s GAA votes to adjust training ban By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:47:28 GMT The GAA's annual Congress in county Laois votes to make adjustments to the controversial winter training ban for intercounty teams. Full Article Northern Ireland
s Down fall to Cork in semi-final By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:47:13 GMT Defending champions Cork beat Down 2-17 to 1-12 in the National League Division One semi-final at Croke Park. Full Article Northern Ireland
s Quigley stars in Fermanagh win By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:20:26 GMT Fermanagh trounce Leitrim in their National Football League Division Four game at Brewster Park. Full Article Northern Ireland
s Cavan name Hyland as new manager By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:03:00 GMT Terry Hyland and assistant Anthony Forde take over at Cavan after the resignation of Val Andrews. Full Article Northern Ireland
s McEnaney hangs on to Meath post By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:52:06 GMT Seamus McEnaney remains the Meath football manager - but only just - following a confidence vote on Wednesday night. Full Article Northern Ireland
s Justin McMahon fit to face Armagh By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Tue, 15 May 2012 16:42:42 GMT Tyrone expect Justin McMahon to be fit to play in the Ulster championship opener against Armagh on June 10. Full Article Northern Ireland
s Cavan hand debuts to five players By www.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Tue, 15 May 2012 22:00:59 GMT Cavan have handed debuts to five players for Sunday's Ulster senior football championship tie against Donegal. Full Article Northern Ireland
s USC football placed on 1 year of probation, fined for coaching staff violations By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:38:10 -0500 Southern California’s football program has been fined $50,000 and placed on probation for one year by the NCAA because of multiple violations of coaching staff rules over two seasons Full Article college-football
s Tropicana Field can be fixed by 2026, but Rays must play elsewhere in 2025 By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:42:09 -0500 A detailed assessment of the hurricane damage to Tropicana Field concludes that the home of the Rays is structurally sound and can be repaired in time for the 2026 season, but not by 2025 Opening Day. Full Article mlb
s Christian Pulisic & Tim Weah headline USMNT November roster drop | SOTU By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:25:44 +0000 Alexi Lalas and David Mosse reacted to the second United States Men's National Team roster release of the Mauricio Pochettino era, with Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah, and Weston McKennie headlining the squad. Full Article soccer
s Lakers' Anthony Davis says his eye is fine, declines to wear goggles By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:27:18 -0500 Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis says he has recovered from being poked in the left eye by Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl, and his latest eye injury still hasn’t persuaded him to wear protective goggles Full Article nba
s Bev Priestman fired as Canada women's soccer coach after Olympic drone scandal By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:55:11 -0500 Canada women's soccer coach Bev Priestman has been fired after an independent review of a drone surveillance scandal at the Paris Olympics Full Article soccer
s Bears fire OC Shane Waldron, how much of it is on Caleb Williams? | First Things First By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 23:00:57 +0000 Nick Wright reacts to the Chicago Bears firing OC Shane Waldron, then discusses how much Caleb Williams is to blame for the team's poor season. Full Article nfl
s Joey Logano 1-on-1: Winning Cup Series championship is 'electric' By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 18:01:05 -0500 Joey Logano sat down with FOX Sports to discuss the wild pace-car wreck, the playoff format and the feeling of winning the title at Phoenix. Full Article nascar
s Opportunity knocks for USMNT's Ricardo Pepi: 'I'm feeling ready to be the man' By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 18:29:11 -0500 With several U.S. men's national team strikers out with injuries, 21-year-old Ricardo Pepi has a golden opportunity to prove why he deserves to be Mauricio Pochettino top choice up top. Full Article soccer
s Kyler Murray, Brock Purdy move up, Caleb Williams on bottom of Mahomes Mountain | First Things First By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 23:59:55 +0000 Nick Wright reveals who climbs up and down his Week 11 QB Tiers, including Kyler Murray and Brock Purdy, who will face each other in the final game of the regular season with playoffs on the line. Watch as Nick explains why Caleb Williams is not off Mahomes Mountain yet despite a change in the Chicago Bears coaching staff. Full Article nfl
s Alabama's Ryan Williams on Travis Hunter winning Biletnikoff: 'I can't let him do that' By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:11:36 -0500 In an interview on FOX Sports' "All Facts, No Brakes," Alabama stars Ryan Williams and Jaylen Mbakwe shared why they stayed after Nick Saban's retirement and their thoughts on Travis Hunter. Full Article college-football
s C.J. Stroud tops the list of best-selling NFL jerseys midway through 2024 season By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:29:22 -0500 Three quarterbacks lead the way in top NFL jerseys sales so far this season. Full Article nfl
s Providence's Oswin Erhunmwunse throws down a POWERFUL two-hand dunk vs. Hampton By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 00:41:26 +0000 Providence Friars' Oswin Erhunmwunse threw down a powerful two-handed dunk against the Hampton Pirates. Full Article college-basketball
s 49ers agree to 5-year, $92 million extension with CB Deommodore Lenoir By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:51:46 -0500 San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir has agreed to a five-year, $92 million extension to stay with the team instead of testing the free agent market next offseason Full Article nfl
s Deion Sanders talks Shedeur Sanders’ growth from last year to this season | Speak By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:00:28 +0000 Deion Sanders discusses the impressive growth of Shedeur Sanders from last season to this year, highlighting his development as Colorado’s QB and the strides he’s made on the field. Full Article college-football
s Matthew Nicholson throws down a two-handed slam to help Northwestern lead over UIC going into the half By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:03:13 +0000 Matthew Nicholson threw down a two-handed slam to help the Northwestern Wildcats lead over the the UIC Flames going into the half. Full Article college-basketball
s Deion Sanders compares Shedeur and Travis’ chemistry to Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman | Speak By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:06:37 +0000 Deion Sanders talks about the strong chemistry between Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, comparing it to the connection Michael Irvin had with Troy Aikman during their playing days. Full Article college-football
s Deion Sanders argues why Travis Hunter is a Heisman front-runner this year | Speak By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:11:08 +0000 Deion Sanders argues why Travis Hunter is a top contender for the Heisman this year, highlighting his unique talent and impact on Colorado’s success. Full Article college-football
s Mavs' Klay Thompson cheered by 400 Warriors employees in return to Golden State By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:18:09 -0500 Klay Thompson was greeted by some 400 cheering Warriors employees showing their love and appreciation for the former Golden State star and lined up along his path to the Dallas locker room Full Article nba
s Bensley Joseph finds Corey Floyd Jr. for a TOUGH ALLEY-OOP dunk as Providence leads 47-43 vs. Hampton By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:21:41 +0000 Providence Friars' Bensley Joseph found Corey Floyd Jr. for a tough alley-oop dunk against the Hampton Pirates. Full Article college-basketball
s Michael Irvin asked Deion Sanders about coaching the Cowboys | Speak By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:34:13 +0000 Michael Irvin asks Deion Sanders about the possibility of coaching the Dallas Cowboys, sparking a funny moment and laughter. Full Article college-football
s College Football Playoff Rankings: Oregon, Ohio State on top; Alabama enters top 10 By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:59:04 -0500 The second set of College Football Playoff Predictions were released Tuesday night, with Oregon, Ohio State and Texas listed in the top three spots. See the complete rankings! Full Article college-football
s Tom Brady’s 3 Stars of Week 10: Lamar Jackson, Ja'Marr Chase, Leo Chenal | DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 02:09:54 +0000 Tom Brady gave his 3 stars of Week 10 which included Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, Cincinnati Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase and Kansas City Chiefs LB Leo Chenal. Full Article nfl
s Tom Brady's 3 Stars of Week 10, including Ravens' Lamar Jackson By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 21:20:50 -0500 Week 10 of the 2024 NFL season had a few memorable and exciting finishes as several stars showed out! Check out FOX Sports lead NFL analyst Tom Brady to name his latest 3 Stars of The Week. Full Article nfl
s John Hugley IV records a NASTY block to help Xavier hold on to 40-25 lead at halftime vs. Jackson State By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 02:32:10 +0000 John Hugley IV recodrded a NASTY block to help Xavier hold on to 40-25 lead at halftime vs. Jackson State Full Article college-basketball
s Deion Sanders says he’ll intervene if ‘wrong' NFL team tries to draft son Shedeur By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 21:39:43 -0500 Coach Prime tells the "Speak" crew how he plans to handle the NFL draft process with quarterback son, Shedeur, and two-way star Travis Hunter. Full Article college-football
s 2024 Fantasy football: Top performers in Week 10 By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:06:45 -0500 Check out which players had the top performances in Week 10 of the fantasy football season. Full Article nfl
s Dailyn Swain takes it coast-to-coast for an UNREAL jam to extend Xavier's lead over Jackson State By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 03:22:30 +0000 Dailyn Swain took it coast-to-coast for an UNREAL jam to extend the Xavier Musketeers' lead over Jackson State. Full Article college-basketball
s College Football Playoff rankings takeaways: Colorado's path, Indiana undervalued By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:49:34 -0500 FOX Sports' RJ Young offers up three takeaways from the second set of College Football Playoff rankings, including Colorado's path to the CFP ... and the national title game. Full Article college-football
s 2024-25 NBA championship odds: Celtics, Thunder favored; Cavs rising By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 23:47:40 -0500 A number of contenders are chasing the defending champion Celtics on the oddsboard. Check out where things stand, with insight from Jason McIntyre. Full Article nba
s Champions Classic: Hunter Dickinson leads Kansas past MSU; Kentucky rallies past Duke By www.foxsports.com Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 00:46:50 -0500 Hunter Dickson led No. 1 Kansas to an impressive win over Michigan State, while Mark Pope aced his first big test as Kentucky's head coach. Full Article college-basketball
s Въезд в Таиланд из Камбоджи через КПП Ban Pakkad / Phsar Prum. 2024 By za7gorami.ru Published On :: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 08:20:43 +0000 В Таиланд через КПП Бан Паккад (на фото) - как практически осуществить, чтобы без платы за такси тут и там? Этот вопрос меня интересовал в феврале 2024, когда я возвращался из Камбоджи в Таиланд. читать далее Full Article Камбоджа Таиланд
s Цены в Сепоне (Xepon, Laos) в 2024 году: гестхаусы и еда By za7gorami.ru Published On :: Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:22:38 +0000 Я позавчера оббегал гесты в Сепоне, и, вот, решил поделиться. читать далее Full Article Лаос
s Newsletter archive By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 28 Dec 2022 17:43:00 +0000 If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, follow this link. You'll get around one newsletter per month. The newsletters have something about British–American linguistic relations (often linking to blog posts here), a bit about what I've been up to in my Lynneguist life (as well as things in the works), and links to things I've found interesting. Click here for the newsletter archive. Full Article newsletter
s UK-to-US Word of the Year 2022: fit By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sun, 01 Jan 2023 02:41:00 +0000 Having let the year run its course, I'm now am ready to declare the Separated by a Common Language Words of the Year for 2022. As ever, there are two categories: US-to-UK and UK-to-US. To be a SbaCL WoTY, the word just needs to have been noticeable in some way that year in the other country. For past WotYs, see here. And now...The 2022 UK-to-US Word of the Year is: fitNow, of course the word fit is general English when we use it in contexts like The shoes fit or I'm going to get fit this year. But those fits are not my UK-to-US Word of the Year. The fit I'm talking about is the informal British usage that means 'attractive, sexy'. A close (orig.) AmE synonym is hot. Ben Yagoda, on his Not One-Off Britishisms blog, first noticed this sense of fit in an American context back in 2013, but it seems to have taken hold in the US in the past couple of years. I assume this is due to the international popularity of the British television (BrE) programme/(AmE) show Love Island. Here's a clear example of this sense of fit from another UK reality series, Made in Chelsea.*I like that video just because it's clearly fit meaning 'hot' rather than 'healthy and/or muscular', but if you'd like to hear it said on Love Island, then you can hear it here at 1:38 (though the YouTube automatic subtitling mishears it as fair). This use of the word is new enough to the US that it's included in glossaries for American Love Island fans, like this one and this one. The Oxford English Dictionary added it in 2001: British slang. Sexually attractive, good-looking.1985 Observer 28 Apr. 45/1 ‘Better 'en that bird you blagged last night.’ ‘F—— off! She was fit.’1993 V. Headley Excess iv. 21 ‘So wait; dat fit brown girl who live by de church ah nuh your t'ing?!’ he asked eyebrows raised.1999 FHM June (Best of Bar Room Jokes & True Stories Suppl.) 21/1 My first night there, I got arseholed, hit the jackpot and retired with my fit flatmate to her room.2000 Gloucester Citizen (Nexis) 14 Feb. 11 I would choose Gillian Anderson from the X-Files, because she's dead fit.Green's Dictionary of Slang has one 19th-century example, but notes that "(later 20C+ use is chiefly UK black)." I can't give statistics on how often this fit is use in the US because (a) the word has many other common meanings, making it very difficult to search for in corpora, and (b) this particular meaning is not likely to make it into print all that often. (Slang is like that.) Ben Yagoda considers fit "still an outlier" in AmE. But Ben's probably not in the right demographic for hearing it. An anonymous blog reader nominated it, and it struck me as apt for 2022—the popularity of "Love Island UK" (as it's called in the US) was hard to miss on my visit to the US this summer. I got to hear my brother (whose [AmE] college-student daughter loves the show) imitating the contestants, throwing in words like fit. I can easily find young US people using and discussing 'sexy' fit on social media (though I won't share their examples here because those young people didn't ask for the attention). And it made it onto Saturday Night Live, in a sketch about Love Island. You can hear proper fit at 1:11:So Happy New Year to you! I wrote this post after watching the fireworks (on tv) at midnight. Now I'm (BrE humorous) off to Bedfordshire, so I'll leave the other WotY for tomorrow. Stay tuned for the US-to-UK WotY! *Update: I'm told that the Made in Chelsea video does not play in the US. Here's a quick transcript of the relevant bit:Scene: Two male cast members on a sofa, commenting on this video shot of a female cast member:M1: God, she's fit. M2: She is so hot.M1: So fit. Full Article adjectives sex television WotY
s 2022 US-to-UK Word of the Year: homer By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 02 Jan 2023 01:28:00 +0000 Yesterday, I declared the UK-to-US SbaCL Word of the Year. You can read about it here. The US-to-UK one may be as controversial as it was the first time (a)round (in May). But here goes: 2022's US-to-UK Word of the Year is: homerWhy? Because it is possibly the most talked-about Americanism in British social media this year.Because if I chose the other finalist,* I'd get too many "that's not a word!" complaints.Because it alludes a huge, wordy phenomenon of 2022.That phenomenon is Wordle, the word game invented by a Welsh engineer in the US, an added transatlantic bonus. Homer was the Wordle solution on the 5th of May, setting off a lot of grumpiness on social media. The cartoonist Stephen Collins provides a good illustration of the depth of feeling on the matter on the part of many committed UK Wordlers:So, this isn't a Word of the Year because British people have taken on the word to refer to baseball home runs. There is very little need to talk about baseball in Britain. It's US-to-UK Word of the Year because it was an Americanism talking point in Britain, demonstrating how separate our vocabularies can be.But is it an Americanism? The thing is, British people do say homer for lots of other reasons. In various BrE dialects or jargons, it can be a homing pigeon, a (BrE) match played on the home (BrE) pitch in some sports, or "a job that a skilled worker, such as a house painter or a hairdresser[..], does for a private customer in the customer's home, especially when they do this in addition to their main job and without telling their employer or the tax authorities" (Cambridge Dictionary). It's also the name of an ancient Hebrew measurement. But none of these uses are as common in BrE as homer meaning 'home run' is in AmE, and so the word was definitely perceived as an Americanism by British Wordle players. Now, this choice isn't exactly original on my part. Cambridge Dictionary made homer their Word of the Year back in November. It's also been noted as one of the most Googled words of the year. But that's another reason why it feels right as the US-to-UK Word of the Year. It not only spiked high in their look-up statistics on the day, it continued to be looked up in their online dictionary for months after—perhaps because BrE speakers just can't stop talking/tweeting about it. Homer was again showing up in tweets about losing one's Wordle streak on 27 December, when the answer was the tricky HAVOC. (And I imagine it was showing up in the less searchable social media as well.) It'll be interesting to see if it's still being put to these purposes next year, or if it'll have been forgotten. The chances that it'll be forgiven seem thin.I do encourage you to have a look at Cambridge's Word of the Year site for more on this word, British–American linguistic relations and how Wordle's been affecting dictionary usage. *My other "finalist" was them's the breaks, as spoken by Boris Johnson in his resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street. I was sure in July that that would be my "Word" of the Year, but, two Prime Ministers later, this well and truly feels like ancient news now. Full Article games sport WotY
s what 'polite' means: Culpeper, O'Driscoll & Hardaker (2019) By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:20:00 +0000 I've studied the word please off and on for a few years now.* Currently, I'm trying to finish up a study that I started an embarrassing number of years ago. Now that I've returned to it, I have the pleasure of reading all the works that have been published on related topics in the meantime. They couldn't inform my study design, but they must now inform the paper I hope to publish. One of these is a chapter by Jonathan Culpeper, Jim O'Driscoll and Claire Hardaker: "Notions of Politeness in Britain and North America," published in the book in From Speech Acts to Lay Understandings of Politeness, edited by Eva Ogiermann and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (Cambridge UP, 2019). Their question, what does polite mean in the UK and US, was a research project on my to-do list. When I was a younger scholar, I'd have been (a) royally annoyed with those authors for getting to it first, (b) sad, sad, sad that I didn't get to do a fun piece of research, and (c) consumed with self-loathing for not being quick enough to do the project myself. It is both the blessing and curse of middle age that I now look at anything anyone else has done with gratitude. Good! Now I don't have to do it! Let's start with why it's interesting to ask about "notions of politeness" in the two countries. Here's a clue from an earlier post about use of please when ordering at restaurants. I asked:So, how can it be that Americans think of themselves as polite when they fail to extend this common courtesy word?I argued that Americans (subconsciously) find the lack of please in these contexts "more polite." In the comments section for that post, some people—mostly British people—could just not accept that a food order without a please could be described as polite. To them, to be polite includes saying please. If you're not using the word please, it's just not polite. Now, part of the reason for that disagreement is that I was using the word polite in linguistic-theory-laden ways. The distinction between how the word politeness is used in linguistic discussions and how it's used in everyday life has become such a problem for us linguists that we now talk about polite1 and polite2 to distinguish commonplace understandings of polite (1) from our theoretical uses (2). The failures of communication in my previous blogpost probably stemmed from having three understandings of politeness at play: the linguist's polite2, American polite1, and British polite1. Postcard from the How to be British series Culpeper et al. set out to contrast British and American polite1. They point out that academic research on the topic of British/American politeness is "full of stereotypes that have largely gone unexamined." These stereotypes hold that British culture favo(u)rs maintaining social distance by using indirectness and avoidance in interaction, while Americans are more interested in creating interactional intimacy by being informal and open. The authors asked: how do AmE and BrE speakers use the word polite? If differences exist, then do they conform to the stereotypes, or do they tell us something new? To investigate this, the authors used two sets of data.Part 1: clustering 'polite' words in the OECFirst, they searched the Oxford English Corpus, where they found thousands of instances of polite. In AmE, it occurs 6.8 times and in BrE 8.8 times per million words. They then used corpus-linguistic tools to determine which words polite was most likely to co-occur with in the two countries' data. They then used statistical tools to group these collocates into clusters that reflect how they behave linguistically. (I'll skip over the detail of the statistical methods they use, but it suffices to say: they know what they're doing.) For example in the British data, words like courteous, considerate, and respectful form a courteous cluster, while words like cheery, optimistic, and upbeat are in the cheerful cluster. The British and American datasets were similar in that polite co-occurred at similar rates with words that formed cheerful and friendly clusters. This seems to go with the common stereotype of American politeness as outgoing and inclusive, but contradicts the British stereotype of reserved behavio(u)r. The most notable difference was that British polite collocated with words in a sensible cluster, including: sensible, straightforward, reasonable, and fair. This cluster didn't figure in the American data. The British data also had a calm cluster (calm, quiet, generous, modest, etc.), which had little overlap with American collocates. British polite, then, seems to be associated with "calm rationality, rather than, say, spontaneous emotion." Other clusters seemed more complex. Courteous and charming came up as British clusters, while American had respectful, gracious, and thoughtful clusters. However, many of the words in those clusters were the same. For example, almost all the words in the British courteous cluster were in the American gracious cluster. That is, in American courteous and attentive were more closely associated with 'gracious' words like open-minded and appreciative, while British courteous and attentive didn't intersect with more 'gracious' words. Respectful is a particularly interesting case: it shows up in the courteous cluster for the British data, but has its own respectful cluster in American (with words like compassionate and humane). Looking at these clusters of patterns gives us a sense of the connotations of the words—that is to say, the associations those words bring up for us. Words live in webs of cultural assumptions. Pluck one word in one web, and others will reverberate. But it won't be the same words that would have reverberated if you'd plucked the same word in the other web. It's not that compassionate wasn't in the British data, for example—it's that its patterns did not land it in a cluster with respectful. In American, respectful seems to have "a warmer flavour" with collocates relating to kindness and positive attitudes toward(s) others, while in the British data respectful has "older historic echoes of courtly, refined, well-mannered behaviour." Part 2: 'politeness' and sincerity on TwitterTheir second investigation involved analy{s/z}ing use of polite and its synonyms in a particular 36-hour period on Twitter. The data overall seemed to go against the stereotypes that American politeness is "friendly" and British is "formal", but once they looked at the data in more detail, they discovered why: US and UK words differed in (in)sincerity. In the British data, respectful seemed to "be used as a vehicle for irony, sarcasm and humour", while in the American data friendly "appears to have acquired a negative connotation" about 17% of the time, in which "friendly" people were accused of being untrustworthy or otherwise undesirable. This also underscores the idea that American respectful has a "warmer flavour" than British respectful. It's intriguing that each culture seems to be using words stereotypically associated with them (American–friendly; British–respectful) in ironic ways, while taking the less "typical of them" words more seriously. Yay for this study! I'm grateful to Culpeper, O'Driscoll and Hardaker for this very interesting paper, which demonstrates why it's difficult to have cross-cultural discussions of what's "polite" or "respectful" behavio(u)r. The more we're aware of these trends in how words are interpreted differently in different places, the better we can take care in our discussions of what's polite, acceptable, or rude. *If you're interested in the fruits of my please labo(u)rs so far, have a look at:Routine Politeness in American & British Requests (Murphy & De Felice 2019)Defining your P's & Q's: Describing and Prescribing Politeness in Dictionaries (Murphy 2019) Blog posts with the 'politeness' label Full Article politeness stereotypes
s puh-lease/pur-lease By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sun, 02 Apr 2023 23:53:00 +0000 My obsession with the word please keeps leading me to new discoveries. This time: a spelling difference!One particular use of please is to be dismissive of something someone else has said or done, as in: Please! You don't really imagine we want to read about please again, do you?But when people say that please, they often elongate the pronunciation, including putting a bit of vocal 'space' between the P and the L, creating a two-syllable please. And because people pronounce it with two syllables, they sometimes spell it with something syllable-indicating between the P and the L.So I went looking for such spellings in the Corpus of Global Web-based English. Since I didn't know the exact spellings I was looking for, I put in various key letters/punctuation and asterisks after them, like pu*lea* and p-le*: the asterisks are wildcards that stand for any number of characters. So, pu*lea* gave me relevant results like puhlease and puuuleazz and irrelevant ones like purpleleaf. Sorting through the results (thanks to Becky Hunt for doing the table for me), we've got: Examples US UK puh puh-leaze, puhleese, puhleez 168 39 pul puleeze, pulease, puleasssse 30 8 puu puulease, puuulleeeeezzz 7 0 pu- pu-lease, pu-leeze 6 0 p-l p-lease, p-leeease 0 3 pur purlease, purleese, purleeze 0 25 The US column has a lot more of these spellings. That's to be expected—that 'dismissal' usage is more common in AmE and so the re-spelling of it will be too. But what's super-interesting is the contrast between the preferred AmE use of puh or pu to represent the first syllable versus the BrE-only use of pur. Echoes of a previous post! The one where I had discovered that when Americans say "uh" on British television, it gets close-captioned as "er" because an r after a vowel in English-English spelling does not signal the /r/ sound, but rather a kind of vowel quality. Purlease in BrE spelling does not indicate a different pronunciation from puhlease: it represents one way that a non-rhotic (non-/r/-pronouncing) speaker can represent the schwa sound that's been inserted in the elongated word. Not what I thought I'd discover when I started looking for please spellings, so a fun little extra for me! (And now you too!) Full Article politeness pronunciation spelling
s NYT Spelling Bee: an archive of disallowed BrE words By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Tue, 11 Apr 2023 00:34:00 +0000 Twitter has been my main internet stomping ground since 2009, but I've been withdrawing my labo(u)r from it since October, when it became much more volatile for some reason. The New York Times Spelling Bee has been my morning-coffee activity for some of those years, and since November 2020 I've been jokingly tweeting the BrE words that it hasn't accepted. These go in a thread of posts that always start: Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me: An Occasional SeriesTwitter has really degraded this week, which is making me feel a bit sad that perhaps that thread will have to die. (I'm also sad that the thread has frayed along the way—it's very difficult to read it all the way to the beginning because it splits here and there.) So as a clearly procrastinatory measure, I'm putting the list of "perfectly common BrE words" here, with a little more explanation than they tended to get on Twitter.For those who don't know the Bee: it's an anagram game where one must use the middle letter. The twist—and what makes it a superior anagram game—is that you can use any of the letters as many times as you like. Here's what it looked like on the 5th of April when I hadn't yet got to Genius level. (My goal every day is 'make it to Genius before breakfast'. It's nice to be called 'Genius' before you've started work.) The game, of course, has its own word list, which is suitably American for its New York Times home. Still, some not-usually-AmE words are playable, like FLATMATE, LORRY and PRAM. But many words that are part of my everyday vocabulary in England are not playable. And non-AmE spellings are generally not playable. There's been a lot of attention to AmE words that (orig. AmE) stump non-American players in Wordle. (Here's Cambridge Dictionary's 2022 Word of the Year post, which covers some—and includes a video in which I talk about why HOMER was a great choice for Word of the Year.) Not as much attention has been paid to the Spelling Bee, which you need to subscribe to. I'm sure British players have their own (mental) lists of American words they've had to learn in order to get "Queen Bee" status (finding all the day's words) in the game. If you're one of them, do use the comments to tell us about those weird words.So, after all that preamble, here are the "Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me" words in alphabetical order, with translations or links to other blog posts. But first, a bit more preamble. The disclaimers! Words in the puzzle must be at least four letters long, so some of these are suffixed forms for which the three-letter base word was unplayable. If there's an -ED form but not an -ING form (etc.), that'll be because the other one's letters weren't in the puzzle. Some of these would not have been allowable—regardless of their dialectal provenance—on the basis that they are "naughty" words. I include them anyway. I have checked questionable cases against the GloWbE corpus to ensure that the word really is more common in BrE than AmE.Some are Irish or Australian by origin, but they are still more common in BrE than in AmE.Sometimes my spelling is a bit liberal here. If I could find one British dictionary that allowed me the word with the given spelling, I included it. Also the phrase "perfectly common" is not meant to be taken too seriously!These words were not playable at the time when I tried to play them. The word list may have changed and some of them may be playable now. Red ones are ones that have been unsuccessfully played/tweeted about since I first started this blog list. Green ones have been added to the blog since the original post, but were tweeted-about earlier than that—I just missed them in the tangled Twitter threads when I was writing the blog post. ABATTOIR AmE slaughterhouseAGGRO aggression, aggressive behavio[u]rAITCH the letter. Less need to spell it as a word in AmE. See this old post.ANAEMIA / ANAEMIC AmE anemia/anemicANNEXE minority spelling in BrE; usually, as in AmE, it's annexAPNOEA AmE apneaAPPAL AmE appall; old post on double LsARDOUR old post on -or/-ourARGYBARGY this is a bit of a joke entry because it's usually spelled/spelt ARGY-BARGY (a loud argument), but the Squeeze album has no hyphen. ARMOUR -or/-ourBALLACHE something annoying or tedious (usually hyphenated, but some dictionaries include the closed-up version)BIBBED I don't know why this shows up more in BrE data, but it does, just meaning 'wearing a bib'BINMAN / BINMEN AmE garbage man (among other terms); old post on binBINT derogatory term for a womanBITTY having lots of unconnected parts, often leaving one feeling unsatisfied; for example, this blog post is a bit bittyBLAG covered in this old postBLUB / BLUBBING to sob (= general English blubbering)BOAK retch, vomit, throw up a bit in the mouth. That was gross. Sorry.BOBBLY having bobbles BOBBY I think this one might be playable now. Informal term for police officer. In AmE, found in bobby pins. BODGE / BODGED make or fix something badlyBOFFIN see this old postBOLLOCK / BOLLOCKED reprimand severelyBOLLOX This one's more common in Irish English than BrE. To screw something up.BOKE see BOAK BONCE the head (informal)BOYO a boy/man (Welsh informal)BRILL short for brilliant, meaning 'excellent'; also a kind of European flatfishBROLLY umbrella (informal)BUNG / BUNGING to put (something) (somewhere) quickly/carelessly. People cooking on television are always bunging things in the oven. BUTTY see this old postCAFF a café, but typically used of the kind that is analogous to an AmE diner (that is to say a café is not as fancy in BrE as it would be in AmE)CAWL a soupy Welsh dish (recipe); also a kind of basketCEILIDH a Scottish social dance (event)CHANNELLED post on double LsCHAPPIE a chap (man)CHAV / CHAVVY see this old post and/or this oneCHICANE a road arrangement meant to slow drivers down; see this old postCHILLI see this old postCHIMENEA / CHIMINEA the 'e' spelling is considered etymologically "correct" but the 'i' spelling seems to be more common in UK; I think these kinds of outdoor fireplaces are just more trendy in UK than in US?CHIPPIE alternative spelling of chippy, informal for a (fish and) chip shop"cholla" at a UK online supermarketCHOC chocolate (informal, countable)CHOLLA a spelling of challah (the bread) CLAG mud; more common is claggy for 'having a mud-like consistency'COLOUR -or/-ourCONNEXION this is a very outdated spelling of connection. Not actually used in UK these days, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to play it?COOTCH a hiding place, a shed or similar (from Welsh cwtch)COUNCILLOR post on double LsCRAIC it's really an Irish one (a 'good time'), but it qualifies here because it's used more in BrE than AmE (and understood pretty universally in UK)CRIM criminalCUTTY short (in some UK dialects)DADO as in dado rail, what's often called a chair rail in AmE (here's a picture)DEFENCE AmE defenseDEMOB /DEMOBBED de-mobilize(d); that is, released from the (BrE) armed forces / (AmE) militaryDENE a valley (esp. a narrow, wooded one) or a low sand dune near the sea (regional)DEVILLED post on double LsDIALLING post on double LsDIDDY small (dialectal); see this old postDOBBED / DOBBING actually Australian, dob = to inform on someone; see this old post on the BrE equivalent grass (someone) upDODDLE it's a doddle = (orig. AmE) it's a piece of cake (very easy)DOOLALLY out of one's mindEQUALLED post on double LsFAFF / FAFFING one of the most useful BrE words. See this old post. FARL a kind of (AmE) quick bread, usually cut into triangles; can be made of various things, but here's a recipe for a common kind, the potato farlFAVOUR -or/-ourFILMIC cinematic, relating to filmFITMENT = AmE fixture, i.e. a furnishing that is fit(ted) in placeFLANNELETTE = AmE flannel old post on flannelsFLAVOUR -or/-ourFLAVOURFUL -or/-ourFOETAL AmE (and BrE medical) fetalFOOTMAN a servant or (formerly soldier (of a particular rank)FUELLED post on double LsFULFIL post on double LsGADGIE / GADGE guy, man, boy (regional)GAMMON this post covers the meat meaning, but lately it's also used as an insult for Brexiteers and their political similarsGAMMY (of a body part) not working well; e.g., I have a gammy kneeGANNET a type of sea bird, but also BrE slang for a greedy personGAOL now less common spelling for jailGIBBET gallows; to hang (a person) [not really in current use]GIGGED / GIGGING to perform at a gig [playable as of May 2023]GILET covered at this clothing post and also at this pronunciation postGIPPING form of gip, a synonym of BOAK (see above)GITE French, but used in English for a type of holiday/vacation cottageGOBBED / GOBBING form of gob, which as a noun means 'mouth', but as a verb means 'spit'GOBBIN waste material from a mineGOBBY mouthyGOOLY (more often GOOLIE, GOOLEY) a testicle (informal, see GDoS)getting gunged/slimedGUNGE any unpleasant soft or slimy substance; also used as a verb for having such stuff poured over one's head on a children's show (= AmE slime)GURN / GURNING see this old postHAITCH = AITCH, but pronounced differently See this old post.HALLO old-fashioned hello HENCH strong, fit (like a weightlifter)HOLDALL a duffel bag or similar heavy-duty bag; often spelled with a hyphen (hold-all), but at least some places don't. HOOPOE a kind of bird (mostly African), which sometimes makes it to EnglandHOGMANAY it is a proper noun, but I wanted to include it anywayHOICK / HOIK to lift/pull abruptlyHOTCHPOTCH AmE hodgepodgeINNIT invariant tag question: isn't it? INVIGILATING AmE proctoring; old postJAMMY lucky; old post KIRK church (Scotland)KIPPING form of kip, to take a napLAIRY (esp. of a person) unpleasantly loud, garish LAMBING form of to lamb, give birth to lambs. Often heard in lambing time or lambing seasonLAMPED form of to lamp, to hit a person very hardLARKING form of to lark, 'to behave in a silly way for fun'LAYBY AmE turnout (and other synonyms/regional terms); a place where a car can move out of the flow of traffic (usually has a hyphen lay-by, but I found one dictionary that doesn't require it)LIDO an outdoor public swimming pool; there's some debate about how to pronounce it LILO a blow-up mattress for floating on in a poolLINO short for linoleumLOLLY lollipop or (AmE) popsicle (especially in ice lolly)LOVAGE a(n) herb that Americans don't see very often [has been added! Played successfully on 3 May 2023]LUPIN AmE lupine, a flowerLURGI / LURGY see this old postMEDIAEVAL the less common spelling of medievalMILLIARD (no longer really used) a thousand million, i.e. a billion MILORD address term for a noblemanMINGE a woman's pubic hair/area (not flattering) MINGING foul, bad smelling, ugly (rhymes with singing!)MODELLED post on double LsMOGGY a cat (informal)MOOB man boobMOULT AmE molt (related to -or/-our)MOZZIE mosquitoMUPPET in its lower-case BrE sense: 'idiot; incompetent person'NAFF this has come up in posts about 'untranslatables' and about a study that identified common BrE words Americans don't knowNAPPY AmE diaperNAVVY a manual labo(u)rer (old-fashioned)NEEP Scottish English for what the English call a swede and what Americans call a rutabaga (old post on the latter two)NELLY in the BrE phrase not on your nelly (= AmE not on your life)NIFFY unpleasant-smellingNOBBLE to unfairly influence an outcome; steal NOBBLY alternative spelling of knobbly (which is more common in both AmE & BrE)NONCY adjective related to nonce (sex offender, p[a]edophile) NOWT nothing (dialectal)ODOUR -or/-ourOFFENCE AmE offenseOFFIE short for BrE off-licence; AmE liquor store (discussed a little in this old post) ORACY the speaking version of literacy; in US education, it's called oralityPACY having a good or exciting pace (e.g. a pacy whodunnit)PAEDO short for pa(e)dophilePANTO see this postPAPPED / PAPPING from pap, to take paparazzi picturesPARLOUR -or/-ourPARP a honking noisePEDALLED post on double LsPELMET another one from the study that identified common BrE words Americans don't knowPENG slang for 'excellent' PIEMAN / PIEMEN this one is usually two words (pie man), but I was able to find a dictionary that allowed it as a single word, so I added it to the listPIPPED / PIPPING pip = to defeat by a small amount; often heard in to be pipped at the post PITTA another spelling for pita, more in line with the BrE pronunciation of the wordPLAICE another one from the study that identified common BrE words Americans don't knowPLUMMY see this postPODGY chubbyPOMMY another Australian one, but English people know it because it's an insult directed at them, often in the phrase pommy bastardPONCE / PONCY see this postPONGING horrible-smellingPOOED / POOING see this post for the poo versus poop storyPOOTLE to travel along at a leisurely speedPOPPADOM / POPPADUM anything to do with Indian food is going to be found more in UK than USPORRIDGY like porridge, which in AmE is oatmealPUFFA full form: puffa jacket; a kind of quilted jacket; it is a trademark, but used broadly; I did find it in one dictionary with a lower-case pPUNNET see this old postRAILCARD you buy one and it gives you discounts on train ticketsRANCOUR -or/-ourRUMOUR -or/-ourTANNOY AmE loudspeaker, public address system (originally a trademark, but now used generically)TARTY dressed (etc.) in a provocative mannerTELLY (orig.) AmE tvTENCH a Eurasian fishTHALI another Indian menu word THICKO stupid personTIDDY small (dialectal) TIFFIN usually referring to chocolate tiffin (recipe)TINNING AmE canningTITBIT see this postTITCH a small person TIZZ = tizzy (to be in a tizz[y])TOFF an upper-class person (not a compliment)TOMBOLA see this postTOTTED / TOTTING see this post TOTTY an objectifying term for (usually) a womanTRUG a kind of basket; these days, often a handled rubber container TUPPENCE two penceTWIGGED, TWIGGING form of twig 'to catch on, understand'UNEQUALLED post on double LsUNVETTED related to my 2008 Word of the Year VALOUR -or/-ourVIVA an oral exam (short for viva voce)WANK / WANKING my original Word of the Year (2006!)WEEING AmE peeingWELLIE / WELLY a (BrE) wellington boot / (AmE) rubber bootWHIN a plant (=furze, gorse)WHINGE AmE whine (complain)WILLIE / WILLY penisWOAD a plant used to make blue dyeWOLD a clear, upland area (mostly in place names now)WOOLLEN post on double LsYOBBO / YOBBY hooligan / hooliganishYODELLED post on double Ls Full Article games spelling
s sir, miss (at school) By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 23:14:00 +0000 In my last newsletter, I reacted to this news story:The article is about addressing teachers as sir or miss, which happens in American schools too (I'm sure there's a lot of variation in that across schools and regions). But in the newsletter I mentioned BrE referential use of the words when talking about the teacher (rather than talking to the teacher). I said: "I’m often taken aback when my child (like any ordinary English child) refers to her teachers as Sir and Miss"—which she often does.My former colleague David replied to say that he found this odd, since as "a moderately ordinary English child in the north of England in the 1960s," he addressed his (all male) teachers as Sir, but would refer to them by name or description (e.g., our English teacher). He concluded that "referring to teachers as Sir and Miss may be either more recent or more southern."While the usage may have been new in the 1960s, it definitely existed then, apparently even in the north.The OED's first citation for that use of Sir is from 1955 in a novel by Edward Blishen, who hailed from London: "‘The cane,’ said Sims vaguely. ‘Sir can't,’ said Pottell...’" A few other quotations can be seen in the OED snippet below (note their nice new layout!) On to Miss. The first referring-to-(not addressing)-a-teacher citation for Miss is from 1968 in a book by an author from Salford (in the northwest). (You'll spot another Miss example from that book in the Sir examples above. I've reported the error.)Did Miss really only appear a decade after referential Sir? I doubt it. We have to rely on written records, usually published ones, and there aren't a lot of written records in the voice of schoolchildren. Fiction helps, but it has its biases and gaps. And then, of course, there was the 1967 British film To Sir, with Love, in which Sir is used as if it is the name of the teacher played by Sidney Poitier. Is it a term of address there, or referential? Well, the title always seemed weird to me—certainly not a way I'd address a package. This Sir seems halfway between address and reference. We could label packages with the second-person pronouns that we usually used to address people, i.e., "To you", but we tend to use the third person: "To David". Rather than addressing the recipient, it seems to be announcing the recipient. This past academic year, for the first time, I was addressed as Miss a fair amount (no name, just Miss). This came from a new student who apparently was carrying over school habits to university, and so my colleagues were all Miss as well. I thought often about saying something about it to the student, but I also thought: I know what they mean, so why bother? I get to correct people enough in my job, I don't have to take every opportunity to do so and certainly don't need to make a big deal out of what I'm called. (Just don't call me late for dinner.) One picks one's pedantic battles. It's not a million miles from how I feel about my students calling a lecture or seminar a lesson, which I've written about back here.If you're interested, here's more I've written on:titles and address terms in higher educationthe structure of school education Full Article education names politeness
s so fun, such fun By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:05:00 +0000 Long ago, I was asked about so fun versus such fun. Martin Ball, this one's for you! So, fun started out in English (1600s) as a verb meaning to 'trick, cheat, deceive'. You could fun someone out of their money. Then by the 1700s, it had become a noun meaning 'light-hearted enjoyment'. At that point, it was very much considered to be slang. Its respectability as a noun has increased over the centuries, but it may still feel a little informal. Elephant & Piggie books = much recommendedWhen it's a noun, you can modify it for amount with the kinds of amount-modifiers (quantifiers) that go with uncountable nouns:we had a lot of fun The evening wasn't much funBut these days, it's also used as an adjective. Adjectives modify nouns, and those nouns usually go after the adjective or, as in the second example here, after a linking verb. Adjectives can be modified by adverbs of various types, underlined in the following: 3. a very fun evening 4. The evening wasn't terribly funExamples 2 and 4 look similar (the fun is after a linking verb, was), but we can tell that 2 is a noun because it's modified by a quantifier (much) and 4 is an adjective because it's modified by an adverb (terribly). (Merrill Perlman, writing for Visual Thesaurus, notes that: "Nearly everyone... opposes 'funner' and 'funnest' as anything but kid-speak or deliberate irony.)")Now, I say "these days" fun can be an adjective, but it's been an adjective for quite a while. Here are the first five adjective examples from the OED. The 1853 one is American, the rest are British.Is there an AmE/BrE difference to be found here? Well, let's start with the fact that Americans seem to have more fun. In the Corpus of Global Web-Based English, the American sub-corpus has 151 instances of fun per million words, while the British sub-corpus has 129 per million. Most of that difference is due to greater AmE use of the adjective:This helps us explain why my friend Martin noticed more so fun in AmE and such fun in BrE. So goes with adjectives, such with nouns, and AmE uses fun more as an adjective and BrE more as a noun.What also helps explain it is that AmE (these days) uses more so modification of adjectives. (There's a study on the effect of the tv show Friends on so. Given that Friends has been obsessively watched in the UK for decades now, you'd think there'd be as much so here. But no.)Still, the modifiers of adjectival fun are not too different in US and UK. Really is the most common modifier in both. Number 2 in the US is so and in the UK is quite. But number 3 in the UK is so (the American #3 is very).For the noun, such fun is heard about twice as much in the UK as the US. This doesn't seem to be because such is more common in BrE generally. Such fun is just such a British thing to say.When fun is a noun, it's common to talk about so much fun. What strikes me about such fun is it is so much fun minus the 'o m'. And so fun is so much fun minus the much. Anyway, it's been so/such fun writing about this. Get in on the fun by leaving a comment! Full Article adjectives adverbs determiners
s UK-to-US Word of the Year 2023: if I'm honest By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:24:00 +0000 Each year since 2006, this blog has designated Transatlantic Words of the Year (WotY). The twist is that I choose the most 'of the year' borrowings from US-to-UK and from UK-to-US. The question this year raises is: does 2023 deserve SbaCL Words of the Year?The eligibility criteria remain:Good candidates for SbaCL WotY are expressions that have lived a good life on one side of the Atlantic but for some reason have made a splash on the other side of the Atlantic this year. Words coined this year are not really in the running. If they moved from one place to another that quickly, then it's hard to say that they're really "Americanisms" or "Britishisms". They're probably just "internetisms". The one situation in which I could see a newly minted word working as a transatlantic WotY would be if the word/expression referenced something very American/British but was nevertheless taken on in the other country.When I say word of the year, I more technically mean lexical item of the year, which is to say, there can be spaces in nominations. Past space-ful WotYs have included gap year, Black Friday, and go missing. I've also been known to declare a pronunciation the Word of the Year.The UK > US WotY was nominated by Nancy Friedman and endorsed by Ben Yagoda. It is most definitely a phrase:if I'm honestIn Ben's post the phrase is associated with Great British Bake-Off (AmE: Great British Baking Show) judge Paul Hollywood. When I looked for it on YouGlish, there were a whole slew of examples from the British (BrE) motoring show Top Gear, on which they review cars. In both program(me)s, the phrase is useful in softening criticisms (which both shows have a lot of) by framing them as a truths expressed with some reservation. If I'm honest marks something as an admission of some sort. It's similar to to be honest, which has long been said in the US (and the UK) for much the same reason. (And then there's honestly, which I'll come back to.)Here are some recent American uses of the phrase:Ryan Gosling, on being cast as Ken in Barbie: "I just decided I was going to Ken as hard as I can. I Kenned in the morning; I Kenned at night. If I’m honest, I’m Kenning a little right now.”A Real Housewife of Potomac, on getting divorced: "I've just been a little bit complacent about it, if I'm honest, because there are benefits to being married."A Manhattanite writing about an experiment in sustainable living: "If I’m honest, part of me hoped to find the challenge untenable so I could say the cure was worse than the disease and give up."A Chicago police officer commenting on the city's mayoral race: “If I’m honest, I think Catanzara may have some blame here”These kinds of phrases are discourse markers. They do not add factual meaning to the sentence they're in, but rather make a comment on the speaker's attitude, or stance, toward(s) what they're saying. Is it a British phrase? Yes. Here is if I *m honest (i.e., if I'm honest or if I am honest) in the 2012 data of the Corpus of Global Web-Based English, where it occurs 7.6 times more often in BrE than in AmE. (Click on the images to embiggen them.)And here it is in British sources in the News on the Web Corpus: In the 2012 data, the phrase occurs at a much higher rate in GloWbE than in NOW—the NOW number only reaches GloWbE's rate (1.8 per million words) in 2023—because the types of texts in the two corpora are different—there's more variety and informal language on GloWbE. That's something worth keeping in mind when we look at the US numbers. Speaking of which, here they are:A few things to notice here:Yes, the phrase is going up in AmE news, from 0.08 per million words to 0.19 over the past 13 years. But it's still below the 2012 GloWbe number (0.24 pmw). One would imagine that if we had current data that was collected in the same way as GloWbE, we'd see a lot more there. And it's wayyyyyy below the British numbers.A country music album had the title If I'm Honest in 2016, which helps (to) account for the higher number then.Here's a view of the Google Books numbers, comparing If I'm honest with To be honest (though keep in mind that to be honest here is not necessarily the discourse marker. It could be in any number of sentences about honesty.)And a comparison of it with the equivalent if I'm being honest, which is less common, but making a move in AmE.The pictures (and numbers) tell the story of a British expression that's become more and more common in BrE, and that has raised American exposure to (and use of) it. But note that it's rising far faster in BrE than in AmE. So, does it meet the first of my eligibility criteria? Maybe not. But it's what I've got for this year!P.S. HonestlyHonestly, used as a discourse marker in a sentence seems to be more common in AmE. But as a stand-alone expression of exasperation, it seems more common in BrE (Honestly!). It's definitely more common from the BrE speakers in my house than from me, but maybe I'm just more exasperating to live with than they are. Here are searches with punctuation from GloWbE:Will there be a US-to-UK WotY? To be honest, it's unclear at this point! Full Article interjections WotY
s US-to-UK Word of the Year: OK By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 03 Jan 2024 21:32:00 +0000 See here for the UK-to-US WotY post. Time for the 2023 US-to-UK Word of the Year. Before people complain that this word has been in British English too long for it to count as a word of 2023, let me remind you of the criteria for SbaCL WotYs: Good candidates for SbaCL WotY are expressions that have lived a good life on one side of the Atlantic but for some reason have made a splash on the other side of the Atlantic this year. Words coined this year are not really in the running. If they moved from one place to another that quickly, then it's hard to say that they're really "Americanisms" or "Britishisms". They're probably just "internetisms". The one situation in which I could see a newly minted word working as a transatlantic WotY would be if the word/expression referenced something very American/British but was nevertheless taken on in the other country.When I say word of the year, I more technically mean lexical item of the year, which is to say, there can be spaces in nominations. This word did make something of a splash in the British news this year. Here's a tweet from the Daily Mail:And what was that American word? *fanfare* The 2023 US-to-UK Word of the Year is OK!(Also spelled okay, but we'll get to that!)Though it has appeared in BrE since at least the late 19th century (originating in AmE earlier in that century), OK took a while to make its way into everyday speech in the UK. (Click on images to enlarge them.) Here's its trajectory in books (via Google Books Ngram Viewer). OK is underrepresented in earlier years in this graph because it was spelled/spelt O.K. with (BrE) full stops/(AmE) periods until and into the 20th century. As far as I know, there's no way to search for a word with that punctuation in it in Google Ngram Viewer, so I'm a bit stuck in showing more of the historical picture. One of American English's great observers/collectors/analysts, Allan Walker Read put significant effort into the study of OK, tracing its origins to a humorous spelling of all correct. Then people forgot about the joke and it went on to become "the English language's most successful export" according to this Merriam-Webster post, about a book by another late, great American English linguist, Allan Metcalf, relating Read's research. Getting back to the UK news in 2023, here's the headline of the Daily Mail's story:Dailymail.co.uk headline.Not linking to them because they don't need the trafficThat headline came from a particular interpretation of work by Galina B. Bolden, Alexa Hepburn, and Jenny Mandelbaum published in the Journal of Pragmatics on differences in US and UK usage of right, about which they conclude:[I]n American English, right conveys the speaker's knowing stance and, in certain environments, the speaker's claim of primary knowledge. In contrast, in British English, right registers provided information as previously unknown, informative, and relevant to the current speaker's ongoing project. [...] [S]ome UK usages of right—such as registering of potentially consequential information and projecting a transition—are quite similar to US okay in comparable positions [...]. This suggests a possibility that, in US English, okay took over some of the right usages and/or, in UK English, right took over some of the okay usages."Their research was inspired by this interaction between BrE-speaking "AB" and AmE speaker "GA":So, essentially, the British use of right in that context leads GA to think that AB is confirming (rather than acknowledging receipt of) the information. If AB had said OK, then GA would have understood it as acknowledgement rather than confirmation.Even though the researchers note differences in usage between BrE and AmE okay (though keep in mind that their research is about right), it seems like a fitting US-to-UK WotY because (in whichever usages), it's used more than ever in the UK. Here it is in the British section of the News on the Web corpus, where it shows OK and okay climbing in the last couple of years.Something to notice about the spelling is that in the news corpus, the OK spelling outnumbers the okay spelling, but in the books okay outnumbers OK. I think this tells us something about spelling style in different kinds of publications. I checked whether it also told us something about adjective (an okay/OK word) versus interjection use (OK! Okay!), but did not find a great difference between the spellings in the different uses.Since this was a year of warning Britons against it, OK is the 2023 Separated by a Common Language US-to-UK Word of the Year! Full Article interjections WotY
s second-guess By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sun, 18 Feb 2024 22:01:00 +0000 Image from hereAt the Bavard Bar in St Leonard's a few months ago, a Bavardier asked me if I'd noticed the difference between the US and UK meanings of second-guess. I hadn't! She felt that the US meaning was overtaking the UK meaning, but whose meaning is really whose? Here's what Oxford Languages says: But more than the one meaning is North American. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it, in any meaning, as 'originally and chiefly North American', with evidence of the 'anticipate' sense form 1941 and of the 'judge' sense from 1946. It looks like only the first of those meanings ('anticipate by guesswork') initially went to the UK, while that meaning perhaps lost steam in the US. The American Merriam-Webster dictionary lists the 'criticize' meaning first. For me, 'judge with hindsight' doesn't capture how I use second-guess. Here's me using it in The Prodigal Tongue, talking about the acts of faith we need to take in communicating: when you’re talking with people from other places, you cannot second-guess every noun and verb you utter.If we use a substitution test to see which of the definitions above fits with it, it's not very satisfying. you cannot anticipate every noun and verb you utter. you cannot judge with hindsight every noun and verb you utterNeither seems to me to capture what I meant, which was something more like:you cannot spend time doubting and re-thinking every noun and verb you utterThis sense of 'doubt' seems to come through when second-guess is used with a reflexive (-self) pronoun, as in I spend too much time second-guessing myself and, it turns out, there are about 2.5 times more second-guessing of oneself in the American part of GloWbE corpus as in the British part:Wiktionary's definition might be more in line with my intuitions of the meaning. (idiomatic) to vet or evaluate; to criticize or correct, often by hindsight, by presuming to have a better idea, method, etc. quotations ▼Please don't try to second-guess the procedure that we have already refined and adopted.Once she began listening to her instincts and didn't second-guess herself the entire time, her artwork improved noticeably.Their use of the originally BrE verb to vet seems to capture what I meant in my sentence: 'One cannot vet every noun or verb for its dialect-appropriateness before it comes out of one's mouth.' I'm betting this usage has arisen by 'contamination' from a similar, but centuries-older phrase: have second thoughts about.That's not to say I always use it in the 'vetting' way. Here's an example from an email I sent, replying to a question of whether students would like to join the staff in a reading group:I don't think we should second-guess whether students would want to do it; I think we should just invite them. This one has more the 'anticipate' sense. I don't think I picked that up in the UK. Rather, I think the phrase does more than one thing for AmE speakers. So, is my fellow Bavardier right that things are changing in the UK? Let's look in the News on the Web corpus, since that covers the past 14 years, whereas the GloWbE data were from 2012. Using the same search string as I used in GloWbE (second-guess* *self), there is still 2.5 times more in the US subcorpus than in the British subcorpus. If we just search for second-guess* (without the *self), it's 2.2 times more in the US. But we can see it really picking up in BrE since 2017:So it feels kind of 'new' in BrE. But while it's older in AmE, there's certainly a great increase in its use in the past few years. Perhaps it's that increase in the US that's allowed it to be picked up in the UK:Rather than me second-guessing your thoughts on this, why don't you just tell us in the comments? Full Article idioms verbs