Metrolingua

When a French kiss is not a kiss

2010-02-08T11:24:00.000-06:00

As Valentine's Day is approaching, many individuals are discussing (or avoiding discussions of) kisses, hugs, and love. Explaining these concepts in certain languages may sometimes be more difficult than expected if a non-native speaker is relying on first-language logic and cognates.

In Spanish, the logic generally follows English. A kiss/to kiss is "un beso"/"besar," and a hug/to hug is "un abrazo"/"abrazar." Similarly, in Portuguese, the same distinction is made: "um beijo"/"beijar" vs. "um abraço"/"abraçar." Moving across the Romance-language spectrum, we find the same logic in Italian with "bacio"/"baciare" vs. "abbraccio"/"abbracciar." We run into major and potentially VERY embarrassing snags when we get to French.

At one point, French followed its Latin brethren, with cognates "un baiser"/"baiser" vs. "une embrassade"/"embrasser" referring to smooching and embracing. But then something changed. Radically. Confusingly.

A thread on wordreference.com describes the situation:

As I see it, the confusion about kissing and hugging got started in the 17th century. The exquisite preciosity (and hypocrisy) of the Versailles courtisans - who called teeth "the furnishings of the mouth", for example - made it popular among them to describe having sex with someone as "kissing" them. It was less crude, but more ambiguous too, and it soon lost its euphemistic sense and became a word just as rude as f---. The result is that, until today, if you say that a couple is baise-ing, it means they are f***ing, et point final!

This expropriation, however, created a need for a substitute to describe the simple act of kissing someone, now that “baiser” had been irretrievably expropriated for another purpose. The solution created even more confusion - the verb "embrasser", to embrace, began to be used (or misused) instead.

The result of all this is that in current French one has to find all sorts of round-about ways of describing these simple acts. For example, to say "I want to kiss you", you can choose between "Je veux t'embrasser" or – curiously - "Je veux te donner un baiser", since the noun did not meet the same fate as the verb.

“I want to hug you” is even worse, since this gesture is not very French and, what with “embrasser” now meaning “to kiss”, has to be described in detail: "Je veux t'entourer des bras", "Je veux t'enlacer", or still "Je veux te serrer dans mes bras". Curiously again, the noun retains its original meaning – the seldom used “une embrassade” still means “an embrace”.

Talk about a potential minefield of traps for non-native speakers! Consequently, "Je veux te donner un baiser" is a perfectly innocent way to say "I want to give you a kiss," yet "Je veux te baiser" means something far more intimate. And "I want to give you a hug" comes across more like an instruction manual than a simple desire, as constructions such as "I want to squeeze you with my arms" or "I want to wrap you in my arms" are generally used.

As for what English-speakers call a French kiss (i.e. a tongue kiss), in France it is often called (politely) as "un baiser amoureux" ("a love kiss"), with the verb "to French kiss" being "embrasser avec la langue" ("to kiss with the tongue"). In Quebec (Canada), however, the anglicism "frencher" is sometimes used as the verb-in French. Now that's ironic!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

Facebook in Japanese is fun!

2010-02-06T22:09:00.000-06:00

I've been using Facebook in British English, but today I decided to mix it up and use it in Japanese. It's really great! Since I've already seen a lot of the stuff in English, I can figure out what the Japanese is, but if I want to understand all the kanji, then I go to my beloved Popjisyo to get the exact reading.

There are many cool things about the Japanese version, including: the use of さん (san) after everyone's name, the politeness of the Facebookチーム because in English they usually say nothing in an email alert, but in Japanese they have the formal closing phrase よろしくお願いいたします. And if you "like" someone's status or link, it becomes "いいね！" in Japanese. And of course, it's neato to see all the Japanese everywhere. Very cool and I highly recommend using Facebook in a language that you're learning because it's good practice. And nerdy fun!

United States language map

2010-02-03T23:13:00.000-06:00

Mad Minerva told me about a language map that shows the percentages and numbers of language speakers in the US. You can view the entire United States or any individual state, and you can do a search of a wide variety of languages wherever you want. It also gives a breakdown of languages spoken in each of the states. Such nerdy fun!

Still studying Japanese

2010-01-31T23:50:00.004-06:00

I said at the beginning of this year that I would make it a resolution to study Japanese consistently, and that's what I've been doing, which is unbelievable because it's hard to remain disciplined, especially while trying to still do stuff in the volatile business of Radio. I touch base with Japanese almost every day, though sometimes I take a couple days off due to complex commitments or simple laziness :D But I will definitely be studying it tomorrow as long as I can, and my brain will probably be happy and pleasantly occupied because I sometimes feel like my mind hasn't wrapped itself around enough kanji to make it settle down.

Language predictions for the coming 50-100 years

2010-01-28T14:24:00.000-06:00

Language and languages are constantly changing, and, in my opinion, considering language evolution over decades and centuries is quite fascinating. Often when we read literature from hundreds of years ago, it becomes obvious which words, structures, and other language "trends" have gone out of fashion and which trends have become embedded somewhat permanently in language. An example is the use of "to be" in the perfect tense in English with certain verbs such as "to come" (e.g. "he is come" instead of "he has come"). This would appear to have been influenced by French, where as distinction is made between verbs, such as "venir" (to come), which form the past tense (passé composé ) with "être" ("to be"), and the majority of verbs, which form this tense "avoir" ("to have"). Look at this interesting article on the archaic "to be" vs. "to have" in English verbs like "to come".

I've decided to make some unofficial predictions about language in the future based on today's trends. Some may come true, some later, and perhaps none will ever come true. Still, it can be fun to speculate:

1) The ban on ending questions with prepositions will become archaic. When I was a child, I was taught never to end a question with a preposition. It should never be "who are you speaking for?" but "for whom are you waiting?" While this tends to still be true in formal business and academic writing, in informal writing and conversational speech, prepositions seem to come at the end of questions more often than not unless the speaker is especially careful about "correct speech" and/or is a language prescriptionist. However, even in some recent English teaching worksheets for non-native speakers, I was surprised to see it listed as allowable to end questions with prepositions. In certain other Germanic languages (to which English belongs), it is (and has been perfectly acceptable) to end questions with prepositions; Norwegian is one such example, as far as I know. In other Germanic languages, such as German, as well as the Romance and Slavic languages, the ban tends to persist in formal and informal writing and speech.

Nevertheless, this "schoolmarmish" rule in English appears to be dying out as it seems unnecessarily stilted and rigid, and I predict that in 50-100 years, even formal academic and business writing will reflect what is patently obvious in conversational speech.

2) This brings us to the next prediction: the loss of the word "whom." This accusative/dative form of "who' is one of the last vestiges of the English case system, which was, in the past more complex, more along the lines of the modern German or Slavic case systems. However, the use of "whom" mirrors the "proper" placement of prepositions in questions, and these days "whom" seems to be limited to formal business and academic writing in English and the speech of very meticulous grammar enthusiasts, who are in the minority. Its days are numbered. But those who are nostalgic for the once vibrant case system of English shouldn't be too disappointed, as cases will likely continue to remain alive and well in personal pronouns (I/my/mine/me, you/yours/your, he/his/him, she/hers/her, it/its, we/our/ours/us, they/their/theirs/them) and in the possessive apostrophe-s or s-apostrophe added to singular and plural nouns.

3) The complete merger of the subjunctive mood in English with the simple past tense. Today the subjunctive (contrary-to-fact) mood in English, which is highly complex in some languages, such many of the Romance languages, is mostly identical to other tenses, such as the past tense ("I wish he had it"), but in some cases, there are differences, most notably with "to be" (the traditional prescriptionist form being "I wish I were" rather than "I wish I was"). However, again, the use of "were" (which is historically similar to the German subjunctiv) in such cases is becoming increasingly relegated to formal and academic contexts and the speech of those who consciously wish to adhere to the rules and speak "properly." I predict that it will become archaic and fall out of use.

4) Profanity will likely become less "profane." I predict that so-called "swear words" in English will lose much of their taboo status and become more permissible in a greater number of contexts and arenas. This will, in my opinion, be the result of an increasingly less formal society in general (along the lines of women no longer wearing white gloves to public functions and the observation that far fewer people '"dress up" for air travel).

5) The ever-growing influence of technology and popular culture on English due to increased media saturation. In fact, I would guess that, over the next few decades, most new words entering English will reflect both of these spheres, some words becoming permanent fixtures of the linguistic landscape and perhaps being extended metaphorically. For instance, maybe the "Facebook verb" "to friend" ("to add someone as a friend") will gradually replace the current "to befriend" as the verb of choice when referring to act of establishing a friendship. It's possible! SMS-style shorthand, such as "u" for "you" and "lol" for "laughing out loud" will likely be around for a long time, but I doubt that these forms will become mainstream in anything but informal settings, at least not anytime soon.

6) Increased standardization of English. When I took linguistic classes as an undergraduate, I was exposed to the theory that dialects of English will eventually develop into their own distinct languages, just as dialects of Latin have developed into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and so on. The theory hypothesized that eventually there will be separate British, Canadian, American, and Australian languages, among others. However, what the theory seemingly failed to consider was that the countries (and dialects) of the Anglosphere (collection of English-speaking nations) are far less isolated on a daily basis than the constituent territories of the Roman Empire. Due to the pervasive global media, English speakers all over the world can log on or turn on various devices and be exposed to (or flooded with) English from all over the world. I believe that this cross-exposure will lead to the various Englishes borrowing more from each other and becoming more alike, with each dialect retaining some of its "quirks."

7) The increased use of English around the world. It seems hard to imagine how this could be possible, as English is today's lingua franca, but I predict that English will continue its sweep across the globe, with increasingly fewer non-English speakers. I'll also forecast that a number of historically non-English-speaking countries with large numbers of speakers of English as a second language will legally adopt English as an official language, alongside the historical national language(s), as a nod at internationalization (perhaps the Netherlands and at least one of the Scandinavian countries) or as a "neutral" compromise between rival officially national languages (such as Switzerland).

Some of these predictions may seem extremely obvious, but it is still useful, in my view, to view them as part of the dynamics of language change in English, which is going on as we speak!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

EXCLUSIVE interview with the creator of Chicagolandradioandmedia.com!

2010-01-25T01:37:00.002-06:00

Even though various people have asked "Larz", the creator of Chicagolandradioandmedia.com, for an interview, he promised me he'd grant one after his new site was complete. Well, his revised site was unveiled at the beginning of this year, and here is the EXCLUSIVE interview! (btw, I have a radio-related podcast at podcast.radiogirl.us but Larz preferred a text interview.)

What got you interested in radio?

Music has always been a huge part of my life. Growing up before the Internet age, there was pretty much only a few ways to be exposed to new music: from a friend’s record collection, from an occasional musical guest TV spot (usually on a variety/talk show) or most of all, from the radio. I always had a radio near me as a youth: tied to my bike handle bars, next to my shower, inside my backyard tent, and in my bedroom. I was the kid that fell asleep at night with the transistor radio under my pillow and the little white plastic earpiece inside my ear, listening to WLS Musicradio when I was supposed to be sleeping. Holding my attention between the songs were some of the most exciting people on the planet – the DJs. Their jokes and banter were as much fun as the songs they played. The one who stands out most of all for me is John Records Landecker. I blame a lot of my love and obsession with radio personalities on him. His humor, sharp wit, anti-establishment/anti-authority attitude, and fast pacing won me over. For me, that was the epitome of radio coolness.

What do you think of talk radio?

As much as I love music and music radio, I would say that talk radio is probably the most important form of radio right now. It holds great power. When done right, it can interconnect a community, as well as inform and/or entertain the masses. Those in talk radio are given a great opportunity to really connect with their audience on a deep level. Listeners will often feel like the voice coming through their speakers is a good, trustful friend, even though they may never physically meet.

Have you ever worked in radio?

Not at all. Nor do I have a desire to. I enjoy being a fan, looking at it from the outside and from a fan’s perspective. For much of my life, I always had people telling me that I should go into radio, largely because of my vast (albeit worthless) knowledge of music trivia. I couldn’t tell you what I had for dinner last weekend, but I could tell you who played on what song, which album it appeared on, the track number, the record label, what year it peaked and then some additional background on the artist. However, despite the urging of others to go into radio, I never felt the urge to be behind a microphone. If I ever do get more involved with a radio or media outlet, it would not be behind a mic or in front of a camera. I’m more of a behind-the-scenes guy. Also, being a bit of an anti-authority type myself, I’m better suited for management and ownership than being the one being told what to do.

Would you want to buy a radio station?

That is something I have looked into already. I strongly was looking at putting together an investor group to purchase a Clear Channel station in another market, and was fairly well into the process of doing so. I was dealing with their broker, had signed all of the confidentiality papers and reviewed all of the documents and contracts. After weighing the upfront costs vs. the return on the investment, I decided to not to go through with the transaction. Unless the asking prices come way down, which a string of bankruptcies may eventually cause, it just isn’t worth it right now.

What do you think is the future of radio?

Radio as we have known it for the last few decades is evolving. Those who can adapt to the evolution will survive and thrive, while others will go the way of the Pony Express, telegram and 8-track tape. In just a few years, Internet radio will be standard in all cars and phones. Shortly after that, WiMax will be standard all across the country, not just in the major markets, much like radio transmission waves or cell phone territories are now. That means everybody will have complete high-speed Internet access no matter where they are. Radio waves will no longer be needed to transmit information or entertainment. From what I have seen, most of the big radio corporations are many years behind the curve in preparing for this new medium. They are still mistakenly holding firm that one day advertisers will flock back to radio waves. Unless they wake up quickly and play catch up, a whole new radio world will be taking over soon.

The pendulum is about to swing in the complete opposite direction that it is now. Soon, radio on the Internet will be like what FM radio was in the early 70’s -- free form, adventurous and able to deliver what the listeners truly want, while opening their eyes and ears to new artists and ideas. It may also be a bit too heavy on “niche” marketing and not local-focused enough, so I would expect the pendulum to quickly swing back toward the center when some more business-minded people finally get on to the Internet bandwagon and work side-by-side with the more creative minded people.

Even though it will not be delivered via radio waves or picked up on radios, I still expect the entertainment to be referred to as "radio."

Radio, in one form or another, will be always be around. It’s not dying like many of the more disillusioned people have been crying. It’s just going to go through a major change. All of media is. Media companies can accept it and live on or fight it and become extinct.

Why do you keep your identity anonymous?

The whole "mystery identity" thing was just a fluke. Once it became this whole "Who is Larz?" thing, I just found it hilarious and kept it going. It was never meant to become this huge mystery, though. Quite a lot of people in the local media industries know my real name. Rob Feder has printed it in his column a couple of times (in his old Sun-Times column) and Cara Jepsen has in her IE Media column, as well. "Larz" was an old college nickname. A good friend of mine in college started calling me that (college is/was all about giving people nicknames... and drinking, of course). He claimed he went to high school with a Swedish guy named Larz and that Larz was Swedish for my real name. (I doubt that it is really the Swedish translation, but I never have checked.) When CRM started, I needed a "handle." All message boards seemed to use aliases, especially the moderators, so I just picked that one. I gave it just about 30 seconds of consideration. Now, just like in college, I'm stuck with that nickname again. People call me both Larz and my real name (and sometimes things much worse, of course). It really doesn't matter to me. Anyway, once my name became this mystery, I just found it to be hilarious that anybody would even care and just kept it going. It still gives me a chuckle. That's the simple story there.

I am working on some projects that, if all goes well, will start happening over the next few months and beyond. I have a feeling my real name will get tossed around a lot more then. I’ve been getting a lot of flak for just having funny pictures up on Facebook, so I'll probably start putting real pictures of me up there soon. Assuming I don't get complaints from parents saying the pictures are giving their kids nightmares, I might even let them stay up for longer than a day.

When did you set up the site? Who went there at first?

ChicagolandRadioAndMedia.com started up on the 4th of July, 2005. It was an offshoot of another media-themed message board (which itself was an offshoot of yet another). It was just a simple message board then. I had no hit counter on it at that time, but I’m pretty sure it was a very low amount of traffic. In fact, when it started out, it was almost a parody of a media-message board, much like how David Letterman’s old Late Night show was a parody of talk shows, while still being a talk show. It was just myself and a handful of people I knew from a couple of other boards goofing off on there. That started to change after just a few weeks, though.

When you set it up, did you ever think it would become so popular?

Not at all! I also just assumed it would be a hobby thing for me for a few months. I’d have a few laughs and it would just fade away. That wasn’t to be the case, though. As I noticed more and more traffic coming to the message board and postings appearing, I started taking it much more seriously. At one point early on in CRM’s life, back when I was not taking it seriously, I made some smart-ass comment about a certain media figure in town. I did it just for laughs, not realizing anybody besides the few people on the board would have seen it… or so I thought. I later heard from that person, who was none to happy about that comment, and deservedly so. I instantly learned a few lessons about the board, including that it was reaching a LOT more people than I thought, including those within the Chicago media industries and that if I was to keep this going, I needed to take it much more seriously. As I would hear from more and more people within local media and beyond, I started to grasp just how big this was becoming. This all happened fairly fast, too. Just a matter of months.

Why do you think your site is popular?

I may be a little too inside of it all to give an absolute answer to that one. There are probably many reasons. Some of it has to do with the fact Chicagoans have always had a love and fascination with their local media. They take their radio stations, television shows and newspapers (and the people who work in them) VERY seriously -- much more so than most other markets. Since that is basically what my site is all about, it attracts many eyes. For the people who work within the industry, it is an appealing place to visit to see what is going on within local media and to see what the fan reaction is like.

Some of it probably has to do with the fact I try to keep it as upbeat as possible. Message boards in general tend to get into ugly areas fast. It’s easy to do when you are anonymous and have no chance of reprisals for an ugly remark. Words typed on a message board are quite different that words one might say to another’s face. I do what I can to minimize that ugliness, making it a more welcoming environment for the masses. The only ones who may be angry with me for making the board like that are the ones who enjoy being Internet jerks. I can live with that tiny minority of trolls being upset at me. I also try and focus on the positives of story, over the negatives. When industries are in a downward spiral like most of media is, it is too easy to be sucked into negativity. I try and find a more positive spin, while still being realistic.

Lastly, I would say because I work hard at it. I was the first Chicago message board to have a custom domain name. It’s a simple thing, but nobody had done that before. It was always the name of a hosting company followed by backslashes, numbers and letters. Too complicated. I made it easy and memorable. I marketed the site on MySpace and later Facebook. I gave the site a unique background that catches the eye (or hurts the eye, depending on who you ask). Most of all, I make sure there is always fresh content on there so it gives reasons for people to want to return often.

How long did it take you to revise the site?

The new and improved website launched this January 1st. I first starting thinking about making some changes over a year ago, but it never went beyond the thinking about it stage. When the 4th anniversary came around last July, I knew it was time for a big change and started the search for answers then. There were three different skeletons of sites made, before I decided to go with the current one. The actual designing of it began in the beginning of August 2009. Between having limited time to devote to it and being too much of a perfectionist sometimes, it was a very slow process. I would add new things and rework parts of it an hour here or there. I finally was talked into letting somebody with better web skills than myself help get it all set up, based on my directions. Once that was completed, and it looked more like how it looks now, I spent much more time on it, getting it finished. It took a long time to gather up the content (links, pictures, videos, etc.) and I’m still adding new content to it each day, but it’s been a fun labor of love. The site itself took almost six months, but probably could have been done much faster if I had used some different processes. Live and learn. It will go quicker next time.

How do you stay motivated if you don't make much or any money from the site?

It’s a labor of love, pure and simple. It may open up some doors for me down the line, but regardless, I don’t do any of it because of money.

What's the craziest comment someone has left?

After four and a half years, there is no way to pick just one. There is no way to pick even a dozen. Crazy postings come in often – sometimes they are trying to be serious, but are just way out there; sometimes there are purposely hilarious. I love to laugh, so I enjoy them all.

What types of problems have you encountered?

The only real problem has come from spammers and trolls. The spammers are just a minor annoyance. It boggles my mind that there are people out there that think the CRM readers would be interested in their Russian knock-off generic Viagra or their get rich quick investment schemes. Those are removed before anybody sees them, but they come in daily. The bigger problem comes from just a couple of hurtful trolls that get perverse enjoyment out of ruining everybody else’s fun on CRM. Until a few months ago when I switched the message board over to “approval only” for all postings, these trolls would post up graphic porn, discriminatory hate messages, links to viruses, and so on. It got to the point when this would happen about three times a day everyday, so I had to make the board go to “approval only” instead just allowing posts to freely appear. Since these trolls use software that masks their true IP address, they can’t be banned. I am looking into new message boards that may possibly help prevent this from happening in the future, but still allow trusted posters the ability to see their messages up immediately. That should come together in the next month or so.

Where do you see the site going?

Hopefully, it will continue to grow and evolve, without ever losing the interactive quality that made it what it is today. The new site is only three weeks old and I already have numerous upgrades planned for it that should be appearing over the next couple of months. The site may somewhat tie into one of the other projects I have going on later this year, as well.

I also hope to use the site to help out Chicago media and those working in it, even more than I have in the past. Without giving out any specifics, I’ve been able to help many people and organizations out behind-the-scenes over the last few years and want to be able to continue doing that as much as possible.

In one respect, I am the driver of the ship, but in another, I am along for the ride just as everybody else is. It’s been a fun ride and I hope it continues for years to come!

Do you know all the famous radio/media people in town?

Not at all. It still surprises me when I find that one of them knows me. I still get a huge rush when I receive a note from somebody I have long admired. I’m still a fan and hope to always be that way.

Who have you met?

I’ve been very lucky in my life to have met hundreds of “celebrities” -- from local, to national to international. This dates back from long before I ever started CRM. It is not really something I have ever sought out to do, though. It just seems to happen though work or through just chance. There are only a few (maybe five) local media people that I have actually asked to meet with. Everything else just kind of happens naturally. Not being a picture or autograph hound, I don’t even have any physical mementos of these meetings. I have a few autographed 8”x10”s and a few autographed album covers in a closet, plus about half dozen autographed books. I have a really bad photograph of me with Cheap Trick and one where I am in group photo meeting Corey (“Sunglasses at Night”) Hart, but that it’s it. Meeting famous people has never been a priority to me. As for who I’ve met from local media, I’d rather keep that quiet. I tend to keep my meetings with people private, be they emails, phone calls or face-to-face get-togethers. It just works better that way.

You won't say who you've met locally, but have you been disillusioned by any celebrities/local media stars that you've admired from afar who turned out to be less than pleasant?

Not at all. Everybody I have met, spoken with or even just emailed with has always been great with me. I have nothing bad to say about anybody.

Who's the coolest media star you've met?

I'm going with the safe answer here and say… Margaret Larkin. :)

Umm...weird answer...I'm not a media star!

You mean to say... not YET.

Any advice for people who have sites/message boards/blogs?

More than anything else: Keep it real and keep it active. A stagnant site will die quickly. An active one will continue to grow. It has to be filled with honesty and freshness. Stealing from others without giving proper credit, instantly discredits the whole site. Most readers have built-in BS detectors, too so it has to be truthful. If possible, make it a resource. Offer more than just a blog. Give people numerous reasons to visit. Lastly, keep it positive. Negativity tends to flare up hot, but burn away quickly. A positive site that doesn’t dig in the dirt will have greater staying power.

Are you hiring? :D

Not right now, but as the site grows, who knows???

Learn French at the BBC

2010-01-22T20:39:00.000-06:00

The BBC site is excellent for lots of info and educational resources. Recently someone asked me about a good site to learn French, and while there are a lot of good resources out there, I highly recommend the BBC French site because it contains video, text, and audio. I've been sick for the past few days, so I haven't been able to do much, but once I get better I'm going to digest as much as I can of this site! Check it out.

the Property Manager

2010-01-19T03:36:00.000-06:00

Late last year, I met Jerome Davis, who's created an audio journal called "The Property Manager". It was featured on Chicago public radio, and since then, his nice and interesting tech producer, Matt Miller, had to move on to other projects, so Jerome asked me to help out. So here's what he wrote and voiced recently, which I produced. It's around four minutes long.

The little Italian I studied didn't help

2010-01-15T00:47:00.000-06:00

It was a perfect opportunity to practice listening to Italian: the news from Rai TV was on TV without English subtitles just before midnight. But I could barely understand anything. I took a couple of Italian classes years ago, and they actually weren't very good because the teacher was cruel and unhelpful. But I shouldn't blame her. I just never went to Italy or hung out among Italian speakers (if there are any left in Chicago), so it just went away. I also ended up studying other languages, which seemed more enjoyable and manageable than Italian. So now I have daily opportunities to hear Italian on the TV, but not much knowledge. Maybe I should break out my Italian books and try to follow along :D

Those Annoying Apostrophes

2010-01-12T02:13:00.001-06:00

Apostrophes tend to be a major source of irritation and confusion to those (even native English speakers) who write in English. Indeed, a journey across the internet will show just how often "it's" and "its" are mixed up, as are "theirs" and "their's." The writing site Howtowriteessay.co.uk states:

The apostrophe was not widely used until the 17th century, and the rules were not laid down until the 19th century, which perhaps explains its famous abuse from market traders who always seem to sell orange's.

Generally speaking, the apostrophe is used to stand in for missing letters, such as "it's" for "it is" or to show possession (such as "boy's," "mother's"...). Confusingly, possessive pronouns do not take apostrophes, which mean that "his," hers," and "its" are correct even if "Joes," "Sarahs," and "cats" are not when used in a possessive context.

Another source of confusion is how to use the apostrophe for possessives. Generally speaking, for singular nouns, " 's " is added to the noun, while plural nouns ending in "s" simply take an apostrophe after the "s" ("the one boy's" vs. "the two boys' "). What about singular nouns and names ending in "s," such as "Dickens"?

The site states the following:

This rule applies in most cases even with a name ending in s:
Thomas's job
the bus's arrival
James's fiancée
Steve Davis's victory

However, under "exceptions," the same site states this rule:

Second, a name ending in s takes only an apostrophe if the possessive form is not pronounced with an extra s. Hence:
Socrates' philosophy
Saint Saens' music
Ulysses' companions
Aristophanes' plays

So it depends upon pronunciation? What if someone were to pronounce the extra "s" in, say "Ulysses'(s)"?

Dates appear to be tricky. The site, which is British, claims that decades, such as "1970s" are written without the apostrophe in British English but with the apostrophe (e.g. "1970's") in US English. Yet the New York Times, which presumably uses US English, has dropped the apostrophe from such contexts, considering it to be archaic. I've also heard other American sources that swear that apostrophes should not be used in this context.

The British site, however, states that:

a year is occasionally written in an abbreviated form with an apostrophe: Pío Baroja was a distinctive member of the generation of '98. This is only normal in certain set expressions; in my example, the phrase generation of '98 is an accepted label for a certain group of Spanish writers, and it would not be normal to write *generation of 1898.

This sounds reasonable, but it should probably be extended to include school and university alumni groups, since, as far as I know, such spellings as "Class of '89" are perfectly correct. For that matter, "Class of 1989" wouldn't be incorrect, either.

The site advises that apostrophes should almost never be used for forming plurals. More than one dog would be "dogs" and never "dog's." What about for letters of the alphabet that need to be pluralized? Guess what! The plural is formed with-an apostrophe:

An apostrophe is indispensable, however, in the rare case in which you need to pluralize a letter of the alphabet or some other unusual form which would become unrecognizable with a plural ending stuck on it:
Mind your p's and q's.
How many s's are there in Mississippi?
It is very bad style to spatter e.g.'s and i.e.'s through your writing.

The mess doesn't end there? What about holidays such as "Veterans Day" (a US holiday) or "Valentine's Day." For Veterans Day, at least, the debate even became controversial, as reported by the newspaper The Columbia Missourian. "Veterans Day" appears to be the far-from-clear choice because the holiday is a day for all Americans to honor veterans; hence, "Veterans" is used descriptively rather than possessively. When plural nouns are used descriptively, they generally do not take adjectives. Yet the confusion has arisen because if the holiday were a day belonging to veterans, it should be "Veterans' Day," or to "the veteran," it should be "Veterans' Day."

Valentine's Day appears to be a bit less confusing, as it is "St. Valentine's Day," but it could theoretically be interpreted as a day for everyone to celebrate their valentines (Valentines Day) or a day belonging to valentines (Valentines' Day).

To sum up, Howtowriteessay.co.uk has concluded that:

The apostrophe (') is the most troublesome punctuation mark in English, and perhaps also the least useful. No other punctuation mark causes so much bewilderment, or is so often misused. On the one hand, shops offer *pizza's, *video's, *greeting's cards and *ladie's clothing; on the other, they offer *childrens shoes and *artists supplies. The confusion about apostrophes is so great, in comparison with the small amount of useful work they perform, that many distinguished writers and linguists have argued that the best way of eliminating the confusion would be to get rid of this troublesome squiggle altogether and never use it at all.

Perhaps they're right!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

Funny translator

2010-01-10T15:44:00.001-06:00

Translation of what I ate

2010-01-08T23:52:00.000-06:00

I got some instant soup (鍋うどんきつね) from a Japanese store and had to follow the directions in Japanese, since they only bothered to translate the company's information and ingredients. So since I went to the trouble to decipher the directions, I've decided to post the original text and translation here:

御召し上がり方
スープをコップ１杯半の湯又は水でうすめて鍋に入れ、火にかけて煮込んで下さい。

Directions
Add one and a half cups of hot water or water to the soup, then heat it in a pot.

If you know Japanese, then you'll notice that they've been pretty wordy to express the simple concept of "directions". And what's notable is that they say "hot water or water" which in English sounds strange. And why can't you add the water to the soup *in* the pot instead of before putting it all in? Maybe someone would have a different translation, but it rolls out that way to me. I did omit the word "dilute" (うすめて) because it's unnecessary, so the English you see is a simple, straightforward rendering of what was communicated in Japanese.

Bad American accent

2010-01-05T14:10:00.020-06:00

I used to watch Without a Trace pretty regularly, and at one time it was one of my favorite shows, but I stopped watching it consistently for various reasons, which I'll probably go into in another post or at Gapers Block, where I write about TV (though they prefer Chicago-related topics).

Recently I happened to catch an episode, and it just reminded me how bad Poppy Montgomery's American accent is. She's from Australia, and it seems like she tries so hard to hide her Australian accent that she's developed a speech impediment. Plus, I can still hear traces of her Australian accent.

When I first saw her on TV, I wondered what was wrong with her speech, and if the producers forgave her in that area because she's a pretty blonde. But after I saw her bio, I realized that she probably talks weird["ly" to be grammatically correct] because she's trying really hard to sound American. But those efforts don't work. She also can't act. Well, she can act, but not very well. I've seen her in different roles, and she seems flat. Is it because of her struggle with American English? Who knows.

The problem with watching TV with subtitles

2010-01-03T22:37:00.001-06:00

I was watching Maigret on the MHz network, and once I heard the rapid French, I realized that I'd have to keep my eyes glued to the television to follow the story. So if I wanted to look something up online, or even look at my husband while talking to him, I'd miss important dialogue because all I had to go on were the subtitles. At one point I got so tired, I closed my eyes, then realized I was missing some of the action because I couldn't totally catch what they were saying. So when Maigret suspected someone of murder, I couldn't figure out how he came to that conclusion.

Which brings me to my main point: watching TV with subtitles requires total concentration and you can't multitask. Though you can talk to someone because it's not like you're talking over dialogue that you understand :D

Update: the same "Maigret" episode is being broadcast again, so now I'm reading stuff online while *listening* to the French to see if my comprehension has gotten any better.

謹賀新年

2010-01-01T22:24:00.000-06:00

The reason why I titled my Happy New Year post in Japanese is because one of my New Year's resolutions is to translate more Japanese! I didn't do so much last year because I ended up doing more in radio, but now that it's receded I can now resume translating. Plus, my brain has become mushy and I really need to challenge it with more kanji pain. Today I read some Japanese and my brain thanked me for occupying it because it's been quite dormant for a few weeks.

And...
みなさん, 新年明けましておめでとうございます. 今年もよろしくお願いいたします.

Crème fraîche is not "fresh cream"

2009-12-29T13:15:00.000-06:00

Certain food items borrowed from European traditions are readily translated in English, while others are not, and at times the translations themselves can refer to something entirely different. The vanilla-flavored whipped cream known as crème Chantilly may also legitimately be called "Chantilly cream" in English without any change in meaning. The custard sauce Crème anglaise, which is French for "English cream" (despite the dubiousness of the sauce's English origins) may be called "English cream" in English but usually retains its French name.

In contrast, crème fraîche should never be called by its literal translation "fresh cream," especially since it is most akin to what English speakers generally know as "sour cream." Indeed, the dairy product is essentially fresh cream that has been matured or soured. The French name persists in English. By the same token, the French name crème brûlée is almost always used in English instead of the translation "burnt caramel" for the dessert that is not just burnt caramel, per se, but a rich custard served cold and topped with a warm layer of hard (perhaps burnt) caramel.

Similarly, the "croissant," which literally means "crescent" (due to the shape of the buttery pastry) is occasionally (albeit somewhat rarely) called a "crescent" or "crescent roll" in English. However, in some English-speaking countries, this could cause confusion, as a crescent roll may generally refer to a different type of crescent-shaped, often savory pastry that is made with far fewer layers of dough than a typical croissant.

The pastry known as the "mille-feuilles" in French is generally not translated in English literally as "thousand-leaf" or "thousand-leaf pastry." In Australia and the UK, it is often called a vanilla slice. In New Zealand, it is a custard square. In South Africa, it is a custard slice. In the USA (and, incidentally, in a number of non-English-speaking countries), it is called a napoleon, not derived initially from the emperor but from the city of Naples, Italy. Interestingly, in French, a "Napoléon" refers specifically to a "mille-feuilles" pastry filled with almond paste. Canada proves to be an exception, however, as it is often called a "mille-feuilles" in French and in English there as a viable alternative to the term napoleon in English.

And as we are speaking of pastries frequently served in cafes, what to call coffee drinks made with milk can be confusing. A café au lait is a "French-style beverage made with drip coffee and boiled milk". A café con leche is a "1 1/2 ounce espresso with enough steamed milk to fill an 8-ounce cup." A caffè latte is "a shot of espresso, with a healthy covering of hot steamed milk and up to a quarter inch of foamed milk on top" (references taken from here). Yet they all mean "coffee with milk" in French, Spanish, and Italian, respectively! To complicate the issue, there is an entirely different drink, "coffee milk," which is cold milk mixed with coffee syrup and is the state drink of Rhode Island!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

This movie is horrible

2009-12-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

I decided to watch the movie "I Really Hate My Job" from the free on-demand feature of my cable TV package, and it was AWFUL! Avoid it! It's about nothing and is not the least bit satisfying or meaningful in any way. Now I know why writers use plots and include likeable characters and other characters who we can identify with, because this movie had *none* of that. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, they all seemed like jerks, most of them were lazy, self-indulgent, and went on about obscure intellectual concerns that no one cares about. I can't believe well-known people were involved in this project. And I'm sure that there are people out there who think I'm pedestrian in my taste, but I don't care. The movie had no focus and nothing to offer other than whining women who all had hangups that only mattered to them and the pretentious writer. Serious thumbs down, not worth the rental price (or time).

Craciun Fericit

2009-12-25T12:11:00.000-06:00

I learned how to say "Merry Christmas" in Romanian when Cristina said it on her Facebook status, so I will use it here as well: Craciun Fericit!

Mayumi Heene's name in katakana instead of kanji

2009-12-23T23:37:00.000-06:00

The Japanese woman who is going to jail for using her son in a balloon hoax is still a Japanese citizen, but instead of the Japanese press using kanji for her name (as either 真由美 or 真弓), they're using katakana (マユミ). In a CNN/Yahoo article they say:

虚偽通報の罪に問われた妻の マユミ 被告は禁固20日を言い渡されたが、子供たちの面倒を見るためにとの配慮で、リチャード被告が刑期を終えた後の服役となる。

And in an article from the Mainichi newspaper they say:

夫のリチャード・ヒーニー被告（４８）を禁固９０日（うち６０日間は日中に建設労働）、妻の マユミ 被告（４５）を禁固２０日とした。

This is significant because katakana usually represents foreign names, words, and concepts. But she's not a foreigner. She hasn't become an American citizen, and there was actually a possibility that they were going to deport her. But from the Japanese media's perspective, her name is foreign. Is that because she's lived in the US for years and is married to an American? Or did the crime make her even more distant in their eyes? I'd be curious to know why these news outlets spelled her name that way.

a belated Joyeux Hanouka

2009-12-21T23:50:00.000-06:00

Chanukah is over, but I wanted to share this cool image from France (that I just saw at The Paris Blog). So next year people will be able to enjoy it on time :D

Crowdsourcing

2009-12-19T23:40:00.000-06:00

When I found out about a petition against crowdsourcing translations, I thought, "Oh great, another unfair labor issue." Then I had to make sure I knew what crowdsourcing was, because it's used in both positive and negative ways, especially now that it's been used a lot in the design profession.

Crowdsourcing is, according to Wikipedia (which seems like a successful crowdsourcing project): "the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group (crowd) of people or community in the form of an open call." So it's like outsourcing, though most of the time companies don't want to pay for the crowd to create something.

Basically, there are a lot of people who are very worried that crowdsourcing is killing their livelihood, just as outsourcing has done. But it's inevitable, especially because the Internet is everywhere and there are a lot more options. Why pay someone when you can just post a request online and a bunch of people will respond and work together to create what you want? It's just another example of L.I.F. "Life Isn't Fair".

I have a podcast

2009-12-16T23:21:00.000-06:00

I've recently created a podcast called Radiogirl, and I post a new episode each week. Each pod is around 10 minutes, so it's easy to digest :D

A recurring "guest" is Simon Badinter, an interesting French guy who I interviewed this past summer. I met him at a Chicago radio station and we got along, so I took a risk by asking him to join my podcast, and he agreed.

I also talk to other interesting folks, including some snowboarders I met at another Chicago radio station. In my most recent podcast, after I talk to Simon about breakfast in Paris, the snowboarders explain what some snowboarding words mean in plain English. I also read an email from the seemingly nice translator and language blogger Sarah Dillon, who complimented me on the podcast and has even subscribed (thanks for that!).

In the future, you might see some posts here relating to my podcast if I cover language-related stuff over there.

My podcast is on iTunes and you can also subscribe to get free updates.

Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think.

Holy days and holidays

2009-12-13T23:07:00.000-06:00

As the holiday season is upon us, I feel that it is timely to give some thought to some of the diverse origins of words associated with Christian holidays in English. Christmas, of course, is derived from Christ mass (i.e. a mass for Christ) akin to other holidays, which have waned in relative importance over the years, such as Michaelmas (the mass for the Feast of St. Michael), Candlemas (the Candle Mass on the Feast of the Purification), and Childermas (Children's Mass or the commemoration of the Massacre of the Innocents).

However, Christmas is often synonymous with Yule as in such expressions as "Yuletide cheer" and "Yule log." Yule is the pagan Germanic winter festival celebrated before the Germanic peoples were converted to Christianity (and elements of Yule were incorporated into the celebration of Christmas in these regions). In fact, in Scandinavian languages, cognates of Yule (such as "Jul" in Swedish) are still used to refer to Christmas itself.

As for the term "Noel," which has traditionally been a name given to baby boys born in December and appears in the Christmas carol "the first Noel," that is the French word for Christmas (Noël). Similarly, "Natalie" has often been given to girls born around this time, as "Natalie" is derived from "Natal," which, along with its cognates, is the word of Christmas in a number of Romance languages, such as Portuguese ["Natal") and Italian ("Natale"). It is not surprising that "Natal" refers to the birth of Christ (analogous to terms such as pre-natal or ante-natal care) and is related to words such as "nativity" (as in "nativity scenes" that depict the birth celebrated at Christmastime).

Easter has a similar multilingual and multicultural background. Easter is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Eostre-monath," a month honoring the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre (a cognate of the continental form Ostara). The Greek form "Pascha," derived in term from the Hebrew word "Pesach" ("Passover") found its way into Latin as "Pascha" and hence not only into most modern Romance languages (such as "Pascua" in Spanish), but also a number of Celtic languages (such as "Pask" in Breton) and even some Germanic languages ("Pasen" in Dutch), although German uses "Ostern." In English, occasionally, the form "Paschal" is used to refer to the feast celebrated with Easter. For the most part, Slavic languages (with the exception of Russian) have remained outside this influence, with some Slavic languages opting for the equilavents of "Great Day" or "Great Night" (such as "Velikonoce" in Czech) and the South Slavic languages occasionally borrowing terms (such as "Uskrs," meaning Resurrection, in Serbian and Croatian) from Old Church Slavonic.

And finally, some Christian churches celebrate the "Eucharist" (Holy Communion) every Sunday. The word is derived from Greek eucharistía (comprised of roots for "good" and "grace"), with "Eucharistéō" being the verb "to thank" in New Testament Greek. It comes as no surprise that "Eucharist" is directly related to "efharisto," which is Modern Greek for "thank you."

Happy holidays!

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

Countries that have visited here

2009-12-10T23:30:00.003-06:00

I said in my previous post that I'd list the countries that have visited this baby blog, so I've pasted them below. There are other countries that have visited here, but due to severe lack of sleep, I'm too lazy to seek them all out. At least 150 countries have visited here. And sorry the list is in a long line instead of in a table format, but that's also due to my sleep deprivation.

United States
Canada
Denmark
Spain
Great Britain
Germany
Australia
Sweden
China
France
India
Hong Kong
Poland
Philippines
Japan
Netherlands
Ireland
Italy
Brazil
South Korea
Russian Federation
Romania
Austria
Singapore
Thailand
Indonesia
Israel
Switzerland
Taiwan
Belgium
Czech Republic
Malaysia
Finland
Hungary
Saudi Arabia
Norway
Mexico
Portugal
South Africa
United Arab Emirates
Turkey
New Zealand
Ukraine
Vietnam
Bulgaria
Slovak Republic
Panama
Estonia
Greece
Argentina
Lithuania
Egypt
Croatia
Slovenia
Iran
Chile
Myanmar
Colombia
Latvia
Kuwait
Morocco
Iceland
Luxembourg
Peru
Costa Rica
European Union
Moldova
Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire)
Puerto Rico
Jamaica
Qatar
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Mongolia
Ethiopia
Yemen
Former Czechoslovakia
Senegal
Jordan
Oman
Azerbaidjan
Lebanon
Brunei Darussalam
Syria
Kenya
El Salvador
Venezuela
Ecuador
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Malta
Fiji
Trinidad and Tobago
Bahrain
Nigeria
Guatemala
Mauritius
Bolivia
Dominican Republic
Kazakhstan
Belarus
Bangladesh
Gibraltar
Bahamas
Monaco
Macau
Libya
Armenia
Bermuda
Barbados
Uganda
Cyprus
Laos
Uzbekistan
Georgia
Cayman Islands
Polynesia
Paraguay
Liechtenstein
Tanzania
Cambodia
Belize
Benin
Northern Mariana Islands
Netherlands Antilles
Faroe Islands
Macedonia
Samoa Islands
New Caledonia (French)
Palestinian Territories
Dominica
Turkmenistan
Iraq
Algeria
Nepal
Haiti
Nicaragua
Guam
Andorra
Zimbabwe
Djibouti
Honduras
Tunisia
Bhutan
Uruguay
Sudan
Ghana
Mauritania
Botswana
Saint Lucia
Antigua and Barbuda
Virgin Islands
Unknown
Zambia
British Indian Ocean Territory
Eritrea
Greenland
Angola
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Namibia

Over five years

2009-12-08T12:14:00.000-06:00

I just want to say THANK YOU to the thousands of people from all over the world who have visited this baby blog. I've been here for over five years and I had no idea that I'd get so many visitors (well over a couple hundred thousand unique visitors) or that I'd still be writing here. A lot has happened since I started this blog: when I started, I was working at home a lot, doing translations, editing, and proofreading, and I needed some kind of outlet to express my love for language. Then eventually I ended up working in radio and teaching ESL (both which I love doing) and meeting some people in the media who I'd only known from afar. Now I write about Chicago-related TV for Gapersblock.com and of course have published a book (click the link on the right for a full preview).

There's more I want to say, but I don't have much time because I have to work all day and night today (first helping with English class registration and then doing radio stuff). When I get back, I'll post some of the countries that have visited here. But for now, I want to say THANKS again and feel free to tell your friends :D