Tag: language update
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Latin note
Random language note while I’m thinking of it… Sherri Olson’s books on medieval England are full of quotes from village documents, always including both the actual text and the modern version. The court rolls were mostly in Latin, and church services were also in Latin. Villagers took part in the courts often, monthly in some…
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Oughta be a word
When I read that yesterday was Cellophane Tape Day, my first thought was “Huh? Is that a newly invented alternative to scotch tape?” No, it’s just the official generic name for scotch tape. When the trademark becomes generic (scotch tape, kleenex, hamburger), reverting to the untrademarked term (cellophane tape, facial tissue, bun sandwich) is a…
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Reassuring, sort of
I guess it’s reassuring. Amid the invasion by celebrities turning Substack into MSNBC and increasing Andreessen’s share value, the native Substackers are still quibbling about Oxford commas and em-dashes. I stopped using em-dashes about 10 years ago, obviously not because it resembled ChatGPT. Simply because the usual way of doing it—like this—is confusing. Words are…
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Rules of ambiguity
Last week I commented on nicknames for cities. Pondering this deep subject further, I conclude that we naturally apply the linguistic rule of ambiguity to city nicknames. If the second word is City: You CAN leave off the City when the first word is unique. Ponca, Dodge, Cawker. When the first word is ambiguous, such…
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Okie like button
This 1950 Chevy truck infomercial includes a familiar word that I haven’t heard since leaving Oklahoma. Mr Wayne Slocum, head of an oilfield service company in OKC, is comparing the new Chevy to his “other brand” trucks. Wayne’s voice and dialect are a perfect specimen of the Eastern Okie sound, often heard in OKC but…
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Car grammar
The car sales training films are all about grammar, and not in the usual dumb way. (Upon whom, through which, in order better to drive, I haven’t cars.) All of the sales advice can be reduced to noun cases. This 1958 Chevy film** hits the points directly, but all of them from 1950s to 1970s…
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Random grammar thought
Those old industrial films followed the radio “grammar” rules rigidly. 1. Never end a sentence or phrase with a preposition. 2. Never begin a sentence with if. Reverse the verb. 3. All verbs must be passive. 4. Don’t say I or you. Say one. 5. Every sentence must contain at least one which or whom.…
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If logic worked
This week: It’s raining. It’s snowing. It’s sleeting. It’s hailing. It’s storming. It’s thundering. If logic worked on language we’d also say: It’s winding. I can see why tornado, graupel and lightning don’t work. The first two are recent imports and the third would be uncomfortably redundant. Wind is an old word and “should” behave…
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Hack-proof is impossible.
Supposedly China has used “quantum” computing to set up a hack-proof satellite linking China with South Africa. (The C and S of BRICS.) There’s no such thing as hack-proof. There are thousands of well-established ways to encrypt a message. None of them are hack-proof if the channel can be physically intercepted. Avoiding physical interception is…
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Idiom oddity
Noticed an odd pair of phrases. In question and out of the question mean more or less the same thing. Walking today is in question. Walking today is out of the question. The second is more certain, but both mean that I shouldn’t walk. Logically the converses, Walking today is out of question. Walking today…
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Satisfying metaphor
A dream this morning formed a metaphor. I had finished one piece of a courseware project … [this is true, not a metaphor] … and told the maid to send out the result. [THE MAID? WHERE DID SHE COME FROM? I’VE NEVER HAD A MAID!] Later I checked the mailbox and saw that the maid…
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Proof of the old rule
After working on a project for a while I develop an internal dialect with some new words to resonate with the newly developed skills. This fits my basic rule: Language is encryption, not communication. Like birdcalls, language is MEANT to be private within a family or tribe or workplace or lodge or church. Language is…
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Natural Law syntax
Lately I’m developing courseware on brain networks involved in language. At night my bedtime playlist includes old films about banking. The banking films have clarified several things about money that were unclear before**. For example, checks are not money. Checks don’t transfer value, checks transfer credit or trust. The combination of subjects formed a metaphor.…
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I shouldn’t try…
I shouldn’t try to get fancy in a language that I don’t know well! I wanted to slip in ecouter les bourgeoisie in the previous item. It didn’t seem right, so I googled. Nothing at all. Finally, after rolling the phrase around in my mind, the right phrase came in. Epater les bourgeoisie. Looking it…
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So that’s it!
Occasionally a Substack note is truly informative. This morning one of the nature photographers showed a mass of leaves and sticks and described it as a squirrel drey. First, I love learning an old-fashioned word with a highly specific meaning. This one isn’t contrived like the alleged terms for groups of animals. (eg a murder…
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