Watch Your Language Blog

The Great American Vowel Shift

To follow up from Elham’s post yesterday, I can attest first hand to Ohio’s affection for naming cities after international places then proceeding to mispronounce them. Honestly, though, I think it’s out of politeness.... More


August 31, 2007

 

Kai-roh or Kei-rou?

More Wikipedia goodness: here’s a list of English names with non-intuitive pronunciations (via Language Hat). I sure wish this existed when I visited Berkeley of Gloucestershire, where I proceeded to ask directions for the town of “berk-lee” rather than “bark-ly.” Well, at least I pronounced Gloucestershire right.... More


August 30, 2007

 

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Maybe universal understanding is the reason Spoon (the band) labeled their new album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.” Research suggests that “baby talk” is recognizable to almost everyone, regardless of their native language. Even monkeys use it. ... More


August 27, 2007

 

Not spam? It might be “bacn.”

Since we’re on the subject of spam, here’s something to add to the mix. The use of the term “bacn” (pronounced “bacon”) seems to be spreading throughout the internet: Bacn describes the things you signed up for but that still feel like clutter in your inbox: Email lists, Facebook notifications, Google alerts. (Via Buzzword)... More


August 23, 2007

 

Spam in Esperanto

Spammers, in an effort to get around e-mail spam filters, have begun using Esperanto translations of Russian science fiction for the subject lines of their e-mails. Language Log discovers that this technique actually works.... More


August 22, 2007

 

New coinage alert: “Ding Chong Jiating”

And it’s just another name for “dinks” (dual income, no kids couples) who prefer pets, rather than children. Chinese officials recently accepted new phrases such as the one above into the National Language Registry. Other adapted phrases include: “gray skills,” “house slaves,” and something most of us tech folks suffer from: the “three-hand illness,” which is for “people fatigued by overuse of their hand to play with gaming machines, click on their computer mouse or to send messages via their mobile phone.” We need to add that one to the English language.... More


August 21, 2007

 

3 Essential Phrases in French, Latvian, and Croatian

Inspired by Wired’s 3 Essential Sentences Wiki, here’s our version of some essential phonetic travel phrases. Brought to you by the editorial team at Living Language, with their amazing skills in all kinds of cool languages. ... More


August 16, 2007

 

Vive Le Gyro

Language Hat and Language Log explore why Canadians refer to gyro as “doner” or “donair.” Here at the offices of Living Language, we just spent a few minutes discussing how we say the word “gyro,” and the pronunciations range from “JYE-roe” to “JEE-roe.” Some of us even order the “HEE-roe.”... More


August 14, 2007

 

Birds “stand,” they don’t “fly”

It’s believed that only one fluent speaker of Mandan is left in the world: Edwin Benson, a rancher from North Dakota. Sara Techtor (a linguist) is working with Mr. Benson to preserve the language. Their most recent effort entailed transcribing Mandan folk stories:... More


August 8, 2007

 

Bonjour, mon petit bureau de change!

French Lessons, Flight of the Conchords style.... More


August 6, 2007

 

Birds of a feather hawk together

In our offices we’re constantly debating the proper pronunciation of the word “hawk.” We’re well aware that there are many different possible pronunciations depending on what part of the country you come from, but it’s eternally amusing to hear that the way I say “hawk” reminds other people of something a bit more unpleasant than a bird of prey. ... More


August 2, 2007