Watch Your Language Blog

The Atlas of True Names

Some folks have glossed a good number of the place names of the world in plain English and created The Atlas of True Names. Spiegel Online has a photo gallery featuring various pieces of the map. (via kottke) According to Language Log, however, many of the names come from folk etymologies that aren’t necessarily accurate.

Some of the etymological glosses given in The Atlas of True Names are misleading in other ways. “New York” is given as “New Wild Boar Village.” That’s based on the idea that York in England derives from Old English eofor “wild boar” + Latin vicus village. But the Anglo-Saxon name Eoferwic was evidently a folk etymology of sorts, reinterpreting the earlier toponym Eboracum, a Latinization of Celtic Eborakon, said to mean “place of yew trees.” So should the “true” name of (New) York relate to boars or yews?
(SUZANNE)

Tags: maps, translation
December 5, 2008

 

Il Bay-Watch: English Words in Foreign Context

I recently came across a reference in an English sentence written by an Italian to a “bay-watch,” where she meant to say “lifeguard.” I asked my co-workers if they’d ever heard of a lifeguard being referred to in English as a “bay-watch,” and no one had ever heard it used in such a way. We decided that this must be a term adopted in Italian from the internationally successful David Hasselhof/Pamela Anderson lifeguarding show, and used as a slang term to mean “lifeguard.” Someone else brought up the fact that the French use “la pom-pom girl” to mean “cheerleader.” I went searching for more examples, and found that in Austria, where “das Oldtimer” is an antique car and “das Handy” is a cell phone, the words “dressman, photoshooting, showmaster, beamer, popper, twen and sunnyboy” are all used to a different end than they might be in English, if they’re ever used in English at all. Know of any other examples of an English phrase used to mean something different in a foreign language? E-mail us: watchyourlanguage@randomhouse.com (SUZANNE)

Tags: French, German, Italian, loanwords, slang
December 3, 2008

 

Meh

“Meh” indicates a lack of interest or enthusiasm, and it recently became one of the newest words to be added to the Collins English Dictionary. Apparently, it was inspired by an episode of The Simpsons, where Homer tries to pry away the kids from watching T.V., and they respond with, “Meh.” We’re wondering if meh was perhaps adapted from the Yiddish word “mnyeh,” which also suggests indifference.

Tags: coinage
November 21, 2008

 

Speaking with an accent

I knew I had made it as a speaker of English as a second language when a fellow traveler in the Zurich airport, stuck there with me waiting for the fog to lift, identified me as an American. True, this happened because he, like me, wasn’t a native speaker of American English, and hence, did not pick up on my foreign accent. Regardless, I was proud, in Professor Higgins’s words, of having (almost) conquered “the majesty and grandeur of the English language.” ... More


November 13, 2008

 

Documenting Endangered Languages

Another website joins the effort to preserve endangered languages: Enduring Voices. (via Three Percent) ... More

Tags: endangered languages
November 7, 2008

 

My Travel Words and Phrases: French Airports

From the very beginning, it can be intimidating and endlessly frustrating just trying to get around in a foreign country. Sure, those signs are “self-evident” to residents, or perhaps anyone who speaks the language, but what if you’ve never been there before, and don’t know the language at all? And, to top it all off, this is an issue that you have to deal with immediately, as soon as you get off that plane. And then yet again when you leave.... More

Tags: airport, language, Paris, travel
October 24, 2008

 

Ireland’s Language Dilemma: Gaelic and Immigrants

Time Magazine looks into Ireland’s language dilemma: the challenge of encouraging an Irish language renaissance without alienating foreign-born immigrants.

In places like Ennis, a town in southwest Ireland, immigrants are beginning to claim those assets for themselves. Like Lucan, the town’s population has also radically diversified over the past decade. Schools have shifted gears accordingly, setting aside a minimum of 5% of places to foreign-born students. The town’s Irish language school, Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg, surpassed the figure this year, with 10% of its admissions made up of children of immigrant parents — Nigerian, Polish, Dutch, Ghanaian and Spanish among them. Initially, says principal Dónal O hAiniféin, the school was not an obvious choice for immigrants, but as their communities put down roots, “They tell me, ‘My child is Irish, I’d like him or her to be fluent in the Irish language.’” Schools around Ennis are now discussing raising the required minority admission rate to 25% in 2009.
(via The Morning News)

Tags: Gaelic, Irish
October 24, 2008

 

The Language Advantage

It’s that time of year. We’re all glued to the television, waiting to see who will make the first big mistake. Who will commit a cultural gaff so unforgivable it will lose them the entire competition. Who will come out unscathed on the other end as victors, having jumped through hoops, traveled far and wide trying to win favor from the locals and avoid cruel tricks played by their rivals along the way. Politics? Who said anything about politics? I’m talking about The Amazing Race. While I admit it’s a guilty pleasure, I also watch the show religiously with a linguistic interest. It seems to be a given that the teams with a bit of Spanish or French under their belts have a slight advantage. It’s also obvious when teams have mastered a few key phrases in each language: “faster” and “we’re in a race” seem to be popular expressions. (Incidentally, all those women saying obrigado — “thank you” — to their cab drivers across Brazil? Good try, but ladies, change the “o” for an “a” — obrigada is what women say.) Even having a capacity for quick language study has its benefits to the show’s contestants, sometimes in a very direct sense. Last season, contestants were asked to learn 10 words in the Mòoré language as part of the Burkina Faso leg of the race. And on last night’s episode, language played a bigger role than even some viewers might have realized. The contestants found themselves in northern Brazil. They had encountered a challenge which left one team member searching a wall covered in writing to find the name of their next destination. Contestants ran back and forth, writing down names and numbers, asking the judge if they were correct. One contestant walked back to the judge and recited one of the graffiti he’d written down in Portuguese. I nudged my husband, who was sitting on the couch next to me. “It’s an inside joke. He just said ‘the last team to arrive may be eliminated’ in Portuguese.” (This phrase appears on clues in every episode of the show.) I like to think that it was a joke shared by just a few of us, the contestant obviously not included. English is supposed to serve well for most travelers who spend little time outside of hotels, airports, and taxicabs, but the number of shots the Amazing Race editors stick in of team members running around foreign streets screaming “English?! ENGLISH?!” tells me otherwise. Which brings me to my favorite Amazing Race moment, when Season 7 contestants found themselves in Jodhpur, India, and had recruited a local to help them get train tickets. They told them where they needed to go and that they needed to find out from the ticket vendor when the next train departs. “Can you ask her that for us?” the contestants pleaded. The local nodded and turned to the ticket vendor. “They want to to know when the next train departs,” he said. In English. (SUZANNE)

Tags: language, television, travel
October 6, 2008

 

The Speech Accent Archive

I can’t stop browsing the Speech Accent Archive, which documents the voices of non-native speakers of English. (via The Morning News) A valuable resource for actors and ESL instructors alike. (SUZANNE)

Tags: accents, english
September 25, 2008

 

The Ugliest English Words in the Italian Language

We’ve heard plenty about the French being up in arms over the growing influence of English on their language; now, it seems the Italians are showing resistance as well. As testament to their dissatisfaction with a new vocabulary, Italians recently voted for the ugliest English words that have seeped into the Italian vernacular.

The results judge the ugliest imports to be ‘weekend’, ‘welfare’ and ‘OK’, followed by ‘briefing’, ‘mission’, ‘know how’, ‘shampoo’ and ‘cool’. The worlds of business and politics contribute many of the alien words, from ‘question time’ to ‘premier’ and ‘bipartisan’.
(SUZANNE)

Tags: English, Italian
September 15, 2008