The virtual linguist

Comptroller

The title Comptroller is used by financial directors or auditors of some companies and organisations, particularly public bodies (eg in the UK the head of the National Audit Office is styled Comptroller and Auditor General - an example of a postpositive adjective).

 

The title is common in the USA, for instance the chief financial officer of New York State is a comptroller. However, the comptrollers themselves and the public they serve have a problem knowing how to pronounce the word correctly (see this article from the New York Times).

 

It's actually pronounced as if it were written controller. Indeed, the OED says it is an erroneous spelling of controller, which started to be used around the year 1500. In Middle English the term used was counter-roller (the original definition in the OED is 'One who keeps a counter-roll so as to check a treasurer or person in charge of accounts'). Counter was sometimes assumed to be from the word 'count' and then this was transformed into the French equivalent compter.

 

Read how modern US comptrollers cope with the general confusion about pronunciation here.

Madam

The ticket seller/collector called me 'madam' several times on the train this morning ("A return to Redhill? Certainly, madam", "Here you are, madam" and "Thank you, madam"), and, in fact, the staff on that particular train often do. I don't think they are being ironic, as they are polite to everyone. The use of the title may have declined since the 18th century, as the OED informs us, but it is alive and well on First Great Western Railways.

 

Madam comes from the French ma + dame (where dame is an old word for 'mother') and it was generally spelt madame with an e in English till around 1600. It was pronounced the French way at that time, too, with the stress on the second syllable.

 

Originally only women of high rank were addressed as 'madam(e)'. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales the wives of aldermen had the right to be called 'madame'; poets of the 14th and 15th centuries addressed their beloveds as 'madame' and nuns were addressed as 'madame' until the Reformation. In the 16th and 17th centuries there was a tendency to use 'madam' to address married women and 'mistress' to address unmarried women.

 

Something that often happens with words describing women has happened with madam, too -- namely, they soon gain a sexual or pejorative connotation (as mistress, queen, tramp - see this old post of mine). One of the well-known meanings of 'madam' is brothel-keeper (other former and current definitions include a kept mistress, a hussy or minx and nonsense or humbug).

 

You don't often need to say the plural of the polite term of address 'madam', but if you did want to, you would have to say 'mesdames' (which is also used as a plural of Mrs in formal contexts). Madams is the plural of madam in the bawd and hussy senses (eg "little madams" said of precocious little girls).

Pronunciation of fashion designers' names

Last week's London Fashion Week featured in some television and radio news bulletins and magazine programmes, so the BBC Pronunciation Unit published a guide to pronouncing the names of some of the designers and labels on show. Apparently, the way you pronounce Louis Vuitton shows immediately whether you are a true fashionista or not -- the BBC recommends LWEE vwee-TO(NG) (-w as in wet, -o(ng) as in French bon).

 

It might seem obvious that you would pronounce the name Balenciaga the Spanish way, since Balenciaga is a Basque designer. However, the label is now owned by a French company, so it is more likely to be pronounced the French way, and indeed, the BBC discovered that the company prefers the c of Balenciaga to be pronounced like an s, rather than Spanish th.

 

If you're wondering how to pronounce Miu Miu, Ermenegildo Zegna, Christian Lacroix, Elie Saab, Yohji Yamamoto, Isaac Mizrahi, Ralph Lauren and Hussein Chalayan, read the article.

 

European Day of Languages 2010

Oops! I completely forgot to write a post yesterday to mark the European Day of Languages, which has been celebrated since 2001 on 26 September. Schools, organisations, folk societies etc celebrate and promote their language and culture. Translation contests are held, books are produced, online chats are arranged and exchanges are set up.

Here's a selection of activities that have been held around Europe in previous years. The Council of Europe has a dedicated website devoted to the European Day of Languages here.

If you're interested in languages or want to learn them (free of charge), you can't beat the BBC website.

Lallans: is it a dialect or a language?

Lallans, also called Scots, is spoken in Scotland. Lallans is the Scots word for 'lowlands', where the language has traditionally been mostly used (Highlanders traditionally speak Scottish Gaelic). Here's a taste (from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, translated into Scots and available on the Scots Language Society's website). 

It belangs the West Germanic swatch o the Indo-European faimily and hes been ane o the languages o State in Scotland. Its ruits is in the Anglian o Northumbria. Celtic, Scandic and French influences wes strang and its expressive literature includes ane o the first owersets o Virgil’s (Latin) ‘Aeneid’ won intil a modren European tung (1512). Its history canna be richt kent ootwith the context o the linguistic diversity o airly Britain.

Now, is Lallans (Scots) a dialect or a language. This was a question addressed in a talk I went to yesterday at a Chartered Institute of Linguists meeting, given by Dr Anil Biltoo, of SOAS.

As an English speaker you can probably understand a lot of the paragraph. That's not surprising. Lallans is related to English, as it is a West Germanic language, as English is, but, as Dr Biltoo stressed, it is not descended from modern English, which means it is not a variant of English. Standard English is descended from the southern dialect of Anglo-Saxon, whereas Lallans is descended from the Northumbric dialect of Anglo-Saxon. English and Lallans have the same parent -- Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. This makes English and Lallans siblings, rather than parent and offspring.

A variety of English that differs from Standard English because a few words are different, or because vowels are pronounced differently, might be called a dialect. But, where the variety has different grammatical structures from Standard English, it is more than a dialect. Linguists will consider it a separate language. The construction in the penultimate line "... richt kennt" (correctly known or understood) is nothing like the structure we would use in Standard English, and is, in fact, close to German (the t on the end is the past participle and the word order is similar to German). Using this as a criterion, Lallans is a language, not a dialect.

Most misheard lyrics

A Top Twenty of the most misheard lyrics in pop songs (called mondegreens, see below) was published in the Daily Telegraph this week. It was compiled by a manufacturer of ear drops. Top of the charts was a line from a track by REM (The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite). The real lyric is "Call me when you try to wake her" but many listeners actually heard "Calling Jamaica". At number 2 in the charts is the line "Scuse me while I kiss the sky"from the Jimi Hendrix classic Purple Haze, which is frequently assumed to be "Scuse me while I kiss this guy". I like the one at number 8, which is a line from John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's duet from Grease, "You're the one that I want". A significant number of listeners thought this actually went "You're the wobbly one". Still on a John Travolta theme, the Bee Gees' line "Stayin' alive", popularised through the Travolta film Saturday Night Fever, is sometimes misinterpreted as "Steak and a knife".

The word for a misheard line from a song or poem is mondegreen. The word is coined from the last line of the first verse of the Scottish poem The Bonny Earl O'Murray:

Ye Hielands and ye Lowlands,
O where hae ye been?
Thay hae slain the Earl o' Moray,
And laid him on the green.

The American writer Syvia Wright coined the term in a 1954 Harper's Magazine article. She wrote that when she first heard the lyrics, she thought the last line was "And Lady Mondegreen". The Earl of Murray, by the way, was a member of the Stewart family and was hunted down and murdered in 1592.

As I mentioned in a recent post devoted to new words which have entered the OED this month, eggcorn (one of the new additions) is another word meaning 'a misheard word or phrase'.

Here's the full Top Twenty of mondegreens, or misheard lyrics (you can also find it here):

1. REM - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Real lyric: ''Call me when you try to wake her
Misheard lyric: ''Calling Jamaica''

2. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Real Lyric: ''Excuse me while I kiss the sky''
Misheard Lyric: ''Excuse me while I kiss this guy''

3. Aerosmith - Dude Looks Like A Lady
Real Lyric: ''Dude looks like a lady''
Misheard Lyric: ''Do just like a lady''

4. The Foundations - Buttercup
Real Lyric: ''Build me up buttercup''
Misheard Lyric: ''Fill me up buttercup''

5. Adele - Chasing Pavements
Real lyric: ''Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements''
Misheard lyric: ''Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing penguins''

6. Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
Real Lyric: ''It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not''
Misheard Lyric: ''It doesn't make a difference if we're naked or not''

7. ABBA - Dancing Queen
Real Lyric ''Dancing queen, Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah''
Misheard Lyrics: ''Dancing queen, Feel the beat from the tangerine, oh yeah''

8. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - One That I Want
Real Lyric: ''You're the one that I want''
Misheard Lyric: ''You're the wobbly one''

9. Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit
Real Lyric: ''Here we are now, entertain us''
Misheard Lyric: ''Here we are now, in containers''

10. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Real lyric: ''Spare him his life from this monstrosity''
Misheard lyric: ''Spare him his life for this one cup of tea''

11. Johnny Nash- I Can See Clearly Now
Real Lyric: ''I can see clearly now the rain has gone''
Misheard Lyric: ''I can see clearly now Lorraine has gone''

12. Madonna- Papa Don't Preach
Real Lyric: ''Papa don't preach''
Misheard Lyric: ''Poppadom Peach''

13. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Real Lyric - ''Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango''
Misheard lyric: ''Scallaboosh, Scallaboosh, will you to the banned tango''

14. Bee Gees- Stayin' Alive
Real Lyric: ''Stayin' alive, stayin' alive''
Misheard Lyric: ''Steak and a knife, steak and a knife''

15. Prodigy - Out of space
Real lyric: ''I'll take your brain to another dimension. Pay close attention''
Misheard lyric: ''I'll take your brain to another dimension. Hey close the kitchen''

16. ABBA - Dancing Queen
Real lyric: ''See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen''
Misheard lyric: ''See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen''

17. ABBA - Mamma Mia
Real lyric: ''How can I resist you''
Misheard lyric: ''Have I got a sister''

18. Take That - Babe
Real lyric: ''Babe''
Misheard lyric: ''Dave''

19. Blue Oyster Cult- Don't Fear The Reaper
Real Lyric: ''Seasons don't fear the reaper''
Misheard Lyric: ''Jesus don't fear the reaper''

20. Annie Lennox- There Must Be An Angel
Real Lyric: ''Must be talking to an angel''
Misheard Lyric: ''Must be talking to a ninja''

Debenhams fashion glossary

The department store Debenhams has produced an online glossary or dictionary of the fashion garments it has for sale, as many ordinary people are not familiar with terms used by fashion designers and journalists. Here are some examples:

cardigown: a cross between a cardigan and a dressing gown

jeggings: a cross between jeans and leggings

macket: a cross between a mac and a jacket

shacket: a cross between a shirt and a jacket

skorts: culottes, a cross between a skirt and shorts

whorts: thick woollen shorts, worn with tights in winter

and for the gentlemen...

mace: lace for men

mandals: sandals for men

meggings: leggings for men

For more, see this article from the Daily Mail. 

Roll in the OED

As I mentioned in my last post, most of the thousand or so new and revised entries in the Oxford English Dictionary this quarter began with the letters ro-. One of the words in the batch was roll, and the entry for this headword has changed a lot.

The word roll now has 187 different senses. The first citation is from 1325 for the sense 'to sway' (of a boat). The most recent sense is the rap-inspired meaning of 'to act or behave in a certain way', as in the MC Hammer song This is the way we roll. 130 of the 187 senses now have earlier citations than in the previous entry. We can assume that this is a typical feature of the words in the Dictionary -- they are probably older than we think, it's just that earlier evidence hasn't yet come to light.

The OED has also changed the order of the 'roll' senses. Previously the 'turn round and round' sense was mentioned first, but now it is the swaying sense, as mentioned above. Broadly speaking, the meanings are organised in the OED according to date, with the earliest senses and citations first.

Here are some of the more interesting of the 187 senses of the word 'roll':

to trust in God or Christ (16th-19th centuries)

(of soldiers) to take over a task (18th century)

to play tenpin bowling (19th century to date)

to rob a person, especially a drunk (19th century to date, American slang)

to push (a cycle or motorcycle) (19th century to date)

to taxi in an aircraft (20th century)

to pronounce an r with a vibration of the tongue or vocal cords* (from 19th century)

(of long hair) to hang down loose (from 18th century)

* OED spells this chords; ODE spells it cords

New words in the OED September 2010

The latest batch of new entries to the OED has just been announced, as happens every quarter. For the past three months editors have been working on words beginning ro-, so the vast majority of new entries begin with these two letters.

The OED is a huge publication and it can often take years for words to filter through the system, so that some of the so-called 'new' words that have just gone into the Dictionary for the first time will probably seem familiar. There's role-playing, rollerball, Rolodex and Rosie the Riveter, for instance, all of which get a page (online, that is) to themselves, and rogue trader, roll of honour, roll up roll up!, Roman road, romantic comedy and romper suit which are new entries under existing headwords.

The OED covers all varieties of English, so they have put in roko this time, which is a protest in India where protesters disrupt traffic or the railway. There's also rolling calf, a Caribbean supernatural being in the form of a calf which is said to haunt roads and the countryside. Also rorting, an Australian term for corruption or fraud in politics.

There's also slang, eg rollie, which is a rolled-up cigarette, and roofie, a tablet of the drug Rohypnol.

Just because the words have only just gone in to the Dictionary does not mean that they are new words. Rompering is a new entry but hasn't been in use since the early 17th century. The adjective roomly with the meaning 'plentiful' or 'abundant' has just gone in,but this sense was already obsolete by the year 1066.

About forty new headwords have gone in that don't begin ro- including iPod and Yngling. Here are some others:

boonies: North American slang meaning wild or rough country, or a remote area

eggcorn: i) acorn ii) an alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing of it

futsal: a modified form of football with five players per side and a smaller pitch (usually indoors)

hikikomori: in Japan: abnormal avoidance of social contact; acute social withdrawal; (also) a person, typically an adolescent male, engaging in this

parkour: the discipline or activity of using acrobatic and other techniques to move rapidly over or around the obstacles presented by an (esp. urban) environment (free-running, which means the same, is another new entry)

sheeple: people likened to sheep in being docile, foolish, or impressionable

wuxia: an itinerant swordsman or warrior of ancient China

Summer day or summer's day

I was writing a definition and example sentence for a children's dictionary earlier and wasn't sure whether to write "it was a boiling hot summer day" or "it was a boiling hot summer's day". There are far more hits for 'summer's day' on the web, but the results are heavily skewed by the line in Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ...".

Plenty of sites on the internet purporting to teach English or to give advice on grammar say that the apostrophe is necessary because it denotes a possessive (the day belongs to the summer), but then no-one would say "an autumn's day" or "a spring's day". In those cases it seems pretty clear to me that the correct version is without the apostrophe. The British National Corpus has several entries for "a winter day" and "a summer day", but no entries for "a winter's day" or "a summer's day".

'Winter day' is a headword in the OED, although there is a note that 'winter's day' is more common. At 'summer' there is the explanation "The possessive summer's is similarly used, but now chiefly with morning, evening, and night". No mention of 'day' there, although interestingly,'summer's day' is in the OED as an entry in its own right.

There was an Old Frisian word sumersdey, spelt with an s and originally meaning midsummer day (or should that be midsummer's?) and perhaps that is the reason that 'summer's day' sounds so normal, whereas 'spring's day' doesn't.