Tag: English

Translators’ and editors’ skill-set: add mind-reading

Earl Bush served for many years as press secretary for Richard J. Daley, a controversial mayor of Chicago who was a forerunner to another Bush,

English, Australian-style: impressions from Down Under

Ruth Webber, a friend and generous source of marketing wisdom, moved from Scotland to Australia earlier this year. So a new city and country to

Global. It’s, like, a relative concept. Whatevs.

A recent article in the New York Times entitled “They’re, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve” suggests that there’s a lot more method in

Buzzwords

A buzzword, according to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, is: 1. a voguish word or phrase —called also buzz phrase 2. an important-sounding usually technical word

Google adapts its terms and conditions – and its language

I’ve got Google.com set up as my browser home page. I usually just glance at the little announcements under the logo and search box. However,

Punctuation botheration (2)

It seems Birmingham isn’t the only city having bother with place name apostrophes, as shown by the Londonist website’s post on Should King’s Cross Have

What’s in a name: spelling “Gaddafi”

The “As a Linguist” blog has a new post, Wait, who just died?, on the problematic pronunciation and spelling of Colonel Gaddafi’s name. I’ve been “translating” his name

Punctuation botheration (as resolved by Victor Borge)

UK local authorities seem to have a fraught relationship with punctuation and spelling. Birmingham City Council decided in January 2009 to remove the possessive apostrophe

Who are you calling feisty?!?

Yikes! I was browsing through the Online Etymology Dictionary for -le frequentatives the other day, as you do, and eventually arrived at the etyolomogical definition

Faffing around: frequently added frequentatives

For Christmas 2010, my son bought me Michael Quinion’s book Why is Q Always Followed by U?. It’s not the sort of book you’d read