Why do spelling bees include such bizarre, obsolete words as cymotrichous? Why is New York called the Big Apple? Also, the stinky folk medicine tradition called an asifidity bag, the surprising number of common English phrases that come directly from the King James Bible, three sheets to the wind, the term white elephant, in like Flynn, Australian slang, and what to call foam sleeve for an ice-cold beverage can.
andr3 / collective / tags / spelling
Tagged with “spelling”
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Strange Spelling Bee Words - A Way with Words, public radio’s lively language show
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How Science and Technology Influence Language : NPR
Have you ever been Plutoed (demoted)? Is your inbox clogged with "bacn" (spam by personal request)? Are you a lifehacker (master at optimizing everyday routines)? Jonathon Keats, artist and author of Virtual Words, explains how science and technology influence language, and vice versa.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/24/132311754/How-Science-and-Technology-Influence-Language
Tagged with science technology vocabulary words lexis corpus spelling internet language linguistics
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A Man, A Plan And A Sharpie: ‘The Great Typo Hunt’
Incensed by a "no tresspassing" sign, Jeff Deck launched a cross-country trip to right grammatical wrongs.
He enlisted a friend, Benjamin D. Herson, and together they got to work erasing errant quotation marks, rectifying misspellings and cutting unnecessary possessive apostrophes.
The Great Typo Hunt is the story of their crusade.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129086941
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Hillary’s Russian lesson, and don’t mess with Canadian spelling!
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been circling the globe, hitting the reset button on America’s foreign relations. But then someone at the State Department tried - and failed - to translate “reset” into Russian. Russians know all a synonym of reset, thanks to the Matrix franchise. Now the Kremlin is urging more Americans to learn Russian. Also, middle class Pakistanis prefer English to Urdu. Plus, a new e-book on the historical roots and enduring appeal of spelling the Canadian English way. Now, just what is it about spelling that gets people so agitated? It’s only a matter of time till someone goes to war over this.
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Joe Clark with Steve Paikin
Joe appears on The Agenda with Steve Paikin to discuss Imagining the 21st Century Transit System. He suggest playing a drinking game while you’re listening to this: “Every time I utter the phrase “rock solid,” take a sip of soyaccino.”