The virtual linguist

Vocal fry

Young American women are increasingly copying celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears and introducing the technique of vocal fry into their speech "No waaaaaaaay" and "Oh my Gaaaaaaahhhd"). Technically, vocal fry is the lowest vocal register and the resulting sound is low and croaky. The technique enables singers to hit low notes and to make them last.

 

In a small study a group of US college students were asked to read some sentences. About two thirds of the women exhibited the 'creak', but men, on the whole, did not 'creak' at all. Researchers surmise that young women may use the technique to show group membership and/or solidarity.

 

For a couple of articles about the study with links to hear examples see here and here, and there's a lot of erudite comment on Language Log here.

Dictionary of American Regional English

The fifth volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, covering words beginning SI to Z, has just been published. It contains regional words from all over America and completes a project that was started at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1960s. As well as written words and phrases, regional differences in pronunciation, grammar and syntax are also covered. These were all collected by hundreds of researchers who travelled around the country and recorded the voices of long-term residents. Here's a list of words from all volumes of the dictionary (which I took from a Daily Mail article).

Upscuddle (Southern Appalachian mountains): A noisy quarrel
Feest (New York): Disgusted with/nauseated by
Pinkletink (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts): A young frog
Rumpelkammer (Michigan): A junk room/closet
Futz (Chicago): To fool around, idle, waste time
Flug (Southern California/Kansas): Dust or lint that collects in pockets
Goozlum (Arizona): A viscous food such as sauce, gravy or pudding
Rantum Scoot (New York, Massachusetts): An outing with no definite destination
On the fritz (The North): Out of order, a state of disrepair or ruin
Strubbly (Pennsylvania German): Unkempt, dishevelled
Zydeco (Louisiana): Dance music in Louisiana Creole

 

Here's the website of the Dictionary of American Regional English with masses of information.

Daffodil

Today is St David's Day, St David being the patron saint of Wales. One of the emblems of Wales is the daffodil, so that's the word I'm going to look at today.

 

Daffodils grow profusely in England and Wales, so presumably they have always existed in Britain, but for some reason the d of daffodil only got added in the 16th century. Before that the flower was known as an affodill. There is a genus of flowers called Asphodelus, and the daffodil/affodil was originally a variant of this flower. The OED says that this added d has not been satisfactorily accounted for. There are various theories: that the process of adding a d is similar to the process that turned Edward into Ted; that it is a shortened form of the definite article 'the' (cf the Yorkshire song On Ilkley Moor bar t'at) (NB t and d are similar sounds - they are pronounced the same way, the only difference is that t is unvoiced and d is voiced); that it is a shortened form of the Dutch or Flemish article de (Netherlands being well known for growing bulbs); or that it is from the French de (fleur d'aphrodille).

 

Other words in the OED for daffodil are daffodilly and daffadowndilly (each of which can be spelled in various ways).

 

The daffodil is one emblem of Wales, and the leek is another. Why two quite different things? Well, possibly because they are the same word in Welsh; cenhinen means both 'leek' and 'daffodil'.