There are some words we’ve been hearing around the place.
What exactly is a shemozzle, and why is Peter Costello talking about it? How do you pronounce carillon, and why is Perth’s “Carillon City” spelt with only one i?
Linguist Daniel Midgley tries to resolve these and other matters of import on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Shemozzle
Peter Costello originally twigged my interest in ‘shemozzle’.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/costello-slams-future-fund-shemozzle-20120315-1v494.html
http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2011/s3456038.htm
It comes from Yiddish ‘schlemazel’
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=schlemazel
A bit about Yiddish.
http://www.jewfaq.org/yiddish.htm
Lots of English words come from Yiddish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Yiddish_origin
Kerfuffle isn’t Yiddish, though.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=kerfuffle
The devil is behind the brouhaha.
http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/brouhaha/
They teach Yiddish at UC Santa Cruz.
http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2011/05/12/searching-for-yiddish-land/
Carillon
How do you say ‘carillon’? If you read IPA, it’s /kəˈrɪljən/ (The ‘j’ has a ‘y’ sound.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon
It’s French.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=carillon
But the spelling of ‘Carillon City’ does trip up locals from time to time.
http://www.carilloncity.com.au/
Despite the pronunciation, ‘carillon’ has never had an extra ‘i’. At least, not in print to any great extent.
