tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940291769049662592024-03-18T16:55:26.589+00:00Harmless DrudgeryRandom thoughts from a wordsmith, budding lexicographer, and 'snapper up of unconsidered trifles'.
<p>
Copies of my published work, in various stages of completion, are <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K4V8UdrxBQ93BmIPqGiJVorhZAtKLy8B?usp=sharing"> here</a>.
You may need an online reader app such as <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ebook-viewer-and-converte/iioehemmiobfpokcflaihhghfnlhiadb"> eBook Viewer and Converter</a> to access these.</p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.comBlogger557125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-53585249336226086592024-03-10T17:47:00.644+00:002024-03-12T20:34:48.874+00:00As similar as so-and-soIn Saturday's <i>Feedback</i> section of <i>The Times</i> Rose Wild was (as quite often) saying 'Nothing to see here. Both versions are acceptable; calm down everybody'. And she cites a few Google searches to justify her equanimity.<p>A correspondent had objected to the phrase 'dull as dishwater', holding that the phrase should be 'dull as ditchwater' and that the 'dishwater' version was wrong. The columnist said it was all much of a muchness: '"Ditchwater" and "dishwater" have been interchangeably dull for more than 100 years.'</p><p>The Google Ngrams Viewer more or less confirms her position: 'dull as ditchwater' used to be the commoner, but recently there's no strong tendency either way – if anything, the trend is in favour of 'dull as dishwater':</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6hjEPyFzN7WKpZr9fb0832_MjbZz-sfzDMIq_sg2yq2om4Lzfp_a6s0YdBsmSBfYxPkXpjk2eVceTpb1ITxys19NKx8r7Mq4qtZ5bzjIvq3mc4aut95g6l29RNBvhSgajgRk0wBWhkN3lG_6srOsaV6IyyxJYs96MunqFgQay490n3z42QVUOIFaVXMo/s1759/AllEdVd.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6hjEPyFzN7WKpZr9fb0832_MjbZz-sfzDMIq_sg2yq2om4Lzfp_a6s0YdBsmSBfYxPkXpjk2eVceTpb1ITxys19NKx8r7Mq4qtZ5bzjIvq3mc4aut95g6l29RNBvhSgajgRk0wBWhkN3lG_6srOsaV6IyyxJYs96MunqFgQay490n3z42QVUOIFaVXMo/w640-h296/AllEdVd.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The case for interchangeability</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But that Viewer also lets you specify whether you are interested in British English or American English, and those results tell a different story.</p><p>In the one for American English there is a preference for the 'ditchwater' version until about the beginning of the Second World War, followed by a period of mixed fortunes for about twenty years, and then – since about 1960 – there is an increasingly strong preference for the 'dishwater' version. And since about 2010 the two have been diverging, with 'dishwater' waxing and 'ditchwater' waning:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVAhBNOPqKveyRbuIp96HagSwed-zIzhT_yhO-UiKeg3EVP8EHmmM41rn2sPBTyQIJUx_FuPoeEFmnqiMQkVMVKmQCQt-88NPeRbpRfkW1UDRavFw8w5qLVUNuhXaMO52od0ZMGBxmN4QeggeXd__iLBylR-1Fo1uadHm3AOLBNMs2KiZhRS0b_V1IFE/s1759/AEdullZditcyVsDishw.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVAhBNOPqKveyRbuIp96HagSwed-zIzhT_yhO-UiKeg3EVP8EHmmM41rn2sPBTyQIJUx_FuPoeEFmnqiMQkVMVKmQCQt-88NPeRbpRfkW1UDRavFw8w5qLVUNuhXaMO52od0ZMGBxmN4QeggeXd__iLBylR-1Fo1uadHm3AOLBNMs2KiZhRS0b_V1IFE/w640-h296/AEdullZditcyVsDishw.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The state of the nation</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>I wonder why. The recent (strong) preference for 'dishwater" might suggest some environmental explanation: could there be fewer ditches in the USA? Of course not. </div><div><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(Although I suppose there may be fewer miles of ditch per unit area or per capita, because of the distribution of farmland...?<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Perhaps I'm overthinking this</span>.)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote>Besides, 'ditchwater' was the preferred comparator for over 100 years before that.</div><p>Meanwhile, in the Ngram for British English there is a marked preference for the 'ditchwater' version throughout the two phrases' coexistence, though the 'dishwater' version seems to have had a growth spurt after the war: in 1945 it was about ten times less common than the 'ditchwater' version, but by the time the Ngrams data runs out 'dishwater' has risen to about two thirds of the level of 'ditchwater'.</p><div>So it's tempting to conclude that the many contributors to <i>The Times</i>'s online Comments (which I don't have access to) who decried 'dull as dishwater' as an error were sticklers for British English.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyd22F2YJdIJKnL0VcOnJvWqJXBuEoo5U1r3Lpm89jIF_4GNMcbFM4gzTVqBhfa-90ovL-kltLsbbj82smcoEhPVB1lTp9azNvk_FxBPKaVbdG1J_MsI_IM8M_d4ff7WcPgzfMVd-WBwOuGmcyelScqj8dBg9jFY_DsS8DFNKNqRxK5Ivc_YgrL2PXig/s1838/BEdullZditchVsDishw.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyd22F2YJdIJKnL0VcOnJvWqJXBuEoo5U1r3Lpm89jIF_4GNMcbFM4gzTVqBhfa-90ovL-kltLsbbj82smcoEhPVB1lTp9azNvk_FxBPKaVbdG1J_MsI_IM8M_d4ff7WcPgzfMVd-WBwOuGmcyelScqj8dBg9jFY_DsS8DFNKNqRxK5Ivc_YgrL2PXig/w640-h286/BEdullZditchVsDishw.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A preference for <i>ditchwater</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div><shibboleth-warning><br />Of course this all depends on how the Google Ngrams people define 'British/American English'. There's a whiff of the <i>No true Scotsman</i> ...</div><div></div><blockquote><div><glossary><br />'No true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.'</div><div>'But what about N?'</div><div>'He can't be a true Scotsman.'</div><div>'Why not?'</div><div>'Because no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.'</div><div></glossary></div></blockquote><div></div><div>...fallacy here. A lot of self-styled <i>Guardians of the King's English</i> call a lot of things 'American English' although they have strong and healthy roots in British English.</div><div></div><blockquote><div><autobiographical-note><br />When I worked at OUP (whose house style was to use -ize endings <i>where there was an option</i>...<br /><blockquote><innocent-bystanders><br />(This is a crucial proviso,<span style="color: red;"> 'televize'</span> is just wrong [and <span style="color: red;">'analyze'</span> is an abomination – though admittedly <span style="font-size: xx-small;">{not to say lamentably}</span> standard in some parts of the world]. Many innocent bystanders are caught in the zeal for 'modernizing' spellings by making <i>s</i>-endings <i>z</i>s)</blockquote><blockquote></innocent-bystanders></blockquote></div><div>....) Professor Richard Cobb, a Francophile who wrote chiefly about things French (and in French there is no -<span style="color: red;"><i>i<b>z</b>er </i></span>option for -<i>iser </i>verbs), had a dispensation.</div><div></div><blockquote><div><suspicion><br />I doubt if their present editorial policies (presumably more automated and unbending than they were in the more humane [some would say <i>wet</i>] 1980s) would allow this if he were writing today.</div><div></suspicion></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p>He alone among OUP authors was allowed to use '-ise' spllings. His editors knew this, but other departments (publicity, production <i>etc</i>.) occasionally caused friction by 'correcting' his aberrant <i><b>s</b></i>s.<br /></autobiographical-note></p></blockquote>In <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2012/11/but-nobody-says-potahto.html">a previous post</a> I wrote: </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><prescript> </blockquote><blockquote>In <a href="http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/28690-british-vs-american-spellings.html">a UsingEnglish discussion</a> many years ago on this sadly common issue I wrote</blockquote><blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExtuNzxtSkLX1-Zi0HaM0smiojl06AYZejGm5VKFT4HoM_gpLAotqhz8QJbdtaRHe_9AkUSB7W3P9txYPzqTckyZwNkGeyiTaGr0PpTuiTAvLwoHfitMmfOweMm3a9-on12lBl8tS4wk/s1600/iseIze.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>There's nothing unBritish about the spelling 'apologize'. It has been the house style of <i>The Times</i> for well over a hundred years, and is used by many large and influential publishers (<i>Oxford University Press</i>, for example). I'm tired of being accused of flirting with modernity and excessive American influence, just because I use a spelling that millions of British people use (so long as they haven't been got at by generations of school-teachers peddling misinformation).</blockquote><p>That may have been true of <i>The Times</i> at the time of writing, but 'the times they are a-changin'. A few cases of '-ize' pass the scrutiny of the subs' eyes - especially when there is a strong etymological justification - as in the case of 'baptize' (where there is a zeta rather than a sigma in the original Greek); but fewer and fewer. </p><blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></prescript></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><p>But I suspect the Google Ngrams definitions of British and American English are purely geographic.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p></shibboleth-warning> </p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p>Later in the column she writes about her use of the expression 'carloads of cash', which had prompted a correspondent (who obviously has too much time on his hands) to point out that the usual metaphor for an inordinate amount was 'shedloads'. 'I'm not sure why I opted for carloads' she writes. Well I have a possible answer: alliteration. And alliteration explains the popularity of 'dull as di...hwater'. Many other similes (most? <i>Discuss</i>) are alliterative– 'bold as brass', 'cool as a cucumber', 'dead as a dodo/doornail', 'fit as a fiddle', 'good as gold', 'hungry as a hunter'...<br /></p><blockquote><admission-of-defeat type="alphabetical"><br />(And speaking of defeat, who does Pope Francis think he is – <a href="https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/f088_Dialogue_13.htm">Pius XII</a>? But I digress...)<br /><b>J</b> has me foxed, and I suspect that the second half of the alphabet is less fruitful, so I'll go on to a few digraphs.<br /></admission-of-defeat</blockquote><p>'cheap as chips', 'thick as thieves'... (there must be more: where's <i>Brewer</i> when you need it?) </p><p>But that's enough for the time being.</p><p><br /></p><p>b</p><p><i>Update: 2024.03.12.19:50</i> – Added Pius XII link</p><p><br /></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-55507255403682023942024-03-03T12:59:00.002+00:002024-03-03T21:14:47.295+00:00A quickie...<p> ... at least, that's the plan...</p><p>A few months ago, a Vodafone ad assailed my ears with the apparently meaningful (but it's up to the listener to put 2 and 2 together) line 'if you're out of contract you could be out of pocket". <i>Hmm</i>...? If you're out of pocket you end up with less money than you <i>should</i> after a deal; you don't pay more than you need to. So the ad produces a mindless jingle that <i>sounds </i>clever with its 'out of.../out of...' wordplay, and leaves the poor punter to do the mental arithmetic: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i><monthly salary> - <monthly payment> </i>⇒ 'less than I <i>could</i> have'; ∴ 'I'm out of pocket'. </p><p>But <i>could</i> isn't the same as <i>should</i>, so the wordplay doesn't really work if you think about it. As so often, the huckster relies on the fact that mostly punters don't think about stuff like this.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><autobiographical-note><br />A similar near-miss struck me in the late '70s, when I first heard the album (not yet a stage show) <i>Evita</i>. In the song 'Don't cry for me Argentina' the lines <span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Dressed up to the nines/At </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">sixes and sevens with you</span> don't quite work. You are 'at sixes and sevens' with a <i>thing. </i>You might say 'I'm at sixes and </span><span style="text-align: center;">sevens with computers' or 'I'm at sixes and sevens with social stuff'</span><span style="text-align: center;">; you can't be at sixes and sevens with a person...</span></p><p><span style="text-align: center;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="text-align: center;"><warning reason="neologists at work"><br />(or maybe you can since Tim Rice had his evil way – who knows what solecisms he held the door open for)<br /></span><span style="text-align: center;"></warning></span></blockquote><span style="text-align: center;">But the lyricist wanted a clever-clever bit of wordplay (<i>u</i></span><i>p to the nines/at sixes and sevens</i>) so coined a new usage.<span style="text-align: center;"><br /> </span></autobiographical-note></blockquote><p>The phrase 'out of contract' was once used almost exclusively, in British English, in sporting contexts. The <i><a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/">British Natiional Corpus</a></i> finds 22 instances of the phrase, and all but a handful are about sports (mostly football and rugby). By contrast the <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/">Corpus of Contemporary American English</a> finds only 31, one of which is a <span style="text-align: center;">misfire (...'walked out of contract talks'). This tally (30 in a billion-word corpus)</span> is relatively much fewer, as COCA is ten times the size of BNC. <span style="text-align: center;"> And only about a quarter of those deal with sports; the rest deal with screen actors, buildings, cell phones... </span><span style="text-align: center;">– a much wider range of contexts than in British English.</span></p><p><span style="text-align: center;">So that Vodafone ad was adopting an American usage ...<br /></span></p><blockquote><p><inline-ps><br />To clarify (as I'm usually annoyed...<br /></p><blockquote><aside><br /> (too strong? – well at least having to control a reflex lip-curl)<br /></aside></blockquote>... when people commenting on British English say 'This is an Americanism'. These so-called 'Americanisms' are often features of regional or historic forms of British English ('fall', 'gotten'...); in fact, somewhere (in an <i>Open University</i> book that I did a Prospero on a few years ago [I didn't throw it in the sea, but I got rid of it]) I read of an eighteenth-century claim in Parliament that people should send their sons to America to learn proper English.<p></p><p>When I say Vodafone borrowed the phrase from America I mean that while the phrase <i>did</i> exist in British English (chiefly in the sporting context) the mobile phone provider (probably in an international company) knew of the American usage in the case of cell phones and said 'I'll 'ave some of that', not being aware of the phrase's applicabilty in other contexts.<br /></inline-ps></p></blockquote><p><span style="text-align: center;">...and now I find that they're all doing it. On Saturday afternoon, looking for a provider who'd charge less than an arm and a leg for broadband, I saw that Plusnet were using exactly the same line:</span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNiMMQCM3hkL90VgqhsBf56LvcWDpasSIlTpmazWXkczE8TiSHb6zd7nR8fhcRI3gZcqJAr2z46ww1C7K-qJNr-M2pA92z-5BKlsLCBeQnLpwQgLgrH2JHs1f_vUJueIUCk-b4FIMF9_Ithsz35AVw9pn7FKgLwQWPDdhr1sy-LaUk7440o-9icU5cBc/s1195/plusnetOOC.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="1195" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNiMMQCM3hkL90VgqhsBf56LvcWDpasSIlTpmazWXkczE8TiSHb6zd7nR8fhcRI3gZcqJAr2z46ww1C7K-qJNr-M2pA92z-5BKlsLCBeQnLpwQgLgrH2JHs1f_vUJueIUCk-b4FIMF9_Ithsz35AVw9pn7FKgLwQWPDdhr1sy-LaUk7440o-9icU5cBc/w640-h110/plusnetOOC.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plusnet using the same line</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But Vodafone may not have been the first; they were just the first ones I noticed (and I may have noticed them only because of the ear-bleedingly awful woman who said it [and who has probably the most ubiquitous voice-over presence in the UK😖])</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But that's enough; time to do a bit of note-bashing for this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPb2REIiEyPSIFl7w98iCeySA2uvyt81AcBQJPjo7maY94awTiTzpVxlxTUvqhk3y8O6TkEsr1kXA6dLjSgEt7u79nXpCX0TB2BNdCup7eCc8Jel2AGFmOizhAC_IFrzrgzhsxYvFZEfG2A2EDP8Wx1JiIUBKB3oSoTUd_pgr6a69Qk6iXsxsBvGOs1s/s893/IMG_20240303_090519.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="636" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPb2REIiEyPSIFl7w98iCeySA2uvyt81AcBQJPjo7maY94awTiTzpVxlxTUvqhk3y8O6TkEsr1kXA6dLjSgEt7u79nXpCX0TB2BNdCup7eCc8Jel2AGFmOizhAC_IFrzrgzhsxYvFZEfG2A2EDP8Wx1JiIUBKB3oSoTUd_pgr6a69Qk6iXsxsBvGOs1s/w456-h640/IMG_20240303_090519.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Update 2024.03.02.21:10</i> – Added <inline-ps /></div><p><br /></p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-82997926949328193472024-02-27T21:08:00.016+00:002024-02-28T20:12:49.566+00:00The Price is Rite<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This week's Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wq50">Ritual</a>, by Dimitris Xygalatas, with the helpful subtitle "How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On Monday it described this:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNx6-Vb2pKkoPsg7j6GgZtr4GXTPThQruRi7kJwsCSZxwoXasxaXAoJ72dAaoxzXLvViJF1wmRQFpTuJkUxRO7iVQfrr3COVqZRis9TTIzqzRBXZJMvkwpe8mIg1Wx8qCJzHLM4WMVhpcqLJnbU_E4G6-08Vr6LW6XqmMX6KwXLJhVd5MH7Bmj8AqhcW8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="972" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNx6-Vb2pKkoPsg7j6GgZtr4GXTPThQruRi7kJwsCSZxwoXasxaXAoJ72dAaoxzXLvViJF1wmRQFpTuJkUxRO7iVQfrr3COVqZRis9TTIzqzRBXZJMvkwpe8mIg1Wx8qCJzHLM4WMVhpcqLJnbU_E4G6-08Vr6LW6XqmMX6KwXLJhVd5MH7Bmj8AqhcW8=w694-h425" width="694" /></a><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is not a transcript of the broadcast. My legendary typing skills of up to <i>10 </i>wpm aren't up to that. It's taken from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Ritual-rituals-soothe-excite-ebook/dp/B07GSGK84Z">the book iself</a>.</span></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The 'flamboyant pink' gives a clue to what is being described: flamingoes. But it's not just birds that participate in these strange and apparently unproductive rituals. Many animals <span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">–</span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"> especially <i>homo sapiens </i></span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">– do it too, as evidenced by this find:</span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixblald7z-Vr3qgkAKL9ReO5kaHb2ZinC8EvuzEAUE08hXzjbTE-0lbxwe_z5wvlr2HtDRUSHyN1InsSjyWIUlVe-tvK7yMgGLeHO_Qzyc5_0yCG3f_BghDLt-D6SIItvG_KbE53Ee2H_NNObJnA6R_jKP0QtzC5Lyftpv-48nJBXQeDeWYdWzFraln9Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="972" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixblald7z-Vr3qgkAKL9ReO5kaHb2ZinC8EvuzEAUE08hXzjbTE-0lbxwe_z5wvlr2HtDRUSHyN1InsSjyWIUlVe-tvK7yMgGLeHO_Qzyc5_0yCG3f_BghDLt-D6SIItvG_KbE53Ee2H_NNObJnA6R_jKP0QtzC5Lyftpv-48nJBXQeDeWYdWzFraln9Q=w640-h386" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It goes on to discuss the transition from a nomadic life to a settled life based on agriculture</div><div class="separator" div="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5Qxs1kSObtclG1eEMPazZXtbZ_N6Lv703PYKIxQ_CvJ8bq4UPlghGmVs4w5lA-Ov4bLAknTzkeJKcExg9PqFQg0ousi4M2e8BT4luOW8qEVe8ny7aHYdcsgB1zRe6Jnjw-FSZtE2p43dZsvLobBjZ3zsgXUr-La8fVYF-6q9aXLUGxtldPYJPDHUyYE/s593/GoekliTepl.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="593" height="407" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5Qxs1kSObtclG1eEMPazZXtbZ_N6Lv703PYKIxQ_CvJ8bq4UPlghGmVs4w5lA-Ov4bLAknTzkeJKcExg9PqFQg0ousi4M2e8BT4luOW8qEVe8ny7aHYdcsgB1zRe6Jnjw-FSZtE2p43dZsvLobBjZ3zsgXUr-La8fVYF-6q9aXLUGxtldPYJPDHUyYE/w602-h407/GoekliTepl.png" width="602" /></a></div><blockquote><autobiographical-note><div>This reminded me of a talk I heard a few years ago about Neanderthals, in a Cambridge Alumni Festival. The speaker argued that they weren't the clumsy <i>Untermenschen </i>depicted, depreciated, and generally underestimated in popular culture, but rather they were sensitive souls. Some of the evidence for this was the so-called "flower burial" discovered at a cave in Shanidar, in Kurdistan. The theory, based on 'clumps' <i>{HD</i> sic <i style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">– odd word] </i>of pollen found near the skeletons, was that some kind of funerary rite involved the ritual placing of flowers near the carefully preserved bodies of the departed.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>But this theory was disproved by recent findings reported in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/28/study-casts-doubt-on-neanderthal-flower-burial-theory">Guardian </a>article last summer;</div><blockquote><div><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“Although the evidence was subsequently questioned, the story was spectacular enough that it is still found in most archaeology textbooks,” said Prof Chris Hunt at Liverpool John Moores University, who also credits it with inspiring him to pursue a career in environmental archaeology.</p><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">However, recent excavations next to where Solecki <i>[HD – original proponent of the "flower burial" theory] </i>discovered the Shanidar 4 remains are <i>[sic]</i> prompting a rethink of this hypothesis.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p></div></blockquote><p>The collections of pollen were indeed <i>collections</i>: Some bee-like insect (bees. perhaps?) had gathered pollen from a range of flowers that bloomed at different times of the year:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"></span></p><blockquote style="font-size: 17px;">The team ... revisited the original pollen identifications, finding that the clumps contained pollen from more than one type of flower, with not all of these plants blooming at the same time of year, – <i>[sic]</i> throwing the idea of funeral flowers into doubt. Rather, the most likely source of the pollen clumps is nesting bees – evidence of which was discovered nearby, –<i> [ahem]</i> the team suggests.</blockquote><p></p><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: 17px;"><anachronism-alert></span><br /><span style="font-size: 17px;">(might there have been a Neanderthal Interflora, forcing unseasonal flowers especially for the funeral market? </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Probably not.])</span><br /><span style="font-size: 17px;"></anachronism-alert></span></blockquote></blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">...<span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">The</span><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;"> </span><i style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">[HD <span style="background-color: transparent;">–</span></i><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;"><i> newly discovered] </i>bodies appear to have been placed in a gully-like feature, through which water occasionally flowed, immediately adjacent to a huge rock. The relative depths of the bodies suggest that they were placed here at different times – possibly over a period of several tens to hundreds of years.</span></p><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Shanidar 4 and Z <i>[HD</i> <i style="background-color: transparent;">– don't ask me why they switched naming conventions for the bodies] </i><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">appear to have been placed in roughly the same position, as if they were looking out of the cave, and while the remains of the third Neanderthal are too sparse to be sure of its burial position its head similarly appears to be facing east.</span></p><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“What is becoming very clear is that at least three times Neanderthals came and camped on the sediments beside this gully, and placed a body into it,” Hunt said.</p><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“Although it is very difficult to infer traditions from archaeology, this looks like a tradition of disposing of the dead in a very similar way and it’s obviously with care, because two of the bodies are very complete.”<br /></p></blockquote><p> </autobiographical-note></p></div></blockquote><p>Today (Tuesday) the book considered the function of ritual, and suggested it was a coping mechanism, more common in stressful and or demanding situations <i style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">– </i><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">competitions, contests of any kind, wars... (it hadn't occurred to me [why would it?] that people entering a bomb shelter might be found to favour one foot when; crossing the threshold; the right, I think the book said).</span></p><p><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">That's enough for today, but it's a fascinating book.</span></p><p><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">b</span></p><p> </p><div><p></p><div><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"></p></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><p class="dcr-4cudl2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-91253255285304495752024-02-20T09:06:00.321+00:002024-03-04T16:37:28.255+00:00Not the East minster<p> Last Saturday MrsK and I enjoyed a semi-private...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(only eighty-odd punters, but none of the great unwashed)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><p>... tour of Westmnster Abbey, conducted by members of the <a href="https://www.waoca.org.uk/purcell-clubtest.html">Purcell Club</a> (mostly old choristers from Westminster), punctuated by musical pieces (mostly choral, a capella – appropriately enough...<br /></p><blockquote><etymological-note><br />(see <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-capella.htm">here</a> for the reason, if you need an explanation [though, as with much else in the world of etymology, it's fairly self-explanatory when you think about it])<br /></etymological-note></blockquote><p></p><p></p>... – but including an organ piece played by the present organ scholar (neither an old-boy nor indeed a <a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-biographies/organ-scholar">boy</a>).<div><br /></div><div>Passing through Dean's Yard I recalled a time in 1979 when I went with a colleague at OUP (Rchard Brain <span style="font-size: x-small;">[RIP] </span>mentioned <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2016/08/notes-and-queries.html">here</a>), to a Greek Play (in classical Greek) – a regular production at the time at Westminster School...<br /><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(maybe it still is, though I doubt it, given the lamentable treatment meted out to arts education – especially languages, and more especially classical languages – by recent governments)</blockquote><blockquote></parenthesis></blockquote>.... So it's quite possible, given that I was 28 at the time and the choristers on Saturday included some who would have been in their late teens at the time, that one or more of them had been in that production. I was too busy negotiating medieval staircases to do the necessary research though. Besides, as my O-level covered only two texts [only one of which was a drama] I followed very little of the play we saw, and don't even remember its title.</div><blockquote><div><autobiographical-note> </div></blockquote><blockquote><div>The last time I mentioned Westminster Abbey was <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2023/05/i-was-glad-take-3.html">here</a> on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles last year. A <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridges-augustine-gospels-to-feature-in-coronation">big fuss</a> was made at the time about the use of the <i>Augustine Gospels</i> during the ceremony:</div></blockquote><h3 class="Theme-Layer-BodyText-Heading-Small Theme-SubTitle p1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 1.5rem auto; position: relative; width: 600px;"></h3><blockquote><blockquote><h3 class="Theme-Layer-BodyText-Heading-Small Theme-SubTitle p1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 1.5rem auto; position: relative; width: 600px;">Precious Gospels from the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge requested by King Charles III for the Coronation.</h3><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: unset; position: relative; width: 600px;">The sixth-century Gospels of Augustine of Canterbury are the oldest surviving illustrated Latin Gospels in the world and the oldest non-archaeological artefact of any kind to have survived in England, continuously owned and in use for 1,400 years. The Gospels were shown to HM the King (then Prince of Wales) when he visited the Parker Library in March 2001. He immediately recognised their importance and has requested that they be carried in his Coronation procession on Saturday 6 May at Westminster Abbey. <br />...<br />The presence of the Augustine Gospels at the King's Coronation affirms their status as the most precious and important medieval manuscript to survive in England. Their fundamental significance to the nation was recognised when the Gospels were inscribed in 2023 on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register.</p></blockquote></blockquote><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: unset; position: relative; width: 600px;"></p>
<p></p><blockquote>Shortly after the Coronation I sang with other alumni and the present chapel choir at Corpus, and visited the <a href="https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/events/viewing-augustine-gospels">one-day exhibition</a>:</blockquote><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><blockquote><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nEj-flALWvQBEoMXnZHMRoOsX6U0eOc_EHmfiaQ7-vp6sX2E33y8ij8e__uo8wTuoNkN4EJwvxORc_vKGY3FF6BJQ4DQ1uhd7ThOVhHxRoe0ULrhdVFeQfohVm8AkTwieO-41UHVDDEuTQCRJrIwuMgwUgjgTeCce3xEuj6iyICLdMUpMBD6Nrq0i5k/s4608/IMG_20230619_110206_2CS.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border-color="white" border="10" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nEj-flALWvQBEoMXnZHMRoOsX6U0eOc_EHmfiaQ7-vp6sX2E33y8ij8e__uo8wTuoNkN4EJwvxORc_vKGY3FF6BJQ4DQ1uhd7ThOVhHxRoe0ULrhdVFeQfohVm8AkTwieO-41UHVDDEuTQCRJrIwuMgwUgjgTeCce3xEuj6iyICLdMUpMBD6Nrq0i5k/w300-h400/IMG_20230619_110206_2CS.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Display board from the exhibition</td></tr></tbody></table>Don't miss this rare opportunity to view the Augustine Gospels, part of UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register & processed at the Coronation of Charles III.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Parker Library at Corpus Christi College is offering members of the public a unique opportunity to view the Gospels of St Augustine at the College Chapel on Monday 19 June 2023. The visiting hours are limited due to the fragility of the manuscript book. Free tickets are booked on a first come, first served basis. </p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #424242; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><p></p><blockquote>Ever since then (last June) I've been saving up a photo of one of the displays from that exhibition, and only now have I found an opportunity to use it. It's not particularly legible though. And although I queued for half an hour behind people taking grainy/wobbly pictures of the Actual Thing, I was too cool to capture its soul; in fact I was quite surprised that the snappers were tolerated at all – especially as there are professionally taken photos on the <a href="https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/">Parker Library</a> website. And when I had just passed a <span style="font-family: courier;">Keep off the grass </span>sign on the court outside the chapel where the book was displayed I was half-expecting a <span style="font-family: courier;">No photography</span> one.<br /></autobiographical-note> </blockquote><p></p><p>I was interested to learn that Edward the Confessor, who completed a church fit for coronations in 1065...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(Edward himself was the last king to be crowned at Winchester. And every British monarch since then was crowned at Westminster.)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><p>...envisaged it as complementary to the East minster – St Paul's, which had been in use as a cathedral since the seventh century. And the Abbey's dedication to St Peter came as news to me.</p><p>Among the treasures we saw was the tomb of Edward the Confessor (off limits for the everyday punter):</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidNUjTEwCtrHkR6S6dNpHdHloDLlTGGybnkLfw5i1qA7K78jV2rdhhIiXRpPnEqGrd5lUfVhE2BlQHyGlTYRSQ6A_Ld_BWLaHIliRiZia21-6nc-choKpFMUmURZqdRD8RByyKDpZEqQ-hFm-be0U4uuX396oa4TH_ZIs3RZJnco2V2oJ1EvVyCUQPoQ/s580/EdConfFuneral.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="580" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidNUjTEwCtrHkR6S6dNpHdHloDLlTGGybnkLfw5i1qA7K78jV2rdhhIiXRpPnEqGrd5lUfVhE2BlQHyGlTYRSQ6A_Ld_BWLaHIliRiZia21-6nc-choKpFMUmURZqdRD8RByyKDpZEqQ-hFm-be0U4uuX396oa4TH_ZIs3RZJnco2V2oJ1EvVyCUQPoQ/w640-h264/EdConfFuneral.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Peter's (Westminster) <i>[Ecclesia Sancti Petri] </i>as it was at the time of Edward's funeral, <br />as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><happenstance><br />And the following day, reading <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-English-Melvyn-Bragg-ebook/dp/B006HAMCZS/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=mJj7A&content-id=amzn1.sym.3413293e-3815-4359-96ba-1ec5110e0b30&pf_rd_p=3413293e-3815-4359-96ba-1ec5110e0b30&pf_rd_r=258-1158814-5004251&pd_rd_wg=xk19W&pd_rd_r=ee5bb5c4-9a4f-41e6-8700-3f4f1b9a5290&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk&asin=0340829915&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2">The Adventure of English</a>, I learmt that (according to the Bayeux Tapestry) Harold had his coronation in Westminster Abbey on the same day as Edward's funeral...</div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"> <inline_ps><br />I initially doubted my memory of this; I wondered how a picture could be so specific about time (forgetting my own experience as a language teacher: "on the same day" is not particularly hard to portray). But the book is quite clear:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote>The tapestry shows Harold being crowned in Westminster Abbey on the very day that Edwards was laid to rest there. </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: left;"></inline_ps></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">– a trifle hasty, wouldn't you a</span>g<span style="text-align: center;">ree ? No wonder William was miffed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></happenstance></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">That's enough for now.</p><p style="text-align: left;">b</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Update 2024.02.22.09.45 – </i>Added <inline_ps/></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-21382599118900392662024-02-05T14:50:00.241+00:002024-02-07T20:26:50.724+00:00The North-EAST passage<p>Covid lockdowns did nothing for Putin's paranoia, or rather contributed greatly to it. A recent The Rest Is Politics (no link, because translation work has taken my eye off the ball for the last few weeks, so I can't point specifically to a particular edition – though I imagine it was influenced by articles such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/world/putin-pandemic-mindset.html">this one</a> in the <i>New York Times</i> [with the helpfully explicit title </p><h1><blockquote>U.S. intelligence weighs Putin’s two years of extreme pandemic isolation as a factor in his wartime mind-set.</blockquote></h1><p>]...<br /></p><blockquote><p><NYT-article></p><p>...Throughout the pandemic, Mr. Putin has retreated into an intricate cocoon of social distancing — though he allowed life in Russia to essentially return to normal. The Federal Protective Service, Russia’s answer to the Secret Service, built <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/world/europe/putin-virus-russia-bubble.html" title="">a virus-free bubble around Mr. Putin</a> that far outstrips the protective measures taken by many of his foreign counterparts.</p><p>Mr. Putin has been holding most of his meetings with government officials by video conference, often appearing in a spartan room in his Moscow estate, Novo-Ogaryovo. Even when foreign dignitaries arrived, they sometimes didn’t get to see Mr. Putin in person; the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, had to <a href="https://tass.com/politics/1289215?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">make do with a video meeting</a> when he visited Moscow last year....</p></blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvayRJWQ2H-sOyuIaFgtjdpKzBEAXdQ6dfzIsO2H4xZTrP-l73WiaWJ26UlmglMhpPPKh0Kwy5gkbUGOlyGKkEJvjcP871TBdDpTTGmkpNECrHYKZ1rkHAN0k47x5_GxmGUVPFUHTcJGNCuDcbwdVojDtBAYdYZhdihwdxlUR7Ctmk_kBgN3H64cYUUo/s1511/PutinIsolated.png"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvayRJWQ2H-sOyuIaFgtjdpKzBEAXdQ6dfzIsO2H4xZTrP-l73WiaWJ26UlmglMhpPPKh0Kwy5gkbUGOlyGKkEJvjcP871TBdDpTTGmkpNECrHYKZ1rkHAN0k47x5_GxmGUVPFUHTcJGNCuDcbwdVojDtBAYdYZhdihwdxlUR7Ctmk_kBgN3H64cYUUo/w400-h193/PutinIsolated.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td><blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>Putin and his national security advisers,</td></tr></tbody></table> in a meeting days before the invasion</blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><p><span>...</span> </p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span></NYT-article></span><span> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p><span>...)</span></p></blockquote><p><span>Poor Vlad </span><span><span>– </span>'alone and palely loitering'; bu</span><span><span>t he was in thrall not to <i>la belle dame sans merci</i> but to Mother Russia. He spent two years in timorous isolation, <span>dreaming of going down in history as Vladimir the Great, leader of the <i>Make </i></span><span><i>Яussia Great Again </i>movement.</span></span></span></p><blockquote><span><span><election-aside><br />A recent BBC news reporter, looking forward to Putin's predicted and predictable landslide in the forthcoming 'election' said all Putin's opponents were either in exile or in prison; I think one group of possible opponents were missing from this analysis: the dead.<br /></span></span><span><election-aside></span></blockquote><p>Anyway, paranoia: to add to the geo-political realities, he found that Gaia herself was conspiring against him. This week's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5bl9?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">The Climate Question</a> discussed the effects of global warming on Russia's coastline. Whereas hitherto that coastline has been protected from all but the most well-equipped of research vessels it is now, for 4-5 months of the year, open to all-comers. And Russia's response has been to miltarize much of a coastline that formerly had been protected by natural conditions; at, presumably, great expense.</p><p></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />According to Rory Stewart, in that same podcast, Russia's miltary spending is '40% of its budget'. I'm not sure what this means, and he didn't do his usual thing of quoting chapter and verse. But he was sure of the number: 'Four <i>zero</i>' (lest we should think it was a paltry 14%, a mere 6 or 7 times the UK's).<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><p>Meanwhile, out at sea, Russia enjoys the paradoxical benefits of increased hydrocarbon exports – made possible by the global warming caused by hydrocarbon exports already made along more expensive sea lanes: the North East Passage.</p><p>At the end of that edition of <i>The Climate Question</i>, another global warming paradox is introduced: the melting of the Arctic ice-sheet (and the Arctic is just ice – there isn't a continent underneath it, as in Antarctica) – has changed the Earth's gravitational field, with a counter-intuitive result: in the southern hemisphere global warming raises sea-levels. But in the north, with less ice exerting less of a pull on the water, the sea-level is <i>falling</i>. There's more to it than that, which was beyond my O-Level Physics with Chemistry (which I described <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2017/09/captain-corellis-egg-slicer-pedants-of.html">elsewhere</a> as the 'hasty...<br /></p><blockquote><2024-afterthought><br />I think 'perfunctory' would have been a better choice<br /></2024-afterthought></blockquote>... genuflection at the altar of Mammon that ... we Lotus Eaters were allowed to make on the way to a Greek class'); I recommend the last few minutes of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5bl9?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">The Climate Question</a> (in this regard, I mean – it's all worth a listen.)<p></p><p>That's all she wrote.</p><p>b</p><p></p><span></span><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-23330528484492412332024-02-05T12:42:00.001+00:002024-02-21T12:59:22.142+00:00The War Against Error, Take 2<br />
Not too much of note happened in the last week of November 2015. <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/news/2015/current-events/world_nov.html">Infoplease</a> defines it with its two <i>termini</i> : the downing of the Russian aircraft in Turkey on the 24<sup>th</sup> and the beginning of the Climate Talks on the 30<sup>th</sup> (both of which may come to generate much of import in the future (the latter for good and the former for ill) <i>– </i>but in between the world news cupboard was bare. So the <i>Independent</i> published a strange filler:<br />
<h1 itemprop="headline">
<span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-58-most-commonly-misused-words-and-phrases-a6754551.html?utm_campaign=Can%27t+eat.+Too+excited.&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=">The 58 most commonly misused words and phrases</a></span></h1>
<div>
(<i>58</i>; <b>not a solecism more, not a solecism <span>FEWER</span></b>, as Jeffrey Archer might have observed.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The piece starts out promising to be a review of Steven Pinker's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing/dp/0241957710">The Sense of Style</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<span><span>The book is like a modern version of Strunk and White's classic "</span><a href="http://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?TSID=3658&GR_URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F020530902X%2Fref%3Das_li_tl%3Fie%3DUTF8%26camp%3D1789%26creative%3D390957%26creativeASIN%3D020530902X%26linkCode%3Das2%26tag%3Dthebusiinsi-20%26linkId%3DJGE5EO5KZP22QBH3" target="_blank">The Elements of Style</a><span>," but one based on linguistics and updated for the 21st century.</span></span></blockquote>
<span>Hmm. I'm not convinced by this use of <i>linguistics</i> as if it were some kind of magic added ingredient <i>– Now with added <b>Linguistics</b></i>, they say, much as the makers of <i>Pedigree <b>Chum</b></i> used to say <i>Enriched with nourishing marrow-bone jelly </i>in the '60s <span>(not sure why <i>that</i> illustration swam up from the mental depths)</span>.<i> </i>Writing a style guide </span><span>using insights provided by a study of modern linguistics (<b>not</b> "based on linguistics" whatever <i>that</i> means) is a good idea. I don‘t think "</span><i>like ...<b>S</b></i><b>trunk and White</b><span>...</span><i>, but ... based on linguistics"</i><span> quite does justice to the idea.</span><br />
<span><br /></span>
But the last six words of this sentence<span> (a paragraph later)</span> let the cat out of the bag (revealing it to be a pig in a poke...? a mixed metaphor too far, perhaps):</div>
<blockquote>
<span>We've highlighted the most common mistakes according to Pinker using examples directly from his book <u>along with some of our own</u>.</span></blockquote>
As a result, it's impossible to identify the source of some of the slips (many of which I suspect aren't Pinker's, although I detect in some of his preferences that linguistic conservatism common in countries with a history of British colonialism: Canada, USA, Australia, India...).<br />
<blockquote>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">You might be shocked by how many words you've been very slightly misusing.</span></blockquote>
it warns in the sub-headline. Well, no and no. I first discussed such nostrums <a href="http://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-war-against-error.html">here</a>. More recently I wrote <a href="http://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2015/11/litigious-software-engineers.html">this</a>. But this topic seemed worth yet another visit.<br />
<br />
There is, in this list, a clutch of the <b>Usual Suspects</b> <i>disinterested/uninterested, hung/hanged.</i>..<br />
<blockquote>
<autobiographical_note><br />
which I can never read without hearing, in my mind's ear, Rex Harrison's</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div>
<span>By rights he should be taken out and hung</span></div>
<span></span><br />
<div>
<span>For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue</span></div>
<span>
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
in the soundtrack recording of<i> My Fair Lady</i>. Oh how we larfed.<br />
</autobiographical_note></blockquote>
<div>
... <i>depreciate/deprecate,</i> <i>flaunt/flout,</i> <i>irregardless,</i> <i>practical/practicable, proscribe/prescribe, protagonist/proponent, unexceptional/unexceptionable, effect/affect</i> (which I looked at a couple of years ago in <a href="http://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2013/12/enother-old-favorite.html">a post</a> entitled "Enother old favourite"}, <i>lie/lay</i>... <span>AHA</span></div>
<blockquote>
<eureka certainty="iffy"><br />
Perhaps alphabetization/lack thereof in the <i>Independent</i>'s list is a clue to the provenance of different items: Pinker's are alphabetical and the <i>Indy </i>threw in a few at the end to make it up to a round ... <span>hmm, not so much</span>...58.<br />
</eureka></blockquote>
But there are odd omissions and strange choices, identifying a problem area but citing an uncommon<i> </i> symptom <i>– </i><i>credulous, </i>for<i> </i>example, rather than <i>credible </i>whereas the chief solecism I've met is<i> incredulous/incredible</i> (which aren't mentioned). BNC finds 35 cases of <a href="http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/?c=bnc&q=43914183">credulous</a> and 428 of <a href="http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/?c=bnc&q=43914359">credible</a> but 171 of <a href="http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/?c=bnc&q=43914302">incredulous</a> and 1174 of <a href="http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/?c=bnc&q=43914359">incredible</a>. OK, a total of 1345 instances of <i>incredulous/incredible</i> don't imply that many instances of confusion, but they far outweigh those for <i>credulous/credible</i> (3:1) <i>–</i> that's three times more <i>occasions of sin</i> (as my RE teacher would have said).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX23K0r0Zas7O2QIpmkmgz0qsJg4toxxewv9Z13e0VFGdLAk9FJcOgSb6reNeecbeHb-65NfDTRzUsw4McqZ4JLurNp2uFAmul8H4Jf4HM4ZNGroT7EMeo_1Zi5wvX5kdto3tO7j6QRxs/s1600/interIntern.jpg"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX23K0r0Zas7O2QIpmkmgz0qsJg4toxxewv9Z13e0VFGdLAk9FJcOgSb6reNeecbeHb-65NfDTRzUsw4McqZ4JLurNp2uFAmul8H4Jf4HM4ZNGroT7EMeo_1Zi5wvX5kdto3tO7j6QRxs/w400-h380/interIntern.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>The fatal<i> inter/intern </i>confusion<br /><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And has anyone <i>ever </i>used <i>urban</i> <i>myth</i> to refer to someone like Al Capone, confused <i>meretricious </i>with <i>meritorious</i>, or used <i>New Age</i> to mean <i>futuristic</i>? Does anyone confuse <i>averse/adverse, inter/intern</i>...? Maybe they do in Canada.<br />
<br />
Also, there are assertions of "mistakes" that aren't mistaken, as for example:<br />
<blockquote>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Cliché </b>is a noun and is not an adjective</span></blockquote>
OK, some people believe that; British English dictionaries assert it. But <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cliche">Merriam-Websters</a>, for example, accepts it as either a noun or an adjective. I suspect the <i>Indy</i>'s simple (and <i>simplistic</i>...<br />
<blockquote>
<linguistic_mechanism><br />
Incidentally, this is how these once-decried (first <i>deprecated, </i>then <i>depreciated</i>, and ultimately accepted as standard) confusions commonly bear fruit. Cases arise where either is acceptable; and the process grinds on. And not just with words; also with grammatical forms. Guy Deutscher, recounts in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfolding-Language-Guy-Deutscher/dp/0099460254">The Unfolding of Language</a> how the 'going to' future arose from usages that referred to both travel <i>and </i>futurity: 'they are going to see him'. More of this in an update...<br />
</linguistic_mechanism></blockquote>
<div>
...) "A not B" does not reflect Pinker's careful academic aloofness. I suspect that the careful avoidance of <i>etyma </i>(who could define "meretricious" without referring to ladies of the night?) derives from Pinker's studious avoidance of the <a href="http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mean-destroy-one-tenth/">Etymological Fallacy</a> <i>– </i>discussed in several <i>Harmless Drudgery </i>posts. This "A not B" approach reflects that of the Reichenau Glossary, discussed <a href="http://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2012/11/whats-bald-about-bat.html">here</a>: <span>VESPERTILIONES </span>was <u>right</u>; <span>CALVAS SORICES</span> <u>wrong</u>. But, <b>irregardless</b>,<b> </b>a French bat is a <i>chauve</i>-<i>souris</i>.<span> </span><br />
<br />
So I must read Pinker's book; surely the <i>Indy</i>'s howler-ridden piece <i>can't </i>do justice to it? Who knows what Santa may bring?<br />
<br />
b</div>
<br />
PS And here are a couple of clues:<br />
<br />
<i>Profoundly disappointing: baby's male – begone!</i> (7)<br />
<i>Parental – sort of care before parturition.</i> (8)<br />
<br />
<i>Update 2015.12.21.11.10 – </i>Added afterthought <span>in blue</span>.<br />
<br />
<i>Update 2015.12.22.11.50</i> <i> – </i>Added picture; really <i>must </i>get an artist <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEglSuMheIpzDg4cgZ1M6eVSXSROtPmfYUF8nMBdr6PCrJua9oBww-St6K7mJVrkfkbTuMbOwUNvCgcJadGxCGWtkpQnHHZO0rYEYUr5bmdeX_8PG-hwISfSZxycfuqrLL8LChzb-s2MxXlv08EBfOzoABopuYxbbiXAFm7fB18="><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" title="Wink" /></a><br />
<br />
<i>Update 2016.04.06.17.25</i> <i> –</i> Added answer to 2nd clue (still working on the first...<i>anyone</i>?) and removed footer.<br />
<br />
PS <span>PRENATAL</span><br />
<span><br /></span>
<span><i>Update 2016.07.30.12.15</i><span> </span><i> –</i><span> A couple of typo fixes. I </span>STILL<span> can't get that first clue. </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEglSuMheIpzDg4cgZ1M6eVSXSROtPmfYUF8nMBdr6PCrJua9oBww-St6K7mJVrkfkbTuMbOwUNvCgcJadGxCGWtkpQnHHZO0rYEYUr5bmdeX_8PG-hwISfSZxycfuqrLL8LChzb-s2MxXlv08EBfOzoABopuYxbbiXAFm7fB18="><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" title="Wink" /></a><br />
<br />
@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-83233351738871416452024-01-16T11:07:00.350+00:002024-01-19T16:52:48.095+00:00Great Tits and American Chemists<p>This week's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gx15?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Nature Bang</a> on Radio 4 caught my attention, particularly because the <i>point de départ </i>was a study involvimg Great Tits, my single conquest in the birdsong recognition stakes...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(apart, of course from the easy and common Magpie and Jackdaw)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><p>.... The Great Tit's monotonous... <br /></p><blockquote><afterthought><br />(Strictly, more often than not <i>duo</i>tonous, although sometimes it replaces the second tone with a hoarse gasp...)<br /></afterthought></blockquote>...call is not uncommon hereabouts; and it's easily recognizable.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYYr3cbsy9M6CNwZNRgKS0fdVP8vfqv-cCTaK7zPMe8bTWokTYj671_OZFUnve9zNg_IYFK7jdrvpvAtomGAZ255IvYB8vLDXUPst9YQ4ZSEf4eT01G46XAZYDhah15dcXhOPHUOmn0G2lToof5-gVCLEXqpJ4XOMFMpci9aM7kk-qHXUuBH-jjfmPMlk" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As is the bird</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p>The study involved culture, and the influence of immigrants. It involved a puzzle (of course) and a number of <i>micropopulations</i>, each consisting of six birds. There was also a 'tutor bird', which had been trained to solve the puzzle the <i>wrong</i> way.</p><p></p>Left to themselves, the tits soon learnt the right way, and it entered their culture (incomers and new-borns picked it up). But when the tutor bird was introduced, the culture adopted the wrong way to solve the puzzle (there was still a solution, but not the most efficient one).<br /><p></p><p>Then a couple of immigrants were introduced to the group, and the puzzle was solved more efficiently...<br /></p><blockquote><observation summary="immigration 1, Farage 0"><br />(Conclusions about the costs/benefits of immigration are clear. I am reminded of Ruth Davidson's observation in this week's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vbyx?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Today Podcast</a>: she found it extraordinary that no political party, given the demographic facts of the UK's aging population and economic failure to thrive, was making the positive case for immigration. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gx15?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Nature Bang</a> simply flagged this issue up as 'political'; flag-wise though, my colours are nailed to the mast: it's a no-brainer – the benefits of immigration vastly outweigh the costs.)</blockquote><blockquote></observation></blockquote><p>... but the obvious conclusion ('immigrants introduce innovations') was found to be an over-simplification. It was not the incoming birds that introduced the innovation. The more experienced home-grown birds did that. But the wise old-timers, having found the right way, soon reverted to what they'd been trained to do. What the incomers did was recognize the improvement and – not feeling the weight of the dead hand of the misguided culture – adopt it as best practice. It then entered the culture, and was passed on to young birds</p><p>So it was with Great Tits. What about us? <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gx15?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Nature Bang</a> went on to consider Jewish emigrés' influence on US organic chemistry.<br /></p><blockquote><p><background><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Chemistry</b>, because innovation is documented at the Patent Office. Not all innovations are patented, but in the world of Big Pharma (for obvious financial reasons – innovations are either patented or not researched [so they don't happen in the first place]) they are. </li></ul></blockquote><blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Organic</b>, because in the 1930s US <i>in</i>organic chemistry was world-leading, but not organic (the warm/wet/messy stuff that involves life).</li></ul><p></p><p><span> </span></background></p></blockquote><p>Jewish organic chemists fleeing the Nazis (having been stripped of their livelihoods, though not yet their lives) brought new techniques and insights into the USA. And patents in organic chemistry boomed. But the new patents were not registered by the immigrants themselves. Young American scientists developed the immigrants' ideas.</p><p></p><p> There was lots more in that edition of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gx15?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Nature Bang</a>. Give it a go.</p><p>b</p><p></p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-68279920768885571942024-01-10T09:55:00.317+00:002024-01-29T15:40:44.582+00:00Translation News<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Work on my next translation (an entry for the <a href="https://bcla.org/prizes-awards/john-dryden-translation-competition/">John Dryden Translation Competition</a>) has been accompanied by the Royal Mail delivery from Hell. It seemed promising enough on Monday: 'next day delivery before 1.00pm'. But 'next day', starting on Monday, should be Tuesday, and Royal Mail's final date gives the game away:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLNtMyDJBIyEpX-yTj2VNRjMJK7wRlGFpLAVN3jvqahpCvFmPGTVfS-BlQXl5otZx2-kOH9eTp9aKlOGxYvfGVeuVaaP5AP_ypUVtJdYvqtTjOsxdNw6ZuW9-n_eoi-cozJ5eibnivAwfcgaTKaoLsN2JvlaA5B2VE6GaoAJ_0LEgXei3TqjO_WNwS4Q/s434/DeliveryEnfin.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="434" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLNtMyDJBIyEpX-yTj2VNRjMJK7wRlGFpLAVN3jvqahpCvFmPGTVfS-BlQXl5otZx2-kOH9eTp9aKlOGxYvfGVeuVaaP5AP_ypUVtJdYvqtTjOsxdNw6ZuW9-n_eoi-cozJ5eibnivAwfcgaTKaoLsN2JvlaA5B2VE6GaoAJ_0LEgXei3TqjO_WNwS4Q/w640-h494/DeliveryEnfin.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">So what happened on Tuesday (apart from stalwart manning of the front door, </span><i style="text-align: left;">obvs</i><span style="text-align: left;">)?</span></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdVz6flM42eSUmGcc5bqfuytgDa_ji8xbFimQEBF1ZPnBpt2DSy6lpzAChnHkrAR6BXPZGUeadZJ8xHjOrAjcpncknGlyloZjBSX7w0fGJnqutZLrUoEOcWZKXe4oTlWkyOrHFBwn-Ohz2odYgleHoU3UGwkVqbzvTWCvhSuaeY0cthpY7yc7IRKg_0wI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdVz6flM42eSUmGcc5bqfuytgDa_ji8xbFimQEBF1ZPnBpt2DSy6lpzAChnHkrAR6BXPZGUeadZJ8xHjOrAjcpncknGlyloZjBSX7w0fGJnqutZLrUoEOcWZKXe4oTlWkyOrHFBwn-Ohz2odYgleHoU3UGwkVqbzvTWCvhSuaeY0cthpY7yc7IRKg_0wI" width="400" /></a></div><p>The package was in 'Swindon MC' (whatever <i>that</i> is) and it stayed there long after the promised delivery time. Nearly 16 hours after arriving at 'Swindon MC' it was passed, just before midnight, to 'Swindon MC'. So Wednesday dawned. And on Wednesday many things happened at 'Reading DO' (which I imagine is a Distribution Office, though to judge by the <span style="font-size: x-small;">TEN </span>entries in the tracking log it might as well stand for Dithering and Obfuscation. Perhaps it was a software glitch (oh no, that's the Post Office).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p>But the package did arrive in the end. Lucky it wasn't urgent.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">AOB</h3><p></p><div dir="auto"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">Before Christmas I wrote – rather hurriedly...<br /><blockquote><path-not-trodden> </blockquote><blockquote>(I originally planned to vary the refrain, but with looming deadlines – both <i>The Times</i>'s and homelier ones – I just cutNpasted the 'honest mistake' bit) </blockquote><blockquote></path-not-trodden></blockquote><p>... – this: </p></span></span></div><div dir="auto"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div dir="auto"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">God rest ye merry, gentlemen of the HMRC <br />Who calculate the way to raise the costs</span></span> of <span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span><span style="background-color: white;">decency </span></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So we can hold our heads up in the world community </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh that's what it takes to be a Mensch</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Pardon my French)</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh that's what it takes to be a Mensch .</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then Nadhim Zahawi got to be the taxman's boss</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And found his business interests were set to make a loss</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unless he cooked the books a bit (whoever'd give a toss?)</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 'It was only an ho-onest mistake</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honest mistake</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was only an ho-onest mistake.'</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then Rishi's post-Truss cabinet began to give him grief</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nadhim became a Minister without a working brief</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No clash of int'rest possible, now that was a relief </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'It was only an ho-onest mistake</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honest mistake.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was only an ho-onest mistake.'</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In January Rishi made a show of being fair</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so Nadhim Zahawi was bumped down to party chair</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He really couldn't mess with things, no clash of int'rest - there </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'It was only an ho-onest mistake</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honest mistake.'</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some may think that he was really on the take.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></div></blockquote><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would have taken up about a fifth of the space available in <i>The Times</i> Diary, so I'm not surprised it didn't lead to fame/fortune/national acclaim. But I'm my own gatekeeper...<br /><blockquote><buzzword_du_jour><br />(reference to a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v3j4?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">not-very-satisfying piece</a> on the radio today, with a particularly lame ending)<br /><buzzword_du_jour></blockquote>... so you've got it – like it or not.,</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy New Year.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Update 2024.01.29.15:00</i> – Added PS</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PS</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's done and submitted. As usual, the entry form (specifically the requirements for the naming of files) left something to be despaired. </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></div><blockquote><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><rantette></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(and no, that's not a typo). As someone who used to be paid to write instructions (and did </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Courses</span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> to prove it, with certificates and everything [which I forbore to stick on my wall] I find the attempts of the well-meaning academical committee charged with writing and rewriting the rules an annual trial).</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After failing to make head or tail of some instructions, which led me to damage a newly-bought tool, I wrote (<a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2015/01/ah-me-surplus.html">here</a>)</span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">They might as well ship these things </span><i style="color: black;">pre-broken</i><span style="color: black;"> </span><img alt="" border="0" class="inlineimg" src="https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/images/smilies/new_ukliam2.gif" style="color: black;" title="#Onfire" /><span style="color: black;"> – it'd save a lot of bother.</span></div><span style="color: black;"><br />Nothing broken this time though, if you don't count a few brain cells.</span><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></rantette></span></div></blockquote><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></span></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-84416364787404498802023-12-30T17:35:00.111+00:002024-02-22T09:59:18.299+00:00Red-faced hunter<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4y55?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Crowd Science</a>'s end-of-year round-up led me to this 2017 article in <a href="https://theconversation.com/stars-that-vary-in-brightness-shine-in-the-oral-traditions-of-aboriginal-australians-85833">The Conversation</a>, which - among other things, recounts this astronomical symbolism from the aboriginal lore of Australia:</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><blockquote><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Kokatha oral tradition from the Great Victoria Desert tells of Nyeeruna, a vain hunter who comprises the same stars, in the same orientation, as the Greek Orion.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He is in love with the Yugarilya sisters of the Pleiades, but they are timid and shy away from his advances. Their eldest sister, Kambugudha (the Hyades star cluster), protects her younger sisters.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nyreeuna creates fire-magic in his right hand (Betelgeuse) to overpower Kambugudha, so he can reach the sisters. She counters this with her own fire magic in her left foot (Aldebaran), which she uses to kick dust into Nyreeuna’s face. This humiliates Nyreeuna and his fire-magic dissipates.</p></blockquote><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p></p><blockquote><blockquote><idle-musing><br />I wonder why both the Aborigines and the Greeks a few thousand years later decided that this constellation represented a hunter. No time for further research though.<br /></idle-musing></blockquote></blockquote><p></p><p>The title of <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAHH...21....7S/abstract">this paper</a> rather gives the game away. </p><h1 class="title mathjax" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8em; line-height: 27.9936px; margin-block: 12px; margin-inline-start: 20px; margin: 0.25em 0px 12px 20px; text-align: center;">Yes, Aboriginal Australians Can and Did Discover the Variability of Betelgeuse</h1><div><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><comment><br />No prizes for the sequence of tenses, but it <i>is</i> only a preprint – not that that makes much difference...<br /><blockquote><editorial-note><br />In my experience as a technical writer (what I did didn't undergo 'peer-review' – in name, at least – but it was reviewed by my peers), peer review doesn't improve the writing; quite the reverse <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– it invites the influence of numerous mutually-exclusive grammatical bugbears. It <i>may</i> improve academic rigour, but it doesn't improve readability.</span> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></editorial-note></span></blockquote><p>... Come to think of it, hasn't it been peer-reviewed yet? <br /></comment></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p></p></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;">Recently, a widely publicized claim has been made that the Aboriginal Australians discovered the variability of the red star Betelgeuse in the modern Orion, plus the variability of two other prominent red stars: Aldebaran and Antares. This result has excited the usual healthy skepticism, with questions about whether any untrained peoples can discover the variability and whether such a discovery is likely to be placed into lore and transmitted for long periods of time. Here, I am offering an independent evaluation, based on broad experience with naked-eye sky viewing and astro-history. I find that it is easy for inexperienced observers to detect the variability of Betelgeuse over its range in brightness from V = 0.0 to V = 1.3, for example in noticing from season-to-season that the star varies from significantly brighter than Procyon to being greatly fainter than Procyon. Further, indigenous peoples in the Southern Hemisphere inevitably kept watch on the prominent red star, so it is inevitable that the variability of Betelgeuse was discovered many times over during the last 65 millennia. The processes of placing this discovery into a cultural context (in this case, put into morality stories) and the faithful transmission for many millennia is confidently known for the Aboriginal Australians in particular. So this shows that the whole claim for a changing Betelgeuse in the Aboriginal Australian lore is both plausible and likely. Given that the discovery and transmission is easily possible, the real proof is that the Aboriginal lore gives an unambiguous statement that these stars do indeed vary in brightness, as collected by many ethnographers over a century ago from many Aboriginal groups. So I strongly conclude that the Aboriginal Australians could and did discover the variability of Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Antares.</blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;">L'Envoi</h3><div>Interesting pattern in the waxing and waning (see what he did there?) of interest in Harmless Drudgery, not boding well for January 2024😗:</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPZN91fNjpSi2nGXZpHjNyfacF9NeMSKOdg_YxG5zCO7LBKYA41lX_8j2SNGRpYKbLX6OmCt4wO0v_lafygwALM5fGjbiL5k3hMdZHFEN3XcqrSMYQCKalq9OKvEXpvuaiUPREji2aM6Z9Q11Nc6u4KPoeZ_W0M1qi7umv456os3DhXulhT0OIJZKAYG8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="862" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPZN91fNjpSi2nGXZpHjNyfacF9NeMSKOdg_YxG5zCO7LBKYA41lX_8j2SNGRpYKbLX6OmCt4wO0v_lafygwALM5fGjbiL5k3hMdZHFEN3XcqrSMYQCKalq9OKvEXpvuaiUPREji2aM6Z9Q11Nc6u4KPoeZ_W0M1qi7umv456os3DhXulhT0OIJZKAYG8=w640-h274" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Signing off for 2023.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">b</div><i><br />Update: 2024.02.22.10.00</i> – Typo /format fixes.</div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-68726054272966741482023-12-17T18:33:00.092+00:002023-12-19T16:55:45.313+00:00A tradition resurrected<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Angelus ad virginem subintrans in conclave</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: large;">Virginis formidinem demulcens inquit 'Ave' ... <br></i><br><div style="text-align: left;">...as we sang last Saturday at All Saints Wokingham (at a concert that I <i>did</i> mention last time (so if you missed it you've only yourself to blame [and the 200+ people who came had a marvellous time]).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">Resurrecting a practice observed several times in the early days of this blog....</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><rip></div><div style="text-align: left;">The earliest instance is <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2014/12/foggies-special-christmas-carol.html">here</a>. I was reminded of it by the passing of a friend and erstwhile colleague {and long-valued commenter on this blog}, who would surely have ticked the <span style="font-family: courier;">No publicity</span> box, so I shan't name her.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></rip></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">... when I marked the festive season by taking a carol to bits, I am today looking at <i>Angelus ad virginem</i>; but just the first two lines as there's plenty to detain me there; and I'll begin <i>in medias res</i>, or more accurately <i>in medias primae lineae</i>: <i>subintrans</i>. Like the first word of that sentence ("resurrecting") it's a way of referring to an event without saying '<i><x></i> happened'. It's a present participle, or – to use the CELTA-approved abomination – "the -ing form". And it kicks off with two prepositions. the second one belonging to the verb <i>intrare</i>, which means, as you may have guessed, "to enter". But before that it says <i>sub</i>-, referring to the direction adopted by any angel worth his salt: downwards. He (it was a feller – you can tell that from the -<i>us) </i>came down into the <i>conclave</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><anachronism-warning><br>I am anything but an expert on domestic door furniture in <i>nought-th</i>-century Palestine, but I suspect Mary's room was not lockable. Readers of a musical bent will know from klavier and clef and clavichord that the -<i>clave</i> bit of <i>conclave</i> is a key. The clavicle is so-called because of its shape (not a Yale of course; more the sort of thing you might see on a medieval jailor's keyring.) And followers of papal doings will recognize the word 'conclave'; when the cardinals are electing a new Pope there's a lock-in to concentrate their minds.</blockquote><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9dOi2Ez-w7_87d0qHGS5QdZSt1zHgZAsVQ_x1buzMOfApW3vtlrDjZmVzvEgUvLZs2dpVglMPCJ9EdaPRVA6aExDoP3nWysMS2ccKsODfeh0Xc83pZA33fR7zuR2-z5UkSdi21j3pizGU-QWhnAkUXtD7_4f-UFNykHnjsH77uFrOteM0WNy4gDYcFxc" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9dOi2Ez-w7_87d0qHGS5QdZSt1zHgZAsVQ_x1buzMOfApW3vtlrDjZmVzvEgUvLZs2dpVglMPCJ9EdaPRVA6aExDoP3nWysMS2ccKsODfeh0Xc83pZA33fR7zuR2-z5UkSdi21j3pizGU-QWhnAkUXtD7_4f-UFNykHnjsH77uFrOteM0WNy4gDYcFxc=w230-h400" width="230"></a></p><blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><equivalent-anachronism></div><div style="text-align: left;">The one that everyone quotes is Shakespeare's clock chiming the hour in <i>Julius Caesar</i>. And the one in this Annunciation scene involves a similar timespan: from the year dot (when the angel comes down) to a medieval technology (when they have doors with locks). Caesar's Rome <i>did </i>have an audible marking of time, just monthly rather than hourly, and not mechanical: the ritual <u>cal</u>ling out of the new month, which gives us the word <u>cal</u>endar, as noted by <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/calendar">Etymonline</a>:</div><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></equivalent-anachronism> </p></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9dOi2Ez-w7_87d0qHGS5QdZSt1zHgZAsVQ_x1buzMOfApW3vtlrDjZmVzvEgUvLZs2dpVglMPCJ9EdaPRVA6aExDoP3nWysMS2ccKsODfeh0Xc83pZA33fR7zuR2-z5UkSdi21j3pizGU-QWhnAkUXtD7_4f-UFNykHnjsH77uFrOteM0WNy4gDYcFxc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</a>
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"></anachronism-warning></div></blockquote><p> Whereupon the girl had ants in her pants....<br></p><blockquote><autobiographical-note><br>(at least, I suppose that's where <i>formidinis</i> gets its meaning – from <i>formis</i> [=ant]). By using this colloquialism I would no doubt incur the wrath of Mrs Batty, a primary school teacher who thought that my daughter's "Mary was gobsmacked" (in a retelling of the Annunciation) was inappropriately irreverent. In <i>my</i> view it was a brilliant use of the vernacular, showing extraordinarily rich vocabulary in a 6-year-old (though maybe I'm biased).<br></autobiographical-note></blockquote><p>... and the angel showed remarkable obtuseness in assuming that a simple "<i>Ave</i>" would <i>demulcere</i> anyone... </p><p></p><blockquote><gloss><br>The -<i>mul-</i> part of <i>demulcens</i> is presumably related to our "<u>mol</u>lify".<br></gloss></blockquote><p>...They'd win no prizes for self-awareness, these angels. </p><p></p><p>That's enough for now. I'm half-expecting a review of the concert, but if it happens it'll have to go in an update.</p><p><br></p><p>b</p><p></p></div></div><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-78871285874549016202023-12-05T16:16:00.132+00:002023-12-07T11:47:10.139+00:00The 'Oh yes it IS' Bill<p> In last Sunday's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001t2sx">The Week in Westminster</a> they were discussing the rights and wrongs of the Rwanda 'policy'...<br /></p><blockquote><oh-yeah><br />(less of a policy, it seems to me, than a gamble on the possible outcome of a tiny symbolic gesture)<br /></oh-yeah></blockquote><p>.... Sir Robert Buckland ...<br /></p><blockquote><autobiographical-note><br />(any relation, I wonder, of Graham Buckland, with whom I used to sing in Corpus Chapel Choir?)<br /></autobiographical-note></blockquote>... repeated the view reported in the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/robert-buckland-echr-conservative-northern-ireland-rwanda-b1124442.html">Evening Standard </a>last week:<p></p><p></p><div class="sc-cAkrUM gMfAlG" style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-block: 1.5rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="sc-fAGzit gBQMFw" style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The ECHR<i> [HD: European Court of Human Rights]</i> underpins the very fabric of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement,” he told the BBC Sunday Politics programme.</p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />He added: “To ignore that reality in the context of a debate about migration would be to threaten and endanger the Good Friday/Belfast process and once again undermine the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.<br /><br />“I think it would be a foolish or rash move… the wrong step and a very un-Conservative step for colleagues to take bearing in mind it was Conservative lawyers and politicians who helped draft the convention in those years after the war.</p></blockquote><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The '<i>Oh yes it IS</i>' Bill responds to the Supreme Court's ruling that the policy would be illegal because Rwanda was not safe, by hastily throwing some more money at Rwanda...<br /></p><blockquote><weasel-words><br />(Of course the official line is that they're not spending any more. But there are new procedures and restrictions that will inevitably mean more money is spent – not to mention the ongoing legal costs (millions) foreseen by Geoffrey Robertson KC in a recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001t3ft?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">World at One.</a>)<br /></weasel-words></blockquote><br /> ...and decreeing that oh yes it is, so that's all right</div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But this one will run and run; it's a moving target. Latest news is that the Immigration Minister...<br /></div><blockquote><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><parenthesis><br />(whose name I can't dissociate from the smell of pilchards, because of a near-pun: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih56hn_MpIiPTgTNC-XWSefbQbZLBQm9I6T_ImZlfq2y-V6IEhHJR-YsYa_o2_zS_vjK3JvpJk4PVfLt91EIV9EMfGQwoH-vZSyPUkW9cxIjEy5chJy5A6PgYPhr1I_ic7L143be4efcKBfJxa57vj3jg2y98iNxofz59ufs6Jz28bWcYD9FtAFs5TgMk/s477/glenryck.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="307" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih56hn_MpIiPTgTNC-XWSefbQbZLBQm9I6T_ImZlfq2y-V6IEhHJR-YsYa_o2_zS_vjK3JvpJk4PVfLt91EIV9EMfGQwoH-vZSyPUkW9cxIjEy5chJy5A6PgYPhr1I_ic7L143be4efcKBfJxa57vj3jg2y98iNxofz59ufs6Jz28bWcYD9FtAFs5TgMk/w129-h200/glenryck.png" width="129" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></parenthesis></p></div></blockquote><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />... having introduced the Bill, has disavowed it as insufficiently inhumane and done a runner to the back benches to plot with Attila the Hen.</p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It's hard not to agree with Alastair Campbell in last week's <i>The Rest Is Politics</i> that the Tories have given up on governing and are spending their inevitable last few months laying political traps for an incoming Labour administration.<br /></p><blockquote><image authorship="mine not Campbell's><br />(Not unlike the Wagner group pulling out of Ukraine but leaving behind a devil's brew of booby traps and landmines)<br /></image> </blockquote>But I've got better things to do than chart the hissy-fits of HMG, notably, preparation for this:<br /><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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</div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div>It's already selling well, and should be a blast. Hokum all ye faithful.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">b</div></div></div></div><p><br /></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-77427539159877031992023-11-27T20:32:00.066+00:002023-12-02T16:06:01.499+00:00So farewell then, Twittter<p> I have had a presence on Twitter since 2009. I wrote about it <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2017/08/little-birdies-in-their-nests-agree.html">here:</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p><pre-script><br />I came late to Twitter, though <i>late</i> is relative (I followed Stephen Fry ...</p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><apologia><br />Don't judge. I'm not just a star-struck celebrity-stalker. we are fellow near-contemporaries (a few years apart) at <a href="https://www.cambridgefootlights.org/">CU Footlights</a>, and have a number of connections and interests in common.<br /></apologia></blockquote><br />...before he reached 20,000 followers and he's now at about 13 million). At the 2008 <a href="http://www.languageshowlive.co.uk/london">Language Show</a> I saw a talk given by the amazing Joe Dale, and <i>he</i> recommended it. But I resisted until I saw him again at the 2009<b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">PPS</span></sup></b> Language Show, and since then I've been an <i>aficionado</i> and a user (rather more than some might wish....) </blockquote><blockquote>... </blockquote><blockquote><b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">PPS</span></sup></b> With some regret, I have cancelled my <span style="font-family: courier;">@BobK99</span> account (because of Twitter's new Ts&Cs, the gist of which is "Everything you write or link to is ours to do with as we will, and we have the right to pass it on willy-nilly to third parties of our choice"), keeping my toe in the water ...<br /><div></pre-script></div></blockquote><div>That 'toe in the water' was an account called <span style="font-family: courier;">@leBobEnchaine</span>. (Sadly, twitter tags couldn't handle diacritics.)<br /><blockquote><aha> <br />A cheap alternative to a guard dog is a chained duck, which makes a fuss when anyone comes near. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8noDZiPhzWK2ZLT8E4GPWl5Sp1clhJGbYqIKXn6Wc4EWerzl0I7D0OzJ7IUbXoZwy-EJ_DJlWsM3lEt_YrNkTY385Fw39Om9_D9IQzC0dT-QrpU2juoHFp9aovpf-1B3Z8m7AC0EMkd7PynYfzyhFNtfKok9UuUf_Blyu4CeJZKRRl9csG83hJ__icno/s896/duckSign.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="896" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8noDZiPhzWK2ZLT8E4GPWl5Sp1clhJGbYqIKXn6Wc4EWerzl0I7D0OzJ7IUbXoZwy-EJ_DJlWsM3lEt_YrNkTY385Fw39Om9_D9IQzC0dT-QrpU2juoHFp9aovpf-1B3Z8m7AC0EMkd7PynYfzyhFNtfKok9UuUf_Blyu4CeJZKRRl9csG83hJ__icno/s320/duckSign.png" width="320" /></a></div>Hence, I realized when coining this monicker, <i>Le Canard Enchaîné </i>(which shouted out a warning whenever poiticians did their usual thing). Maybe there was a tradition in France of using chained ducks like this, or maybe the satirical periodical just thought it would be a good idea. <span style="font-family: helvetica;">For Further Study...</span></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote></aha></blockquote><blockquote><aha2 type="totally irrelevant”><span> </span><br />It's just struck me that the dunnock is the original 'Little Brown Job', as birders say; <i>dun</i> means brown and <i>-ock</i> is a diminutive suffix. They don't come littler or browner than a dunnock.<br /></aha2></blockquote><p>Then along came Elon Musk, wantonly (not to say wastefully) changing the name and disturbing his neighbours' sleep patterns with a garish sign that trumpeted his wastefulness. NBC News reporrted:<br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/flashing-x-sign-twitter-building-appears-come-rcna97443" style="font-family: var(--article-hero-headline--htag--font-family); font-size: large; font-weight: var(--article-hero-headline--htag--font-weight);">Flashing 'X' sign at Twit</a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/flashing-x-sign-twitter-building-appears-come-rcna97443" style="font-family: var(--article-hero-headline--htag--font-family); font-size: large; font-weight: var(--article-hero-headline--htag--font-weight);">ter building is taken down</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">The flashing “X” sign above the San Francisco building formerly known as Twitter’s headquarters has been removed, video shows, days after it went up and caused complaints about the nighttime display.</span></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; text-align: center;">... San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection issued a notice of violation Friday after the "X", which did not have a permit, was erected on the roof, department spokesman Patrick Hannan said.</p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">There had been 24 complaints made about the sign over the weekend, including because its lights, he said</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Not only conspicuous consumption but conspicuous waste. 'I've got money to burn and I don't care if the great unwashed can't get to sleep.'</div><p></p><p>But much worse than this was his evisceration of the staff that kept the lid on the most flagrant hate-speech, generally firing the starting pistol on a race to the bottom. This has made it less and less comfortable to be a part of the community.</p><p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05299nl">Newscast</a> has for several months been espousing an extension to its community, based on an app with the unpromising (not to say unappetising) name <span style="font-family: courier;">discord</span>; so unappetising is it that until now I have resisted <i>Newscast's</i> repeated invitations to sign up. I don't want discord (the abstract noun, not the app); that's what the new Twitter is about – discord and trollery and unbridled misinformation and ill-informed reflex pile-ons.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><parenthesis><br />When I first met this neologism (fairly recently) I tried to make the meaning of <i>pylon</i> fit; and I think the term 'neologism' is justified. The verb 'pile on' has been around for over a century: <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/pile">Etymonline</a> says </p><p></p><blockquote>'<span style="background-color: #fffcf2; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Figurative verbal phrase </span><span class="foreign notranslate" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-color: #fffcf2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">pile on</span></span><span style="background-color: #fffcf2; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"> "attack vigorously, attack en masse," is attested by 1894, American English</span></blockquote><span style="background-color: #fffcf2; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><p></p>But this excerpt from <span style="background-color: #fffcf2;"> </span><a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pile-on">Collins</a><span style="background-color: #fffcf2;"> </span>suggests that the noun (hyphenated if you don't mind) is a much more recent coining: 21st century, I'd say.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></parenthesis></span></blockquote><p>So I'm leaving Twitter to its own devices and dipping my toe in <span style="font-family: courier;">discord</span> (the app, not the abstract noun)</p><p><br /></p><p>b.</p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span><br /></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-27178305039937459932023-11-22T16:01:00.001+00:002024-01-08T19:38:10.539+00:00Easy enough for YOU to sayMany years ago I wrote <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2014/05/but-that-was-in-another-country.html">here</a> about an interesting experiment involving speakers of a second language (and newish readers may want to catch up there). But since that post several more reports have appeared, notably these three:<div><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/696182">One in 2017 </a>(which I mentioned in an update to that old post). It asked:</li></ul><blockquote>If you could save the lives of five people by pushing another bystander in front of a train to his death, would you do it? And should it make any difference if that choice is presented in a language you speak, but isn't your native tongue? </blockquote><blockquote>Psychologists at the University of Chicago found in past research that people facing such a dilemma while communicating in a foreign language are far more willing to sacrifice the bystander than those using their native tongue. In a paper published Aug. 14 in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Psychological Science</em>, the UChicago researchers take a major step toward understanding why that happens.</blockquote><span face=""Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"></span><blockquote><span face=""Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"></span><blockquote><span face=""Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">"Until now, we and others have described how using a foreign language affects the way that we think," said Boaz Keysar, the UChicago psychology professor in whose lab the research was conducted. "We always had explanations, but they were not tested directly. This is really the first paper that explains why, with evidence."</span> </blockquote></blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://theconversation.com/you-are-more-likely-to-deny-the-truth-in-your-second-language-82193?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1515521955">This, in 2018</a> which said</li></ul><blockquote>Whether you’re speaking in your native tongue, or in another language, being understood and believed is fundamental to good communication. After all, a fact is a fact in any language, and a statement that is objectively true should just be considered true, whether presented to you in English, Chinese or Arabic.<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnKpTalkDDfsxi20Ci08kL3M1NHML1DsTbSZ8rZoR5595bFOj7dIUVGxp8Z8_0Ds8kL5IBsQzIbWHZLA2vgjUx5nN6C2377lr1MzPWoT_CwtwghdfMgXHZDk1td056igSRoq09gLD5vK0VkfnnvG5odQXrCAJ9Hhfn01uIpAuUqKkuTce1vhJHaxBsxCs/s1469/truth-2lang.png" style="background-color: white; clear: left; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="1469" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnKpTalkDDfsxi20Ci08kL3M1NHML1DsTbSZ8rZoR5595bFOj7dIUVGxp8Z8_0Ds8kL5IBsQzIbWHZLA2vgjUx5nN6C2377lr1MzPWoT_CwtwghdfMgXHZDk1td056igSRoq09gLD5vK0VkfnnvG5odQXrCAJ9Hhfn01uIpAuUqKkuTce1vhJHaxBsxCs/w400-h198/truth-2lang.png" width="400" /></a><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px;">However, our research suggests that the </span><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/article/languages-flex-cultural-thinking/3026230AFC5B62364128A5D2E633D244" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: #4b4b4e; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;">perception of truth is slippery</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px;"> when viewed through the prism of different languages and cultures. So much so that people who speak two languages can accept a fact in one of their languages, while denying it in the other.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/19/if-you-speak-multiple-languages-which-words-get-lost-in-translation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">2019 article</a> nearly lost me at the first headline:</li></ul><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"></span></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">If you speak multiple languages,</span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">which words get lost in translation</span></blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Um</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit;">... This is a bugbear (and one that I'm not proud of, but </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Hier stehe ich; ich kan nicht anders...</i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><silly, moi?></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">(Luther's way of denying all knowledge of anyone called Andrew? <span style="font-size: x-small;">[Note: </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>kan/kann</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> pun.]</span><br /></span></silly, moi?></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">...) I don't speak 'multiple languages' (</span><i>sic</i><span style="font-style: inherit;">). I speak </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: inherit;">SEVERAL</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit;">. I know I'm swimming against the tide here, and many dictionaries disagree; but in my view a 'multiple pile-up' is one that involves </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>several</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit;"> vehicles. It seems to me lazy and irresponsible to take one word, meaningful in its own context, and pass that meaning willy-nilly onto a passing word that just happens to be in the vicinity. The dictionaries are licensing </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>Humpty-Dumpy</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit;">ism. (I know...).</span></blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">But luckily I managed to ignore the sub-editor's contribution and read about the actual research:</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: inherit;"></span></blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><div><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: inherit;">A new study has demonstrated that while words for emotions such as “fear”, “love” or “anger” are often directly translated between languages, there can be differences in their true meaning, depending on the family the language belongs to.</span> </blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote><div><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: inherit;">For example, while the concept of “love” is closely linked to “like” and “want” in Indo-European languages, it is more closely associated with “pity” in Austronesian languages.</span></blockquote></div></blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p>This looked worthy of note. But unfortunately the article was just a filler, and was simply a vehicle for a <i>vox pop</i> inviting speculation about the difference between <i>heraeth</i> (Welsh nostalgia) and <i>saudade</i> (Portuguese nostalgia) <br /></p><blockquote><ducking_and_covering><br /><i>Pacete</i> Welsh and Portuguese separatists, I <span style="font-size: x-small;">KNOW</span>. I just find all this 'Fifty words for snow' stuff rather tiresome. Natural languages are uniquely expressive, each in its own way. End of. If you want to amass examples, immerse yourself in one (or more).<br /></ducking_and_covering></blockquote><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><p>I imagine there are some post-pandemic contributions to this issue, but there are things to do, so they'll have to wait for an Update.</p><p>b</p><blockquote><div><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; grid-area: headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; 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--tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(51,168,204,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p></div></blockquote></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-87561545374846028322023-11-17T10:05:00.003+00:002023-11-19T16:35:54.731+00:00We'll see about THAT<p>Writing in an online forum for learners of English (<a href="http://usingenglish.com">usingenglish.com</a>) earlier this week I asserted "the subjunctive is much less common in British English than in American English". I was supported by people whose views I have learned to be sound, but I still felt that an assertion like that needed some quantitative support.</p><p>As usual my first port of call was the <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/">British National Corpus</a>. The search string I used was <span style="font-family: courier;">that there be</span> – a fairly crude choice, but an unquestionable one. The BNC is a 100 million word corpus, and in all that text (mostly written...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />BNC has 90% writtten sources, and only 10% spoken. But my guess is that the subjunctive is more common in formal writing rather than in speech. This search in the (very much bigger) <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/hansard/">Hansard corpus</a> supports this preference: </blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu7ZKJ2Oa0iYOkbD6l-Af4y_s_FrdFJXiXeY8NQLNwt_l7gR1DHwvx1JnyujZ2XqrylEtp4JJ6R9fvEho60P68-44_eiDocywj4cJD2BESg0QOmybdtnRb8bU9bn0xCO2gZBepM0l3u0p4h1YkPRbMHROARFcdZLBkbfnmQ9vfR-mRpVYqzdYWuUplqmw/s967/HansardSubj.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="967" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu7ZKJ2Oa0iYOkbD6l-Af4y_s_FrdFJXiXeY8NQLNwt_l7gR1DHwvx1JnyujZ2XqrylEtp4JJ6R9fvEho60P68-44_eiDocywj4cJD2BESg0QOmybdtnRb8bU9bn0xCO2gZBepM0l3u0p4h1YkPRbMHROARFcdZLBkbfnmQ9vfR-mRpVYqzdYWuUplqmw/w400-h118/HansardSubj.png" width="400" /></a></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></parenthesis></blockquote>....) it found only 69 instances:<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzi2Pce5sR90m1iqc9JNU3p-bGFWuCMFFOjTHXRqzDdnPZh2AO8Mko9ABGUic5P2uAZPvM8fH38viNMpHxcxrDtpPR5GEVRDtfCfx5mmtElwY8bdk14nkgSQ9VCS2mPn9Hw4h4mkJXaMkQ4RztKhIZsZWcG_euAvI8zDZsI3wJPMoHEyqYhT6jZKU-5A/s780/BNCthatThereBe.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="780" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzi2Pce5sR90m1iqc9JNU3p-bGFWuCMFFOjTHXRqzDdnPZh2AO8Mko9ABGUic5P2uAZPvM8fH38viNMpHxcxrDtpPR5GEVRDtfCfx5mmtElwY8bdk14nkgSQ9VCS2mPn9Hw4h4mkJXaMkQ4RztKhIZsZWcG_euAvI8zDZsI3wJPMoHEyqYhT6jZKU-5A/w400-h121/BNCthatThereBe.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>There are various ways of making up for this uncommonness, but probably the most popular is the interpolation of 'should' – which yields nearly 8 times as many hits:</div><div><br /></div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkqoKa3eV9UM_DzCBa86JgY8rsV0SWUkHfLxVeZq4pyxHkjDFYZQfQSkPIYkYkMwRY-D5rljmh9Zbkjv8N2A8cu-pPuo7mwzSE9Fwh_wBrq-LZftDUSj_u9UvU2YKqE87XWRQkPRRRxvsw3P7dfnftvPiBaZgkpiKr1A8hPS3sHoUQW9zPTmGffuJAxI/s774/BNCthatThereShdBe.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="774" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkqoKa3eV9UM_DzCBa86JgY8rsV0SWUkHfLxVeZq4pyxHkjDFYZQfQSkPIYkYkMwRY-D5rljmh9Zbkjv8N2A8cu-pPuo7mwzSE9Fwh_wBrq-LZftDUSj_u9UvU2YKqE87XWRQkPRRRxvsw3P7dfnftvPiBaZgkpiKr1A8hPS3sHoUQW9zPTmGffuJAxI/w400-h124/BNCthatThereShdBe.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>That's the picture for British English. The <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/">Corpus of Contemporary American English</a> is much bigger than <i>BNC </i>– 10 times the size, and more recently updated – but the figure is impressive:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKzr2jU46DxyT4VHu2e64iI8mepR4je3picismUm6ODGqzfHQ6HImX7q7CwRpbnS-6Fo03on41EA3b2l3n-QC3TVt2yyZNCmWkryCoki8ltvBDvvy_ZGeKmlYk1V44jVbbnDduy-jevwT9YfjSo1vjK4-MQdck4tHcAzg2_XmQoCFwog-_CpWpe9EX1P8/s779/COCAthatThereBe.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="779" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKzr2jU46DxyT4VHu2e64iI8mepR4je3picismUm6ODGqzfHQ6HImX7q7CwRpbnS-6Fo03on41EA3b2l3n-QC3TVt2yyZNCmWkryCoki8ltvBDvvy_ZGeKmlYk1V44jVbbnDduy-jevwT9YfjSo1vjK4-MQdck4tHcAzg2_XmQoCFwog-_CpWpe9EX1P8/w400-h111/COCAthatThereBe.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The 'should' workaround, on the other hand, is less common (just over twice as many hits in a corpus 10 times the size): <br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7lPrgk32ux1Z-k5zcv1it0Ccx5SePbVig66pSLKOsjsn2SFUFvZt0IvjjUWeDyAp7BWVmXQWpfAHrQKdt9jRVjn275-UvwNCJqZcPDJha1j2PErkCwIWlqDQJsvTQSDaK5v2AUQjvaNKuRCq7ZTWlrGppJthalMkKmICTGCDSN1ximjVLR8-A1tEK4E/s776/COCAthatThereShdBe.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="776" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7lPrgk32ux1Z-k5zcv1it0Ccx5SePbVig66pSLKOsjsn2SFUFvZt0IvjjUWeDyAp7BWVmXQWpfAHrQKdt9jRVjn275-UvwNCJqZcPDJha1j2PErkCwIWlqDQJsvTQSDaK5v2AUQjvaNKuRCq7ZTWlrGppJthalMkKmICTGCDSN1ximjVLR8-A1tEK4E/w400-h114/COCAthatThereShdBe.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>So speakers of American English use the subjunctive more readily than speakers of British English, and use an interpolated 'should' to avoid it much less often.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Translation News</h3><div>Winners of the <a href="https://www.stephen-spender.org/stephen-spender-prize/">Stephen Spender Translation Prize 2023 </a> have been decided and will be announced next Thursday. Winners have already been notified, but my letter seems to have been lost in the post. I shan't be attending the online announcement shindig next week, not because I'm washing my hair but because it's the first rehearsal with my choir's new MD. (Our old MD's swansong is tomorrow, and there are still tickets:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPt9bcN8lagXJM_UhAqTdj8mnX1GdC8IFV2Nl89lQ8znCAkVA8jo-2IP43V54BcIJ-BdXRoBNILyUcZNkfbSHoXZIiTKEFqmVMHzFqwuhkcPSQGv66uGeww7JsA9_pXAqI4rqkA6qOBAVlNxyEPau_ik7ZDQYTgIelkURiWez-H5WQeUK4hscVTL_EFo/s1086/WCS-Haydn-poster-v3-768x1086.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="768" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPt9bcN8lagXJM_UhAqTdj8mnX1GdC8IFV2Nl89lQ8znCAkVA8jo-2IP43V54BcIJ-BdXRoBNILyUcZNkfbSHoXZIiTKEFqmVMHzFqwuhkcPSQGv66uGeww7JsA9_pXAqI4rqkA6qOBAVlNxyEPau_ik7ZDQYTgIelkURiWez-H5WQeUK4hscVTL_EFo/w453-h640/WCS-Haydn-poster-v3-768x1086.png" width="453" /></a></div><br /><div>To judge from lasr night's rehearsal it'll be well worth a visit.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Right, I know the notes; now it's just the words (and where to put them) ...</div><div><br /></div><div>b</div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-35356395186442824572023-11-11T20:31:00.111+00:002023-11-14T12:28:03.989+00:00How do you solve a problem called Suella<p>What can Rishi do with her? Thursday's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0grswdj?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Newscast</a> was all about the Home Secretary, who – I was disappointed to learn – is pleasant and personable. I say 'disappointed' because her views and interventions and general vitriol are so odious.</p><p>First ...</p><p></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(this <i>week</i>; her trail of destructive stupidity goes back much further including such ridiculous populist nonsense as the wasteful and self-defeating [not to say illegal] Rwanda policy)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><br />... it was 'hate marches'– an irresponsible ...<p></p><p></p><blockquote><why><br />There <i>are</i> a few hate-filled people on the Palestinian side, but it takes two to tango and they won't get to exercise their hatred (in terms of actual violence) unless there's a counter-demonstration (which Braverman, for self-serving political reasons, is taking care to stir up).<br /></why></blockquote>...and bare-faced attempt to foment disorder. And fomenting disorder isn't in the job description of Home Secretary.<p></p><p></p><blockquote><stop-press reason="just heard the news"><br />It worked. She must be proud of herself.<br /></stop-press></blockquote><p></p><p>Then it was 'a lifestyle choice' – a heartless and stupid contribution to the politics of homelssness. And heartless stupidity isn't in the job description of Home Secretary.</p><p>Then came the kicker: her unconstitutional attempt to undermine Mark Rowley, in her letter to <i>The Times</i> on Thursday. The editor of <i>GB News</i>, speaking on that edition of <i>Newscast</i>, said he had received numerous phone calls from people who couldn't understand what was wrong with what she had said. What was wrong with it was that she is Home Secretary and it's not her job to stir up trouble by undermining the police force who have an incredibly sensitive situation to police. The fact that consumers of GB News don't see what's wrong with it is simply a reflection of the degree of political naivety of those consumers. Not surprising really: the politically naive express politically naive opinions.<br /></p><blockquote><background> </blockquote><blockquote>Nick Robinson, although not always entirely convincing in his expressions of shocked propriety, had some interesting things to say about who was sending what coded messages to whom in Thursday's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001s5p5?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">The Today Podcast.</a> </blockquote><blockquote></background></blockquote><p></p><p>She's behaving like a spoilt teenager, pushing the envelope of tolerability further and further in order to get a reaction form the people who have her best interests at heart: "Aren't I awful?". She wants to be sacked, to become a martyr on the back-benches and whip up support from her extreme right-wing chronies. And for her it's <i>Win:Win</i>: if she's sacked she becomes more of a right-wing pin-up; if she's not sacked after so bare-facedly defying No.10's authority (by trampling on the ministerial code ...</p><p></p><blockquote><p><ministerial-code relevant-section="8.2"></p><p><span face=""GDS Transport", arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0b0c0c; font-size: 1.6875rem;">Media interviews, speeches etc</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "GDS Transport", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1875rem; line-height: 1.31579; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;">8.2 In order to ensure the effective coordination of Cabinet business, the policy content and timing of all major announcements, speeches, press releases and new policy initiatives should be cleared in draft with the No 10 Press and Private Offices at least 24 hours in advance. All major interviews and media appearances, both print and broadcast, should also be agreed with the No 10 Press Office.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "GDS Transport", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1875rem; line-height: 1.31579; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"></ministerial-code></span></p></blockquote><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; color: #0b0c0c; font-family: "GDS Transport", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1875rem; line-height: 1.31579; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p>...and not making the required edits before submitting her letter for publication) then the PM is shown to be weak. Either way she has a head start in the post-election race to ba leader of His Majesty's Opposition.</p><p>The last word goes to Dominic Grieve, a good man thrown out of the party by a brainless nincompoop who should never have got his hands on the levers of power. Grieve wrote, in the <i>Independent:</i> <br /></p><h1 class="sc-1xt8011-0 sc-qvufca-2 sc-qvufca-3 kuvAAj cjBrdM jmDcSt" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 54px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -0.0092em; line-height: 58px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; max-width: 968px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/author/dominic-grieve">Suella Braverman must resign now</a></h1><h2 class="sc-aeekvc-0 sc-qvufca-4 cbGLLQ fPDhMy" style="background-color: white; color: #646464; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.22px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 968px; text-align: center;"><p style="font-family: "Indy Sans", "Indy Sans Fallback", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">The home secretary has undermined the independence of the police and weaponised Remembrance commemorations for her own political ends. She must not be allowed to represent us at the Cenotaph on Sunday, writes former attorney general <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/author/dominic-grieve" style="color: #ec1a2e; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none;">Dominic Grieve</a></p><p style="font-family: "Indy Sans", "Indy Sans Fallback", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In haste</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">b</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Update: 2023.11.14.12:30</i> – Added PS</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">PS Well, she didn't; I don't think it was ever likely that she would; yesterday she was sacked (by telephone, according to Jacob Real-Smug, speaking on last night's News </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.22px;">– </span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.22px;">Bad Form, he thought).</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0.22px;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: normal;">Taking his cue from Gordon Brown's </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiership_of_Gordon_Brown#"Government_of_All_the_Talents"" style="letter-spacing: normal;">Government Of All the Talents</a><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: normal;"> Rishi Sunak has announced another GOAT, but with a twist that makes it all his own: it's a Government of the Absolutely Talentless, starring the author of the Brexit debacle and the pointless and self-defeating austerity programme..</span></span></p></h2>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-58250221509120187902023-11-03T18:38:00.074+00:002023-11-05T10:21:58.312+00:00The sound of leather on willow<p>Four years ago I took advantage of the ODI World Cup to write this, about the uneasy cohabitation of speakers of one language with athletes whose names don't use that (monolithic? monoglottal?) language's phonology; the chief stumbling point was the name 'Phelukwayo' (which <i>doesn't</i> start with a /f/):</p><p></p><blockquote><p><pre-script><br />... Which brings me to /p/, which (in most English speech I've met) is aspirated in some contexts (the allophone ...</p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><blockquote><2023-addition> <br />Slipped that one in. An allophone is a context-specific alternative way of articulating a phoneme (minimal meaning-bearing speech sound). The so-called "clear l" and "dark l" of 'leek' and 'keel', for example, are allophones of the /l/ phoneme.<br /></2023-addition></blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p>...can be transcribed as [p<sup>h</sup>]) but not in other contexts. It's something speakers of English as a mother tongue [henceforth "<span style="font-size: x-small;">FLES</span>" for "First-Language English Speakers"] find hard to hear: " A <b>p</b> is a <b>p</b>, <i>isn't</i> it?". But if they know what to listen for, most <span style="font-size: x-small;">FLES</span>s can be taught. <br /></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><experiment><br />Wet a finger and hold it in front of your lips as you say "pin". You should detect a little puff of air.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><autobiographical_note><br />When I first met this test, when the Cambridge Linguistics Department was a converted cricket pavilion in the early 1970s, no-one suggested wetting the finger. That's my own addition. The water makes the puff of air have a cooling effect, making the finger more sensitive.<br /></autobiographical_note></blockquote>Next say "spin". There's next to no puff of air (I say "next to no" because the sound of the word involves the passage of air; but aspiration after the [p] is not a contributor).<br /></experiment></blockquote><p>When a <span style="font-size: x-small;">FLES </span>sees "ph" at the beginning of a word, it obviously represents /f/ (as it does in English words). This brings us to Phelukwayo (not an English word). When, in early June 2019 cricket commentators started to meet it most days (he had been in South African teams before then, but June 2019 – the Cricket World Cup in England and Wales – was the moment when it first started to register on my <i>mentions-per-day</i> meter) the English commentators had to learn from the South African ones. Some were quicker than others. For example, in early June Jonathan Agnew was saying /felə'kwejəʊ/ (with the /fel/ of *<span style="color: red;">phel</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">[except that there's no such English word] </span>and the /wej/ of English "way", but by mid-June he'd learnt. Some of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fr0n5">Test Match Special</a> team have insisted on their Little Englander pronunciation. (No names, no pack-drill, but I bet they voted for Brexit.)<br /></pre-script></p></blockquote><p>Phelukwayo is still part of the South African team, but is less crucial in 2023 than he was in 2019; in most 2023 games he has just carried the drinks. But those presumed Brexiteers still haven't learned; I don't believe they ever will. And I don't think it's worth banging on about it; so I won't. But I reserve the right to <span style="font-size: x-small;">DIE A LITTLE</span> whenever this man's name is abused.</p><p>So this time around my linguistic focus is not on phonology but on etymology. I was struck last week when Steven Finn used the word 'juggernaut' with reference to India. I suspect that<span> t</span>he word is unusually common in a cricketing context...</p><blockquote><tangent><br />(Maybe being this specific is fanciful – perhaps a footbal team could be described in this way – but I'd guess that the cultural context of Indian religious practice (read on) favours the use of this image: which is not to say that India is the only team that can be a juggernaut. This <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/sports/indians-look-stop-australian-juggernaut-2044596">India-based article</a> from a previous World Cup makes Australia the juggernaut:<span face="Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcGYKUOi1kdHS4acO2MpWfyul8YVsL87EAZnQSGKRoIUfl4-v4xzFNI4uUs_7AdzhFbju0y4zGziXefSsgYRmLi61Nj-TLUgL5nIwUDbcx5P2XkVn0iSNXIDDdenYb5lNrpOHC_MNoVnqaapOZgdczaDsJdrcTO4BXlwjl4EydvkPESEqtJTfJDX2bYY/s849/juggernaut.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="151" data-original-width="849" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcGYKUOi1kdHS4acO2MpWfyul8YVsL87EAZnQSGKRoIUfl4-v4xzFNI4uUs_7AdzhFbju0y4zGziXefSsgYRmLi61Nj-TLUgL5nIwUDbcx5P2XkVn0iSNXIDDdenYb5lNrpOHC_MNoVnqaapOZgdczaDsJdrcTO4BXlwjl4EydvkPESEqtJTfJDX2bYY/w400-h71/juggernaut.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><br />Colonial history introduced cricket to India, and India returned the favour by applying this metaphor in the cricketing context. <br /></tangent></blockquote><p>....</p><p>This extract from Etymonline shows both the derivation and the fact that the 'inevitable winner' sense is quite distant from the <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">current 'idea, custom, fashion' definition:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br /><p></p><p>I'm also intrigued by the 'apocryphally' bit. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/58529/pg58529-images.html#page467b">Hobson Jobson</a>, primary source for information about Indian English during the Raj, seems quite unequivocal:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><b style="text-align: justify;">JUGGURNAUT,</b><span style="text-align: justify;"> n.p. A corruption of the Skt. </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Jagannātha</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 'Lord of the Universe,' a name of Krishṇa </span><span style="text-align: justify;">worshipped as Vishṇu at the famous shrine of Pūrī in Orissa. The image so called is an amorphous idol, much like those worshipped in some of the South Sea Islands, and it has been plausibly suggested (we believe first by Gen. Cunningham) that it was in reality a Buddhist symbol, which has been adopted as an object of Brahmanical worship, and made to serve as the image of a god. The idol was, and is, annually dragged forth in procession on a monstrous car, and as masses of excited pilgrims crowded round to drag or accompany it, accidents occurred. Occasionally also persons, sometimes sufferers from painful disease, cast themselves before the advancing wheels. The testimony of Mr. Stirling, who was for some years Collector of Orissa in the second decade of the last century, and that of Sir W. W. Hunter, who states that he had gone through the MS. archives of the province since it became British, show that the popular impression in regard to the continued frequency of immolations on these occasions—a belief that has made </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Juggurnaut</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> a standing metaphor—was greatly exaggerated. The belief indeed in the custom of such immolation had existed for centuries, and the rehearsal of these or other cognate religious suicides at one or other of the great temples of the Peninsula, founded partly on fact, and partly on popular report, finds a place in almost every old narrative relating to India. The really great mortality from hardship, exhaustion, and epidemic disease which frequently ravaged the crowds of pilgrims on such occasions, doubtless aided in keeping up the popular impressions in connection with the Juggurnaut festival</span><span style="text-align: justify;">.</span></blockquote><p>Perhaps my view of <i>Hobson Jobson</i> as authoritative is misplaced, or perhaps the <i>Etymonline </i>article meant its 'apocryphally' to apply to only that one occasion in Puri. An update may appear in the fullness of time. Not tonight though.</p><p>b</p><p><i>Update: 2023.11.05.10:25 </i>– Added PS</p><p>PS: A final word about <i>Etymonline</i>'s "(apocryphally)", which I don't think is justified (perhaps there is in it a tinge of the Etymological Fallacy – early accounts of the devotions at Puri share some of the characteristics of <i>The Apocrypha</i> [but that doesn't mean that nothing of the sort ever happened]).</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut#cite_note-7">Wikipedia</a> holds that</p><p></p><blockquote><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Since the Middle Ages, Europeans had been fascinated by accounts of the </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratha_Yatra" style="background: none; color: #3366cc; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ratha Yatra">Ratha Yatra</a></i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> ("</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_car" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #3366cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Temple car">Temple car</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> procession") at </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #3366cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Puri">Puri</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">, which claimed that pilgrims threw themselves under the temple cars</span></p></blockquote><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut#cite_note-7"></a></p><p>Stories of the fanatical self-sacrifices date back to the account given by a thirteenth-century Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone.</p><p><span style="background-color: white;">The article goes on to say:</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><blockquote><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">His account was an important source for the account of </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mandeville" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #3366cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="John Mandeville">John Mandeville</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">. Many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions.</span> </blockquote><blockquote><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">...At least part of </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Mandeville's Travels</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> and the life of John Mandeville is mere invention. No contemporary corroboration of the existence of such a </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Jehan de Mandeville</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> is known. Some French manuscripts, not contemporary, give a Latin letter of presentation from him to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #3366cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Edward III of England">Edward III of England</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">, but so vague that it might have been penned by any writer on any subject.</span></blockquote><p>OED says that by 1825 </p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">"That excess of fanaticism which formerly prompted the pilgrims to court death by throwing themselves in crowds under the wheels of the car of Jaganath, has happily long ceased"</span> </p></blockquote><p>As the OED is a major source for <i>Etymonline</i>, I think this explains <i>Etymonline</i>'s "apocryphally" – which seems to me to be an assumption too far. Accounts of the devotees' fanatical suicides were embroidered, but this doesn't mean there isn't a germ of truth in them. Fanatical followers of religions do fanatical things.</p><p>But it's a lovely day, and there's still some end-of-season destruction to be wrought in the garden, so that's all.</p><p>b</p><span style="text-align: justify;"></span><p></p><p></p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-3038443276933734912023-10-29T18:27:00.000+00:002023-10-29T18:27:33.113+00:00My take on 'take on'<p>Five years ago I was writing (<a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2018/11/aa-theres-raab.html">here</a>) about separable verbs, and bravely undertook not to pursue an error in a pop song. I should have known better; this sort of nit won't be ignored</p><blockquote><p><pre-script><br />... I'll record here a totally unrelated observation, from the first part of a recently televised spy thriller. It was set in Berlin...and most of the key characters had the decency to speak English. But there were bits of German dialogue that had English subtitles – one of which reminded me of an exercise we did in my CELTA course, to raise awareness of the problems caused for ELT students by English's predilection for phrasal verbs.</p>
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><autobiographical_note date="2006" subject="Phrasal verb exercise"><br />The students sat in a circle, and each in turn constructed a sentence using the phrasal verb <i>pick up </i>with a meaning that differed from all the previous examples.<br /><br />I expected that with a class-size of 14 it would become increasingly difficult after the first half dozen, and impossible before the end. But the lecturer had done his homework and knew that the <i>Collins Cobuild Dcitionary</i> (a favourite at the time) lists 15 separate meanings (some of which can easily be sub-divided: for example it gives one meaning for what "a microphone or radio" does, and it seems to me that processing an audio signal that is clearly part of the soundscape [as in "We're picking up the traffic noise in the background"] is quite distinct from <i>being able to detect at all</i> a radio signal that just doesn't get there [as in "We can't pick up channel X when we're <<i>somewhere</i>>"). So in other dictionaries I imagine the total is more than 15.<br /></autobiographical_note></blockquote>And to add to the difficulty, some phrasal verbs are separable (the verb and the particle can straddle the object), or not, or either... </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><2023-aside> </blockquote><blockquote>This Saturday's <i>The Times</i> gives an example of this. There's an M&S advert that says<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">It's time </span></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">to switch on </span></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Christmas </span></blockquote><blockquote>If the designer had had to set </blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">It's time </span></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">to switch </span></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Christmas on</span> </blockquote><blockquote>the line lengths wouldn't have been so amenable. Fortunately for them, there was a choice; so – whatever the text means (if 'means' is the <i>mot juste</i>) – the flexibility of this phrasal verb made the text designer's life easier. </blockquote><blockquote></2023-aside> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>...And in one of the local-colour subtitles the translator had got it wrong. At a service desk of some sort a German-speaker said "I want to pick up something" (sorry – no time to check the original German). What the subtitle should have said was "I want to pick something up"*,†. <div></pre-script></div></blockquote><div></div><div>And in later updates I added two footnotes, * and †.</div><div><blockquote><pre-script> </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><footnote index="*"><br />Last night I witnessed another instance of that separability problem. In a subtitle to the Danish thriller <i>Follow the money</i>, towards the end of the first episode, one character said "We need you to take on this one." What he meant, of course, was "We need you to take this one on." ... But I had known the translator was less than perfect ever since, earlier on, he had used the expression "big fry" instead of "big fish". Fry are <i>small</i>; that's the point.<div><br />This is not unlike a piece of family language we still use, ever since my son – then knee-high to something quite small <span style="font-size: x-small;">[HD: Do grasshoppers even <i>have</i> knees? Granted there's a bendy bit between the upper and lower leg, but is that enough for knee-ness? This is getting silly...] </span>– asked "Are we having a <i>dark </i>lunch today?". A dark lunch (<i>obv.</i>) is the opposite of a light lunch.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></footnote></span></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><footnote index="†"><br />I've just noticed another instance of the separability problem, in an error message:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4E0nILyfmjgs5WnNR53e2Cv4dKcnwedHQoNNotHZCqps8MYCU-0zlZ3TIR0OuW5_tigTKeS5lP2zWo0VjjHGVVSPp4G7yt_tM1X4CJiSibIEM94JgFO1u1wC7oRXxGKzXKcpbtasSBKeJlJxXg1p3hPSzfoyjEYjS3eGNrbgHA_22bRSEz_aE76_g7no/s601/Bluetooth%20error.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="601" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4E0nILyfmjgs5WnNR53e2Cv4dKcnwedHQoNNotHZCqps8MYCU-0zlZ3TIR0OuW5_tigTKeS5lP2zWo0VjjHGVVSPp4G7yt_tM1X4CJiSibIEM94JgFO1u1wC7oRXxGKzXKcpbtasSBKeJlJxXg1p3hPSzfoyjEYjS3eGNrbgHA_22bRSEz_aE76_g7no/s320/Bluetooth%20error.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">I've been getting this annoying little error for some time now – so often that I've only just noticed it; and noticed how apt it was, in view of my feelings about the device in question.</span></div></span></span></footnote> </blockquote></div></blockquote><div><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><pre-script> </blockquote><div>At last, here's my take on ...</div><div><blockquote><tangent><br />(! – thank heavens I don't have to learn this stuff as a second language) <br /></tangent></blockquote>...the Aha song <span style="font-family: arial;">Take on me.</span></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sense of 'take on me' is 'undertake a relationship with me [even though it may be risky and/or burdensome]'. The writers of this song were presumably...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"><parenthesis><br />Attribution is unclear, though I admit I haven't given it my usual laser-like focus. My attitude is not unlike Rick's to the Peter Laurie character in <i>Casablanca</i>: 'You despise me don't you Rick?'/'I guess I would if I gave it much thought.'<br /></span><parenthesis></blockquote><p>...the singers in Aha (a Norwegian band), and – to their credit (?) – they hedge their bets, as the words are 'Take on me/take me on' (as though they're not sure whether the phrasal verb is separable or not (or either); like many an uncertain second-language user, they do something that, while parading their uncertainty, they know will at least be partially right).</p><p>And so the language moves on. Aha knew there was <i>some</i>thing tricky, but native speaker covers (by, for example, Take That) cement the optionality of this phrasal verb (either separable or not, as the speaker wishes). Purists will huff and puff, but the tide of spoken usage will eventually wash over them.</p><p><i>Basta</i>. </p><p>b</p></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-64964053127314364552023-10-22T20:09:00.383+01:002023-10-25T14:32:03.078+01:00Meaningful versus Nonsensical<p>My latest podcast discoveries include these two:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gbrdn7?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile"></a><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gbv8kw?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">The Infinite Monkey's Guide To...</a></li><li><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09xgmd5?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Add To Playlist</a> – also broadcast on Saturday evenings</li></ul><div>The first of these is a compendium of the best bits of long-lived (since November 2009) series <i>The Infinite Monkey Cage</i>, grouped on thematic lines...<br /><blockquote><autobiographical-note><br /><div style="text-align: left;">It is, in principle, similar to a (stalled) pro<span style="text-align: center;">ject that I was worklng on until various software tools I was using were changed and/or canned. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19WotgVY0xIFeKew0I9JwDm-wl_VoVDJc/view?usp=sharing">Words and Music</a> is a compendium of my favorite bits of this blog. In an ideal world it will be completed, but breath retention is not recommended.<br /></span><autobiographical-note></div></blockquote><p>...And in an early one of these Robin Ince asks 'Why do we say "human being"? We don't say "daffodil being"...</p><p></p><blockquote><tangent><br />That quote is approximate. I wanted to trace it and transcribe it properly, but <i>BBC Sounds </i>have done their usual trick of <span style="font-size: x-small;">APPALING</span> curation. I've whinged before about the annoying tendency of the BBC to crow about the richness of its back-catalogue while failing miserably to make that catalogue accessible in any intelligent way. <i>The Infinite Monkey's Guide To...</i> exemplifies this in spades. Even the list of "Other Episodes" is opaque: the important bit after the word "To..." is truncated. And when you do find the episode you want, there's no guide to where clips came from. </blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><inline-ps></span><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I wronged them - you <i>can</i> trace the clips if you know where to look. Some hyperlinks would have been useful though, rather than a series/episode reference; we <i>do</i> have computers nowadays, and you'd think a podcast like this would take advantage of such new-fangled stuff.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></inline-ps></span></div></blockquote><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></div></tangent></blockquote><p>...The answer was provided by my grandfather: '"Human" is an adjective' he would say (in spite of a mountain of evidence to the contrary). 'It needs "being" to make it into a noun phrase.' </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><autobiographical-note><br />(I could hear Archie's voice as soon as Robin Ince spoke.)<br /></autobiographical-note></blockquote><p></p><p><i>Add To Playlist</i> is a relative newcomer, and it is a joy; not an unalloyed joy – read on. The idea of the programme is simple: two regulars and two musician guests make a daisy-chain of tracks, commenting on structure/melody/rhythm/instrumentation ... <i>etc</i>, and making links between one track and the next. Often one of the recorded artists joins them down the line.</p><p>Now we come to the 'not unalloyed' bit. I <i>do</i> wish Cerys Matthews (who is an amazing source of interesting musical insight) wasn't so fond of the expression 'ho<span style="font-size: x-small;">N</span>e in on'. When I first heard it, I thought 'Surely not?' And I checked in the <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/">British National Corpus</a>:</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3vRIPX0sZhWVhsf_oejBH3ealbOynNmrrCicHV9Et8KsEX60NQGuPrtIxM9k2fZP_Junp_wYvEvnWzXwkkjfzTW_QYv4d0Qi64b9NOxnyyEgjiTml3F1xe-gFUCZ8I-_Cmo6Jn8k_iaG-pWBoDIBTuTXQauF7yEOee1c0y8wgFiR2x9Sf_-ok_cj2_8s" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="980" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3vRIPX0sZhWVhsf_oejBH3ealbOynNmrrCicHV9Et8KsEX60NQGuPrtIxM9k2fZP_Junp_wYvEvnWzXwkkjfzTW_QYv4d0Qi64b9NOxnyyEgjiTml3F1xe-gFUCZ8I-_Cmo6Jn8k_iaG-pWBoDIBTuTXQauF7yEOee1c0y8wgFiR2x9Sf_-ok_cj2_8s=w640-h178" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">'That's right' I thought; 'Only one instance. A solitary ignoramus got it wrong.' <br /><blockquote><parenthesis><br />Oh dear. Me and Cnut...<br /></parenthesis></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On the other hand there were many of the M-version ('ho<span style="font-size: x-small;">M</span>e in on') :</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFuSn0PR0xjHiArZ_1ZnGHigy80rIoDIshYArAOi8H4EVD6xjXINg54t1Ow60ceng9jOfcZyj_yo6aYtzJe_r_50P3l86aAMH-teib7RfFBeTLCpHyYEjLEGallk5juyBIxq7hoU01jTPCzdas3QnC4AXVdvibHlEGhvbJHtw1_xTdkOdOTmEFo-FwZlY/s967/BNC-hoMe.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="967" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFuSn0PR0xjHiArZ_1ZnGHigy80rIoDIshYArAOi8H4EVD6xjXINg54t1Ow60ceng9jOfcZyj_yo6aYtzJe_r_50P3l86aAMH-teib7RfFBeTLCpHyYEjLEGallk5juyBIxq7hoU01jTPCzdas3QnC4AXVdvibHlEGhvbJHtw1_xTdkOdOTmEFo-FwZlY/w640-h188/BNC-hoMe.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>But Ms Matthews has led her co-presenter astray, and now <i>he</i>'s doing it too.<div><br /></div><div>The BNC, though, is not very large or very up-to-date. The <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/">Corpus of Contemporary American English</a> offers a less parochial view. And there the different commonness of the two forms is much more balanced:</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPQ16F3PcvFSWruviBxqX5PsqUARYGRBLOCvF_mcQr-CtfG7qtRiAFG8SVzgUmsgx9wvkMtJjHc3cKlgYLU62mSHVygysCzZEZs5Xbcn0lnusP5PqHxdW4_LgU0A9dn3q2lwC79xbpl5WtY2Yt0vXnelQYPizIw0uRqJVdlZxzY6XukKXZL6yrFw452AU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="954" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPQ16F3PcvFSWruviBxqX5PsqUARYGRBLOCvF_mcQr-CtfG7qtRiAFG8SVzgUmsgx9wvkMtJjHc3cKlgYLU62mSHVygysCzZEZs5Xbcn0lnusP5PqHxdW4_LgU0A9dn3q2lwC79xbpl5WtY2Yt0vXnelQYPizIw0uRqJVdlZxzY6XukKXZL6yrFw452AU=w640-h180" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNO4e5f5breQx12qrSm8YvZFh8HCqkVb0Mpv1tq2uSMpnhQ9ar-_wiWeoW98WBrAU5UPz1XtIFEOPSMXzTq3CbezLdnNsAW0Nsjz_3i4LRViq19tO9SXN_eMvziP_nWBpIKyAd3m2MmBfJFcqVXeTiHG17uZu-XOxYPtqNyfA1EwQNte3925VSiKlgQ-g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="955" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNO4e5f5breQx12qrSm8YvZFh8HCqkVb0Mpv1tq2uSMpnhQ9ar-_wiWeoW98WBrAU5UPz1XtIFEOPSMXzTq3CbezLdnNsAW0Nsjz_3i4LRViq19tO9SXN_eMvziP_nWBpIKyAd3m2MmBfJFcqVXeTiHG17uZu-XOxYPtqNyfA1EwQNte3925VSiKlgQ-g=w640-h180" width="640" /></a></div><br />'Home in on' is the commoner of the two, but only by a whisker.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, I used my favourite newly discovered language-related software tool to compare the two.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAF2AJhB9FZqWRZdCc-wth7Ha2c9YDXK4G9LKVVH2resFocXdlmYim-2hNu8I3x52dDpr1AYvNfNwOoRwXra3wwdygWoYe9_oH9SUifGeFt8ZAEHFFNRab0xhQg7lsNLXW1RhLXkQlUFor79OeHGg1sMoFZaSTizjBQADx4bkUIEr-H1BNCIR3Cn5HqI/s1790/hoMorNe-in-on.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1790" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAF2AJhB9FZqWRZdCc-wth7Ha2c9YDXK4G9LKVVH2resFocXdlmYim-2hNu8I3x52dDpr1AYvNfNwOoRwXra3wwdygWoYe9_oH9SUifGeFt8ZAEHFFNRab0xhQg7lsNLXW1RhLXkQlUFor79OeHGg1sMoFZaSTizjBQADx4bkUIEr-H1BNCIR3Cn5HqI/w640-h298/hoMorNe-in-on.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><div><br /></div><div>The expression 'home in on' took off about the same time as computers and related technologies used in guided weaponry, and for twenty years it had the field to itself. Then 'hone in on' appeared, but until the mid-'80s it never represented more than a quarter of its soundalike. Then, from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s something strange happened: 'ho<b>m</b>e in on' marked time, and 'ho<b>n</b>e in on' took advantage. It is as if a significant number of M-users tried the N-version as an experiment, and stuck with it; and this infected...</div><div><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(is my prejudice showing?)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote>... the people who had not yet adopted either expression, with the result that for the next two decades the N-version rose in popularity more steeply than the original. Since then, shares have remained roughly stable, with the <b>M</b><span style="font-size: x-small;">EANINGFUL</span> version outnumbering the <b>N</b><span style="font-size: x-small;">ONSENSICAL</span> one, but not by much.<br /><p></p></div></div><div>That's all for now. There's work to do in the garden, and notes to bash in preparation for this (which I <i>have</i> sung before, but more than 30 years ago – so that although passages are familiar, I don't know it as well as I think):</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVYKM8_WO-FmevPEbzXz_ucBTx5Etoy2jymYrUdFJqLj-_97nbLNiGdbeobg4wFLKpZhBxw6aurvSOAN-bIHZMXr3ndctq7J_jimw49j9fFUVmfA5Sl4qd6KNdescZpDwECazk4kPvzzg1ESkqw-Uk26eUY5bsrspfOUFSh2lcmqsM90oUWCiD4pBcDac/s1086/WCS-Haydn-poster-v3-768x1086.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="768" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVYKM8_WO-FmevPEbzXz_ucBTx5Etoy2jymYrUdFJqLj-_97nbLNiGdbeobg4wFLKpZhBxw6aurvSOAN-bIHZMXr3ndctq7J_jimw49j9fFUVmfA5Sl4qd6KNdescZpDwECazk4kPvzzg1ESkqw-Uk26eUY5bsrspfOUFSh2lcmqsM90oUWCiD4pBcDac/w452-h640/WCS-Haydn-poster-v3-768x1086.png" width="452" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">b</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Update: 2023.10.25.14:30</i> - Added <inline-ps /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-72774516895873044682023-10-17T20:13:00.301+01:002023-10-19T14:10:43.505+01:00Gender (again)<p>My latest discovery in the podcast world...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(so many podcasts, so little time😉)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote>... is <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/">The Allusionist</a>, which the BBC has recently (apparently belatedly) adopted.<br /><blockquote><confession subject="podcast neophyte, guilty yer 'Onner"><br />I'm afraid I still have a very BBC-centric view of the podiverse. I'm aware that there's a lot more Out There, but podcasts are enough of a time-sink just seen through the BBC's very smoky spectacles, so I rarely let go of Auntie's hand. But the latest I have heard – <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/notitle"> No Title</a> –is number 121 on <i>The Allusionist </i>website, while it's only the 4th of the ones that have the BBC's imprimatur...<br /><blockquote><tangent><br />(or should that be <i>audiatur?</i> Nobody prints (<i>imprimit</i>) a podcast. They listen to it.)<br /></tangent></blockquote><p>...Perhaps the BBC didn't wake up to <i>The Allusionist</i> until Susie Dent got involved (<i>The Allusionist</i> all-time issue number 182, but <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gjn81w?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">BBC number 18</a>). </p></blockquote><blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNsEpUWCxNNgmyqablAqubnSvl5_UBzvI9ePO7zYqcBgOVnjXWBU6aEKKqyNf9wW-tlY-_o2WX1wgM58GwhYEqkTci_e2-4P4FYrz2JuMyeB_lJOHFedNIQhN_jYkIYas7KSAdvXVOV2rWkDszDeSPKyr8d28V75cOdkM-GSNxoo7kNzJCVox5qa6ZrE/s631/whois-theallusionist.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="631" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNsEpUWCxNNgmyqablAqubnSvl5_UBzvI9ePO7zYqcBgOVnjXWBU6aEKKqyNf9wW-tlY-_o2WX1wgM58GwhYEqkTci_e2-4P4FYrz2JuMyeB_lJOHFedNIQhN_jYkIYas7KSAdvXVOV2rWkDszDeSPKyr8d28V75cOdkM-GSNxoo7kNzJCVox5qa6ZrE/s320/whois-theallusionist.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Most of the <span style="font-family: courier;">whois</span> record for the allusionist.org is redacted, but the first few lines show that it's been around for nearly ten years – not quite as long as <i>some</i> blogs I could mention; but the selection available on <i>BBC Sounds</i> dates from only a few months ago. <p></p></blockquote><blockquote><p></confession></p></blockquote><p></p>Anyway, where was I? – <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/notitle"> No Title</a>. She says many illuminating and interesting things abou titles, pronouns, gender... and loads more. Here's a taste:<div><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><blockquote>I've been trying to see if there any particular patterns in the ways that gendered language is ...</blockquote><p></p><blockquote><blockquote><sic-but-AIs-pretty-good>
I imagine this should be "languages", with "gender" in the next line being a verb meaning 'assign gender to'.
</sic-but-AIs-pretty-good>
</blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>...gender things. So at the moment, I've got a spreadsheet and - yes, don't get jealous, you can all have one - I've got columns along the top for different languages: so far, I've got Spanish, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian, and Greek. And then in the rows, I've got nouns in different categories. And I've just been trying to see if I can deduce anything from the ways that they gender different words. And so far I have learned that dog is male in all of them. bears are always male except female in Greek, lions are also male except neuter in Greek, and whales are always female except male in German - but in German a baby is neuter. But a spoon is masculine, a fork is feminine, a knife is neuter - which is not how I would have gendered the cutlery, if forced to do so.</blockquote></span>But this is a tiny sample of the natural languages still spoken in the world, and all Indo-European – spoken where the founding fathers...<br /><blockquote><tangent><br />(the founding <i>mothers</i> don't get a look-in, of course)<br /></tangent></blockquote><p>... had mother-tongues ...</p><blockquote><tangent><br />(oh <i>there</i> they are)<br /></tangent></blockquote><p>...that confused sex (a biological fact) with gender ( a grammatical construct). The early grammarians who first described the Indo-European languages co-opted (dragooned?) the word "gender" so setting in stone their own prejudices. But some languages apply grammatical rules of a gender-like nature without the remotest whiff of sex; the word "gender" is just a confusing shorthand version of <i><arbitrary-classification-device>.</i> I wrote <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2015/06/no-gender-please-were-anglophone.html">here</a> about one such case mentioned in a Guy Deutscher book:</p><p></p><blockquote><p><prescript><br /></p><blockquote><tangentially-relevant-preamble><br />English students of foreign languages that have gender markings have to get used to the fact that the English possessives are marked for the <u>sex</u> of the possessor<b>;</b> many other languages are marked for the <u>gender</u> of the thing possessed. This gender <i>versus</i> sex distinction was one pointed out to me by Joe Cremona (see this blog, <i>passim </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[that's Latin for 'So often that I can't be bothered to check a reference']</span>). "Concrete things have sex; words have gender." In English, we put a further restriction on the first part of that rule – "Concrete things have sex <i>only if they're animate"; </i>and we don't have the second part (about gender, with a few arguable exceptions, like ships and old cars; the few words that look as if they are gendered – mostly pronouns and possessives – in fact denote <u>sex</u>... </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><2023-addition> </blockquote><blockquote>A neat example has just come to me. <i>Son stylo</i> and <i>sa plume</i> don't change with the sex of the owner in the way "his/her ballpoint" and "his/her fountain pen" do.</blockquote><blockquote></2023-addition></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><br />...) Isn‘t "only if they're animate" an improbably arbitrary restriction? Hardly. <br /></tangentially-relevant-preamble></blockquote><p></p><p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfolding-Language-Guy-Deutscher/dp/0099460254">The Unfolding of Language</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guy-Deutscher/e/B001JOASIU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1">Guy Deutscher</a> writes of an Aboriginal language that assigns the gender "edible vegetable" to an <i>aeroplan</i>e. He sums up his point:<br /></p><blockquote class="tr_bq">In linguistic jargon...'gender' has nothing to do with sex and can refer to any kind of classification that a language imposes on nouns. While sex-based gender is an extremely common type of classification, some languages have special genders not only for 'male' and 'female' but also for classes of nouns such as 'long objects', 'dangerous things', or 'edible parts of plants'.</blockquote><p><i>When</i> there‘s a correspondence between sex and gender (<i>une fille</i>, for example, is both feminine and female, but <i>ein Mädchen</i> is neuter) a phonological rule can interfere; you don't say <i><u>ma</u> amie</i> because of the initial vowel in <i>amie</i>.<br /></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><tangentially-relevant-postlude> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote><harebrained_notion><br />Did Bizet make use of this rule in Carmen's claim to be going <i>chez mon ami(e?) Lillas Pastia</i>? Does she toy with <i>Don José</i>'s jealousy with doubts about the sex of Lillas Pastia? <span style="color: purple;">Lilas is a <a href="http://nameberry.com/babyname/Lilas">girl's name</a>; certainly, when I first heard<i> </i>the<i> Seguidilla </i>I assumed Carmen was referring to a woman; I couldn't hear the <i>-ll- </i>that Bizet gave it. Does this make it male, I wonder.... Bizet's only clue (well, I haven‘t read the libretto in detail) is to write that Lillas is an <i>aubergiste</i> – and I think <a href="http://bloggingshakespeare.com/gossip-quickly">Mistress Quickly</a> was one of those.</span><br /></harebrained_notion> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"></tangentially-relevant-postlude> </blockquote><p></prescript></p></blockquote><p>I wouldn't be surprised if I find in due course that this calls for an update (but don't hold your breath) . That's enough for today though.</p><p>b</p><p><i>Update: 2023.10.19.14:10</i> – Added PS</p><p>PS</p><p><a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/notitle">No Title</a> gives some examples of problems thrown up by gendered languages,</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">[I]n Germany they have Frau and Fräulein - well, they </span><em style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;">had</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> them. Fräulein was the equivalent to Miss, literally translates to ‘little woman’, but it has been banned from official use since 1972. And in France, their version of Miss - or young woman flirt word - ‘mademoiselle’, has been banned from official documents since 2012, and a female person of any age will be Madame. And this might not sound like much, but in France, the whole language is binary gendered: every noun, every adjective, every pronoun. So if like me you want to get away from a binary-gendered system of everything, France is not going to let you forget it. And also, the language is controlled by the Académie Française, an official body which gets to decide what new grammar is allowed, what new words are allowed in, and when people have campaigned for gender neutral options, the Académie Française has just been like, “</span><em style="color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Non</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So this Mademoiselle thing was at least some progress, with that backdrop. But the problem wasn’t so much why do the female titles change whereas the male ones don’t because they just use Monsieur - the male equivalent, Mondamoiseau, fell out of use - it’s so hard to say, that’s probably why. My mouth was exhausted after just one go-through. The problem was actually the etymology of Mademoiselle: it is kind of a diminutive form of ‘Madame’,<strong style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"> </strong>which breaks down to ‘my lady’, but the problem in particular was this suffix, ‘oiselle’, which means ‘virgin’ or ‘simpleton’.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #5c5c5c; font-family: europa; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So this flirt word means ‘my lady virgin simpleton’.</p></blockquote><p>There seems to me to be a whiff of confimation bias here: "The <i>Académie</i> is in charge, so everything sucks". But people in France <i>have</i> done something about this.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><prescript><br />The <i>Acad<span style="color: #010101;">émie Fran</span></i><span style="color: #010101;"><i>çaise</i> takes a dim view of <i><span style="color: #010101;">écriture inclusive </span></i><span style="color: #010101;">– the proposed </span></span><span style="color: #010101;">script reform that attempts to make Fre</span>nch gender-n<span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">eutral in spite of itself. <i>The Times </i>last week [<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">HD 2023</span>: I wrote this almost exactly six years ago: if you want to trace the article, it was published on the Saturday before 17 Oct 2017] </i>referred to a "mid punctuation point", a glyph that French keyboards are soon to include. And they gave as an example <i>cher⋅e</i></span></span><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">⋅</span></span>s ami</span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">⋅</span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">e</span></span></i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">⋅</span></span>s</i> [<span style="font-size: x-small;">HD: </span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;">their impoverished fonts presumably don't go as far as an <i>è</i>]. You can sides</span><span style="color: #010101;">tep the Infernal Fi</span><span style="color: #010101;">rewall by looking at this Indie <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gender-neutral-version-french-language-backlash-gibberish-a7987896.html">article</a>.</span><br /><span style="color: #010101;"><br /></span><span style="color: #010101;">Their one English academician, Sir Michael Edwards, calls the result "gibberish" </span><span style="color: #010101;">– missing the point rather (</span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i>écriture </i></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">– the</span></span> clue's in the name)</span></span><b>;</b> I don't think the words with the mid punctuation point are supposed to be read aloud </span><span style="color: #010101;">– any more than the <i>solidus</i> is supposed to be read aloud in our "his/her". It just </span><span style="color: #010101;">lets the reader's mind skip over the gender variation without </span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">missing a beat. So when the university of Nancy addressed imminent graduates as <i>Futur</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i>⋅e</i></span></span><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">⋅</span></span>s diplôm</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><i>é</i></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i>⋅e</i></span></span><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">⋅</span></span>s</span></i><span style="color: #010101;"> it was simply doing them the courtesy </span><span style="color: #010101;">of accepting that they might be of either gender, rather than, as heretofore, even in a class of 99 </span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">diplôm</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;">é</span></i></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i>e</i></span></span><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">s </span></span></i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">and a single </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">diplôm</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><i><span style="color: #010101;">é, </span></i></span></span></span></i><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">add</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: #010101;">ressing</span></span></span></span></span></span> them all as men....</span></p><p><span style="color: #010101;">One sententious self-important windbag, the philosopher Raphaël Enthoven, speaking on Europe 1 Radio, denounced it as "an attack on syntax by egalitarianism". </span><br /></p><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #010101;"><observation></span><br /><span style="color: #010101;">Generally, I've noticed that people who complain about "an attack on<span> </span><i><abstract_noun></i>" tend to be blowhards.</span><br /><span style="color: #010101;"></observation></span></blockquote><div><span style="color: #010101;"><span style="color: black;"></prescript></span></span></div></blockquote><p></p><p></p></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-68361654540416043812023-10-08T18:32:00.082+01:002023-10-20T11:35:26.030+01:00Plank's inconstant<p>This week's In Our Time was all about plankton, which <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– like most things when you study them deeply enough </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– turn out to be crucial to human survival (half the breaths we breathe are down to these little critters, to say nothing of all the food-chains they support). The programme started with a mention of where they get their name:</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNFfpbM7sSyHmbqTWlfcDq9gLh7cG1K1DkgAQHyHQcOqqGQWCsZuIfLq4zUbUyHopYloIFY1flcOKRR7j7-Rdjtj_NvVxpwrnEzSDlbk83JU4uOnInACSTgW4iisJ6aht3-bOSkNfuUZfFFUV7oGJhERBOgC-eOgYF0toHbeIE9jXZd87f7K2ZkJz0hiM" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/plankton">Etymonline</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWCaONX97s4bku63d6O-igyF6EH4NVbAUU5KOddhK5gz6PKW7UKJvTCp2Ir1vC5nmBXbyotD8d6YLXpSfBOAO6XnbTRmit6NflJ_c6vV_siZv5T7bevWyW99mlIxOA91zlob_J4UpF5DC43fwEtyF8jjAwngkUROcXAJ2h7AREs0mc8IHaNc8atkNZgdQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWCaONX97s4bku63d6O-igyF6EH4NVbAUU5KOddhK5gz6PKW7UKJvTCp2Ir1vC5nmBXbyotD8d6YLXpSfBOAO6XnbTRmit6NflJ_c6vV_siZv5T7bevWyW99mlIxOA91zlob_J4UpF5DC43fwEtyF8jjAwngkUROcXAJ2h7AREs0mc8IHaNc8atkNZgdQ"></a></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Meanwhile, in the early days of astronomy, seers noticed that whereas some heavenly bodies seemed relatively constant (stars</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– which we now know move about quite a bit), others seemed to wander about the sky (planets). And these took their name from that characteristic:</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWCaONX97s4bku63d6O-igyF6EH4NVbAUU5KOddhK5gz6PKW7UKJvTCp2Ir1vC5nmBXbyotD8d6YLXpSfBOAO6XnbTRmit6NflJ_c6vV_siZv5T7bevWyW99mlIxOA91zlob_J4UpF5DC43fwEtyF8jjAwngkUROcXAJ2h7AREs0mc8IHaNc8atkNZgdQ" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/planet">Etymonline</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I detect a certain shakiness </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– maybe just a typo </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">– between 'plazesthai' with a definite PIE root and </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">'planasthai' "</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">of uncertain etymology", but whatever the ins and outs it's clear that the two are related, making a pleasing link between the very small and the fairly big.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Matters arising from my last post</h3><div>Last week's offering mentioned <i>Gaslight</i> (the 1940 film), which led to a mention on Facebook of the new verb – meaning, roughly, to lead someone (often in an abusive relationship, as in the film) to question their own sanity). @Jim Worm said she didn't remember it being used like that in her youth.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a more-or-less exact contemporary of that youth I agreed, but thought it'd be interesting to find out more, so I looked at <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gaslight&year_start=1950&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3">Google Ngrams</a>, which confirmed that this usage really took off in the 21st century:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjReb4PKzmb_V636LeA9118oZb8_C_2ZoD-Rv_mXlXy2FXQHvZkCMcSZ0FFRX-DlFQqxrcRyHyFa4jNMF1bZMYbVDSZV5pLiwuyufJD743IPi_mfLrNS17ohhDXCIqX2LWGFWqF6MA9Lbz-Vxa0ZerltB5Z_KDc8ICUcFoVZLEJcZu7T-66zalbolYI4/s1826/GaslightRecentBoom.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="815" data-original-width="1826" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjReb4PKzmb_V636LeA9118oZb8_C_2ZoD-Rv_mXlXy2FXQHvZkCMcSZ0FFRX-DlFQqxrcRyHyFa4jNMF1bZMYbVDSZV5pLiwuyufJD743IPi_mfLrNS17ohhDXCIqX2LWGFWqF6MA9Lbz-Vxa0ZerltB5Z_KDc8ICUcFoVZLEJcZu7T-66zalbolYI4/w640-h286/GaslightRecentBoom.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div>The ing-form, as I was taught to call it in my CELTA days ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><parenthesis><br />(though I have to admit to a predilection for the old 'gerund/gerundive/present participle' terminology... <br /><blockquote><per-contra><br />[but "ing-form" <i>is</i> easier for students, and few if any need to understand the minutiae however much fun it is for nerds like me to appreciate {"knowing the <i>pretium</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Latin for 'price', the root of 'appreciate')</span> of everything and the value of nothing?"} the differences]<br /></per-contra></blockquote></div>...) </blockquote><blockquote></parenthesis></blockquote><p> ...is the clincher, as it can only be a verbal usage, But as the two curves are so similar since the turn of the century, and as in the 21st century almost the only use of the noun is in describing the plot of the film it's a safe bet that they both represent the new verb</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But that isn't the whole story. Long before the film, the word 'gaslight' meant something (the noun, unless there was a verb "to gaslight" in the sense of <i>installing</i> gaslight – I don't know, but it seems possible – and the steep up-tick in recent years is dwarfed by the earlier technological breakthrough:</div></div><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu8I7Ff_iKdgdUH-pr1fd4tL4QMa3R-3LZux3s_4pjLJdUUQiCmHe5KFn8qX-LgmMOub3OtVxDGbWLpidjRaozIFmYrX62e1idUE4aXOP9WYHiKWirw7Kke53C6LUYYGo37qwFv2UqtHGRrV8o_oEB0bl88VzZTyhhskWj19_8HWDgZR0SopzM4h0ytts/s1836/GaslightRecentBoom.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1836" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfAnTmKs0Bs1Zkx7Rh9UeGJkM2oL2jrgbRU7QwOBur2YWi4TceSD5RnhG1edfFMA6_fPFYxK-M3vbYbsTudBIkNdonj6-bIL7-MV-NRIZDoNvU9NFlo24Fc1dCZ7GEOxWi4K4lO6x4_gfs_09Wp2FaR65yASTbbT4gvJ25XY__DBOwEQs_wtiCpeoL51Q/w640-h286/GaslightSince1800.png" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sj7rlHWVgfi4FOznrUdxfaoo9BRnQG8Ew-crAHES_N7FA6b7P0qGOZbZe6Nfevjlvj4NJEntOSvyxXPH49QPCVvvWidXBXdCzrbMISB9TUmWZvqif5YI2eGJp9Rc1FSoyoEJWlMbLofBngrQJKoporRlOb-Q5SW93DyIMkKKqoDIMAOpGyDn1arnsts/s843/GaslightGhost.png" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="499" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sj7rlHWVgfi4FOznrUdxfaoo9BRnQG8Ew-crAHES_N7FA6b7P0qGOZbZe6Nfevjlvj4NJEntOSvyxXPH49QPCVvvWidXBXdCzrbMISB9TUmWZvqif5YI2eGJp9Rc1FSoyoEJWlMbLofBngrQJKoporRlOb-Q5SW93DyIMkKKqoDIMAOpGyDn1arnsts/w236-h400/GaslightGhost.png" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The ghost in the washing line</span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps, though, this curve has a foretaste of the ghostlier sense. If you turn it through 90 degrees. it looks uncannily like someone running into a sheet:</p><p><br /></p><p>b</p><p>PS</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Translation news</h3><div>I've repeated last year's limited success in the <a href="https://bcla.org/winners-of-the-2022-23-john-dryden-translation-competition/">John Dryden Translation Competition</a> (that link doesn't work yet, but it will in the fullness of time): longlisted, but no further. Oh well: back to the ironing board.</div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-26095988592865144872023-10-02T12:56:00.147+01:002023-10-12T16:36:03.651+01:00What's a girl to think?<p>I'm often amused/interested/persuaded (if only temporarily) by Dr Michael Moseley's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09by3yy">Just One Thing</a> programme/podcast, although features of the formula often grate – especially the introductory words, repeated ever and anon: 'We're bombarded by often conflicting advice': too right we are – by the good doctor himself.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><excuse><br />The series has been going on for several years, and medical advice changes from time to time. So it's only to be expected that exhortations to do 'Just One Thing', separated by years, will contain elements of contradiction.<br /></p><blockquote><p><but-hang-on><br />Sometimes, though, contradictions aren't separated by years. In May 2022, there was an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001744m">edition</a> that dealt with naps that concluded "[I]f you <i>can</i> find time in your day for a nap, it really is worth trying."</p><p>Just 5 months later, in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0d705kw?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">mini-series on sleep</a> ...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />This mini-series was a five-parter, which avoided some of the more annoying elements of the standard <i>Just-One-Thing</i> format, particularly the vox-pop bit with the tame guinea pig prepared to 'give it a try'. <i>Per contra</i>, it <i>did</i> involve a flamboyant abuse of the word 'elixir', repeated five times (with each repetition becoming more painful of course).<br /></parenthesis></blockquote><p></p><p>... he was saying "Try to avoid napping".<br /></but-hang-on></p></blockquote><p></p><p></excuse></p></blockquote><p> And at the end of the recent programme on the benefits of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qm8t">tea</a>, the guinea-pig was so satisfied with her 'challenge' that she had decided to replace her regular coffee with tea. Whereon Moseley recommended the programme on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017kc7">coffee</a>. OK, different strokes for different folks; there's no one recipe for the right balance.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
And finally</h3><blockquote><autobiographical-note> </blockquote><blockquote>In the film business there is... </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><parenthesis> </blockquote><blockquote>(or at least <i>was</i>; although. the gifts may have become less tangible – after his work on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner">The Prisoner</a> in the mid-sixties [it was broadcast from 1967-8, but probably made earlier] Patrick McGoohan gave my big brother a bottle of whisky. Maybe there's a sliding scale, and a clapperboy [or 'Director of Synchronization', <span style="font-size: x-small;">as they used to say </span>–<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <i>geddit</i>?</span>] didn't qualify for the good stuff.) </blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></parenthesis></span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">...a tradition of leading lights, at the end of a shoot, giving mementoes to the camera crew.</span><p></p></blockquote><blockquote>When my father ('Daddy', because the last time I saw him I was nine) was working with Anthony Asquith his end-of-job gift was a pair of gold cufflinks...</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tangent></blockquote><blockquote>incidentally, one of my favourite metaphors in Spanish is the word for twins – <i>gemelos</i> (cufflinks); but I digress<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (so what's new?)</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></tangent></span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">... inscribed with CK on one end and AA on the other. A door-to-door spiv conned my recently widowed mother out of them for what I imagined at the time was a pittance. But I realize now that selling them made sense.</span></blockquote><blockquote>This came to mind this afternoon, as I was queuing to sell another such <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">end-of-job gift, presented to him by Diana Winyard:</span> </blockquote><blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><span> </span><span> </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><well-I-ne</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">ver></span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I've only just realized that a</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">s Asquith directed </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Radio" style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Fre</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Radio" style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">edom Radio</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">, maybe the cigarette lighter and the cufflinks are related.</span> Talk about provenance (oops – too late; they're sold – twice)</blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></well-I-ne</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">ver></span> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></autobiographical-note></blockquote><p>b </p><p><br /></p><p><i>Update: 2023.10.11.14.15 </i>– Added PS</p><div><br /></div><div>In the process of looking out that lighter, I found a double acrostic that I wrote for the wedding of a house-mate in Cambridge (whence "CB" in the first line). This is a copy:<br /><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="573" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaCgwXLxEjGC1AtSIU7g6rA0yODyTCYs2RgICz5PC4fMOsG_JJG9XuxvKBzykhku62qlYFKsDFsRDjiw3IVREVc-Ie-Wncm3v7HbQx2TQ7vqex8CwCYlxHYh0KyO5yp8UmOutwR9DEBXYpBM6jhwOCqNaFVj8HPDZPMqfcEmkSFpCkvClGFS0sJKXfM_E=w640-h573" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With apologies to Christina<br />and renewed thanks<br />to Penny Thexton (?),<br />calligrapher <i>extraordinaire</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-14442978396897115212023-09-25T17:18:00.364+01:002023-09-29T11:30:44.042+01:00The Returning Soldier Effect<p>The first episode of Hanna Fry's new mini-series <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qw4s?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Uncharted</a> ...</p><p></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(occupying the 15 minute slot that belongs <span style="font-size: x-small;">BY RIGHT</span> to <i>The World at One </i>– hankering for the good old days? <i>moi</i>?)<br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></</span>parenthesis<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">></span></blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span><p></p><p> ... dealt with a strange phenomenon whereby the ratio of male babies to female babies increases during and after a war.</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><grandparental-note><br />(And incidentally, I am of course delighted with my four grandsons, but – while not meaning to put undue pressure on my children – it is possible to have too much of a good thing).<br /></grandparental-note></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLhgkEnFLrk9MQA5I5V_j4htTTfZ16MvNb7amCSvB5jTemYnFhzCzgyJjPMin0uSDK4J92LiIZxJTLpeJue9n0G8BcaV999czxn61W2qpywjerrKgM0e1H07wHR2ZLS89NOgLUpUEBilaxa-tN6hVW6GFf20ueaEj4SdJSsJQTogKkvEqAQgJrVoXJ_30/s287/soldier.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="287" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLhgkEnFLrk9MQA5I5V_j4htTTfZ16MvNb7amCSvB5jTemYnFhzCzgyJjPMin0uSDK4J92LiIZxJTLpeJue9n0G8BcaV999czxn61W2qpywjerrKgM0e1H07wHR2ZLS89NOgLUpUEBilaxa-tN6hVW6GFf20ueaEj4SdJSsJQTogKkvEqAQgJrVoXJ_30/w200-h153/soldier.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>An article with a strange title (<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/22/11/3002/652125">Big and tall soldiers are more likely to survive battle: a possible explanation for the ‘returning soldier effect’ on the secondary sex ratio</a></span>) provides more background...<p></p><p></p><blockquote><oh-yeah><br />This strikes me as a questionable assertion; at the very least, it surely depends on the sort of warfare. Big and tall soldiers had an advantage at Stamford Bridge, but not in Sniper's Alley. Still, life's too short to explore this strange claim.<br /></oh-yeah></blockquote><p></p><p>... with an extensive overview of the more recent research.</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C23" reveal-id="DEM239C23" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">MacMahon and Pugh (1954)</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;"> were among the first to observe the effect. They demonstrate that the sex ratio among whites in the USA rose during World War II, but not during World War I. Others have since documented the phenomenon repeatedly (</span><span class="xrefLink" id="jumplink-DEM239C22" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -55px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;"></span><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C22" reveal-id="DEM239C22" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Lowe and McKeown, 1951</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">; </span><span class="xrefLink" id="jumplink-DEM239C36" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -55px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;"></span><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C36" reveal-id="DEM239C36" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">van der Broek, 1997</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">; </span><span class="xrefLink" id="jumplink-DEM239C7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -55px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;"></span><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C7" reveal-id="DEM239C7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Ellis and Bonin, 2004</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">). In one of the most comprehensive demonstrations, </span><span class="xrefLink" id="jumplink-DEM239C8" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -55px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;"></span><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C8" reveal-id="DEM239C8" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Graffelman and Hoekstra (2000)</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;"> conclusively show that the secondary sex ratio (sex ratio of live births) increased during and immediately after World Wars in all belligerent nations (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, USA and UK), except for Italy and Spain. In the succinct words of the scientist who has studied sex ratios (of both humans and other animals) more than anybody else, ‘there can be no reasonable doubt that sex ratios (proportions male at birth) have risen during and just after major wars’ (</span><span class="xrefLink" id="jumplink-DEM239C16" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -55px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden;"></span><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-google-interstitial="false" data-open="DEM239C16" reveal-id="DEM239C16" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; hyphens: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">James, 2003</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">, p. 1133).</span></blockquote><p>That 'among the first' does no justice to the seventeenth-century German pastor Johann Peter Sussmilch, who (without reference to twentieth century wars, <i>obvs</i>) explained everything by reference to Himself: to repair the loss of young male life in a war, divine providence intervened in the reproductive process to make sure that a majority of boys was born. </p><p>In <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qw4s?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Uncharted</a> one of Hanna Fry's main sources is the level-headed David Spiegelhalter, who points out that sex earlier in the mother-to-be's menstrual cycle is more likely to make a male baby, and that – given that if a male baby's already in the works – a female baby isn't going to get a look in. So more sex is going to make more boys. And more sex is going to be on the cards during and after a war. I may have got the wrong end of the stick, but this explanation seems to me more likely than either divine intervention or the size of the father.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><small-print><br />The obvious conclusion (if you want a boy, have more sex) doesn't work though. Professor Fry said that the tendency was so slight that it was impossible to "game the system"...</p><p></p><blockquote><tangent><br />Interesting word; It seems to me that "game" as a transitive verb (and with the typical object "the system"<sup>PS: *</sup></blockquote><blockquote>) has only become fashionable in the last twenty or thirty years. For Further Study (FFS); perhaps it'll make an update – but don't hold your breath. </tangent></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>.... That said, I'm surprised that the obvious research topic "The production of male offspring at the beginning of a baby-making relationship (when sex is likely to be more frequent)" hasn't been snapped up. Maybe it has. (FFS again).<br /></small-print></p></blockquote><p></p><p>But this doesn't explain the one big outlier in the data. the biggest spike ever (more than after any war) occurred in 1973. And what about the Falklands War? Was there a spikelet in 1982? Questions, questions.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">L'Envoi</h3><div>Inaction Man has really excelled himself in the last few weeks. Perhaps he's going to put the HS2 question to the party faithful at the conference. You'd think he'd've learnt after his failure against Liz Truss. Perhaps he's progressing from rolling the pitch on HS2 to polling the rich on how far to row back on his predecessors' green policies.</div><div><br /></div><div>b</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="762" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfHATjP2ra9gvrjK3DjN8lknhZgdrgzMCeJPABBnxNyVw7H9RddiVUu-9nUUDMT7FPdfXo2BLpuFZsETIDhWvGUuwVy0QlQ3j8V9n3e38AmVB4J3jB3d5jk8kwTbPONC_NBIzZppmghwsP6OrJ6ctJMavZ0njgW_qS7yvlT2JP5Tm86bZSmSiEVg2TuA/w320-h173/GameTheSystem-bnc.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Search for the string</span> <span style="font-family: courier;">game the system</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p><i>Update 2023.09.29.11:30</i> – Added footnote<span> </span></p><p>* My parenthetical surmise was half right. At first I looked in the <a href="http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/">British National Corpus</a>, and had this unpromising response:</p><p></p><p>But I couldn't believe I dreamt the usage (or that Professor Fry had been so linguistically innovative), so I looked in the much bigger – and more recently updated – <a href="https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/">Corpus of Contemporary American English</a>, where the news was much more as I had expected:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEW01L8Ou0SG-YRexovNQBRGFHa3K8VHGNsrVLpNy-2NfK04ZrZGBN6K5rJuGtgHQPYGY3IBd70qt3EZGV4BJOzbjo1YX7l3vhXkVSVcATGUo-doJxA2ByMuIfVlzDuEU62rdltN_XVXPQI35aAw2okR4jprPOB13N_tWcPnyAoTZ1a9vyRQ5VOhaMnUs/s1252/gameTheN=coca.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="1252" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEW01L8Ou0SG-YRexovNQBRGFHa3K8VHGNsrVLpNy-2NfK04ZrZGBN6K5rJuGtgHQPYGY3IBd70qt3EZGV4BJOzbjo1YX7l3vhXkVSVcATGUo-doJxA2ByMuIfVlzDuEU62rdltN_XVXPQI35aAw2okR4jprPOB13N_tWcPnyAoTZ1a9vyRQ5VOhaMnUs/w640-h190/gameTheN=coca.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Of course, a recent update is necessary to catch a recent language change.<div><br /></div><div>And with a bit of recourse to the Help (as I just searched for <span style="font-family: courier;"><b>game the *</b></span>) I'm sure I could clarify the (already quite clear) picture of "system"'s supremacy as an object of "game", by wording my search string so as to make "game" a transitive verb; I imagine that in some of the other cases "game" is a noun (in, for example, sentences such as "he wasn't sure he was playing the<b> <span style="font-family: courier;">game the</span></b><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: courier;">way</span> </b>his teacher would have preferred"). And even if some of those "game the way" <i>do</i> involve a transitive verb, "game the system" is more than twice as common – getting on for three times as common.</div></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/22/11/3002/652125"></a></span></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-74771164275307585742023-09-18T10:15:00.323+01:002023-10-02T12:07:47.087+01:00It ain't necessarily so<p>In this <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2016/04/tonic-sulphur.html">post</a> I<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> wrote some time ago about my initial attitude to Ira Gershwin's "home in/abdomen" rhyme.</span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><pre-script><br /><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">...[A]nother song we're singing in our forthcoming concert is </span><i style="letter-spacing: normal;">It ain't necessarily so</i><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> – which includes the words "He made his </span><b style="letter-spacing: normal;">ho</b><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">me in that fish's ab</span><b style="letter-spacing: normal;">do</b><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">men". The underlay forces stress on the second syllable <i>[HD 2023: of 'abdomen']</i>, which – on a first hearing many years ago – I put down to American English. But many dictionaries give both (though always, in my experience, with</span><i style="letter-spacing: normal;"> <b>ab</b>domen</i><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> having pride of place). I had previously assumed that the British English stress was the one given unequivocally in the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; letter-spacing: normal;"><a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/abdomen?a=british">Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary</a>:</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; letter-spacing: normal;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; letter-spacing: normal;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"></span><br style="letter-spacing: normal;" /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaCRcKD4nBxzgiJw6RSIe5eLkjoxbfcTnUl4K0T9g34C7zY3XH1LW8TZqT1fO1SwhiBn9CaDAOhoCE5OvDV5sl7Bn8_LO5uP31x9aRXMLGovICUGGXgvm9HgaqFZoTGl8JRl197vhSUQ/s1600/abdomen.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaCRcKD4nBxzgiJw6RSIe5eLkjoxbfcTnUl4K0T9g34C7zY3XH1LW8TZqT1fO1SwhiBn9CaDAOhoCE5OvDV5sl7Bn8_LO5uP31x9aRXMLGovICUGGXgvm9HgaqFZoTGl8JRl197vhSUQ/s400/abdomen.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">No option given there, whichever side of the Pond you're on.</span><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></pre-script></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></p><p>In an update, having surmised that speakers with mother tongues other than British English used – when speaking English – the stress-pattern used for the cognate word in their own mother tongue, I added:<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">.</span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><pre-script><br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">Come to think of it, you can bet your life that Moishe </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and Rose Gershovitz's native language had stress on the<b> -do-</b>, so naturally their son <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwin">Ira</a> pronounced it that way.</span></span><br style="letter-spacing: normal;" /></pre-script></span></p></blockquote><p>This week's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qm18?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Pick of the Week</a> (@ 32'36" for about 5 minutes ) reminded me of this. I knew that the words of the song were somewhere on the <i>irreverent/blasphemous</i> spectrum, but it was news to me that the tune itself was equally (if not more) shocking to a believer – particularly a Jewish believer. Guy Garvey, on his Radio 6 show, discussed the background of this song, and ended with a Jewish scholar describing the ritual reading of the Torah, using the same melody as that used in the first two lines of Ira Gershwin's song.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><autobiographical-note type="choral"><br />The words were vaguely familiar to me, from snatches of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester_Psalms">The Chichester Psalms</a>, set by another immensely talented American Jew: "<i>Baruch</i>", "<i>Adonai</i>", "<i>Elohim</i>"...<br /></autobiographical-note></p><p></p></blockquote><p>The whole thing (only 5 minutes' worth) is well worth a listen. I particularly enjoyed an unpublished (unsung?) verse:</p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">Way back in 5,000 BC <br />Old Adam and Eve had to flee<br />Sure they did that deed in the Garden of Eden<br />But why chasterize you and me?</span></blockquote><p></p><p>This hasn't made it into the canon. Perhaps the unusual word 'chasterize' is the problem: 'chastize' with a metrical contribution from 'castigate'?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Another thing that ain't necessarily so – the great <i>sensus</i> con</h3><div>I have nothing to say about the rights and wrongs of the doings of <i>Señores</i> Rubiales and Brand, except to note that they were both very quick to reach for that much-misused word <i>consensual</i>. Think about it: <i>cum</i> + <i>sensus</i>. When an activity is consensual, both parties share a feeling about it. and an understanding of its role in their relationship. It seems to me that when there is a significant difference in power between the parties, consensuality is by definition impossible.</div><div><blockquote><etymological-fallacy><br />But I'm in danger of committing the Etymological Fallacy here – the belief that words can only ever mean what they originally meant (usually in another language). "Consensual" has now become the knee-jerk roué's defence. I'm not entirely at ease with that – to use the Portuguese, which seems to me particularly appropriate – <i>relaxação</i>. </blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><inline-ps> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>(≅ relaxation [of standards]; it was a word often used by a central character in Eça de Queiroz's novel <i>A Relíquia</i>. </blockquote><blockquote></inline-ps></blockquote><br /><etymological-fallacy></blockquote></div><div>If <i>Señor</i> Rubiales would look at the celebrations at the World Championships in Budapest recently after the success of the Netherlands women's 4<i>x</i>400m team, when the men's team came to congratulate them <a href="https://youtu.be/AUccT0gQ6R0?si=oAzdVJiB5Ho5AJ8x">(about 15 minutes in)</a>, he will see how men excitedly but appropriately congratulate women after a sporting success: hint – osculation is not involved.</div><p><br /></p><p>b</p><p><i>Update 2023.09.21.14:40 </i> – Added <inline-ps /></p><blockquote><p> </p></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></p><p><br /></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-40963985517082770722023-09-17T13:20:00.041+01:002023-09-17T15:09:49.359+01:00Ron of the Glums<h3 style="text-align: left;">The spineless populist</h3><p>In the recurring bit of intro, played every time after the pre-intro of Americast, Ron de Santis says he will "fight the woke". And whenever he does I think what a lame shadow of Churchill's "fight on the beaches" speech it is. Mr de Santis has obviously read (or perhaps just heard, in a <i>Public Speaking for Dummies </i>course) Churchill's speech:</p><p><span face="Lora, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-size: 18px;"></span></p><blockquote>...we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.</blockquote><p></p><p>Here is the de Santis version: </p><p></p><blockquote>We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the businesses, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob.</blockquote><p></p><p>Oh dear. That repeated "ever" does the reverse of what it's designed to do; it doesn't reinforce, it adds banality. This man wouldn't recognize rhetoric if it bit him.</p><p>Shame. I had hopes of his sparing us from another helping of Trump, but someone else will have to do <i>that</i> job. He's a washout.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">A bugbear (not an<i>o</i>ther?)</h3><p></p><blockquote><tangent relevance-value="0", reason="Just saying"><br />There is no <b>n</b> in <i>restaurateur</i>. Far be it from me to suggest that people who use the word <i>must</i> get the French right. If they want to neologize, they're welcome to; if they want to say 'I'm a <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;">restaura<b>n</b>ter</span></span>" that's a brave choice (although I think most people hearing it would find it rather silly). But if they're using the word that ends -<i>eur</i> then they need to curb their enthusiasm, n-wise. </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><devils-advocacy> </blockquote><blockquote>But <b>n</b>s with no etymological justification <i>do</i> crop up in word families like <i>passage/passenger</i> or <i>message/messenger</i>. The reverse <i>seems</i> to have happened in French with <i>restaurant/ restaurateur</i>, although if you go back to the verb <i>restaurer</i> [≅ <i>feed, give sustenance to</i>], the <b>n</b> is quite predictable (as is its absence): the place where the doing is happening ends <i>-ant</i> ... </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><extra-credit> </blockquote><blockquote>If you go right back to Proto Indo-European, I suspect the <b>n</b> in <i>-ing</i> and the <b>n</b> in -<i>ant</i> are the same. But <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=-ing">Etymonline</a> only goes back to Proto-Germanic.</blockquote><blockquote></extra-credit> </blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>...and the person doing it (Latin -<i>ator</i>... </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tangent> </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIOrkiEoqJ_y8uGGv3SHwhzX0mZ4TJN5I0QKtEpUSBojWyRyAbjSMjFZvewLKhqEUIBwvDFsoASuBhHbvgfSY4Jlk_OXZp_bZhzN1k9MMNYhLxBcR0-vC0H-08kaDENiIeecZCuGR05M6oQBXD39zQb_N199EYKFXZDYmGAlf5U9qqXlHBPInvKuyDOI/s552/leviathan.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="358" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIOrkiEoqJ_y8uGGv3SHwhzX0mZ4TJN5I0QKtEpUSBojWyRyAbjSMjFZvewLKhqEUIBwvDFsoASuBhHbvgfSY4Jlk_OXZp_bZhzN1k9MMNYhLxBcR0-vC0H-08kaDENiIeecZCuGR05M6oQBXD39zQb_N199EYKFXZDYmGAlf5U9qqXlHBPInvKuyDOI/w130-h200/leviathan.png" width="130" /></a><blockquote>When I wrote this I toyed with the idea of giving an example. There are so many that <i> </i>I decided against it. But Philip Hoare, interviewed on this morning's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qlys?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">Broadcasting House</a> provided one. The Romans called killer whales <i>Orca Gladiator</i> (though that would work better for swordfish, as a <i>gladium</i> is a sword <span style="font-size: x-small;">[think of the shape of the leaves of the <i>gladiolus</i>]</span>.) </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote></tangent></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>...) has no <b>n</b>. The question in that case is <i>Where did the</i> -<i>at</i>- come from. But given the state of the lawn, that particular item of etymological gristle will have to remain unchewed. </blockquote><blockquote></devils-advocacy> </blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> </tangent></blockquote><p>This has nothing to do with de Santis, apart from the general background of illiteracy. Whoops, is my elitism showing?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">And finally</h3><div>Welcome to the world, grandson n<sup>o</sup> 4, whom I'd name if I hadn't just had a lesson in social engineering (and its usefulness to scammers). Shortly after my birthday last week I received a promising looking email. "Bob", it said, "your friend Louisa has sent you a birthday card. Click here to see it."</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Hmm</i>, I thought. Anyone reading this recent <a href="https://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2023/09/marvellous-sweet-music.html">post</a> would know it was my birthday around now. Facebook would say exactly when, and would list 'Louisa' as a friend. Mix all that together and you get clickbait.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rather than click as invited, I sent Louisa a message; and she hadn't sent the 'birthday card', which would presumably have involved a premium rate phone call, a subscription to a service I don't use, or worse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Shame (and shame on the people who force the rest of us to be less trusting).</div><div><br /></div><div>b</div><p> </p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494029176904966259.post-3971362711904124372023-09-09T15:40:00.288+01:002023-09-12T09:11:43.637+01:00What's in a name?<p> In <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001q6cs?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile">PM</a> last Wednesday Dr Shabnum Tejani ....<br /></p><blockquote><whosThat><br /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Lecturer in Modern South Asian History at SOAS University of London<br /></span></whosThat></blockquote><p>... was talking to Evan Davis about the tendency in Modi's India to rename things – towns, areas, roads <i>etc. etc</i>. Followers of international cricket will have noticed this perhaps 20 or 30 years ago, when Madras became Chennai, Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata, Bangalore became Bengaluru and so on. These 'new' names were obviously not new; they were just new to Western ears (particularly Anglophone ears.)<br /></p><blockquote><tangent><br />This renaming rights the wrongs of the Raj, some would say. But what happens when a placename was <i>created</i> by the Raj; cases like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbottabad">Abbottabad</a>, named after Major James Abbott in 1853...? For further study.<br /></tangent></blockquote><p>And Anglophone ears (those of Evan Davis, and most other native speakers of British English) are of particular note.</p><p>He started by describing an invitation to a G20 shindig...<br /></p><blockquote><road-not-followed><br />Wonder where that word comes from...?<br /></road-not-followed></blockquote><p>... that referred to India as something that he called /bə'ræt/ – with a schwa in the first syllable ...<br /></p><blockquote><parenthesis><br />(or sometimes /<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">æ/,; his vowels varied</span> but his stress was consistently wrong, accentuating the second syllable)<br /></parenthesis></blockquote>...and the oh-so-English /æ/ in the second. But it's not the vowel sound, t<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">hat caught my attention when Dr Rejani said the word; it was the initial consonant, an aspirated [b</span><sup style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">h</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">].</span><p></p><p>Aspiration is not meaning-bearing ('phonemic') in English; which is not to say that it doesn't happen:<br />hold a finger to your lips and say 'pin' and 'spin' – phonemically /pɪn/ and /spɪn/. But you will notice a little puff of air after the /p/ but not after /sp/ – phone<b>t</b>ically [p<sup>h</sup>ɪn] and [spɪn].</p><p></p><blockquote><autobiographical-note><br />In my teaching days I used to refer – for an example of unaspirated initial p – to the speech of Audrey Hepburn.<br /><blockquote><isThatRelevant><br />Well yes, actually. Many languages have meaning-bearing aspiration. Acquiring British English as a mother tongue, we learn <i>not</i> to hear it. Learners witn aspiration as meaning-bearing in their mother tongue have to do the same unlearning, laboriously.<br /></isThatRelevant></blockquote><p>The movie executives who saw her first screen tests would have thought 'The kid has something, that makes her sound sexy'. On the contrary, it's what she <i>didn't</i> have. With her Dutch background, she had unaspirated plosives.<br /></autobiographical-note></p></blockquote><p>Evan Davis, who although a native speaker of English, knew that there was <i>some</i>thing that distinguished his /bə'ræt/ from Dr Tejani's /'b<sup>h</sup>ɑrət/; ...<br /></p><blockquote><brickbat-dodging><br />I know almost nothing about Indian (Bharati?) phonology, but I know enough to know that that transcription is, in IPA-speak, very 'broad' (='not exhaustively accurate, but near enough'). In particular, the /t/ is very approximate, as – I suspect – is the /r/.<br /></brickbat-dodging></blockquote><p></p><p>...and he asked her to elucidate. She did, and he concluded 'More <b>p</b> than <b>b</b> [HD – <i>sounds, rather than letter-names</i>]?'<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> She said (politely making a heroic effort to stifle her frustration) it was an aspirated b, and demonstrated. But like the English speakers ...<br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><speculation><br />Tommies in the Great War? [ Another one for further study.]<br /></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"></speculation></span></blockquote><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">...who heard </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">blanc</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> and assumed that as the initial consonant was aspirated it must be 'plonk', Mr Davis had no idea what she was talking about. (At least I don't think he did</span>, but the interview ran out of time.)<p></p><p>The Bharat issue caused quite a stir. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYR_-YBQoIPouGqyDlRDRheA_riVFvzLEPbuGkwbakwl60Rujf83wCTShv0jsWITdq_ZAmAduZ51DuxWDgvgwiZFFIJOSi6oX-sftnwDYga8cWiY63U8f83T7tPd-NNNla-krUaJ7odpNaH7q-9CoAnkiq9WdssUQjStrWaq78JaxaRra8un8SE1WqvQ/s579/1848%20map%20of%20India.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYR_-YBQoIPouGqyDlRDRheA_riVFvzLEPbuGkwbakwl60Rujf83wCTShv0jsWITdq_ZAmAduZ51DuxWDgvgwiZFFIJOSi6oX-sftnwDYga8cWiY63U8f83T7tPd-NNNla-krUaJ7odpNaH7q-9CoAnkiq9WdssUQjStrWaq78JaxaRra8un8SE1WqvQ/s320/1848%20map%20of%20India.png" width="277" /></a></div><p></p><p>The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aa655b23-8698-4933-924d-08bd2808ddd3">FT</a> was aghast:</p><blockquote><p> Narendra Modi opened the G20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday sitting behind a sign saying “Bharat”, drawing immediate criticism from the biggest opposition party and adding to speculation that [<i>sic</i> – <span style="font-size: x-small;">a hastily transcribed note, I guess</span>] prime minister will propose to officially rename India. </p><p>Some members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party have been calling for changing India’s name to Bharat. Both names are spelt out in India’s constitution, which refers to “India, that is Bharat”, but until now the Hindi name Bharat was mostly only used in Hindi-language communications. </p><p>However, expectations of an official name change spread this week after delegates to this weekend’s G20 summit were invited to a dinner on Saturday evening in the name of the “President of Bharat”, Droupadi Murmu. Modi’s BJP has called a special session of parliament starting on September 18, but has not yet announced its agenda for the sitting. </p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/india-to-rename-bharat-g20-b2407745.html">The Independent</a> was more measured.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.44em; margin: 16px 0px;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/india" style="color: #ec1a2e; text-decoration-line: none;"></a></p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.44em; margin: 16px 0px;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/india" style="color: #ec1a2e; text-decoration-line: none;">India</a> could officially be renamed “Bharat” by the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/narendra-modi" style="color: #ec1a2e; text-decoration-line: none;">Narendra Modi</a> government, according to recent reports that have been fueled by invites for the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/g20-summit" style="color: #ec1a2e; text-decoration-line: none;">G20 summit</a> that asked people to join the “President of Bharat” for dinner.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.44em; margin: 16px 0px;">Various Indian media reports suggest Mr Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist government is looking to change the country’s name during an upcoming “special session” of parliament, though this has not been confirmed by officials.</p><div id="article-im-prompt" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif;"></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px;">A new official document calling Mr Modi the “</span><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/modi-g20-india-renamed-bharat-b2406223.html" style="color: #ec1a2e; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px; text-decoration-line: none;">prime minister of Bharat</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Indy Serif", "Adjusted Indy Serif Fallback", serif; font-size: 19px;">” added to swirling rumours that the country could get a name change.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Good luck to them. </p><p>b</p><p>PS It was a great relief to me, in yesterday's Last Night of the Proms, when the audience sang <i>Jerusalem</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">AND STUCK TO PARRY'S CHORAL LINE</span>. It's a recurring trial, since cricket crowds started singing it, when <i>everyone</i> swoops up the octave as if they were a tenor soloist.</p><p></p><p></p>@BobKLitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00473186996974209639noreply@blogger.com0