So that Adele song, ‘Rumor Has It’, has been stuck in my head and has me wondering about the line, ‘she is half your age’, because Adele was 21 when she sang that….so how old was this dude? Because the only way he could have a girlfriend half his age and it not be illegal […]
Yearly archives for 2014
A Glut of Glots
How many languages do you need to speak to be a linguist? -Gamerro *** Dear Gamerro, At minimum? One. Linguistics is a wide-open field – there are a whole helluva lot of ways to study language, and not all of them require polyglottery. A linguist who works as an expert witness in legal proceedings, for […]
Shown Their Work
I’m tired of the he/she gender debate. Why hasn’t anyone come up with a pronoun that means “she OR he”? Wouldn’t that be easier? –GenderEqualist *** Dear GE, Well, people have. But they don’t tend to stick. We’ve had dozens of contenders for “he or she” pronoun in English, from “ne” to ”thon” to “po” […]
DIY Languages
Saluton, Language Nerd! If you don’t recognize the greeting, you obviously don’t know Esperanto. Most other folks don’t either; it just didn’t seem to catch on. But I’m wondering: has there ever been a completely contrived language that hit the big time and became the common tongue in some corner of the world? -Robbie *** […]
I Beg to Differ
Dear Language Nerd, What’s the difference between “begging the question” and “raising the question”? I was with a colleague yesterday and he was going on about how furious he was that people use the two interchangeably. I didn’t know why it mattered so I just nodded and grimaced at appropriate times. Please help, I am […]
A Loo By Any Other Name
Dear Language Nerd, Why are toilets called “lavatories” on airplanes, and never called that anywhere else? -S.K. *** Dear S.K., This post is gonna be like failing at eating a Reeses peanut butter cup. We’ll pull off the little wrapper thingy, and nibble all the way around the edges, and scrape the chocolate off the […]
A Historic Opportunity to Stop Saying “An Historic&...
Dear Language Nerd, Why do news anchors and the like say “an historic occasion” when they would never say “an history book”? -JRS *** Dear Jurs, Because it’s fancier. But not because it’s right. First, let’s go over what the “a/an” rule really is, and super-double-first, let’s go over what it isn’t: it isn’t a […]
To Coin a Phrase
So the other night I thought I heard [a friend] say “She was druncating all over the place.” I heard wrong. But I want to register “druncate” as a new word please. Can you take care of this, [Language Nerd]? -Delphine *** Follow-up example after request for clarification: “We had to drag Stella out of […]