It’s time to return to our mailbag and answer some questions.
Is the translating earpiece a thing? Is thing a thing? What about New Zealand English? And is it sexist to say guys?
Linguist Daniel Midgley finds out on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Cutting Room Floor
We dive into our Mailbag, but Ben does it more literally — with some of Kylie’s stray mail. The mental image will keep you up at night. For mature audiences only.
Also: Terrible Russian accents.
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Show notes
Pilot Bluetooth earpiece crowdfunds the dream of universal, instant language translation
http://www.cnet.com/news/pilot-bluetooth-earpiece-crowdfunds-the-dream-of-universal-instant-language-translation/
Could Two People Use Real-Time Translation to Fall in Love?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/language-and-machine-learning/484028/
Ben Yagoda: I Guess ‘It’s a Thing’
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/12/13/i-guess-its-a-thing/
Is That Even a Thing?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/is-that-even-a-thing/?_r=0
Language Log: When did “a thing” become a thing?
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=25229
Proto-beat-poetry from 1900! It’s the latest thing!
Google Books link
New Zealand Accent Tip | Accents with Amy
https://youtu.be/Ab_MLnr1Q4I
Encyclopaedia of New Zealand: Story: Speech and accent
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/speech-and-accent
New Zealand English: “not an accent; it is a disease.”
https://uclinguistics.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/new-zealand-english-1/
#WordsAtWork: David Morrison wants Australians to stop saying gender-based terms like ‘guys’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-01/david-morrison-wants-australians-to-stop-saying-‘guys’/7465824
Hey guys: Oxford, Macquarie dictionary experts say using ‘guys’ is not sexist
http://www.afr.com/leadership/company-culture/hey-guys-oxford-macquarie-dictionary-experts-say-using-guys-is-not-sexist-20160601-gp8ssl
‘Gents’, ‘Fellas’, ‘Boys’ – How Language Is Telling Women They Don’t Belong
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-van-dellen/gents-fellas-boys-how-language_b_6980468.html
Hey You Guys, Does Being Called ‘You Guys’ Bother You?
http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/30/professional-behavior-sexism-forbes-woman-leadership-workplace-etiquette.html
Online Etymology Dictionary: guy
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=guy&allowed_in_frame=0
How a Country’s Land Shapes Its Language
http://nautil.us/blog/how-a-countrys-land-shapes-its-language
Children can go through a silent period as a result of sudden exposure to a new language
Language, Culture, and Adaptation in Immigrant Children
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3526379/
What parents want to know about bilingualism
http://www.francoisgrosjean.ch/for_parents_en.html
Does it disturb anyone else that “The Los Angeles Angels” baseball team translates directly to “The The Angels Angels”?
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 11, 2012
Etymologically Redundant Expressions
http://www.fun-with-words.com/redundant_etymology.html
Redundant Phrases – Pleonasms
http://www.fun-with-words.com/redundant_phrases.html
Why is digitize so often seen in British English? Here’s digitise and digitize from the British section of the Google Ngram Corpus.
And here’s acclimatis* and acclimatiz*.
Digitize (var)
http://www.lukemastin.com/testing/spelling/cgi-bin/database.cgi?action=view_category&database=spelling&category=D
Crosswords in other languages? Why, yes!
http://alwayspuzzling.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/crosswords-in-other-languages.html
Image credit: http://www.open-mike.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/questions-2.jpg
Transcript
We’re working our way back through the archives. If you think we should prioritise a transcript of this episode, let us know!
9 June 2016 at 4:09 pm
You are not smart people. Trying to sound smart does not make you smart. Thing is “a thing”. “Guy” is male, “guys” is plural for either sex or mixed groups. “ATM machine” and “3am in the morning” tell you the same thing twice. Telling stories about people brainstorming a play or the use of redundancies in the english language doesn’t make you smart when you don’t address the issue.