Academy of English and Music

Tofurkey - Google Search

2009-11-25T22:16:00.000-08:00

Tofurkey - Google Search: "#
Tofurkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tofurkey (a portmanteau of tofu and turkey) is faux turkey – a loaf or casserole of vegetarian protein, usually made from seitan (wheat protein) or tofu ...

#
Tofurky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Tofurkey. A frozen, boxed Tofurky roast. Tofurky, Turtle Island Foods' trademark for its meat substitute, is a turkey meat"

fossorial

2009-11-22T01:06:00.000-08:00

fossorial - Google Search: "fossorial organism is one that is adapted to digging and life underground such as the badger, the naked mole rat, and the mole salamanders"

Nerd

2009-11-12T06:31:00.000-08:00

Nerd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Although the idea of nerds is popular, those adopting the characteristics of nerds are not actually nerds by definition. One cannot be an authentic nerd by imitation alone; a nerd is an outsider and someone who is unable or unwilling to follow trends. Popular culture is borrowing the concept and image of nerds in order to stand out as individuals."

Bromance

2009-11-12T05:27:00.000-08:00

Bromance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Etymology

'Bromance' is a portmanteau, a combination of the words 'brother' and 'romance'. Editor Dave Carnie coined the term in the skateboard magazine Big Brother in the 1990s to refer specifically to the sort of relationships that develop between skaters who spent a great deal of time together.[2]
[edit] Sociology

Aristotle described a concept similar to the bromance as early as 300 BCE, writing, 'It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality'.[1] Research into friendship and masculinity has found that recent generations of men, raised by feminist mothers in the 1970s, are more emotionally open and more expressive.[1] There is also less concern among men at the notion of being identified as gay and so men are more comfortable exploring deeper friendships with other men"

Euphemism treadmill

2009-11-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Euphemism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Euphemism treadmill

Euphemisms often evolve over time into taboo words themselves, through a process described by W.V.O. Quine,[citation needed] and more recently dubbed the 'euphemism treadmill' by Steven Pinker. (cf. Gresham's Law in economics). This is the well-known linguistic process known as 'pejoration' or 'semantic change'.

Words originally intended as euphemisms may lose their euphemistic value, acquiring the negative connotations of their referents. In some cases, they may be used mockingly and become dysphemisms."

Plagiarism Software

2009-10-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

How Plagiarism Software Found a New Shakespeare Play - Yahoo! News: "Vickers detected 200 strings of three or more words in Edward III that matched phrases in Shakespeare's other works. Usually, works by two different authors will only have about 20 matching strings. 'With this method we see the way authors use and reuse the same phrases and metaphors, like chunks of fabric in a weave,' says Vickers. 'If you have enough of them, you can identify one fabric as Scottish tweed and another as plain gray cloth.' (No insult intended to Kyd.)"

Zakazukha

2009-10-14T03:05:00.000-07:00

About at Zakazukha: "What is Zakazukha?

When Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc reconciled back in 1998, the image of the Berlin Wall tumbling down was not the only media opportunity that was reported around the world.

The opening up of former communist countries to western ideals also created a zeal for new opportunities, and none more so than in the world of media and advertising.

What evolved was an industry based around placing paid articles in newspapers and magazines, a practice called zakazukha, a Russian word meaning payment for favourable editorial coverage.

In 2001 a Russian public relations agency exposed the practice by offering a number of Moscow newspapers cash in exchange for editorial coverage of a store opening. Sixteen publications entered into negotiations, with 13 running the story. The agency later revealed that no store actually existed.

Now lets call a spade a spade – someone has to get paid to generate the news stories businesses rely on to gain publicity as part of their overall marketing efforts (in fact Australia had its own cash for comment scandal in 1999 concerning paid advertising on radio masquerading as editorial commentary).

But don’t get us wrong, we’d never condone the practice of direct payment to media outlets for this sort of exposure (this caper is best left to the legitimate realms of advertising).

However if as much as 80 per cent of media content is derived from public relations material, then you’d be hard pressed to find a reason not to engage in an active media relations campaign."

Zakazukha - Google Search

freemartin: Definition from Answers.com

2009-09-01T01:24:00.001-07:00

freemartin: Definition from Answers.com: "A sterile female born co-twin with a male. Occurs most commonly in cattle, very rarely in sheep, and apparently not at all in the other species."

freemartin: Definition from Answers.com

2009-09-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

freemartin: Definition from Answers.com: "A sterile female born co-twin with a male. Occurs most commonly in cattle, very rarely in sheep, and apparently not at all in the other species."

feminism: Definition from Answers.com

2009-08-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

feminism: Definition from Answers.com: "Feminism is a relatively recent term for the politics of equal rights for women. It came into use in English only in the 1890s, and many languages do not have this noun at all"

Ear training blogged

2009-08-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ear training, with links to neat YouTube videos - Brian Slesinsky: "In an attempt to improve my musical skills, I've been practicing with Interval Ear Trainer a little bit every day. It's a web app that plays two notes, either sequentially or at the same time, and then you have to decide how far apart they are in pitch. (This is a common exercise for musicians.)"

Noel Coward's - Google Search

2009-08-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

Noel Coward's - Google Search

Video results for Noel Coward's

Noel Coward MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN (1955)
2 min 37 sec
www.youtube.com

Noel Coward: Mad Dogs and Englishmen
2 min 29 sec
www.youtube.com

Noel Coward House Tour 2
2 min 7 sec
video.google.com

Noel Coward MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN (1955)

2009-08-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Noel Coward MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN (1955)

Sir James Galway plays "The Lord of the Rings"

2009-08-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Sir James Galway plays "The Lord of the Rings": "Mr Power, the headmasterof his secondary school in Belfast, told me as a boy he played the recorder suberbly well,
and therefore flute lessonns were arranged for him with the wife of the City's music advisor.

The panny whistle is a traditional irish folk instrument which he may have played at home. The flute is also a marching band instrument used by the protestants for their Orange day parades.

He would have been called a fluter in the Belfast dialect (not a flautist)"

music from the Faroe Islands

2009-08-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to music from the Faroe Islands: "The Faroe Island’s music scene might be small - but it packs one hell of a dynamite punch. Music has been a part of these islands since time immemorial, and though its size and location have isolated it somewhat from the international music community, Faroese music is growing increasingly visible and dynamic from day to day.

Music From The Faroe Islands aims to provide a window for visitors to learn more about this intriguing scene, and to develop links, contacts and networks between various musical communities. In the future we hope this site will help Faroese music communities create a real online music information portal."

worthless word for the day : word of the day, an obscure words refactory, dictionary, lexicon, sesquipedalianism, logophile, linguaphile, verbicide, verbivore

2009-07-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

worthless word for the day : word of the day, an obscure words refactory, dictionary, lexicon, sesquipedalianism, logophile, linguaphile, verbicide, verbivore

I was looking up MEGRIMS

Scanner Sounds

2009-07-09T00:50:00.000-07:00

Alliance Medical | Scanner Sounds: "MRI scanners use large electromagnets some of which are rapidly switched on and off during the scan procedure. Although these magnets are not visible, the sound they make can be fairly loud.

The sounds made by the scanner vary in volume and tone with the type of procedure being performed.
We have collected together a small range of scan noises for you to audition now!

To listen to our scan sound jukebox, click on the buttons below. Each button will play a different MRI scan sound. Press the red button to stop the sounds. (requires Microsoft Internet Explorer)"

Syfy

2009-07-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

Syfy: Different Name, Pronounced the Same - washingtonpost.com: "the name change reflects the fact that it is virtually impossible to capitalize on a generic name such as Sci Fi.
ad_icon

Syfy 'is a name we can trademark,' Howe explained. 'We will be moving into digital and mobile platforms and games. We needed a way to own that name and get credit for it.'"

syfy - Google Search: "in some universe, the name “Syfy” is less geeky than the name “Sci Fi. ... Web site SciFi.com also will make the change to Syfy.com. ..."

Das Wort „Handy“

2009-07-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

Das Wort „Handy“: "Englisch oder nicht englisch?"

England

Die Engländer in meiner Umgebung hier in Birmingham verwenden die Bezeichnung "mobile". Ich habe auch bisher noch nie ein anderes Wort dafür auf Werbeplakaten gesehen.
Marc Eberhard auf der DLUG-Liste 30.11.2004

[...] 'mobile phone' oder in Cockney ganz einfach 'bone'. [...] 'bone' kommt aus dem Cockney und ist eine Kurzform. Im Cockney dialect reden die Leute schon seit Jahrhunderten in Reimen [...]. Der Reim der zum 'mobile phone' gehört ist 'dog and bone' (Hund und Knochen) und so hieß dort ein Handy 'dog and bone', wie die meisten solcher Reime ist er natürlich viel zu lang und in kurzer Zeit wurde daraus dann einfach nur 'bone'.

old bone flute

2009-06-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | 'Oldest musical instrument' found: "A flute carved more than 35,000 years ago has been unearthed in Germany and scientists believe it is the world's oldest musical instrument.

The vulture-bone flute was found in the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany."

Donkey drawn library

2009-06-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Donkeys boost Ethiopian literacy: "If we are interested in changing the world then we have to read"

Speyer line

2009-06-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Speyer line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "in German linguistics, the Speyer line, Main line (Main river), or Germersheim line is an isogloss separating the dialects to the north, which have a geminated stop in words like Appel 'apple', from the dialects to the south, which have an affricate: Apfel. The line runs from east to west and passes through the town of Speyer. In Germany, the line is most well known by its humorous designation Weißwurstäquator."

The New Yorker and Writers’ Workshop

2009-06-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Show or Tell: A Critic at Large: The New Yorker: "at a convention in Boston on the fifteenth anniversary of the A.W.P. Cassill stunned the membership by suggesting that the organization should be disbanded.
He thought that writers had become complicit in the academic logrolling and gamesmanship of publish-or-perish: using other people’s money—grants from their universities and from arts agencies—they devised ways to get their own and one another’s work into print, and then converted those publications into salary increments (which is apparently how Cassill thought that most professors operate). They wrote poems to get raises. The academic system was corrupting, and it was time for the writers to get out.
“We are now at the point where writing programs are poisoning, and in turn we are being poisoned by, departments and institutions on which we have fastened them,” he said.

The speech got attention, but the A.W.P. did not disband. It eventually renamed itself the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and it now has more than twenty-five thousand members. Around the time that Cassill delivered his renunciation, there were seventy-nine degree programs in creative writing in the United States. Today, there are eight hundred and twenty-two. Thirty-seven of these award the Ph.D."

Library Information Show 2009

2009-05-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

Library Information Show 2009 - Welcome: "Join us for The Library Show, now celebrating its 20th year. Established as the annual meeting place for the library community across all sectors - public, academic, school and workplace. The show has more exhibitors than any other UK library event and is free to attend for all visitors."

English Folk Dance and Song

2009-04-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

English Folk Dance and Song Society Homepage: "For over one hundred years the English Folk Dance and Song Society has worked to record, develop and promote the folk music, dance, song and traditions of our country.

With over 3,000 members and affiliated clubs and organisations, it is regarded as one of the premiere folk development and advocacy organisations in the UK."

Føroya Symfoniorkestur

2009-03-26T09:53:00.001-07:00

"Føroya Symfoniorkestur, det færøske symfoniorkester, havde sin første koncert 19. Juni 1983, 7 uger efter åbningen af Nordens Hus. Dette er et lykkeligt sammentræf. Derimod er det ikke tilfældigt, at ønsket om et orkester falder sammen med en forsøgsvis etablering af landsdækkende musikskoler. I skoleåret 1982- 83 er musikerne Kanny Sambleben og Magne Synnevåg ansatte som lærere. De får henimod skoleårets afslutning den tanke, at det ville være interessant, hvis man kunne samle de spredte færøske musikere i et symfoniorkester.

På det program, der blev lavet til lejligheden, er der en erklæring fra initiativtagerne, som er meget tankevækkende læsnig på 25 års afstand:

Føroya Symfoniorkestur er blevet til efter en impulsiv idé fra Kanny Sambleben og Magne Synnevåg. Dette er et forsøg, som de færøske amatørmusikere har sluttet op om med liv og sjæl. Koncerten løber af stabelen efter bare en måneds prøver, og vi håber, at dette arbejde kan danne spiren til et færøsk symfoniorkester i godt samarbejde med profesionelle musiklærere, som måtte komme til land"

teachrs at Tórshavn Music School, Faroe Islands

2009-03-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

Lærarar - Tórshavnar Musikkskúli
and I see some very familiar names

The little match-seller - Hans Christian Andersen

2009-03-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

Compare: The little match-seller (ENGLISH) - Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne (DANSK):
"It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets.
It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use."

Oxford English Dictionary

2009-03-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

March 2009 revisions - Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary: "Recent updates to the OED have focused alternately on alphabetical revision in the letter R and high-profile words elsewhere in the alphabet. This release concentrates on more high-profile terms, with an emphasis on words relating to humanity and life in society. In addition, several key scientific sections are revised, as are two of English’s most common prepositions and adverbs. The key words in this release include community, human, life, live, social, walk; the aceto- compounds, acid, alkali; about and above. Needless to say, long sets of adjacent, related words are revised and updated alongside these key terms.

These notes cover a range of aspects of the OED’s revision programme. Firstly, one of the revised and updated entries, absentee, is considered in some details, to see how revision has changed our view of the word. Secondly, there is a brief glimpse at the profile or ‘shape’ of several of the ‘big’ entries in the range. This looks at how old they are in the language, and how this tends to inform the way in which they have developed over the centuries. Thirdly, we investigate a rogue quotation. This is one which, for over one hundred years, the OED has offered as the earliest example in English of the word pal (= friend, mate). New research in the relevant archive shows that it was wrongly assessed back in 1904. And finally, evidence for the word playwright, which confirms our suspicions that it does date from the time of Shakespeare."

teaching and typos

2009-02-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

Max Marmer » Blog Archive » Changing Education: M.I.T. Takes Big Step in Right Direction: "Effective teaching needs be consistent with how the brain actually learns. Absorbing the breadth of information that needs to be covered actually would be quite easy if the key concepts are communicated effectively first.

The way to understand a vast set of information is not to go through its entirety once and hope to miraculously the unconscious synthesizes a pattern.
A much better method would be to first commit to learning the underlying pattern. Most of the information should now snap into place as most of the other ideas are just variations of the same pattern or require only one additional step. But this is a major departure from in my experience how most teachers teach. There’s almost no flexibility in class because teachers have a fixed amount of curriculum they after to cover."

from my email:-

Hey Hugh,

Thanks for linking to me. I realized that paragraph contained a number of errors.

Can you repaste this re-edited text:

Effective teaching needs to be consistent with how the brain actually learns. Absorbing the breadth of information that needs to be covered actually would be quite easy if the key concepts were communicated effectively first.

Don’t try to understand a vast set of information by going through it in entirety once hoping the unconscious will miraculously synthesize a pattern.
A much better method would involve learning the underlying pattern first. A lot of the information should now snap into place as most ideas in a class are just variations of the underlying pattern, and only require one additional step to achieve a deep understanding. But from my experience this is a major departure from how most teachers teach. There’s almost no flexibility in class because teachers have a fixed amount of curriculum they have to cover.

I think the typos are totally unimportant because the sense is clear in context

Stories For Speakers And Writers: Every Place Should Have a Recombobulation Area

2009-01-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Stories For Speakers And Writers: Every Place Should Have a Recombobulation Area: "Discombobulation
In short, discombobulation is the feeling we often experience when we go through airport scanners after taking off our belt, shoes and other garments and are then frisked, prodded and poked. You know the feeling? That’s discombobulation.

Recombobulation is a Gift
So what a gift to be able to take your shoes and belt and other personal items and sit down and be recombobulated."

Discombobulation - Google Search

Den Danske Koralbog 1954

2009-01-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

Den Danske Koralbog 1954 midi files

Obesity

2008-12-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Obesity - what's in a word?: "'Obesity' has become the new 'cancer'. A word that is taboo, that intimidates, that strikes fear, that promotes softer euphemisms.

In effect it has become an 'O' word.

The gurus of change management often speak of the need for everyone to recognise a state of crisis in order to take action.

They use the metaphor of a burning platform.

Perhaps the word 'obesity' is itself that burning platform."

OED December 2008 news

2008-12-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

December 2008 new words - Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary:

"Rashomon n.

An indication of the wealth and variety of influences which are at work on the English language, as Japanese cinema gives us this word, which alludes to the method of storytelling used in Akira Kurosawa's 1951 film of this name, and is used attributively to denote things involving multiple conflicting or differing perspectives. The underlying simile is first invoked in English in the adjective Rashomon-like, which dates back to 1962, and is also included in this release of new and revised OED text."

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the last fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928, we are offering a special price for the printed edition of the OED. The magnificent 20-volume printed set is now available at the special offer price of just £450 until 31 January 2009, or for US customers $895.

Latest additions to the OED

On 11 December, the revised range ran to reamy was added to the Dictionary: see John Simpson's commentary on the most interesting features of this batch. We have also added new words in the range and from across the alphabet; Graeme Diamond picks some out in his notes on the latest new words.

Special recordings

You can read/listen to an interview with Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED, and Jesse Sheidlower, Editor at Large for the OED. Read also about the first editor, Sir James Murray, and one of the most famous contributors, Dr Minor, in the Oxford DNB; or listen to the lives of Murray and Minor in the Oxford DNB's free biography podcast.

The OED newsletter

News of research and developments on the Oxford English Dictionary was formerly available in periodic printed newsletters. These brought together articles by editors and others on their work for the Dictionary, appeals for help with finding evidence of words currently being revised or drafted (see the latest appeals list), and reports of the editors' recent findings about the language in all its entertaining variety.

We have replaced these newsletters with quarterly commentaries on the latest published batches and new words, but copies of the newsletters can still be read here on OED Online in our Newsletter archive.

purportal.com : News

2008-11-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

purportal.com : News: "The twelve million dollar collies #
I've got a longer post in me about the relationship between phishing scam-mail and the English language. But I had to share this one right away. It was part of a 'CONTRACT PROPOSAL' involving an alleged $20 million.

'AGREEMENT: As soon as you are able to secure this money, 40% will be for you, while 60% will be for me and my collies in the office.'

Those are some lucky colleagues! I mean, collies"

BBC Radio 3 Programmes

2008-11-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

BBC - BBC Radio 3 Programmes - Through the Night, 10/11/2008: "01:01AM
Fauré, Gabriel (1845-1924)
Requiem (Op.48)
National Philharmonic Choir of Bulgaria, Lyuba Pesheva (conductor)

with my happy memories of the Aldershot Choral Society

01:35AM
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750) arr. Józef Koffler
Goldberg variations (BWV.988) arranged for string orchestra << oops -- includs pairs of flutes, oboes and bassoons !!!

if you listen carefully

Amadeus Polish Radio Orchestra, Agnieska Duczmal - Google Search

Józef Koffler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Orchestration of the Goldberg variations of J. S. Bach for small orchestra (1938)"

Józef Koffler (November 28, 1896 - vanished in 1944), was a Polish composer, music teacher, musicologist and musical columnist.
He was the first Polish composer living before the Second World War that applied the twelve tone composition technique (dodecaphony).

Biography wiki

He was born on the 28 November 1896 in Stryj, Austria-Hungary (today Ukraine). He studied from 1914 to 1916 in Lwów (today Lviv in Ukraine) and from 1918 to 1924 he studied music in Vienna.

His teachers were Paul Graener and Felix Weingartner.
From 1928 till 1941 Koffler was professionally active as music teacher in Lwów. Koffler was a protoplast of twentieth-century avant-garde Polish music. Polish exile composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati studied in 1920 - 1923 composition with Koffler in Lwów.

When German troops entered the town Koffler was captured with his wife and son and forcibly relocated to the ghetto in Wieliczka (Poland). His further fate, date, location and way he died are unknown. At the beginning of 1944 he and his family probably were killed by one of the German Einsatzgruppen near Krosno (in southern Poland) where he was hiding after the liquidation of the ghetto in Wieliczka.

Most of Koffler's unpublished scores vanished in the turmoil of the Second World War, when he died in the Holocaust. Only two works amongst his numerous compositions were published after the war. They were released by the Polish editing house PWM and are available today. They are: String Trio op. 10 and Cantata Love op. 14. Several of his works are were released on CD records.

British Library buys archive of poet Ted Hughes - Salon.com

2008-10-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

British Library buys archive of poet Ted Hughes - Salon.com: "Hughes sold the bulk of his papers to Emory University in Atlanta, which had long shown an interest in his work. His wife Carol Hughes said she was delighted some of his archive would stay in Britain.

'Ted was a man of these islands — their landscapes, rivers and wild places — and it is fitting that papers covering such an important part of his creative life should be deposited with such a prestigious institution here in Britain,' she said.

The library said it hoped to have the archive catalogued and available to researchers by the end of next year."

Urban Dictionary: zazy

2008-05-24T05:24:00.000-07:00

Urban Dictionary: zazy: "Describing something chic or fashionable. Usually applied to articles of clothing or other aspects personal style, but can be used to compliment anything exhibiting a noteworthy sense of style.
His new shirt is hip and zazy."

ZAZINESS or ZAZZINESS

Adolph Sax

2008-05-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Adolph Sax: "sent a long memoir to the
War Minister, Marshal Soult, a survivor of the Napoleonic regime. In it he
analyzed and criticized the composition of military bands. Some of their
instruments he wrote, especially the horns and the bassoons, were not
fitted for open-air performances. The sounds of the musical units were
lacking in homogeneity; the high pitched piccolo and the clarinets gave
out squeaky sounds, while the ophicleides snorted and shouted. And most of
the intermediary instruments were squeezed between these two extremes and
their sound could hardly be perceived. Sax proposed to make large use of
his bugles with valves, or saxhorns. And he insisted upon the advantage of
employing a group of instruments of the same family, which would permit
the melodic line to pass smoothly from one instrument to another as it
does in the string quartet, or as it passes from one voice to another as
it does in a well trained choir."

Oxford English Dictionary

2008-03-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

March 2008 revisions - Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary: "But after several years of steady alphabetical publication, we have decided to vary the publication mix. The present publication range departs radically from the former model, in that its 2,116 entries consist for the most part of key English words from across the alphabet, along with the other words which make up the alphabetical cluster surrounding them. From now on, we expect to alternate between these two models each quarter, with the next publication range (in June 2008) continuing from quits, and the subsequent one (September 2008) presenting a further range of major words and their associated alphabetical clusters."

Word of the Day by RSS feed - Customer service - Oxford English Dictionary: "You can now receive the OED's Word of the Day and other occasional news about OED Online by RSS web feed.

If you use a feed reader, the address of our feed is http://www.oed.com/rss.xml. You'll need to add this address to your feed reader."

OED

2007-12-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

Latest new entries - Help with using OED Online - Oxford English Dictionary: "On 13 December 2007 the alphabetical range purpress-quit shilling was added to the New Edition: every word in this range has been thoroughly revised and updated"

Explore over 2500 new and revised words…

A new update of the Oxford English Dictionary was published on 13 December, bringing 2506 new and revised entries from PURPRESS to QUIT SHILLING. John Simpson discusses the latest batch of new and revised entries in his latest article, including information on the new longest entry in the OED and how the ‘queen’ entry has changed over the last 30 years.

We have also added new words and senses from across the alphabet. Learn the stories behind blankie, puttanesca, Godzone, and QALY from the new words editor Katherine Martin.

Visit the Oxford English Dictionary Online web site for a full list of new words and senses in this update (including all those ‘q’ words which might come in handy for Scrabble over the holiday period).

The latest news from Oxford University Press

We are delighted to announce that the latest update to Oxford Scholarship Online, along with nine NEW subject modules, is now available. December also saw the launch of the new online edition of Who's Who, published by Oxford University Press, to coincide with the release of the 2008 print edition of Who's Who published by A & C Black. Why not contact us for an institutional free trial or a price quotation?

Words

2007-12-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Words: "Beg the question: to assume the truth of a statement, without proof, in subsequent argument. Its Latin name is petitio principii, a logical fallacy. 'When did you stop beating your wife?' begs the question of 'Did you beat your wife?'

Fowler adduces 'Capital punishment is necessary because without it murders would increase.' Some users appear to mean 'to evade the question.' It doesn't mean to 'bring up the question' or to 'demand the question' or to 'suggest the question.'

This ignorant misuse now appears very commonly on television. It has been used by Charlie Rose, as well as the History Detectives, for example, and other good people, and has recently become a habit on PBS."

one of my students

2007-11-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

I never forget teaching her for her first year at school in Torshavn

Athelas: "Færøsk klarinettist, uddannet på konservatoriet i København hos Jørgen Misser og Bent Neuchs med debut i 1994 og samme år Premier Prix fra Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve hos Thomas Friedli. Hun har arbejdet med de fleste orkestre og ensembler i landet, men har med stor kærlighed helliget det meste af sin tid til den ny musik. Anna Klett er medlem af ensemblerne Athelas, Figura samt duo klettWOOD og er desuden musiker og omdrejningspunkt i platformen for ny kunstmusik, mooseMATRIX, der samarbejder med anden samtidskunst. Endelig er hun medstifter af det færøske kammerensemble Aldubáran. Anna Klett har modtaget Dansk Komponistforenings Musikerpris 2002 og Musikanmelderringens Kunstnerpris 2003. Den vildeste oplevelse: At køre fra Yaroslav til Moskva i en lille gammel Lada på en helt ufattelig landevej. Den vildeste musikalske oplevelse: Kraftwerk live."

'Træið':
William Heinesen: 10 Variations on 'Vagn og slå på dine Strenge', for solo viola;
Sunleif Rasmussen: Four Pieces from 'Sjeystjørnuna', for flute, clarinet, violin & piano;
'Hoyrdu tit havsins andalag' for flute & clarinet;
Pauli Í Sandagerdi: Træið, for soprano, cello & piano;
Kristian Blak: Tårnet, for solo flute; Ile, for piano.

Kim Sjögren (viola) Maria Cederborg (flute) Martin Mouritsen (clarinet) Monica Stauss Joensen (violin) Johannes Andreasen (piano) Marit Mordal (soprano) Jens Christian Guttesen (cello) Bjarni Restorff (piano) Ernst Dalgarð (flute) Anna Klett (clarinet) (Tutl FKT3)

Summartónar ljóma enn um alt landið, ein av forvitnisligu upplivingum verður í Müllers
Pakkhúsi í kvøld, tá klarinettkvartettin Watkins Kids spælir.
Anna Klett, Oddur Hentze, Bjarni Berg og Martin Mouritsen hava øll somu lagnu at hava
verið næmingar hjá enska dirigentinum Hugh Watkins, sum seinast í 70-unum kom til
Klaksvíkar og síðani til Havnar, har hann tók sær av tónleikafrálæru. Hann var dirigentur hjá
fleiri orkestrum men serliga hjá GHM, har hesi fýra hava sínar røtur.
Ein hópur av blásarum vóru settir at spæla og hesi fýra hava hildið fast í sínum ljóðføri. Tey hava
øll útbúgvið seg í tónleiki uttanlands og virka sum tónleikalærarar og tónleikarar. Anna Klett býr
í Keypmannahavn og virkar sum ykistónleikari burturav. Hon hevur vunnið sær fastan sess
millum danskar tónleikarar, serliga tá ræður um nútíðartónleik.
- Vit vóru øll á ein hátt børnini hjá Watkins fyri umleið 30 árum síðani og hava nú funnið
saman á ein serligan hátt við hesi klarinettkvartettin, siga Watkins Kids í tíðindaskrivi.
Skráin er sett saman av modernaðum tónleiki fyri kvartettina, umframt solostykkir og duo
og meira traditionellan tónleik.
© Niels Uni Dam

musikkskúlin has some more of more of my old students as teachers

I had just as good students in Wolverhanpton, Belfast and Oxfordshire and I would love to hear how they are doing.

Jean-Baptiste Arban

2007-10-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

Jean-Baptiste Arban - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Joseph Jean Baptist Laurent Arban (28 February 1825 - 9 April 1889) was a cornetist, conductor, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini's virtuosic technique on the violin and in an (arguably successful) attempt to 'prove' the cornet as a true solo instrument, developed extreme virtuosic technique on the instrument. Born in Lyon, France, he studied trumpet with Francois Dauverné at the Paris Conservatoire from 1841 to 1845. He was appointed professor of saxhorn at the École Militaire in 1857, and became professor of cornet at the Paris Conservatoire in 1869, where Merri Franquin was among his students. He published his Grande méthode complète pour cornet à pistons et de saxhorn in Paris in 1864. This method, which is often referred to as the 'Trumpeter's Bible,' is still studied by modern brass players. His variations on The Carnival of Venice remains one of the great showpieces for cornet soloists today. Arban died in Paris on April 9, 1889."

one of my heroes

daft newspaper headlines

2007-10-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

British Left Waffles on Falkland islands - Google Search

LingoZ

2007-10-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

LingoZ: "Building the world's largest dictionary [4,486,071 definitions and counting"

Scottish english

2007-08-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

Picters in yer heid - Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech

Author(s): Robert Fairnie

Copyright holder(s)

Robert Fairnie

Text

It’s funny the wey wee things can shoogle yer memory an pent picters in yer heid o things that kythed lang syne; picters that’s gey near as clear the day as they war when they war new in the bygane. Geordie’s memory wis shoogilt in sic a wey ae mornin thare when he taen it intae his heid tae tak anither gate on the wey tae the paper shop, juist for a chynge, an it taen him past some hooses wi front gairdens that feinished at the pavie wi a brick wa. The wa hid a caip stane on the tap an stuid aboot twa an a hauf fit high an, the thing that grippit his ee thon mornin, wis a raw o wee stumpit bits o airn, ilka yin wantin a wee bit for an inch in hicht, rinnin alang the mids o the caip stane in single file aboot hauf a fit apairt. The sicht o thae wee bits o airn wheeched him richt back tae his bairnheid when he wis nae mair nor aboot aicht year auld.

from
SCOTS Project - Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech: "A corpus of Scottish texts from 1945 to the present day"

'joe job

2007-08-09T04:37:00.000-07:00

"'joe job'." - Google Search
Online, a joe job (or Joe job) is a spam attack using spoofed sender data and aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the apparent sender and/or induce the ...

Sporgery

2007-08-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

The Secret Project to Spam the Internet (Sporgery): "In 1998 a friend of mine, and someone I totally trusted (my auditor, and longtime friend, Bill) called and asked me to do a favor for OSA. He told me it was very important. I told him I would come over and find out what it was. He gave me a bit of money and asked me to go to an address on Wilshire Blvd. at a certain address. He said to just walk up to the door, and tell the man you want to 'open an ISP'. He gave me a name to put it in, and said to give him the money. At the time I knew basically nothing about computers, so I had NO idea what this all meant."

Re: Learning to Love the Bomb the Co$ Way: "Bill Yaude is a Scientologist. Along with Gavino Idda, Jim Kalergis and other Scientologists working for the Office of Special Affairs of the Church of Scientology, Bill Yaude is responsible for posting approximately 2,000,000 spam messages to alt.religion.scientology and other Usenet newsgroups. Dozens of Internet accounts were used. They were obtained in different cities in the United States. They were paid for in cash and using false names so that they could not be traced to the Church of Scientology. Addresses in the spam messages were also forged to make it look like they came from actual newsgroup subscribers. Tilman Hausherr, a critic of Scientology, coined the word 'sporgery' from 'spam' and 'forgery.'"

the death of hi-fi?

2007-04-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Audiofile - Salon: "Along with the album and the record store, we can evidently add high-fidelity sound to the list of things devalued by digital music. According to an Associated Press article, the struggles of audio equipment retailers like Tweeter and Circuit City, as well as the continued popularity of sonically sub-par digital file formats (e.g., MP3s), are proof of people's waning interest in high-quality sound.

An audio expert quoted in the story likens the difference between the sound quality of an iPod and a high-end stereo system to the difference between a 'moped' and a 'Ferrari.' So why are so many people willing to settle? Because they like convenience and have bad ears, that's why.

In more delicate terms, the article points out that the sonic disparity between digital audio files and 'better' formats is indistinguishable to all but the sharpest audiophiles. And even if they can detect some difference, most listeners are happy to accept a loss of quality for an increase in storage capacity and portability. A hi-fi stereo might sound great, but an iPod's a lot easier to use on the stairmaster.

Not to reveal my latent dorkiness, but simmering underneath this article is a question I've thought about a lot. What exactly is 'good sound' anyway? Frankly, I'm pretty much in the same boat as the guy quoted in the story who said, 'I honestly can't really tell the difference between CD, tape and digital."

Feature Detection - A Tool for Unifying Dictionary Definitions

2007-04-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Presentation

Feature Detection - A Tool for Unifying Dictionary Definitions

Jørg Asmussen

Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, DSL

Society for Danish Language and Literature, DSL

Dept. for Digital Dictionaries and Text Corpora

Christians Brygge 1

DK-1219 Copenhagen K

DENMARK

The London Library

2007-04-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

The London Library:

"THE WORLD'S LARGEST INDEPENDENT LENDING LIBRARY"

The London Library was founded in 1841, as an independent subscription library designed to serve the needs of readers and scholars by lending books for use at home. It was not the first such subscription library, but it was the first to collect and offer more than new books for current needs, to provide the range of books spanning several centuries otherwise only available in major reference libraries.

The Library owes its foundation to the vision of Thomas Carlyle, who in many ways remains its tutelary genius. But he was not alone in his desire to establish an institution which would allow subscribers to enjoy something of the wealth of a national library for use in their own homes: the Earl of Clarendon, that enlightened early-Victorian politician, was the Library's first president, Thackeray its first auditor; Gladstone and Sir Edward Bunbury were on the first committee. Early members included Dickens and George Eliot. The Library's long-standing role at the centre of the intellectual life of the nation is reflected in the roll-call of its past presidents and vice-presidents, which include Tennyson, Kipling, T.S. Eliot, Rebecca West and Isaiah Berlin. The Library's current president is Tom Stoppard.

Search the Online Catalogue (For pre-1950 acquisitions please also consult the printed catalogues

Literary Encyclopedia: Circulating Libraries: " became an important cultural institution in Britain in the 1780s, doing much to enable the rising middle class to have access to a broad range of reading material, especially fiction. "

he first instances of lending books for money can be traced back as early as 1660s when there are records of booksellers allowing customers to borrow books for a fee as an alternative to outright purchase. Over time, it is believed, such booksellers began to differentiate their stock between titles for sale and titles for rent. The first recorded library dedicated to circulating books for a fee appears to have been that of Allan Ramsay, the Scottish poet, who rented books from his shop in Edinburgh in 1725.

The practice gained momentum and by the 1740s there were at least three circulating libraries operating in London. The term “circulating library” is first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary as being used in a proposal by Samuel Fancourt, who had previously managed a library in Salisbury, to establish such a library in London in 1742.

English Signs All are as written

2007-02-11T06:56:00.000-08:00

from my email:-

n a Bangkok temple: "IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN, EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN."

Cocktail lounge, Norway: "LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR."

Doctor's office, Rome: SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.

Dry cleaners, Bangkok: DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.

In a Nairobi restaurant: "CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER."

On the main road to Mombasa, leaving Nairobi: "TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE."

On a poster at Kencom: "ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO WE CAN HELP."

In a City restaurant: "OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS."

In a cemetery: "PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES."

Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations: "GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED."

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: "OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR."

In a Tokyo bar: "SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS."

Hotel, Yugoslavia: "THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID."

Hotel, Japan: "YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID."

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
"YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY."

A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest: "IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON
OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR
INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE."

Hotel, Zurich: "BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."

Airline ticket office, Copenhagen: "WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS."

A laundry in Rome: "LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME."

Viking Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2007-01-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

Viking Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The long-term linguistic effect of the Viking settlements in England was threefold: over a thousand words eventually became part of Standard English; a large number of places in England have Danish names; and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin.[3]

Words that entered the English language by this route include landing, score, beck, fellow, take, busting, and steersman.[3]

The vast majority of loan words do not begin to appear in documents until the early twelfth century; these include many modern words which use sk- sounds, such as skirt, sky, and skin; other words appearing in written sources at this time include again, awkward, birth, cake, dregs, fog, freckles, gasp, law, neck, ransack, root, scowl, sister, seat, sly, smile, want, weak, and window.[3] Some of the words that came into use by this route are among the most common in English, such as both, same, get, and give. The system of personal pronouns was affected, with they, them, and their replacing the earlier forms. Old Norse even influenced the verb to be; the replacement of sindon by are is almost certainly Scandinavian in origin, as is the third-person-singular ending -s in the present tense of verbs.[3]

There are over 1,500 Scandinavian place names in England, mainly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (within the former boundaries of the Danelaw): over 600 end in -by, the Scandinavian word for "farm" or "town"—for example Grimsby, Naseby, and Whitby;^[4] many others end in -thorpe ("village"), -thwaite ("clearing"), and -toft ("homestead").^[3]

The distribution of family names showing Scandinavian influence is still, as an analysis of names ending in -son reveals, concentrated in the north and east, corresponding to areas of former Viking settlement. Early medieval records indicate that over 60% of personal names in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire showed Scandinavian influence.^[3]

BBC - Legacies - Immigration and Emigration - Wales - South West Wales - The Flemish colonists in Wales - Article Page 3

2007-01-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

BBC - Legacies - Immigration and Emigration - Wales - South West Wales - The Flemish colonists in Wales - Article Page 3: "The influx of Flemings into south Pembrokeshire was so great that the Welsh language was eradicated and Flemish gradually gave way to English as the dominant language. However, it was a dialect spoken with a strong and distinctive accent and with a large vocabulary of words not commonly found elsewhere.

The South Pembrokeshire Accent

The distinctive qualities of the English spoken in south Pembrokeshire was noted by George Owen in 1603 ‘‘… the most parte of the countrey speacketh Englishe and in yt noe use of the Welshe. The names of the people are mere Englishe eche familye followinge the Englishe fashion in surnames. Their buildings are Englishe like in town reddes and villages and not in severall and lone houses. Their dyett is as the Englishe people uses as the common foode is beefe … These reasons and alsoe for that most of the anciente gentlemen came thither out of England … might verye fittlye procure it the name of Little England beyonde Wales.”

In 1930, P.V.Harris wrote that, 'in many ways the dialect of South Pembrokeshire is the most fascinating in Britain, and owing to the country's remoteness, perhaps the least adulterated in recent years. Many of the words are pre-Chaucerian which have fallen into disuse elsewhere.

Some examples of dialect words recorded by Harris in 1930 are:

Budger' , A butcher,
'Catamouse' , the bat,
'Catchypawl' , the tadpole,
'Frost Candles' ,Icicles,
and
'Sea-parrot' , the puffin."

blog roll or blogroll or bog roll

2006-12-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

blogroll - Google Search: "about 60,200,a000 hits for blogroll."

posted here by a blog this button accident

Street Photography by Patrick Moran
and he likes :-

Nils Jorgensen Street photography

ephotozine
and
Brandon Poole photography
whose blog is broken (hint - best to use freebies) but he likes :-
Trent Parke
Jonas Bendiksen
Carl de Keyzer
Elliot Erwitt

and we all like Magnum Photos too
and
which had turned into a blogroll - oh dear

Jargon and hacker slang

2006-12-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

JargonDB › Online Jargon File Database: "Jargon Lexicon
Search the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.

Meat for the hacker's diet
The Jargon File is great by itself, but it also has plenty of references to invaluable resources, born from the quintessence of the hacker community. For your convenience we have compiled the list of all books that have been mentioned throughout the Jargon File. Here's a random example:"

Jargon and hacker slang

2006-12-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

JargonDB › Online Jargon File Database: "Jargon Lexicon
Search the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.

The Jargon File is great by itself, but it also has plenty of references to invaluable resources, born from the quintessence of the hacker community. For your convenience we have compiled the list of all books that have been mentioned throughout the Jargon File.

It may be seen as an xml feed to a google gadget

meaning

2006-11-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

meaning: Definition, Synonyms and Much More from Answers.com: "Or did you mean: meaning (non-linguistic), meaning (semiotics), mean (in statistics), meaning (linguistics), Meaning (House episode)"

another good web page to read as a whole

Quotes:

For a large class of cases -- though not for all -- in which we employ the word meaning it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation. - George Eliot

For a large class of cases -- though not for all -- in which we employ the word meaning it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation. - George Eliot

anthropology

2006-11-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

anthropology: Definition and Much More from Answers.com:

"# The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans.

# That part of Christian theology concerning the genesis, nature, and future of humans, especially as contrasted with the nature of God: “changing the church's anthropology to include more positive images of women” (Priscilla Hart)."
scroll down and read the whole

Promoting WorldCat

2006-11-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Introduction [OCLC - WorldCat]: "the whole idea behind WorldCat, is a global library network that thousands of institutions rely upon because they have built it together over 30 years. Librarians and other information professionals continuously enrich and use this one-of-a-kind resource guided by the values of community, efficiency and trust, the same principles that motivated the creation of libraries themselves. These institutions join a larger community of libraries knowing it lets them better serve the people in their own local communities."

Promote your WorldCat investment [OCLC - WorldCat]: "Are your administrators or funding bodies familiar with your library's participation and visibility in WorldCat? Do your users know they can 'Find in a Library' from major Web search engines or WorldCat.org? When you build awareness of WorldCat with your patrons, you give your users a reason to come back to your library and your Web site for access to a unique resource. Below are materials that will familiarize your library's users with the WorldCat name and the capabilities it offers them."

automagically

2006-07-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

HelpDesk: Newsletters, RootsWeb Review: "There is no need to include any special text in your e-mail as any e-mail sent to this address will receive a copy automagically."

Proust and his English

2006-04-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

Proust and his English - TLS Highlights - Times Online: "Some of Proust's anglicisms barely register as non-French, like the long-naturalized meeting, bar, or bifteck, while others belong to the vocabulary of dress (redingote), travel (buggy, tramway) and social living (le shake-hand, le poker), or selected (and select) sports (le golf, le yachting).

More significant than their number is the way Proust places them in his text. Some suggest the vanity or pretensions of a character (Odette de Cr�cy, M de Norpois). Others are italicized to suggest criticism of ignorance (un smoking is not really a dinner jacket) or indicate an unnecessary importation when a perfectly good French word would do.

Other words signal a specific brand of English insincerity or embarrassment, and derivatives of snob / snobisme significantly form the largest single grouping. Few such borrowings have a positive resonance and a further category has open connotations of vulgarity and perversion."

burglariously

2006-03-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

burglariously - Google Search
nice sounding word

Urban Dictionary

2006-02-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Urban Dictionary: Define Your World: "Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions.

EG
Urban Dictionary: Trogdor: "(1) Trogdor the Burninator just burninated my hovel. I wonder if my insurance will cover this.

(2) After destroying a dinette set and several cupboards-full of dishes in his anger over being unable to tie his shoes, Steven became know as a veritable Trogdor.

(3) What a Trogdor! She wants to go to the party with us, but can you imagine her trying to pass herself off as an intellectual to Dr. Bronson? Maybe we can bring her out to break up the party, but not before."

Wordhunt on TV

2006-01-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

BBC - History - Programmes - Balderdash and Piffle

Websters Online Dictionary
A dictionary and thesaurus, with details of modern and ancestral languages.

Wiktionary
A collaboratively-produced, wiki-based dictionary of definitions and translations.

World Wide Words
Word master Michael Quinion writes about international English from a British viewpoint.

Etymologic: Word Game
Test your knowledge of words and their origins in 'The Toughest Word Game on the Web'.

Welcome to OED Online. We're giving access to the OED so you can explore words with the new BBC TV series Balderdash and Piffle, now running in the UK (more about the series). Until 13 February, you can use the OED to look up any word starting with the letters featured in the programmes—or pick a quick link to see one of the words highlighted this week.

Manx Dictionary

2006-01-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

Index of /Dicts/Manx

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y,

site site :www.ceantar.org for house

Gaelic Dictionaries Online

Manx Gaelic / Gaelg
Fockleyr Gaelg - Baarle
An online copy of Phil Kelly's Manx-English dictionary, derived from an older English-Manx dictionary.

If you have an Acrobat PDF browser (like Acrobat Reader), there is another copy available.

Balderdash & Piffle

2005-12-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

BBC TWO - History - Programmes
in partnership with the Oxford English Dictionary.

browse their Word List
Join the OED–BBC Wordhunt! In conjunction with a major forthcoming BBC television series, the OED launches a new appeal for evidence of word use.
Did you eat a balti before 1984, or know how ska music got its name?

When did you first hear of a confrontation as handbags (at dawn, at ten paces)?

The OED and BBC would like your help: start your word hunting here!
Oxford English Dictionary word of the day

new lower subscription rates for OED Online.

new to me
Main Page - Wiktionary: "In the English edition, started on December 12, 2002, we are now working on 109,381 entries"

Lute History

2005-12-17T23:37:00.000-08:00

Julia Craig-McFeely thesis

Welcome to English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-1630.

Before you get excited about reading a thesis about lute music, this is not about the music. The work was undertaken as an examination of the context and composition of the English lute sources, and I hope that you will find it useful in providing information that you may not have considered before.

The thesis was written in 1992 and finally read and passed by my examiners in 1994, which means that it will almost certainly have some bits that you consider out-of-date. I have appended a paper written a couple of years after the completion ot the thesis, which discusses the symbolism of the lute, and adds yet another footnote to the long-running discussion regarding the decline of this wonderful instrument.

December 2005 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary

2005-12-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

December 2005 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary

see http://www.oed.com/pdfs/oed-news-2005-12.pdf

In June this year the OED launched its new electronic
editing system, Pasadena (or more fully, the
optimistically named Perfect All-Singing All-Dancing
Editorial and Notation Application). The launch
marked the conclusion of a very successful project
with input from every member of the department at
the different stages of consultation, design,
development, testing, and training. In particular the
success of the project owed much to the close and
happy collaboration between the Pasadena project
team, led by Laura Elliott, Michael Proffitt, and Tom
Gilmore, and the team of French software developers
from IDM, led by Alban Fonrouge, Philippe Climent,
and Marc Ariberti, which resulted in not only a
wonderful new system but also a whole new
vocabulary of Franglais for the OED. Thanks to the
efforts of all involved, the go-live period went very
smoothly. In the period since Chief Editor John
Simpson made the first ceremonial edits in the entry
for the noun panache, almost three thousand entries
have been edited in Pasadena, and the first batch of
entries has been extracted for publication.
The Pasadena project involved not only the creation of
a new computer system, but also the conversion of the
entire electronic text of the OED (containing
approximately a quarter of a million entries) and the
huge ‘Incomings’ database from the Dictionary’s
reading programmes (containing two million
quotations), into XML . .

Great Big Band

2005-12-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

dr.dk > DR Big Band

listening to
Jazz Live - med Embla
En optagelse fra Salon K i Huset under
Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2005 med
gruppen Embla, som spiller musik af
bassisten Niels Præstholm. born 1958 i Århus
Tilrettelæggelse: Ole Matthiessen.
CD: Niels Pr�stholm & Embla Nordic Project - Dagbladet.no

Præstholm, som er halvt færing, har skrevet et bestillingsværk til Torshavn over færøsk folkemusik. Værket indspilles dec. af Embla Nordic + gæster.

-Der er noget sang, der er specielt for Færøerne. I de små bygder på udstederne har man haft en stærk religion, hvor den strenge Kingo har været den foretrukne salmedigter - død, straf og skæbne - den lyse Grundtvig slog aldrig rigtigt an deroppe.

Men melodierne begyndte at forandre sig gennem årene, fordi de ikke havde noget orgel.
(they were an impoveished danish colony for centuries)

Det blev fuldstændig rubato og med glissader på næsten alle stavelser - det kan næsten lyde som en nordafrikansk moské.

Præstholm er en mand som har antennerne ude mange steder også organisatorisk i Dansk Jazzforbund og Copenhagen JazzHouse. Han fik ingen forhåndsoplysninger om de valgte musikeksempler.

I wondered if he was one of my studentsfrom the Faroes

How to Write Bad Poetry

2005-12-09T02:16:00.000-08:00

BBC - h2g2 -

Say not that you are bad at writing good poetry,
Say instead that you are good at writing bad poetry

bad poems - Google Search

Bad poetry index: "There is a huge amount of bad poetry in the world. Although new bad poems are being written by the hundreds every day (many of them in university creative writing classes), most bad poetry is simply weak and ineffectual and lacking in interest and (fortunately) is soon forgotten.

To achieve memorable badness is not so easy. It has to be done innocently, by a poet unaware of his or her defects. The right combination of lofty ambition, humorless self-confidence, and crass incompetence is rare and precious. (There is a famous anthology of bad poetry called The Stuffed Owl, which I recommend to those interested.) "
Seamus Cooney
Studies in Verse / The Nature of Poetry

William McGonagall (1825 or 1830-1902), leading contender for the title of the world's worst poet
William McGonagall - Google Search

podcasting - Google Search

2005-12-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

podcasting - Google Search

word of the year 2005? for some -
the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected "podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005

Here is the most accurate and richly descriptive picture of American English ever offered in any dictionary. Oxford's American editors drew on our 200-million-word databank of contemporary North American English, plus the unrivaled citation files of the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary. We started with American evidence--an unparalleled resource unique to Oxford. Our staff logged more than 50 editor-years, checking every entry and every definition. Oxford's ongoing North American Reading Program, begun in the early 1980s, keeps our lexicographers in touch with fresh evidence of our language and usage--in novels and newspapers, in public records and magazines, and on-line, too.

Ordbog over det danske Sprog på nettet

2005-12-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

ODS på nettet ON LINE AT LAST !!!the great dictionary in 28 volumes of the danish language from 1700 to 1950

Ordbog over det danske sprog - Wikipedia

Umlaut - history

2005-12-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

Umlaut - Wikipedia: "Originally, umlaut was denoted in written German by adding an e to the affected vowel, either after the vowel or, in small form, above it. (In medieval German manuscripts, other digraphs could also be written using superscripts: in bluome ('flower'), for example, the "o" was frequently placed above the "u".)

In blackletter handwriting as used in German manuscripts of the later Middle Ages, and also in many printed texts of the early modern period, the superscript "e" still had a form which would be recognisable to us as an . However, in the forms of handwriting which emerged in the early modern period (of which Sütterlin is the latest and best known example), the letter had two strong vertical lines, and the superscript looked like two tiny strokes. Gradually these strokes were reduced to dots, and as early as the 16th century we find this handwritten convention being transferred sporadically to printed texts too"

The Johnson Dictionary Project

2005-11-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

The Johnson Dictionary Project

Johnson was first commissioned to compile a dictionary in 1746 on the suggestion of his friend, the bookseller Robert Dodsley.
Dodsley had suggested it long before, but Johnson had at that time rejected the proposal, saying 'I believe I shall not undertake it'.
However, pressure for an instrument to regulate the language had grown steadily during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through campaigns dating back to the formation of the Royal Society to establish an English academy on the model of the Académie Française, through publications such as Swift's A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue (1712), and through successive abortive attempts to engage leading writers of the day, such as Addison and Pope, to compile an authoritative dictionary.

The fact that the French and Italian academies had recently compiled dictionaries of their own tongues merely added a sense of international competition to a desire which was already strongly felt and widely shared that the English language should be not only corrected and improved, as Swift's title suggests, but ascertained.

waterboarding

2005-11-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

CIA waterboarding - Google Search

CIA torture techniques : "waterboarding": "waterboarding,' in which a detainee is strapped down, dunked under water and made to believe that he might be drowned."

new words for an old idea do not make it ethically better

Erik Satie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2005-11-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

Classic piano MIDI & MP3 Concert by Saya / SATIE: "Classical Piano Short Pieces
MIDI & MP3 Concert by SayaTomoko
midi for SC-88pro / Roland"

notes

Erik Satie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gymnop�die - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "According to Debussy, the 2nd gymnop�die did not lend itself to orchestration, so he only orchestrated the 3rd and the 1st, reversing the numbering:
First gymnop�die (original piano setting by Satie) ? 3rd gymnop�die (orchestration by Debussy)
Third gymnop�die (original piano setting by Satie) ? 1st gymnop�die (orchestration by Debussy)
The premi�re of the two Debussy orchestrations took place in February 1897, followed by a publication of the score in 1898.
Orchestrations of the second gymnop�die were only realised many decades later, by other composers, and without being frequently performed."

gymnop�die midi - Google Search

goofy newfie bf

2005-11-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

goofy newfie bf - Google Search
slang seen in an AOL chat room
well i used to have a goofy newfy bf from St Johns

sock hop

2005-10-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

"sock hop," - Google Search

no more than american teens dancing with their shoes off in a school gym to 78rpm reords

BUT
Sayyid Qutb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "It is evident that Qutb was extremely offended by the racism he witnessed in the United States, [NOTE 1948 to 1950 ] as well as the openness between the sexes in American society (he was aghast at events such as the 'sock hop,' popular at the time). His experiences in the United States partly formed the impetus for his rejection of Western values and his move towards radicalism upon returning to Egypt. Resigning from the civil service, he became perhaps the most persuasive publicist of the Muslim Brotherhood. The school of thought he inspired has become known as Qutbism"

Wahhabism seen in a Danish newspaper

2005-10-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

about spelling

Wahhabism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The term 'Wahhab' (Wahhabiya) refers to the movement's founder Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab. It is rarely used by members of this group today, although the Saudis did use it in the past.
The Wahhabis claim to hold to the way of the 'Salaf as-Salih', the 'rightly guided or pious predecessors' as earlier propagated mainly by Ibn Taymiyya, his students Ibn Al Qayyim and later by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab and his followers.
The term is considered offensive by some members who prefer to call themselves al-Muwahhidun (the monotheists) or the movement Salafism."
and misspelled by its oponents wahabism - Google Search

wahabisme - Google Search: "Le wahabisme est une h�r�sie de l'Islam sunnite qui revendique un Islam pur et
... En ce qui concerne le wahabisme, tout a commenc� en 1713, quand A'bdel ..."
French and Danish
Wahabisme: "Wahabisme, puritansk sunni-orienteret retning indenfor islam, statsreligion i Saudi Arabien. Den var det første større moderne udtryk for islamisk opvågnen i de arabiske lande i det 18. århundrede, og gav inspiration til mange politisk-religiøse bevægelser, der kæmpede mod den tyrkiske dominans og de europæiske landes forsøg på at trænge ind i den arabiske verden.."

morgue newspaper slang

2005-10-28T23:57:00.000-07:00

morgue newspaper - Google Search

Can the English language survive George Bush ?

2005-10-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

by email from my cousin Anthony in Australia:-

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." - George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'." - George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." - George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow." - George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world." - George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe We are a part of Europe." - George W. Bush ?

"Public speaking is very easy." - George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." - George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - George W. Bush

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." - George W. Bush ?

And something to be REALLY worried about:

God help America..... =-O

Dialect levelling in Britain: 1900-2000

2005-10-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

Received pronunciation

British English in the 20th century has been characterised by dialect levelling and standardisation. It is probably useful to see this as composed of two stages, running in parallel.
The first stage affects the traditional rural dialects of the country, once of course spoken by a majority of the population, but by the beginning of the 20th century probably spoken by under 50%.

These dialects are very different from standard English in their pronunciation and in their grammar. What has happened is that, over one or more generations, families have abandoned these dialects in favour of a type of English that is more like the urban speech of the local town or city.
These more urban ways of speaking have been labelled modern dialects or mainstream dialects by Peter Trudgill (1998). What most characterises them is that they are considerably more like standard English in phonology, grammar and vocabulary."

Dialects of English:

"English is actually an unusual language. Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms. In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages.

Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix. It is no surprise to hear from people learning English what a student once told me: English just has too many words!"

Googlism

2005-10-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

what is wakizashi
Wakizashi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the Katana was unavailable. When entering a building, a samurai would leave his katana on a rack near the entrance. However, the wakizashi would be worn at all times, and therefore, it made a sidearm for the samurai (similar to a soldier's use of a pistol). The samurai would have worn it from the time they awoke to the time they went to sleep. In earlier periods, and especially during times of civil wars, a tanto was worn in place of a wakizashi.

Codeswitching English and Welsh

2005-10-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Back to SLA topics By Second Language Users:

"English/Welsh: Come to the table. Bwyd yn barod (...food is ready)"

"a minority language conference in Spain. This one was on bilingual code-switching (you know, when people who know more than one language speak both of them at the same time)."

New corpus of spoken Welsh and Welsh-English code-switching

A new corpus of spoken Welsh and Welsh-English code-switching is now available to researchers as part of the LIDES project on www.talkbank.org.

The corpus, entitled the Bangor Corpus, consists of about 2.5 hours of recordings of informal conversations involving groups or pairs of speakers in North-West Wales and about 2.5 hours of excerpts from BBC Radio Cymru programmes.

The data can be used for research on Welsh-English code-switching as well as general research on spoken Welsh. The corpus was transcribed at the University of Wales, Bangor, as part of a small research project led by Prof Margaret Deuchar, funded by the British Academy, entitled "Structural aspects of Welsh-English code-switching".
The main theoretical aim of the project was to test Myers-Scotton's (2002)
Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model of code-switching with Welsh-English data.

For further information contact Marika Fusser (m.fusser@bangor.ac.uk)
or Prof Margaret Deuchar (m.deuchar@bangor.ac.uk).

Corpws newydd o’r Cymraeg llafar ac o gyfnewid codau Cymraeg-Saesneg

Mae corpws newydd o’r Cymraeg llafar ac o gyfnewid codau Cymraeg-Saesneg ar gael i ymchwilwyr fel rhan o’r prosiect LIDES ar www.talkbank.org. Cynnwys y corpws, sy’n dwyn yr enw "Bangor Corpus", oddeutu 2.5 awr o recordiadau o
sgyrsiau anffurfiol rhwng grwpiau neu barau o siaradwyr yng ngogledd-orllewin
Cymru ac oddeutu 2.5 awr o ddetholrannau o raglenni Radio Cymru.

Gellir defnyddio'r data ar gyfer ymchwil ar gyfnewid codau Cymraeg-Saesneg yn
ogystal ag ymchwil gyffredinol ar y Cymraeg llafar. Trawsgrifiwyd y corpws ym Mhrifysgol Cymru, Bangor, fel rhan o brosiect ymchwil bach dan arweiniad Yr Athro Margaret Deuchar, dan nawdd yr Academi Brydeinig, a oedd yn dwyn yr enw "Agweddau strwythurol ar gyfnewid codau Cymraeg-Saesneg". Prif nod damcaniaethol y prosiect oedd profi model Myers-Scotton (2002) o gyfnewid codau, y "Matrix Language Frame Model" (MLF) gyda data Cymraeg-Saesneg.

Am ragor o wybodaeth cysyllter â Marika Fusser (m.fusser@bangor.ac.uk)
neu'r
Athro Margaret Deuchar (m.deuchar@bangor.ac.uk).

from
Latest News from Wales - Americas and the rest of the world! Oct 7th - 2005!!

Please let us know if you have any Announcments/ Up coming events/ Press releases /Questions or Comments. It's always great to hear from our readers!!!

E-mail: carwynedwards993@hotmail.com
or cymru20012000@yahoo.com

Matrix Language Frame Model of Codeswitching and Bilingual conversations

2005-10-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

"Matrix Language Frame" - Google Search

Carol Myers-Scotton
:

"(1) Language contact phenomena. Major concern: grammatical consequences of bilingualism for languages, especially codeswitching and convergence, but also attrition, pidgin and creole development (Matrix Language Frame model and model of Matrix Language Turnover). Implications of such data for models of language competence and production.

(2) Sociolinguistics in general. Special interests: sociolinguistic theory and field methodology; interpersonal negotiations, especially as they are realized in switching languages or styles; language and gender; factors promoting bilingualism, language spread, and language shift.

(3) Models of grammar and language production (as related to studies of the structural constraints on language contact phenomena). Special interest: evidence for a production-based classification of morphemes (4-M model).

(4) Discourse analysis and stylistics. Study of the structure and content of both literary texts and natural conversation.

(5) Study of African languages, particularly with regard to multilingualism and related issues. Specialization: Swahili and the Bantu group of languages in general."

Codeswitching - Google Search

I do this all the time bilingual code switching bti I did not know it was called that

Codeswitching - Back to SLA topics By Second Language Users: "the choice of language shows the speaker's role. A Kenyan man who was serving his own sister in a shop started in their own Luiyia dialect and then switched to Swahili for the rest of the conversation to signal that he was treating her as an ordinary customer.
Types of codeswitching
1. reported speech
2. interjections
3. highlighting
4. topic switching
5 speaker�s role
6 qualifying topic
7 singling out one person
8 ignorance???
Codeswitching and language structure?
84% of switches within the sentence are isolated words, say the English/Malaysian 'Ana free hari ini' (Ana is free today) where English is switched to only for the item 'free'
10% are phrases as in the Russian/French 'Imela une femme de chambre' (She had a chambermaid)
6% are switches for whole clauses as in the German/English 'Papa, wenn du das Licht ausmachst, then I'll be so lonely' (Daddy, if you put out the light, I'll be so lonely).
Poplack (1980) claims that there are two main restrictions on where switching can happen:"

Urban Dictionary

2005-10-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

time sink

Urban Dictionary: Define Your World

MISC.WRITING: WRITING BASICS

2005-09-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

MISC.WRITING: WRITING BASICS
MISC.WRITING FAQ

purple prose

2005-09-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

william watkin's blog: "your hopes are brittle detritus that has corrupted to mutate on the serengeti of inadequacies barely felt they shave your soul and gossamer can be annoying in early evening as it catches on your face and hair"

NELSON'S FUNERAL RE-ENACTMENT ON THE THAMES FROM THE DE VERE CAVENDISH, ST JAMES'S HOTEL

2005-09-16T00:02:00.000-07:00

NELSON'S FUNERAL RE-ENACTMENT ON THE THAMES FROM THE DE VERE CAVENDISH, ST JAMES'S HOTEL: "A delicious hot fork buffet luncheon will be served later in the cruise and you will finally return to Tower Pier for another bridge lift,"

A consumer's obituary

2005-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Chatting over coffee with a Goat:
"Mr Thomas Crabtree
In an ashen jug,
Took the back off tele,
Forgot about the plug.
The manufacturer told Tom,
Make sure that you are able,
Warning: High Voltage
He'd put upon the label.
Why, fifty thousand people
Had understood with ease,
The words upon that label -
All in Japanese."

nice site
Chatting over coffee with a Goat

Luton:
"They 'ave peculiar bowels in Luton,
That's where ev'ryone sleeps on a futon.
Aye, they all live off soup,
So when they go for a poop,
All they can pass is a crouton"

Oxford English Dictionary

2005-09-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Oxford English Dictionary

Revision of the entries in the September 2005 OED Online update has revealed an earlier origin than previously known for many words, including:

paunched (antedated to 1528 from 1649)
perceptiveness (1823 from 1852)
peremptorily (1435 from 1513)
pawner (1611 from 1745)
pawnshop (1759 from 1849)
peach bloom (1652 from 1856)
pearlescent (1938 from 1949)
peculative (1779 from 1909)
pedalo (1941 from 1959)
pedicure (1839 from 1842)

Appeals - September 2005 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary: "Words or phrases which appear on the Appeals List are those currently being drafted or revised for the OED for which the documentary evidence is incomplete. Often these are slang or colloquial items which cannot be researched in specialist texts and are most likely to be found by a general reader in non-specialized or popular literature. "

Quotable quotes - September 2005 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary: "1762 W. Dodd Poems, 'Tis..a point of great prudence in the governors of colleges, that the she bed-makers should be bothe aged and uninviting."

Greynet

2005-09-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

New word in my email in this week's issue of IT Security Bulletin:

Spyware-Guide.com :: Term :: Greynet: "Greynets are network enabled applications that are installed on an end user's system without permission from IT and are frequently evasive at the network level, using techniques like port agility and encryption to avoid being detected and blocked. Greynets pose a myriad of network and information security risks including potential vectors for malware, client-side code vulnerabilities, intellectual property loss, identity theft and more. While some greynets, especially IM, have legitimate business uses, others are not so business-friendly. Even legitimate greynet applications can pose grave network and information security risks."

My thanks to http://www.ebulletins.co.uk/

Trilogy Technologies, a leading integrator of Enterprise Security and
Systems Management solutions, bring to you information on "greynets".

A 'greynet' represents a network enabled computer application that is
downloaded and installed on an end user's system without express
permission from IT administrators, such as IM, P2P file sharing, web
conferencing, SKYPE, web mail and adware/spyware. Greynets are
frequently evasive to existing network security defences, using
techniques like port agility and encryption to avoid being detected
and blocked.

There are multiple reasons for the evasive behaviour which will be
discussed in this paper from FaceTime... this paper will also address
the growing security threats that accompany the adoption of greynet
applications in the enterprise environment.

Learn more. RapidRequest this white paper in 2 clicks
Spyware-Guide.com :: Terms & Definitions
Adware or Ad-Ware
Anti-spy software
anti-virus software
BackDoor Santa
BHO (Browser Helper Object)
Blended Threat
Cache
Chat Rooms
Cookie
Credit Monitoring
Dialers or 900 dialer or dialerz
Disposable email address
Drive-by downloads
Email obfuscator
EULA (End User License Agreement)
Firewall
Greynet
Hoax
Honeypot
How to: Safely set your Active X Controls

mad about wind instruments

2005-09-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

yes I am wild about the winds
I used to play at teach all of them except the bagpipes and the pipe organ

modern instruments from the piccolo to the tuba, and the recorder

But this one is new to me:-

"Fort Delaware's Museum has a newly discovered artifact that was purchased by the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation: an "over the shoulder" cornet.

"This cornet had belonged to Fort Delaware's head musician, Sergeant Thomas M. Todd, who was from Pittsburgh's Independent Battery G. Todd and his Fort Delaware Cornet Band played concerts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

" They even played at the memorial service held for President Abraham Lincoln in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

"The Fort Delaware Cornet Band is mentioned in accounts from both garrison members and prisoners.
On March 27, 1864, Washington George Nugent, a surgeon at Fort Delaware, wrote to his wife, "My friend Turner handed me yesterday the song 'Wait love until the war is over' and I will send it to you. A member of the band here, 'Todd,' the leader in fact composed the music or rather set the song to music.
He is a very clever fellow, a schollar (sic) and a gentlemen, well educated, was a private in a battery here but he with several others out of the company compose our band and it is a very good one indeed."

Talk Tidy - Talk Tidy

2005-08-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

Talk Tidy - Talk Tidy: "John Edwards has made his lifetime study, the peculiarities of the Welsh/English dialect. He named this dialectical oddity 'Wenglish' and recorded it as it is spoken, mainly in the valleys and townships of South Wales (that's OLD South Wales for our antipodean visitors).
The original books Talk Tidy, and More Talk Tidy, were written in 1985 and 1986 respectively and though they were out of print for a long time, they are now available once more (see below). John Edwards has also recorded a series of CD's demonstrating Wenglish 'in use' All are available for purchase at his live talks, or direct from him at his home address (see About Us)."

lysdexia.

2005-08-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

lysdexia. - Google Search

Oops! Sorry 'bout that. Lars is exactly right - must be my lysdexia.
seen in news:soc.genealogy.computing

Oðblgshezi: Calculator Words

2005-07-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

Calculator Words: "Here are the 10 letters of Oðblgshezi:"

SHELLOIL is the ancient one.

Babel Texts A-Z

2005-07-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Babel Texts A-Z

Gymnastics with Onomastics

2005-07-24T06:34:00.000-07:00

Gymnastics with Onomastics

Where the last issue of Model Languages described in detail how to create model languages for generating names, this issue specifically elaborates on how different languages and cultures form names.

Here are some useful terms to describe the study of names:
onomastics - the study of names (in general)
anthroponomastics - the study of personal names
toponomastics - the study of place names.