The virtual linguist

Korea's herbivore men and dried-fish women

I've posted before on Japan's grass-eaters or herbivorous men, who wear make-up, are not ambitious at work and aren't very interested in women. South Korea has its own herbivores too, as I read recently in an article by the Financial Times' Korea correspondent (here). These are dandy metrosexuals, according to the article, who prefer to drink wine or soft drinks, and don't like martial arts, much to the disgust of their rather macho elders.

Dried-fish women are young women whose social life consists of lying on the sofa, watching television while eating dried fish. Both they and the herbivore men are loners in a society that is traditionally collectivist, and they have both shunned the traditional Korean life path of education, marriage and family.

Yorkshire words - gansey and coble

Having been to Filey in North Yorkshire for the first time in my life a couple of weeks ago, I listened with interest to this morning's Excess Baggage on Radio 4 (available for another week here). Sandi Toksvig, the presenter, visited Filey Museum, where one of the staff pointed out knitted fishermen's jumpers, each with a different pattern. The word gansey wasn't mentioned in the programme, but that is what these jumpers are traditionally called. I have written on ganseys before. They are mentioned, too, in this BBC article on Filey Museum.

Filey has a coble landing. A coble is a type of fishing boat which developed in the north-east of England to suit the dangerous North Sea conditions (here's a picture). Cobles have a distinctive shape - a flat bottom and high bow - features which help with the launching and landing from Yorkshire and Northumberland ports. The pronunciation of the word coble is interesting. South of Staithes (a fishing village between Middlesbrough and Whitby) it is pronounced to sound like 'cobble'. North of here coble rhymes with noble. 

Bloodgate

I've mentioned 'gate' words before, notably Sachsgate, also known as Manuelgate, and Lippygate. Bloodgate is the latest scandal (and 'gate' words are always scandals). A rugby player at Harlequins, a top English rugby union team, cheated by pretending to be more injured than he really was so that another player could take his place on the pitch (I think that this is the story - I don't know much about rugby; here's a full account). He managed to convince people he was badly hurt because he used a fake blood capsule that he had bought in a joke shop. 

Cambridge University's dying languages project

Cambridge University has launched a project (the World Oral Literature Project) to create records of some of the world's dying languages. Speakers of these languages are being encouraged to record their songs and myths using multi-media tools. The languages include the Barasana language of Colombia and Lowa, spoken in Nepal. The project concentrates on non-Western languages and cultures, even though, as one of the researchers admitted, there are pockets of threatened languages in the UK and Europe too (Cornish, Breton, eg).

For more information on the project see this Daily Telegraph article. 

Banks use Cockney rhyming slang

Many ATMs in London offer you the choice of languages to conduct your transaction in, but there are now five cash dispensers in East London where you can choose Cockney rhyming slang as your language. You'll be asked to enter your Huckleberry Finn (PIN number) and whether you want to see your balance on the Charlie Sheen (screen) or whether you'd prefer to withdraw some bangers and mash (cash). Of course, first you have to enter your bladder of lard (card).

Here's a picture of one of the ATMs. 

Hallo

Stephen Fry's radio programme today was on the subject of the word 'Hallo' (listen again here for another week). I would spell the word 'hello' and there is also a third variant - 'hullo' but the BBC spelt the programme title Hallo with an a.

The first recorded instance of hallo, hello and hullo was only in the 19th century, according to the OED. Someone on the radio programme suggested that the word has its origins in hunting and dates back to soon after the Normans arrived in Britain in the 11th century. A cry similar to 'hallo' indicated that a deer had been spotted. Shakespeare uses 'halloo' and 'holla' not as greetings (those would be 'How now' or 'Well met'), but as a way to attract someone's attention. He also makes verbs of them, suggesting that they were well-known words at the time.

Another greeting used in Shakespeare's plays is 'What cheer?' Cheer is a word that can be traced back to the York mystery plays. It formerly meant 'disposition' so 'what cheer?' meant something like 'how are you feeling?' In the 1890s 'what cheer' morphed into 'wotcher' thanks to Victorian music-hall songs, a greeting that is still used today, mostly in London (a character in Harry Potter says it).

The radio programme, Fry's English Delight, is not meant to be an academic look at words, but it's an interesting listen. You can listen to the programme (it's the last in the current series) here for a few more days (I'm not sure whether it's available to listeners outside the UK). 

'Many' in affirmative sentences

A reader, Frédéric, asked me a question about the use of the word 'many' in affirmative sentences (scroll down to the end of this post to see what he asked).

English grammar books usually say that 'many' is rarely used in affirmative sentences, but is more common in questions and negative sentences eg there weren't many people there, were there many people there? The books also say that 'many' is formal and more likely to be written than spoken; 'a lot of' and 'lots of' are more likely to be used in informal speech.

I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I searched for the words 'many', 'a lot of' and 'lots of' in the most recent ten pages of this blog (40-odd posts). I discounted 'a lot of' where its equivalent was 'much' not 'many' eg 'there's a lot of information'. I use the word 'many' far more times than the expressions 'a lot of' or 'lots of', so perhaps that shows that 'many' is the usual choice in written text. However, I have written 'a lot of' and 'lots of' several times, and where I have used those expressions, I think they are a better choice than 'many'. Here are some examples from recent blog posts:

Spoken Norwegian, interestingly, has elements of a tone language, as it has lots of pairs of words which differ in meaning according to their pitch. (from this post)

Companies or political organisations may hire staff to send out emails and post on forums, so that it looks as if a lot of people support a particular policy or product. (this one)

Wikipedia gives lots of examples (ditto)

In the case above, Garry's wife tended to use lots of commas, dashes and semi-colons in her writing, whereas her husband used short sentences and lots of full stops. (this one)

Frédéric asked me if 'many', 'a lot of' and 'lots of' referred to a similar number of things, and before I thought about it, I would have said 'yes'. However, now that I have thought about it, I'm not so sure. I wonder if I used 'lots of' and 'a lot of' in the sentences above because I wanted to stress that I was talking about a large number. Here are some of my sentences containing 'many':

York's centre has many picturesque, narrow little alleyways called snickelways (this post)

These are written languages rather than spoken - there are many different spoken dialects. (here again)

It means 'hugging' and many Danish houses have a hyggekrog ie a hugging nook, a cosy corner where only good friends are invited. (here)

Many employers use pictures to get across important information eg a picture of a bad practice such as a badly placed ladder, or someone not wearing a helmet with a big red cross through it. (here)

Many private and public schools in the United Kingdom ... do not have football as part of their curriculum, but are rugby schools (here)

The problem with the "i before e" rhyme is that it isn't accurate; protein, weird, their, neighbour, vein and many other words also have e before i, as in receive etc, but there isn't a c in sight (here)

Many individuals and a number of pressure groups lobby for a simplification of English spelling, but this wouldn't necessarily make things easier. (ditto)

There's also a Penrhyn in Cornwall, Cornish being related to Welsh. Gwyn features in many Welsh names, too, eg the county of Gwynedd. (here)

Definitely is the most misspelt common word in English, with many people thinking it is written 'definately' (here)

Looking at these examples, I seem to have been very vague with the word 'many' since I have no idea in any of the sentences whether there really are a lot of snickelways in York, a lot of pressure groups lobbying for a simplification of English, or a lot of Welsh names containing 'Gwyn' etc. Maybe I chose to write 'many' because it doesn't necessarily specify a large number.

I listened carefully to half an hour of a magazine-type programme on BBC Radio 4, where people seem to be speaking off the cuff (it was BH yesterday (Sunday) morning). I switched on in the middle of a discussion about a story that has been in the news this week about a South African female runner who people think might really be a man. The chap being interviewed said 'For many people who are inter-sex ...'. It seems to me that this is a rather vague use of the word 'many' too; after all, are there really that many people who are inter-sex?

'Many' came up a few times in this half-hour segment - more often than 'a lot of' or 'lots of' did, in fact, even though this was spoken English. Here are the other examples:

'...that can be in many different ways ...' (said by a female MP)

'We consulted with ..... Hillary Clinton ... with many other people in America' (said by Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister)

'We have so many crazies in the States' (said by an American reviewing the papers - but 'many' is the only choice here because it's after 'so' - although he could have said 'such a lot of')

Two of Frédéric's examples were 'I went to France many years ago' and 'I spent many hours dancing'. I think 'many' sounds much more natural here than 'a lot of', although I couldn't say why. I also thanked Frédéric by saying 'many thanks' and you definitely wouldn't say 'a lot of' or 'lots of' before 'thanks'.

I shall definitely pay lots of attention to 'many' when I sit listening to other people on trains now!

Hôtel de ville

An Englishwoman got herself locked in a French town hall after she thought hôtel de ville meant 'hotel', according to an article in today's Mail on Sunday. The word hotel comes from the Old French ostel. A circumflex in French often indicates that the word was formerly spelt with an s. The OED's first definition of hotel is French-related too: "Originally, and chiefly with reference to France and French-speaking countries: a large private residence, a town mansion".

Deeley-boppers

If you've ever seen a hen-party group strutting their stuff, then you'll have seen deeley-boppers; headbands with fluffy 'antennae' bouncing around (here's a selection from a company specialising in hen party accessories - don't look if you're a prude). I've seen many before but learnt the word for the first time last night. And where didI learn it? Believe it or not, at the National Portrait Gallery. I was looking at the portraits which had been entered into this year's BP competition and one artist had painted her daughter wearing deeley-boppers, and the word was part of the title.

Deeley-boppers seems to be the British name for these items, probably by association with teeny-boppers (which many of these young hen-night women seem to be). In America they're called Deeley (or Deely)-bobbers, and this version is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Its definition is: "A proprietary name (in the US) for a variety of children's novelty headgear consisting of a pair of ornaments (eg balls) attached antenna-like by springs or wires to a head-band". They 'bob' around, hence their name, I suppose. I can't find any references to a toy-making company called Deely or Deeley, so presumably they don't exist any more.

Mystery

I was in York last weekend and the word mystery came up quite a bit, since York is associated with mystery plays. However, I also visited the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in York, a medieval guild hall, and the word mystery was mentioned there too, but this time it meant 'job' or 'occupation'.

The Oxford English Dictionary has two separate entries for the word mystery. The first is the mystery play sense where mystery means mystical significance or religious truth, particularly one that is secret or that can only be known via divine revelation. Other definitions are a rite or sacrament of the Christian Church and an incident in the life of Christ. This latter sense is why the religious plays performed in York are called mystery plays. The current common meaning of mystery ie something inexplicable or enigmatic follows on from the theological meaning. Mystery also means - guess what - a young or inexperienced prostitute (I have mentioned several times before, eg here and here that there are a huge number of words in the Dictionary that can mean prostitute). Mystery in all these senses comes from the Latin mysterium, meaning 'secret'.

The second entry says that mystery meaning 'trade' or 'profession' and later 'guild' comes from the Latin misterium, with an i, not y, meaning 'duty' or 'service'. The OED says it is also possible that it was influenced by or confused with the word mastery.

By the way, the Adventurers in the hall's name above are 'those who adventured (ie risked) their money' in trading.