Accentuate the positive (or negative...)

With regional variation featuring as a significant element of the ENA5 Language Variation and Change paper and a possible focus of the ENA6 Language Debates paper, two articles on attitudes towards regional accents and dialects have made a timely appearance in the news media this week.

In the first article an MP from Wearside in the North-East of England argues that negative attitudes towards her accent once lost her a job. This might surprise you, given what we've been saying about the increased popularity of the varieties of the North-East over the past few years, and the article does indeed go on to acknowledge this, pointing out that the negative attitudes which this MP experienced actually occurred 20 years ago. It's a good example of how the fortunes of a regional variety can change in a relatively short period of time.

A separate article in this week's Guardian discusses the use of regional accents in advertising campaigns, observing that not everyone likes to hear their own accents used on TV:

The research clearly shows that the accent used in radio and TV advertising can
have an impact on how the ad is received," said Brian Jenkins, the head of radio
at the COI. "Regional accents can make a difference but not necessarily a
positive one. There was quite a negative reaction from people in Birmingham and
Bristol to their own accents," he said.
Jenkins added respondents in both
cities were "very proud" of the way they spoke, but seem to have been affected
by "other people's perceptions of their accent".

It's well worth reading the full article as it will give you some excellent ammunition when it comes to your exam.

When does a word become a word?

In case you didn't hear the triumphant fanfares or spot the vibrantly-coloured processions of jubilant lexicographers dancing in the street, yesterday was Million Word Day. Except it wasn't... and that's why the aformentioned festivities didn't actually happen. You may remember that in a previous post on this blog I talked about the Global Language Monitor's prediction that the English language would reach its one millionth word on 29th April 2009. Well, the day has come and the day has gone, and according to the GLM we still haven't quite got to 1 million. In fact, they've now moved the projected date for Million Word Day to around 8th June 2009... and this is not the first time they've changed their minds (they originally said we were going to become linguistic millionaires three years ago!).

All of this speculation and uncertainy has prompted discussion in the media of what actually constitutes a word. Can, for example, short-lived slang terms be classed as words in their own right. Are we going to let 'text speak' words into the dictionaries if they show signs of having crept into our spoken vocabulary? These are some of the questions addressed in this video report from the BBC. Members of the general public are asked to give their views on words such as chav ("It's a term that's been coined... it's slang... I don't think it's a real word.") and LOL ("Everyone's using it.. it's fun."), while a lexicographer from the Collins Dictionary points out that "a word needs to be used in a wide variety of [contexts] for it to be included in the dictionary". The report also looks at some of the new words that are helping the language to clock up its one million - words such as Obamamania and to defriend (the process of dumping someone from your list of firneds on Facebook).

In another part of the same report the issue of 'word death' is also discussed. Professor Mark Pagel from the University of Reading observes that words like to stab and to throw have a relatively limited life span of about 800-1000 years, while words such as I, to, five and who can be around for as long as 20,000 years. This in itself ios not surprising, given that the words in the latter category are either function words or fundamental basic content words, while those for which he predicts a shorter life belong to the content or open class word group, where, as we know, new words come along and de-throne old words all the time!

A special edition of the Forbes Magazine has recently looked at this issue of language growth. You can read the full article here, but I've picked out a few key points form it below.

On the issue of the one-millionth word:

An outfit called the Global Language Monitor claims that English is about to add
its millionth word, boldly (and absurdly) projecting the event to transpire some
time around June 8, 2009. But that gives the patina of precision to the
ultimately subjective task of determining what counts as "English" nowadays--and
what counts as a "word." Even if we content ourselves with the paltry number of
neologisms that get included in dictionary updates, it's instructive to see
which words make the cut. Recent additions to the Concise Oxford English
Dictionary, for instance, include biosignature, botnet, locavore, mocktail,
plus-one and vanity sizing. In some cases we know exactly where these words are
coming from. Locavore, meaning "a person whose diet consists only or principally
of locally grown or produced food," was coined in 2005 by a group of four San
Francisco women who challenged local residents to eat only food grown within a
100-mile radius. It was then picked up by like-minded activists around the
country.

On the issue of new prefixes and suffixes:

Suffixes and prefixes are the Legos of word-making, handy attachments we slap
onto words as needed. Most don't make us blink: like the "pre" and "s" in
"prefixes" itself.
Others are a little more creative, gaudy and
eye-catching. It's no longer unusual to spot "-y" suffixed words like "women's
magazine-y" and "false-prophet-y" or words with " 'tude" such as
"braindead-itude," "poor-human-being-itude" and "warlorditude." There's nothing
new about "nano" in conjunction with a very small iPod or scientific words like
"nanotubes," but slangy, informal words like "nano-brained" are adding fancy new
features to the insulter's toolbox. The celebutante-inspired prefix "celebu-"
has spawned many recent coinages such as "celebu-tats," "celebu-chefs,"
"celebu-ooops," and "celebu-scent."

On the issue of words that have come into the language from the world of gaming:

Sometimes new words are not invented, but are crafted from old words. In
gaming, a "griefer" is a player who intentionally disrupts the gameplay of other
players--a griefer gives other players grief. Gamers took a word that already
existed and added the highly productive suffix "-er" to make a word that fit
their language needs. On the history of new words:
Shakespeare popped off
hundreds of neologisms, such as "excellent," "lonely" and "leapfrog," that have
long been accepted as words, but which, if dictionaries were being written in
Elizabethan times, would have been flagged as suspiciously colloquial. Given
that it is nearly impossible to create a word for something out of thin air and
see it adopted by the rest of the English-speaking world--i.e., if you randomly
decided to call the cover for your memory stick a "verch," no one else would
join in--most of the words that have accreted in the vast English vocabulary
over the 2000-plus years of the language's existence have been created in
various ways.

Crotchdogs, mousemobs and piersonalities

If you got a chance to have a look at Monday's Guardian while drying off and getting warm in between bouts of snowball fighting, sledging and snowman building (or snow whatever building - Nathan knows what I mean), then you will have come across Charlie Brooker's column, in which he lists a number of entries from his New Media Dictionary. These are all spoof word formations, but they're worth looking at because (a) they demonstrate a number of the word formation processes that those of you on the A2 course need to know by heart for Language Change, and (b) some of them are very funny. Take, for example:

chudge (chudj) n. An underqualified judge on an underwhelming TV talent contest.

craptitude test (krap-ti-chewed tessed) n. A televised talent contest with a panel of chudges (qv).

zerotoleriddance (zero-toller-riddantz) n. The moment the public mood finally and irrevocably turns against a hitherto-just-about-tolerable minor celebrity; eg, "We put Danielle Lloyd on the cover and sales nosedived; looks like she's hit zerotoleriddance."

We've looked at this sort of thing many times before, so if you've got five minutes and you want to have a go at coming up with your own spoof neologisms I'd love to see them. Post them as a comment below (together with your analysis of the word formation process) and I might even find it in my heart to give a prize for the best one (and the most accurate analysis). Here's my effort:

bincentive (bin-sent-iv) n. A motivational 'prize' offered by one such as an English Language teacher, which, while purporting to be of high value (e.g. a Mars Bar, a Cafe Nero voucher) is, in fact, worth nothing (e.g. said teacher's 'applause' and 'respect'). Blend of 'bin' and 'incentive'.

Your turn...

Apostrophes about to meet it's maker.

It seems that the death sentence has finally been passed on that most problematic of punctuation marks, the apostrophe - in Birmingham, at least. This week Birmingham City Council announced that they would be abolishing the apostrophe - the proper use of which has been the source of much confusion since its first appearance in our langauge 300 years ago - from all newly-produced street signs. You can read more about the reasons for this decision here.

This move has inevitably sparked something of a debate. There are those who welcome the termination of the apostrophe's 'rights of residency', arguing that it was never really necessary anyway. Perhaps the strongest supporters of this side of the argument are those behind the Kill the Apostrophe website. On the other hand, more prescriptivist views are expressed by the likes of the Apostrophe Protection Society, whose campaign does exactly what it says on the tin. There's a very handy summary of both sides of the argument here.

So what do you think? Is the apostrophe worth saving or is it better off dead and buried?

Beryl bashes Scouse brogue

Author Beryl Bainbridge has once again courted controversy by criticising the accent and dialect of Liverpool, as reported in today's Guardian. Bainbridge got herself into a spot of bother over this one about ten years ago when she claimed that her success as a novelist is partly down to the fact that she took elocution lessons to help her get rid of her Scouse accent. Yes, that's right, she's criticising a variety that she herself once used!!

But it's not just Beryl Bainbridge who's been attacking the Liverpudlian variety this week. This article in The Sun considers once again (for this is something that seems to occupy newspaper writers on a regular basis) those linguistic varieties considered to be the 'best' and 'worst' in Britain, and Liverpudlian doesn't fare well. As also reported here, it is frequently the case that people feel the need to change their accent and/or dialect when in a high-stakes situation such as a job interview.

Geordie accent and dialect

This post relates to the assignment that I have given to my A2 English Language class today. You will find some useful texts for the assignment here, here, here, here, here and here.

Verdict on slang collector: 'helio proctosis'

Yesterday's edition of the London Student newspaper ran an article on the use of slang among students and other young people. The article features an interview with Tony Thorne, a linguist working at the English Language Centre at King's College, home to the 'Archive of Slang and New Language'.

The article lists some interesting slang terms, and if you're keen to follow this up then why not pay a visit to the Archive of Slang and New Language website, where there are literally hundreds of slang terms listed, together with their origins and uses. The article also makes some interesting references to attitudes towards slang usage, which are relevant to the kinds of debates that we're going to be having in ENA5 (A2) very soon and then later on this year in ENA6.

Derbyshire dialect deliberations

Ay, surrey, owart?

Thanks to Conor for sending me the link to this article, which contains some very interesting information and links relating to the dialects of Derbyshire. This is useful stuff for your ENA5 Language Variation paper, for which you'll need to be armed with a stock of features from non-standard linguistic varieties.

The Prince and the P-word

If you've been listening to the news this weekend you'll know that there's been a right royal stink-up about Prince Harry's use of a certain ethnicity label. No stranger to controversy - Harry was in trouble a few years ago for dressing as a Nazi at a fancy dress party - the prince has once again demonstrated a degree of linguistic sensitivity at which even his grandfather Prince 'Foot Firmly in Mouth' Phillip would probably wince. In three-year-old video footage that has been leaked to the press, Harry can be heard referring to one of his fellow army cadets as a 'p*ki', and is also cuaght on camera using the racist term 'raghead'.

In Prince Harry's defense a spokesperson said:

'Prince Harry fully understands how offensive this term can be, and is extremely
sorry for any offence his words might cause. However, on this occasion three
years ago, Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname
about a highly popular member of his platoon. There is no question that
Prince Harry was in any way seeking to insult his friend.'

On the other hand, Khalid Mahmood, MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, points out that 'this might have been said in a light-hearted manner but ultimately it's offensive to a lot of people'.

You can read the full story here and here, and if you want to have a look at some older articles on the use of this and other racist terms, then take a look at this, this and this. There's also another interesting article here about the use of racist language in the army.

It's a debate we've had many times in class: can racist language ever be acceptable if used as a term of solidarity? Let us know what you think.

Out with the old...

Welcome back to the blog - and a somewhat belated Happy New Year to you all! And what better way to celebrate the arrival of 2009 than by having a look at some of the most annoying words of the year just gone? (OK, you can probably think of lots of better ways of celebrating the arrival of 2009, but just work with me on this one, will you??). Lexicographer and all-round word boffin Susie Dent has compiled a list of the worst words of 2008 as voted for by the general public. You'll find some old 'favourites' in here, as well as a few that you might not have heard before. Always useful for ENA5 Language Change and other language debates.

Feck that for a swear word!

And so the debate about swearing in the broadcast media rages on: this week TV chef Jamie Oliver joins Jonathan Ross in the ranks of TV personalities who are to be linguistically 'neutered'. But in the midst of the sea of language that is coming to be seen as ever more unacceptable, there exists a small island of tolerance... a final stronghold of mild expletive... a last bastion of semi-taboo language. Yes, I'm talking about FECK.

Immortalised by that fantastic comic creation Father Jack from the equally-fantastic 90s alternative sit-com Father Ted, 'feck' is an Irish word that suddenly found its way into common usage in British English slang. Whilst there's no doubt about the context in which Father Jack uses the word, in its wider and general use in Ireland it is actually not synonymous with the similar-sounding word that differs from it by only one vowel (he said, coyly). You can read what the OED has to say about the origins of 'feck' here, and its background and usage are also discussed in this article, which focuses on the word in response to a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority that 'feck' is not a swear word and its use in a current Magners Cider advert (in which bees are told to 'feck off') is therefore entirely acceptable.

Well, that's one view. Another view, of course, would be that whatever the actual origins of the word, and regardless of its traditional usage, it has now come to be used in exactly the same way as its cousin 'f*ck' (largely - though probably not entirely - thanks to Father Jack), and therefore, the argument goes, it should be treated in just the same way. This is an argument, incidentally, that has been rehearsed with reference to a certain word used frequently on the new 'rebooted' Battlestar Galactica series (I know, I know, more sci-fi anorak references... but they're always so relevant!). This TV show is set somewhere out in space, sometime in the future.. or maybe the past (don't get me started on that one). Anyway, the writers of the show have managed to get around the stringent US censorship rules by inventing their own term to replace the F-word, and that word is 'frak'. Its use is exactly the same as the f-word that we know and love/loathe* (delete as applicable) and, to be honest, I'm surprised they get away with it on prime-time TV! Have a look at this compilation and you'll see what I mean.

No more smut, filth and obscenity...

...Well, not as much, anyway.

Since my last post on Smut, filth and obscenity...? there have been some interesting developments in the whole 'swearing on the BBC' row. According to this article, there is to be a crack down on the use of 'foul language' following "a review of bad language across the corporation's services".

Commissioned in response to what has come to be known as 'Sachsgate' (nice word formation there), the review comments not only on Jonathan Ross's use of taboo language but also makes the observation that Ross's language is frequently "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive" and concedes that "it is possible that some language alienates some audiences unnecessarily". Who those audiences are, though, is not necessarily easy to determine - language that, for one person, is gratuitous and offensive might be considered by another person to be harmless and humourous self-expression. The BBC's recently-revised guidelines on offensive language take this point on board.

The guidelines state:

There is no consensus about words that are acceptable, when, and by whom.
Different words cause different degrees of offence in different parts of the
world. So a person's age, sex, education, employment, belief, nationality, and
where they live, all impact on whether or not they might be offended.

They also comment on what constitutes the most offensive language:

Language that causes most offence includes:• sexual swearwords• terms of racist
abuse• terms of sexual and sexist abuse or abuse referring to sexuality•
pejorative terms relating to illness or disabilities• casual or derogatory use
of holy names or religious words and especially in combination with other
offensive language.

As a father of three young children, I'm also relieved to read that the BBC guidelines stipulate that they "do not include any offensive language in pre-school children's programmes or websites (four years and under)". Glad to hear it!! After all, can you imagine Iggle-Piggle shouting the F-word at Macca-Pacca? Or PC Plum branding the youth of Balamory "a load of little s***s"? A little less reassuring, though, is the next line of the guidelines, which states that "We (the BBC) must not include offensive language in programmes or websites made for younger children except in the most exceptional circumstances". Except in the most exceptional circumstances??? I dread to think what that might mean...

At the end of the day it's not rocket science

According to a new book by Jeremy Butterfield of the Oxford English Corpus, phrases like the two that I personally (there's another one) have just used in the title (and now the content) of this post are among the most irritating expressions in the English language. As reported by yesterday's Telegraph, the top ten language sins at this moment in time (there I go again) are:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

You can add to that list misuses of the word literally and any number of cliches that are spawned by the world of corporate management (witness to incentivise, to action and synergy). The book's author says that "we grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language." Interesting fuel for a language attitudes debate.

So which cliches of the modern age get up your nose the most? Post a comment and let us know.

Speaking of the cliche 'it's not rocket science', have you ever wondered what actual rocket scientists say when they want to make a point about something not being incredibly difficult? No? Just me then...

Beckham's accent gets the boot

The language quest of hotel chain Travelodge continues apace this week, as they publish the results of their survey into both the favourite and most loathed accents of British English. In keeping with many such investigations in the past, the accents of areas such as London, Birmingham, Wales (huge generalisation, but don't shoot the messenger) and Liverpool come off the worst, with varieties associated with the north-east and Scotland coming out on top.

What's particularly interesting about these results is the celebrities that are chosen as examples of each variety. London accents are representated by controversial figures such as Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, and although David Beckham might not be controversial in the strictest sense of the word, he certainly does divide opinion. Wales gets Charlotte Church (generally considered to be rather irritating), Liverpool gets Colleen Rooney (WAG famous for... well, being a WAG), and Birmingham gets Ozzy Osbourne (unique, but not necessarily in a good way). By contrast, Newcastle gets Cheryl Cole as its figurehead (considered to be quite attractive by lots of people), Bolton gets comedian Peter Kay (current media favourite) and Scotland gets Edith Bowman (popular with 'the yoof', I believe).

All of this supports the observations of linguist Howard Giles, who is famous for (among other things) his discussions of the motivations for language attitudes. One of the points he makes is that people's attitudes towards a particular accent are frequently motivated not by the aesthetic qualities of the actual sounds (although this can be significant), but by the things (people, places etc.) with which the accent is associated.

The results of the Travelodge survey are also reported in slightly different ways here, here and here.

...And yet more on dialect

Following on from the previous post on various regional dialects, the Lancastrian and Cornish varieties now get their turn in the spotlight. The Travelodge hotel chain has commissioned a study into the extent to which people understand various accents and dialects of British English. You can see reports on the results of their research into the Lancastrian dialects here (complete with a link to the short dialect guide that came out of it) and the findings of their Cornish dialect investigation here.

Dialect, dialect, dialect...

The subject of regional accents and dialects is rarely absent from the pages of national and local newspapers for very long, and in the last week or so there have been a number of interesting articles in various publications.

This article from the Northumberland Gazette looks at the work of the Northumbrian Language Society, whose efforts to keep the local dialect alive will this week include an event which sees the recital of a selection of poems written in the Northumbrian dialect. Further south in Hull, meanwhile, a hotel has begun to issue its guests with a tongue-in-cheek guide to the local dialect, as reported here. It's a pretty comprehensive list, which takes an affectionate look at the local regional variety - although there are a few people from the area who are less than pleased with what they consider to be bit of a mickey-take (although the hotel management denies it was ever meant to be seen in this way).

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, one of last week's editions of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner issued a plea to bring back the Yorkshire dialect - an article which, in turn, prompted some negative responses a few days later because of its use of what some people considered to be regional forms that were not from Yorkshire but from across the border in Lancashire.

And finally, no blog post (at least, no blog post from this writer) would be complete without something on the dialects of the West Midlands, which is why this video report gets a mention. Them bostin' Brummies have got in on the Facebook act, setting up a group called 'Faycebook' (the extra 'y' being an attempt to replicate the West Midlands vowel pronunication) to celebrate all things Brummie.

Going... Going... Gone!

In the last couple of months we've had quite a few posts focusing on new words that are finding their way into various 21st century dictionaries and other lexicographical collections, so in the interests of providing a balanced view of the whole process of language change, here is an article from Time Magazine that looks at what happens at the 'other end' of the language change production line, so to speak. The article begins:

The lexicographers behind Britain's Collins English Dictionary have decided to
exuviate (shed) rarely used and archaic words as part of an abstergent
(cleansing) process to make room for up to 2,000 new entries. "We want the
dictionary to be a reflection of English as it is currently spoken," says Ian
Brookes, managing editor of Collins, "rather than a fossilized version of the
language."

But this is a controversial mission statement, as the article goes on to point out:

Here in Old Blighty, the birthplace of English, the dictionary's compilers
face passionate resistance from language lovers who believe that any cull
reduces the richness and variety that make language powerful — and leaves us
all a bit dumber... Collins' editors know that old words die hard — and that
some people will vilipend (regard with contempt) any execution without a
fair trial. So they've offered the chance of a reprieve. They have made
public 24 words that face deletion because editors could find no example of
their use in their database of English-language books, newspapers,
broadcasts and other media. If, by February 2009, a word reappears in that
database with at least six "high quality" citations, it could be spared from
the semantic dustbin.

You can read the full list of 24 words currently residing on Dictionary Death Row here. If you ask me (you didn't, but I'll say it anyway), the thought of such wanton lexicide (wonder whether that one will ever make it into the CED) is abhorrent, and must be stopped! But it's not just these 24 words that face the chop - there are loads of unfortunate lexemes that need rescuing from the clutches of the language axeman. Where, for example, would we be without the word napiform meaning 'shaped like a turnip'? And what about typtology, 'the theory that the dead communicate with the living by tapping on tables'. And, should the day come when the word hylomania bites the dust, how on earth will we ever be able to talk about 'the abnormal love of wood'? A language cull would indeed reduce the richness, the variety and - at times - the downright weirdness of the English language... and that can only be a bad thing.

So let's hear from you - which obscure words are on your top three list of vocab worth reviving?

Wordsmiths strike again

Another list of the hottest new words of 2008 was published in today's Daily Mail. So if you suffer from nomophobia, get depressed by stagflation or simply can't tell your funt from your framily, then take a look at the article. It lists a number of very inventive new uses of language, each demonstrating one or other of the word formation processes that we're about to start looking at in A2 (Language Change).

Language is booming when it comes to the crunch

There's a really good article here about the new terms that have come into the language as a result of the current global financial crisis. As the article says, "tumultuous times change language" and this has certainly been the case with the world banking meltdown. Credit crunch is the most obvious example of linguistic innovation in this area, and the article gives a detailed account of the development of this term. The article as a whole presents an excellent overview of the ways in which language is used by the media to represent this particular issue, including a very useful glossary of 'meltdown lingo'. As such this is a great resource for your AS coursework on Representation and Language.

Room for a small one?

Sticking with what seems to have become a bit of a theme in recent postings, this article on language innovation asks us to consider whether the English language is 'full'? The writer of the article, Alex Beam, claims to "love neologisms, coinages, new words, whatever you want to call them", citing staycation, manecdote and brocabulary as personal favourites. In the interest of presenting a balanced argument, however, Beam raises the following question:

Are new words as great as we think they are? Paul MacInnes, writing for The
Guardian newspaper, says no. "The common line is that any new word is a good
word," he says. "It shows a vibrant, playful language shaped by those who
practice it." He continues: "Not often, however, does anyone stop to ask whether
this is a good thing, whether... the English language is full."

It's an interesting point, whether or not you agree with it - and this kind of debate is right up our street as far as the A2 English Language course content is concerned.