: Origins - Pt. 1

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

Australian English slang – part one: origins

Posted by Susan Butler on September 21, 2010 


Australian English month continues with a three-part series on the topic of slang. Guest blog author Susan Butler is Publisher of the Macquarie Book of Slang (Revised Edition 2000). Part one takes a look at the origins of Australian slang.
____________
Australians worry about Australian English as a whole being swamped by American English, but when it comes to our slang that anxiety becomes acute. It is easy to see how our slang is so derivative. Much of it happens first in American English and filters through to us from that society. What happens, happens there first. There’s really not much left for us to do. Except that there is still the experience of being an Australian, of being in this place, in this society, in this culture for which we have to find the right words. It is an Australia heavily influenced by America, but not wholly overrun. We have to own the words we use. Even the hand me downs have to become integrated into discourse that is distinctively Australian.

Our whole history of slang has been a mixture of the derivative and the original. The first record of Australian English was an account of convict language, brought to the colony by the thieves of London and generally referred to as “the Flash Language”. James Hardy Vaux, a convict himself, defined flash as the cant language used by the “family”. To speak good flash is to be well versed in cant terms. Although there is no clear knowledge of the origin of the term flash, the suggestion is that it referred to a specific district between Buxton Leek and Macclesford in northern England.

Here are some examples Vaux records as “Flash Language” which we would be familiar with today:
awake to something aware of what’s going on
old chum/new chum originally referring to fellow prisoners in a jail or hulk
conk nose
do the trick originally referring to a successfully accomplished robbery or other such illegal business
fence receiver of stolen goods
frisk search
gammon deceit, pretence, plausible language
grub food
kid young child, especially a boy who thieves at an early age
lark fun
lush beer or liquor; to drink such liquor
plant to hide or conceal
queer unwell
quod gaol
racket particular kind of fraud
scotty irritable
shake someone down to rob someone
sharp swindler
on the sly secretly
snitch on someone tell on someone
snooze to sleep
square honest, fair, upright
on the square with someone dealing honestly with someone
stake booty acquired by robbery
sting swindle
swag bundle
swell gentleman
toddler small child
tout keeping a lookout for business
turn up trump be fortunate
wack share
spinning a yarn telling a story for amusement
In part two, I’ll be talking about the influence of British English on Australian slang.

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/australian-slang-part-one-origins

Australian English

From English Language @ SFX Blog:


Friday, January 28, 2011
Like being flogged with a warm lettuce

Australian English is often held up as an example of a variety of English that is full of invention and wit, and I'm not going to argue with that because Australians are also very good at insults. We'll get to the insults in a minute, but for invention and wit, how about taking a look at these Macmillan Dictionary blog posts - one, two and three - and this Oxford Dictionaries article. There are some fantastic turns of phrase here, like tight swimming trunks being referred to as budgie smugglers.

Keeping up the theme of tight-fitting garments, the Australian English thong is a particularly dangerous term that gets lost in translation. If I were to get all Sisqo and ask to see you wear that thong-tha-thong-thong-thong, I'd be presented with a flip flop. And rightly so, because in Australian English thong refers to an item of footwear not a cheesewire between the buttocks.

The articles and blog posts above will give you many more excellent examples, including some fantastically rude ones, as well as some fairly obvious abbreviations (beaut, arvo and convo).

Moving on to insults, my colleague Jill (of Australian background herself) has passed on this link to an archive of abuse from the ex-Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, whose way with words puts the tame banter in our own Houses of Parliament to shame.

Source: http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/2011/01/like-being-flogged-with-warm-lettuce.html

Semantic Shifts - Technology

Thursday, January 27, 2011
 
n00bs and netizens

Technology has given us masses of new words, blends and compounds of old ones, as well as complete semantic shifts (cookie, menu, desktop, virus and spam all being good examples of semantic change) and this fun quiz on the Oxford Dictionaries site gives you the chance to test your knowledge of some of the more recent expressions.

It's always handy to have a range of good, recent examples to use in exams when you're talking about language change, so have a look here and make a note.
Source: http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/2011/01/n00bs-and-netizens.html

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Priceless!

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

Priceless!

Posted by Sharon Creese on January 26, 2011 


Some words seem like they’ve been designed specifically to confuse the learner. Take priceless, for instance. Learners could be forgiven for thinking (as I did as a child) that priceless means ‘having no value’. If you can’t put a price on something, that must surely mean that it isn’t worth anything? But, of course, priceless means the opposite of that – something that’s priceless is so valuable that you can’t put a price on it at all: no amount of money would be enough (and that goes for material objects, information or skills, and pure comedy!).

What words confused you as a child, and now confuse your students?

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/priceless

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Hello, hello! - Addressing messages

"WHAT?!"
"What up?"
"What's happ'nin?"
"I'm sorry she's dead. This is her son..." (Kurt Hummel, Glee - Hello 2010)


From the English Language @ SFX Blog:

Dear blog, cheers xxx

Hey...
          ...Hi...
                     ...Yo...
                                 ...Wassup...
                                                   ...Wagwan...
                                                                     ...Hello...
                                                                                   ...Dear ...

Which is the right one to use in an email? This BBC News magazine piece about the correct way to address the recipient of an email is a really good read.

I've always been stuck somewhere between Hi for people I know and Dear for people I don't, but it feels really weird to me to type "Dear such and such" in an email. And while I like hey as a greeting, I feel too old to use it myself.

It's all part of a shift away from purely written forms of communication into the less regulated territories of blended modes, where the "rules", as much as there are ever rules, become less clearly defined.

And as for signing off an email, I've nearly always used cheers in private emails, thanks in more formal ones, but then cheers is described in less than glowing terms by Jean Broke-Smith who says "What is 'cheers'? Clinking a glass? It's an irrelevant word."

Cheers for that.
Source: http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/2011/01/dear-blog-cheers-xxx.html

Australian English - info sheet

This link shows a brief summary of some of the various language varieties that exist in Australia:

 http://www.convictcreations.com/research/languageidentity.html

English Language Oscars 2009

From the American Dialect Society
Word of the decade: Google
Word of the year: Tweet
Most Useful: Fail! (interjection)
Octomom should have won most unnecessary though...
enjoy!

'Login' is not a verb

Even though I is interested in grammar and feel that it is necessary to properly write texts on.
is a fun and very methodical site that disproves the use of "login" as a verb, despite the fact that we (yes, that includes me) use it.

Euphemisms During War

Several years ago there was an expose post US-Iraq war about euphemisms used by the media during the conflict. As a lover of euphemisms (the funny ones) I came across this article. If you click on the title (hyperlink) it goes to the original site. Click "get a new headline" on the picture to generate a new euphemism.
Some of the more amusing ones are:
  • Prisoners experienced improved dental entreatments
  • Prisoners experienced induced aquatic diagnosis
  • Logs show unusual research methods
  • Intensified electromagnetic systems and processes utilised
Reading the NYT's stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions — fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners — without using the word 'torture.' For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all. It turns out the NYT has a reputation for studiously avoiding the word, to the point of using bizarre bureaucratic alternatives.
It must be awfully hard work inventing these things. So I thought I'd help out by putting together a torture euphemism generator that the New York Times' reporters can use to help avoid the T-word in their thumb removal and acid bath coverage.

With All Due Respect...

From the Macmillan English Dictionary Blog:

A double-edged sword

Posted by Sharon Creese on December 22, 2010 
Using set phrases can be a good way for a student to sound more natural and fluent in English, but they can also be something of a double-edged sword.

Consider with all due respect – at first glance, it suggests that you are trying to be respectful, whilst expressing a different opinion, but native speakers know that it can also be used to say the exact opposite. You may be genuinely using it to say:
I respect you as a person, but I’m about to disagree with you
which is fine, but you could also be saying:
I’m pretending to be respectful because you are in a position of authority and I have to, but actually I think you’re a fool. As long as I keep pretending, though, you can’t do anything about it.
The difficulty, of course, lies in the fact that the other person has no way of knowing what you really meant; they might assume it’s the latter, when really it wasn’t. Students could find themselves unexpectedly in the doghouse, simply because they tried to be a bit ambitious in their language choice.

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/a-double-edged-sword

Airline Lingo - Reader's Digest

 From the Reader's Digest:

Airline Lingo
Blue juice: The water in the lavatory toilet. “There’s no blue juice in the lav.”
Crotch watch: The required check to make sure all passengers have their seat belts fastened. Also: “groin scan.”

Crumb crunchers: Kids. “We’ve got a lot of crumb crunchers on this flight.”

Deadheading: When an airline employee flies as a passenger for company business.

Gate lice: The people who gather around the gate right before boarding so they can be first on the plane. “Oh, the gate lice are thick today.”

George: Autopilot. “I’ll let George take over.”

Landing lips: Female passengers put on their “landing lips” when they use their lipstick just before landing.

Pax: Passengers.

Spinners: Passengers who get on late and don’t have a seat assignment, so they spin around looking for a seat.

Two-for-once special: The plane touches down on landing, bounces up, then touches down again.

Working the village: Working in coach.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Fun with Tautologies

I am what I am…

Posted by Sharon Creese on December 13, 2010


You would think that the tautology would be the province of the foreign language student – after all, we native speakers should probably know our own language well enough to be able to avoid them – but that’s not the case.When you start looking for them, you suddenly realise that we’re surrounded by tautologies, and they seem perfectly natural to us, even though, in literal terms, they’re actually quite nonsensical.

I’ll be there when I get there for example – as opposed to magically being there before you arrive? Or advanced warning – there’s no other kind; if your warning isn’t in advance, then it’s pretty much just a news report. How about it is what it is – well, thank goodness for that, I thought it was masquerading as something else! And finally, that favourite of sellers everywhere, the free gift. I don’t know about you, but if it isn’t free, to my mind it isn’t really a gift, it’s just another piece of merchandise, and in which case, I’d rather they stopped trying to palm it off as something special!

Maybe we should all keep an eye out for such tautological silliness.

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/i-am-what-i-am

The subtleties of corporate English

From The Economist blogger Johnson:

The subtleties of corporate English
Dec 8th 2010, 16:56 by G.L. | NEW YORK

MY only excuse for failing to produce any Johnsonia during R.L.G.'s absence last week is that I've been very busy on a new business venture here at The Economist—of which I can say little, except that it involves one hecka lot of meetings. And so I've been more exposed than usual to business English and its peculiar phrases. These could be explained simply as cultural markers of the business tribe, but I suspect each one contains its own subtle cues and subtext; herewith my attempts to speculate on their origins and meaning.


Reach out

Usage: R.L.G. griped about this one a while back, but it's not just PR people who use it. Among the people I work with, at least, "I'll reach out to Joe" seems to have almost entirely replaced "I'll contact Joe" and "I'll talk to Joe".

Source: I don't know—an inversion of what used to be called public relations, propaganda or proselytism and is now called "outreach", perhaps? Or else an inexplicable  Motown reference?

Subtext: The phrase implies an added effort, a stretch beyond the normal, and the subtext usually seems to be either "I'll do Joe the grudging favour of asking his opinion even though he wouldn't normally get half a look into what we're doing", or "I'll take the risk of asking Joe for his advice even though he's probably far too busy and probably sees our project as a threat to his entire existence". A little less cynically, one might argue that "reach out" should in fact be considered a distinct phrasal verb meaning "to talk to someone outside one's normal circle of contacts".

As an aside, though, I will note that another of the phrases "reach out" seems to be displacing in business-speak is "get in touch with", which seems normal to us now but was probably decried as a barbarity in its day. (Its original meaning, says the OED, is the one that signifies being aware or informed, eg, "to be in touch with public opinion").


Touch base

Usage: "Let's touch base tomorrow" means "let's talk tomorrow". Unlike "contact" and "talk to", though
"touch base" doesn't seem to have been eclipsed by "reach out".

Source: Baseball, I presume, which may explain its resilience in a country that loves sporting metaphors. Yet if so the metaphor is strangely inept, given that in the sport, "touching base" is a solitary, win-lose action: the runner and the fielder vie to touch base first. In this case, by contrast, touching base means collaborating.

Subtext: The word "touch" lends an air of lightness and brevity: "touching base" implies a quick conversation, a reassurance that you won't take up too much of someone's time, whereas "reaching out" doesn't. It also implies informality. I would venture that the dictionary definition of "to touch base" should be "to hold a meeting that does not require any of the parties to check calendar availability on their BlackBerrys".


To your point

Usage: It's terribly important, at least in American business meetings, to be constantly acknowledging the contributions other people have made, so that everybody feels included. But instead of "as you said" or "as Jane mentioned", it's "to your point" or "to Jane's point".

Source: No real mystery here: it's the common phrase "make a point". But I think this is a clue to the real meaning, which is...

Subtext: Since it's possible—oh, so possible—to say a lot at a meeting without making any points at all, saying "to Jane's point" is, in the continuing spirit of positivity and good team relations, a way to bestow even greater recognition upon Jane's contribution. After all, if something is worthless, we say it "has no point", and business documents are all in bullet points. So I will posit that a "point" is now actually a discrete unit of measurement (soon to be adopted under the  Système International) for useful contributions. Kilopoints, megapoints, nanopoints et alia all to follow, just as soon as someone has invented the measuring tools.


Going forward

Usage: A favourite disfavourite of mine, this notionally means "from now on", but often just signifies "now" and is just as often totally redundant:
I am pleased to announced that I have nominated Kiyasha Gonzalez-Guggenheim to be our new head of meatball packaging going forward.
or
Kiyasha's contribution will be particularly valuable in ensuring that all our customers have a consistent and satisfying meatball presentation experience going forward.
Source: Not a clue.
Real meaning: Again, as with "to your point", this is all about having the right attitude. In business it is good to look to the future; one of the most damning subtle indictments you can make of ideas or people is that they are "not forward-looking". Reminding everyone that we are, indeed, going forward and not moving backward is essential in boosting morale. This is especially true after cataclysmic setbacks:
“Our charge going forward is to have realistic, clear goals and to execute them expeditiously.” (New Orleans deputy mayor Cedric Grant, after Hurricane Katrina).
(And by the way—I look forward to "execute expeditiously" becoming widespread enough, going forward, to include on a future version of this list.)

I do note in passing that last year some people set up an entire website devoted to purging their organisation of the phrase "going forward", and reported some success. But in the wider world it seems very much alive.


Deep(er) dive

Usage: To take a close or closer look: "I'll do a deeper dive on those figures on Monday."
Source: Umm... diving.
Subtext: There's something athletic, soulful even, about the thought of physically diving into a spreadsheet, kicking around in its dusky deep columns, paddling lazily through the surf of numbers, digging for hidden gems among its pivot tables, and coming up for air gasping but ecstatic, with the decimal points cascading down your forehead. It could be a subtle signal to colleagues of the effort you are about to make as you hold your breath and plunge into the numbers. Or maybe it's nothing more than an attempt to romanticise to yourself what is otherwise a soul-deadening activity.

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/12/business_clich%C3%A9s

Correct or Incorrect?

From the Macmillian English Dictionary Blog:

Correct or incorrect?

Posted by Kati Sule on November 24, 2010 


Another popular theme on this blog is change in the English language which somehow seems to get under people’s skin.

Here is a selection of archived posts around this topic:

Netting, texting, impacting and sheeting through the centuries – more about verbing and nouning
Multiple word-class membership is an essential part of the character of the English language, and has been for a very long time. And since nouns and verbs are overwhelmingly the most numerous word classes, it’s not surprising that noun/verbs are particularly common.

I fail to really see what the fuss is about: there are worse things in life than splitting an infinitive
We’re all familiar with the much-derided mission statement of Star Trek’s Enterprise – ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before’. In cases like this, there is always the option of shifting the adverb to follow the verb (‘to go boldly’), which is in any case a more natural position for a manner adverb with a verb of motion. But putting the adverb before the ‘to’ … is often ambiguous, usually inelegant, and always unnatural.

Bored of life? What Dr. Johnson didn’t say
Look in any dictionary and you will find that the “correct” preposition to use with bored is with. No one mentions bored of … Yet, whatever purists may think about it, our language data shows that, in 2009, more people say bored of than bored with.

Are you lovin’ it?
If you’re an English grammar aficionado – and even if you’re not – brace yourself, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Actually, I think you should sit down for this; I’m going to break it to you in stages. You’re already sitting down? OK, you might want to clench your buttocks or squeeze an executive stress toy. Are you ready? Here we go...

Source: http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/correct-or-incorrect