Dominic Sayers » Language

Lembriela

Dominic — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:54:18 +0000

What? Who?

Right now there are 0 matches on Google for the word Lembriela.

By the end of the Liberal Democrat leadership election I predict there will be several more. You read it hear first. Official.

The idea of having a Cheeky Girl at No.10 is pretty much unstoppable.

German Business English

Dominic — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:17:58 +0000

As I argued with a German consultant over the word “bi-weekly” it became clear to me that German Business English is a dialect with its own conventions and standards, as different from British English as Australian say.

In this case, the consultant was not prepared to put the word “fortnightly” into his document as it was not a word with which he was familiar. I explained that “bi-weekly” is ambiguous – it can mean “twice a week” just as easily as it can mean “every two weeks”. However its usage in German Business English appears to be entrenched.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Living dialects are part of the beauty of the English languages. It just means I need to start mentally translating just as we do when talking to Americans.

More examples when I come across them. Have you noticed any?

Learning Curve….aaaargh!

Dominic — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 07:08:30 +0000

A learning curve refers to the increased rate of production as a workforce acquires familiarity with a new process.

IT IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR A LEARNING PROCESS

If you mean it is difficult to take the first few steps in a new career and then it becomes progressively easier then OK, that’s an analogy with a learning curve and I permit you to use the phrase.

If you just mean it’s difficult because you’re new then say so. Tosser.

Lost place names

Dominic — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:30:15 +0000

English is a dynamic language and most people now seem to think this is
greatly to its advantage. That doesn’t mean we can’t occasionally mourn the
passing of a part of our language.

The victims in this case (there are two) are place names.

Chiltern Railways announcers: please note the station is called Princes
Risborough (i.e. Prince’s Risborough), not Princess Risborough, tempting
though it is to think of such a fairytale character.

London Underground announcers: nobody really knows why the area is called
Marylebone, but it definitely wasn’t named after anybody called Marley (as
in Marleybone). OK, it’s an anagram of the real name, but then so is Be
Normal Len.

Blogging and language

Dominic — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 18:21:36 +0000

I’m reading a new book called The Stories of English by David Crystal. He
makes the valid point that a particular style of English tends to spring up
where there is a good deal of social interaction in a tight network. His
example is the scriveners of Paternoster Row near St Pauls cathedral in
London. Their tight social network and the large number of documents they
produced was a significant factor in the emergence of a Standard English in
the fourteenth century.

Fast forward to the present day and we have another tight social network
whose writing has a disproportionately large and influential audience. I
wonder if we will see the conventions of blog writing becoming an
identifiable dialect of English that persists beyond the current blogomania?
I certainly modify my language to make it more internationally friendly by
avoiding formations that I know are local to my part of the world. Words
like blogosphere, technorati, blogmeet need no explanation to anybody used
to reading blogs, but they would be incomprehensible to anybody who doesn’t.

Hopefully some postgrad is thinking about this right now! I don’t know if
there is a repository of old postings so he or she could measure how
long-time bloggers’ language changes over time, and how quickly new bloggers
pick up the rhythms and cadences of blogspeak.

Blogging about blogging is self-referential and in general to be discouraged
so please forgive this one post. I won’t mention it again.