Watch Your Language Blog

Variety’s Slanguage: Entertainment Biz Slang

Variety, the entertainment business news weekly, has used its own brand of slang, which they call “slanguage,” since 1905. They’ve even provided a slanguage dictionary on their website. (Via kottke.org) (SUZANNE)

Tags: English, English language, media, slang
July 30, 2008

 

Demonyms: Naming Nationalities

While in the midst of editing the culture notes for an upcoming Croatian language course, I started to notice the oddity of the word “Croats.” I thought about it: why do we say “Croats,” and not “Croatians?” Surely this goes against all the rules of naming nationalities. We have “Russians” (not “Russes”), “Romanians” (not “Romans”), “Albanians” (not “Albans”), “Austrians” (not “Austers”)… so why “Croats,” and not “Croatians?” And why “Poles,” not “Polandese?” “Irish,” not “Irelanders?”... More

Tags: Croatian, demonyms, English language
July 25, 2008

 

More on reading foreign literature

The Catcher in the Rye was the first complete book I read in English, and I remember getting through it not knowing what rye was. It’s funny, because rye is actually similar (and possibly related) to the Croatian raž. My English was then of the advanced-high-school-knowledge kind, so I think I also missed the whole metaphor associated with the book’s title, as well as the relevant paragraphs in the book.... More

Tags: bilingual books, foreign literature, newsletter
July 25, 2008

 

The clever design of Korean Hangeul

The languages of the world are written in a number of different ways. Languages like English, Arabic, and Russian use alphabets, where each letter represents a particular sound, at least when things are spelled phonetically.... More

Tags: alphabet, Hangeul, Korean, language, newsletter, sounds, writing system
July 25, 2008

 

The international language of burgers

Speaking in a foreign language can be intimidating, sometimes to the point where you lose sight of common sense because you’re so wrapped up in the differences in speech. Case in point, my dad and I once made a trip to a McDonald’s in Paris. I know, I know, what were we doing at a McDonald’s when we were in Paris? Well, it’s a valid point, but McDonald’s is actually ridiculously popular in France (I mean, so popular that some of their locations are literally overflowing with people), especially among the younger generations.... More

Tags: French, hamburgers, McDonald's, newsletter, Paris
July 25, 2008

 

Developing an American accent

BBC Magazine hosted a quite fun feature on how to do an American accent. My favorite part is the exercise that follows it: ... More


July 24, 2008

 

Red State, Bleu State

As political crossfire goes, this one is fairly tame, but Barack Obama did spark a bit of controversy last week when he suggested that more Americans should learn a foreign language. Republican VP hopeful Mitt Romney criticized Obama but at the same time fessed up to some elementary knowledge of French. Should Mr. Romney (or Senator Obama, for that matter) want to further pursue his French studies, we have many, many options! (TOM)


July 14, 2008

 

Hey, At Least We Try!

A burst of post-July 4th patriotism here: a recent survey of more than 4,000 hotel employees worldwide found that we Americans top the list of tourists most willing to speak the local language. It’s gratifying to me, personally, that for all the times I’ve embarrassed myself in other languages, at least the effort is recognized. USA! (TOM)


July 7, 2008

 

Yupik Eskimos and their Whistled Language

We just stumbled across a story on NPR from a while back about a community in Alaska where the inhabitants whistle to communicate across long distances. More about whistled languages here.

Tags: alaska, whistled languages, yupik eskimos
July 1, 2008