288: Letters Lost

English used to look a lot different.

We used to use a lot of letters that no longer exist. They had names like eth, wynn, thorn, and ash. Ben, Kylie, and Daniel talk about what they looked like, how they sounded… and ampersand‘s secret past.

It’s all happening on this episode of Talk the Talk.


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Letters Lost | Talk the Talk, episode 288

Promo

Promo with Kylie Sturgess, 2017-05-16: Letters Lost

Kylie and Daniel chat ahead of the show, explaining insular g.

Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/11233056


Cutting Room Floor

Cutting Room Floor 288: Letters Lost

Daniel is out of his depth in a discussion with Ben on science fiction movies, but he knows how to play the Dictionary Game. Has Daniel become an anti-sugar crank?

Everyone is watching Snoop Dogg’s ASL interpreter. What if sharks could talk? Kylie gives the history of ŋ (eng). After the elections, Ben is kind of impressed by France for once. And Daniel redeems himself with some film trivia.

Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/11361688


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Show notes

Put your hands together for NZ Sign Language Week
http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2017/05/nzsl-week/

VIDEO: Sign language interpreter upstages Snoop Dogg
http://pickle.nine.com.au/2017/05/10/11/18/snoop-dogg-sign-language-interpreter-steals-show

Homo naledi may have lived at around same time as early humans
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/homo-naledi-may-have-lived-around-same-time-early-humans

Small-brained early human lived more recently than expected
http://www.nature.com/news/small-brained-early-human-lived-more-recently-than-expected-1.21961

12 Letters That Didn’t Make the Alphabet
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31904/12-letters-didnt-make-alphabet

We Used To Have 6 More Letters In Our Alphabet
https://omgfacts.com/we-used-to-have-6-more-letters-in-our-alphabet-a7e1a165853d

The Lost Letters Of The Alphabet
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rosen/the-lost-letters-of-the-a_b_6666726.html

Orthography
http://people.umass.edu/sharris/in/gram/GrammarBook/orthography.html

Grammarphobia: An ædifying history
http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/05/ae-digraph-ligature.html

How is “æ” supposed to be pronounced?
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/70927/how-is-æ-supposed-to-be-pronounced

Eth, thorn, and ash: they flunked the screen test for our alphabet
http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2013/08/eth-thorn-and-ash-they-flunked-the-screen-test-for-our-alphabet/

Why is ‘w’ pronounced ‘double u’ rather than ‘double v’?
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/why-is-w-pronounced-double-u

If “w” is double u, why is it made of two v’s?
http://blog.dictionary.com/w/

Letter Finder
http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/cmlfyo.asp

The Rules for Long S
http://babelstone.blogspot.com.au/2006/06/rules-for-long-s.html

Why does the ending -ough have six pronunciations?
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/31991/why-does-the-ending-ough-have-six-pronunciations

What Character Was Removed from the Alphabet?
http://blog.dictionary.com/ampersand/

Language Log: Priming the pump
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=32625

Language Log: Priming the pump: a cartoon history
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=32649

France just rejected the far right and elected Emmanuel Macron
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/7/15571666/french-elections-emmanuel-macron-marine-le-pen-front-national-vote-win

10 things to know about NOTA — a voter’s right to reject
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/10-things-to-know-about-nota-a-voter-s-right-to-reject/story-SkX0EsDQbjG5e2sz0L5N9H.html

Trump to NBC’s Lester Holt: Comey’s ‘a showboat,’ ‘I was going to fire regardless of recommendation’
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-to-nbc-s-lester-holt-i-was-1494522620-htmlstory.html

“He’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander.” @OED‘s got “showboat” in the relevant sense back to 1932 and “grandstander” back to 1896. pic.twitter.com/t0KKGYrLjs

— Ben Zimmer (@bgzimmer) 11 May 2017

The history of ransomware
http://www.csoonline.com/article/3095956/data-breach/the-history-of-ransomware.html#slide2

Ware: “Simple Simon met a pieman…”
http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/mothergoose/rhymes/simplesimonmetapieman.html

Rocky and Bullwinkle: Simple Simon

A 1987 reference to ransomware
Google Books link

4 Ways to Protect Against the Very Real Threat of Ransomware
https://www.wired.com/2016/05/4-ways-protect-ransomware-youre-target/

RANSOMWARE: Hostage Rescue Manual (PDF)
https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/RansomwareManual-1.pdf

Green’s Dictionary of Slang: cock
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/kjbkjfi

Wikipedia: Cockburn (surname)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockburn_(surname)

Online Etymology Dictionary
curse, cursive, cursor


Transcript

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1 Comment

  1. I wonder what exact positions in the alphabet thorn(Þ, þ), that(Þ and T, þ and t), eth(Ð, ð), ash(Æ, æ), ethel(Œ, œ), and eng(Ŋ, ŋ) would be if ampersand(&) was the 27th letter. Wynn(Ƿ, ƿ) would’ve been the 23rd letter, and yogh(Ȝ ȝ) could’ve been the 25th. I might need help working out the exact positions.

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