Mad Men returns for its fifth season this weekend; whilst we all wait to see what Don will do next, take a look at this article from The Atlantic on the historical accuracy of the language used.
The show is lauded for its attention to period detail, particularly the costumes, but Benjamin Schmidt argues that the language used is just a tad too modern:
The clearest signs that the Mad Men writers can’t really escape the present is not the complete, howling mistake, but the steady slip; a drumbeat of language that’s just slightly too modern. There are another dozen phrases in Mad Men that are at least 100 times more common today than in the early ’60s, and the bulk of the show lies in language characteristic of today, not of the past.
What are these mistakes? Many seem relatively harmless, but betray the modern writers. When Lane Pryce tells Draper that no one asked him to “euthanize” Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in season four, for example, his lines are clearly penned by a writer from the post-Kevorkian era. Had Pryce wanted to take the rare step of making “euthanasia” a verb, he would have been far more likely to say “euthanatize;” but most likely of all, he wouldn’t have said anything of the sort. (Source: The Atlantic)
The rest of the article (and comments) are fascinating – take a look.
Whilst visiting the states last month, I discovered there’s a lot of things Americans don’t understand about the British (one being the difference between England, Britain and the UK). But there’s also a lot the British don’t understand about Americans.
BBC America has compiled a list of five American expressions Brits don’t understand. Here are my two favourite, with descriptions:
“Oh snap!”
Oh what? Snap? Snap what? What ARE you on about? And what purpose does this expression serve? Are you saying it to commend a smart-ass for their witty quip, or pat them on the head condescendingly for trying? Is it one of those phrases that started out as a high fiving “oh you got SERVED” and has now ended up meaning an eye-rolling “nice try, Seinfeld”? It’s just that we’d probably be quite good at saying it, if it turned out to be the latter. Eye-rolling is a British specialty, after all.
“Momentarily”
I only found out about this the other day, but it’s a good one. It seems that our two great nations have different understandings of the same word. Suppose you have friends coming over to stay, and they send a text message when they’re just around the corner, just to be sure you’re ready for them: “Hi! We’ll be there momentarily!” In America, this means “we’ll be there in a moment,” but in the UK, it means “we’ll be there FOR a moment.”
I understand both of these expressions – perhaps my love of American television is to blame? What British expressions do Americans find difficult to interpret?
Back in 1962, Fred Cassidy was named chief editor of an American dialect dictionary project.
He envisioned the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) would be complete by 1976; the first volume was not published until 1985, and covered A to C. The final volume, V, is published in March.
DARE stands alone as the most exhaustive record of regional speech in America, each page bursting with geographically nuanced information about the country’s diverse lexicon. It’s a joy to page through: Where else would you learn that snuff for chewing is called snoose in the Pacific Northwest, and also goes by the name Swedish condition powder?
Though DARE is finally done, with Volume V officially publishing in March, the varied language of Americans marches on. How can DARE avoid becoming a relic? It’s a substantial challenge of capturing something as dynamic as American dialects: No single historical snapshot can really do it justice, especially one trapped on the printed page.
To address these concerns, Harvard University Press is planning an online interactive edition of the dictionary, slated to launch next year. And if Hall has her way, the work of DARE will continue, with a return to the communities that the fieldworkers visited with their Word Wagons. (Source: Boston.com)
DARE is an incredible accomplishment, let’s hope the Harvard University Press project adds to it.
Being British, I pronounce the letter ‘z’ as ‘zed’. Whilst visiting a friend, his two young nieces were confused and asked me why I didn’t say ‘zee’ like they did. They also chuckled at me saying ‘zeb-ra’ rather than ‘zee-bra’.
Over at Separated by a Common Language, they’ve written a handy post which is of some explanation. Zed is older than zee, dating back to at least the 15th Century. But the letter ‘z’ has had other names, including ‘zad’, ‘ezod’ and ‘uzzard’. Noah Webster seems to have decided on ‘zee’ for American English use.
One exception to this is on ham radio, where they use ‘zed’ according to one blog reader. There may also be regional variations in both the US and UK on its use.
Do you say ‘zee’ or ‘zed’?
I’m currently in South Carolina, where there is a lot of coverage of the Republican presidential nominee process. This reminded me there’s an election this year, and got me wondering what new words the election may bring.
The US News & World Report has some political words/phrases as some of their 10 new words learned in 2011.
Supercommittee (noun)
Origin: U.S. debt ceiling crisis
1. Colloquial term for Congress’ Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, formed to forge bipartisan agreement around the debt-ceiling crisis. 2. Sometimes used ironically; given the committee’s ultimate failure, “super” suddenly seemed like an unfortunate misnomer.
Endgame (noun)
First known usage: 1881; recent notable usage: countless news articles about the Europe sovereign debt crisis.
1. The final actions in a larger process. 2. The eagerly-awaited roadmap for how the European sovereign debt crisis will play out, thus allowing the rest of the world to breathe easily again.
“Oops.” (interjection)
First known usage: 1933; recent notable usage: Rick Perry
1. Expression typically expressing dismay or an apology, often at a mistake. 2. The sound of one of the biggest presidential debate gaffes ever.
I wonder if these will continue to be used this year? Whether they are or not, I’m sure the election will throw up some interesting new phrases.
What language will people speak in the future?
That’s the subject of a chapter from new book “The Language Wars: A History of Proper English” by Farrar, Straus and Girous, extracted at Salon.com. English currently continues to dominate as the lingua franca of business and popular culture and it’s widely used in other industries. It’s also the most popular second language in the world: more people speak English as a second language than there are native speakers.
This has consequences – the authors see the rise of different, local Englishes as being the main challenge facing the language. Native speakers may soon have no advantage as English becomes a standard requirement, as seen from a study published by the British Council:
When polled in 2005, more than 80 per cent of people in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden claimed to be able to speak English. The figure was around 60 per cent in Finland, 50 per cent in Germany, 30 per cent in France and Italy, and 20 per cent in Spain and Turkey. These figures can safely be assumed to have increased. They come from a study published in 2006 by the British Council, an organization set up in 1934 and today operating as an “international cultural relations body” in more than a hundred countries. In 1989 its Director General, Sir Richard Francis, stated that “Britain’s real black gold is not North Sea oil, but the English language.”
The full extract is absolutely fascinating – take a look! It’s also a great affirmation for native English speakers learning a second language – your bilingualism will be a great advantage in future years.
Over at the Economist’s Johnson blog, they’ve been running a highly unscientific but incredibly interesting survey asking British people what Americanisms they use.
Having lived and worked in the States, as well as worked for an American boss in the UK, I can attest to the fact it’s easier to acclimate than hold on to your British pronunciation. My boss took such offence to my use of the word “toilet” (as in “I’m going to the toilet”) that I still use “bathroom” even with my now all-British colleagues.
It seems that Brits living in America are still holding on to some things though, with more using “holiday” than “vacation” and “zed” rather than “zee”. To take a look at some lovely pie charts representing word comparisons, head over to the results blog post.
Despite the dire warnings, Hurricane Irene passed through New York City barely leaving any damage. But one lasting effect of the hurricane (or rather Mayor Bloomberg’s response to it) is a Twitter account that mocks the Mayor’s attempts at Spanish.
From an outsider’s point of view, Mayor Bloomberg’s willingness to learn a language spoken by many in his city and to try communicate with them better is an admirable thing. Given that his spoken Spanish sounds about as good as mine though, he has been criticised for not leaving important warnings up to someone with a better grasp of the language.
El Bloombito (aka Miguel Bloombito) is a parody of the Mayor’s Spanish skills. Examples of tweets include:
Los librariotequas del publico somos opening at el 12pm. Returno sus bookas! Que mucho fines!
Muchos trees esta falling downo. No stando under los trees. Que splat!
The Mayor was asked about the account in a press conference and seemed to take it well. Interestingly, from this article from the New York Times it seems that Bloomberg has been learning Spanish since around 2002 and has a personal tutor for conversation classes. He’s a busy man, but I would personally want my spoken skills to be much better after almost 10 years of practice! As I said before, Bloomberg sounds like I do when speaking Spanish, and I’ve been learning sporadically for around a year.
If you’re interested in who’s behind the account, take a look at this story from the New York Observer.
What do you think of Mayor Bloomberg’s language skills? Do you prefer El Bloombito?
Over at the Macmillan Dictionary Blog, it’s small talk month. The most recent post asks “is small talk different in the US and UK?”, to which the answer is yes!
The post is aimed at Brits interacting with Americans. I thought it might be interesting for Americans to get a British perspective on their small talk. An extract:
Finally, saying farewell:
You’re going to find this so easy. Do nothing. The Americans will do it all for you and they are so much better at it.
You know how we have the expression ‘saying our goodbyes’ in British English? Americans don’t have it. They just ‘say goodbye’ because they only need to do it once. So you can forget all our, ‘Is that the time?’, ‘I really should be going …’, ‘Well, anyway …’ nonsense. And you know that situation where we start getting out the door and someone says something which means we have to go back to the beginning of the conversation and start all over again? It doesn’t happen here.
So let the Americans handle the farewell. They will do it with aplomb with phrases like ‘Take care’ and ‘It’s been nice talking to you’ and ‘Catch you later’ – things our mothers should have taught us. Just keep quiet, listen and learn. (Source: Macmillan Dictionary Blog)
Saying goodbye is something I certainly have difficulty with – being English I will often agonise over how to end a conversation without seeming rude! Often I invent an excuse (“I promised my housemate I’d make dinner tonight” or similar) in order to ease myself out of a situation. I definitely identify with Clare in the comments!
Do you have any examples of the way small talk is different between the US and UK? How do you say farewell without seeming rude?
A portmanteau is a blend of two or more words into one – Chinglish for example.
Arnold Zwicky’s blog has a list of some portmanteau words from the last year and a half:
1. jeggings
2. Gleek (“a portmanteau that won the American Dialect Society competition for 2010 Word of the Year in the (new) “fan word” category (the clipping app was the overall WOTY winner“)
3. Randslide
4. medialanche
5. meanderthal
6. lapformer
Take a look at the full post for the origins of each word. Can you think of any others?
