Foolish words that still resonate
Foolosopher. What a wonderful word. Not much in use these days, but it ought to be. It is a portmanteau word, first used in English way back in 1549*, according…
language
Handy Words That Don’t Exist In English
Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to…
Is Tar Baby the new N-Word?
As far back as I can recall, the term “tar baby” was a metaphor in common political parlance for a “sticky situation.” It has no racial meaning in that context,…
Lost Worlds, Lost Words
Moidered. It sounds like something from the Three Stooges. Or maybe something Tony Soprano would say.”I moidered him.” But it actually means “crazed,” according to Samuel Johnson in his famous…
How did English evolve?
Here’s a fun little video from TED about the evolution of English. This video describes the early days of English’s changes. Some of the more recent alterations are not included,…
The Long Form Census Debacle Starts to Show Its Impact
As predicted the dropping of the mandatory long form census last year is starting to be felt in the statistical results being collected. First problem: Language Data. New language data…
The Long Form Census Debacle Starts to Show Its Impact
As predicted the dropping of the mandatory long form census last year is starting to be felt in the statistical results being collected. First problem: Language Data. New language data…
As a resident of the NCR…
… these data seem reasonable. There is most def a gap between the attitudes of anglos and francos on both sides of the river re: language and support for Canada.…
Religion and Language: Quasi-Religious Terminology
There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These…
Google to Catalog Languages
The Endangered Languages Project is a new initiative run by Google to catalog languages that are threatened because of globalization. As nice as it is that the people on the…
CBC: Should we use gender-neutral pronouns instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’?
CBC is asking the question, “Should we use gender-neutral pronouns instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’?“ Citing Sweden’s addition of a gender-neutral pronoun to the National Encyclopedia and a news story…
Conservative MP seeks to open emotive abortion debate
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it clear his government will not reopen the abortion debate. But Stephen Woodworth, the Conservative MP for Kitchener Centre wants to reverse course. And…
The Stages of Human Communication Technology
Language (pre-history) Written Language (circa 3200 BC) The Printing Press (circa 1440 ) (Johannes Gutenberg) Telephone (1861/1875) Radio Broadcasting (circa 1910) Television Broadcasting (1928/1936) The Internet (1969) (ARPANET) Smart Phones…
Media Messaging – Using the ‘Right’ Terms
What language do you think progressives should use to try to communicate with the average Canadian viewer?
Esperanto is Old School
Wittgenstein described language as a city. Three's the Old Town with its twisted streets and the new suburbs that are neatly organized. The entire city is constantly changing and growing.That's…
More Than a War of Words: Gas Industry Plays Fracking Victim
Screen shot 2011-09-08 at 10.37.30 AM.png Evoking an emotional response in one’s audience is a rhetorical means of persuasion well documented since Aristotle. But like Aristotle writes in h...
Religion and Language Part III: On Agnosticism
In previous posts on this series on Religion and Language (on deism, in part I; one morality, in part II), I have looked at the way careful attention to the…
Language and Religion Part II: On Religious Morality
In the second installment of Language and Religion, we look at the question of absolute morality and some of the confusions that result from issues of semantics and language. Previously…