Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: English

Oh, Say Can You Say?

Love the book True Grit. Fantastic dialogue. Even those who’ve only seen the movie are inclined to comment on the manner of speech.

It’s partly because our language is disappearing.

The OMGs and LOLs are contributing, no doubt, but words were becoming a problem long before cellphones and texting. We can’t say long words anymore. I don’t know if we’re unable to mouth them, or just don’t have the time.

One of the latest of the bothersome abbreviations: APP. There have been any number of comics strips in the newspaper touching on it. Pickles, the grandfatherly strip carried daily in the Tulsa World had its main character remark that he’d seen so many commercials about “an app for that,” that he had to lay down and take “an app.” Naps notwithstanding, there is confusion among the non-techs about the meaning.

Application. Say it. Application. It does take a little longer, and in the commercial it would have been impossible to repeat over and over “there’s an application for that.”

As a language lover, I find it is troublesome to lose words over fads, products, or altered perceptions. Application has become App, at least in this application.

Cellular phones became cells. With further abbreviation they turned into cels. Lose a pesky L. Facsimile machines became faxes. We used to have medications, now just meds. The Miami Hurricanes became the ‘Canes. Florida Seminoles? The ‘Noles. The temperatures got too extreme and became temps. Where amused responses once ruled, there is merely an 😉 .

Kristen Glover touts her Dad’ll-Do-It!’s car dealership at “I-44 Memorial.” The intersection disappeared. It is no longer at I-44 AND Memorial. Anywhere we can lose a word or a syllable or two – apparently, we must.

ROFL.

Therein lies the guilty pleasure of True Grit. It is set in the late 1800’s, when people still enjoyed the eloquence of conversation, sentences filled with words of the literate in quantities sufficient enough to require commas. There was nothing else to do back then but listen to the speaker, and speak they did.

Download the book, if you must. There’s an App for that. Let’s read.

Yawna? (Do you want to?)

You say To-MAY-Toh.

We say things differently. I’m okay with that. Sometimes, I’d just like to know how to say it – right or wrong. We used to turn to the dictionary. Now, we’ve got Wikipedia… Please – give me back my dictionary. Here is an example of a Wikipedia pronunciation guide:

Reiki (霊気?, English pronunciation: /ˈreɪkiː/)

When I read that, I see that the word “reiki” should be pronounced “reiki.” Ooooh. That makes it all perfectly clear. Sort of. Wait a minute. Is that like REE-Kee? Or Ree-IK-ee? Maybe it’s RY-ky, rhyming with pumpkin pie-pie.

My typing doesn’t include pronunciation symbols for long and short vowels, but I have access to them. If my website was about pronouncing words, I would ūse them daily. I wish Wikipedia would do that. The internet allows access to users of different languages, but – come on! – the English-language version could use standard English grammar symbols.

Pŭ-lēz?

Hark! Sweet Silver Bells.

Carol of the Bells

Ring Ling a Ling. Carol of the Bells.

It isn’t easy to work Hark! into conversations much anymore. Another grand English word assigned to the Cold Cases filebox and stashed in a warehouse. I am vexed by the loss to our collective vocabulary.

‘Tis the season for reviving such things as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Angels on High. Hark!

Unfortunately, most of us sing along with lyrics Give a, Give a, Give a, Give a Garmin! foregoing the politically incorrect Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas! (In fact, Google the phrase ‘Give a Garmin’ to read how many younger Americans do not realize the song was first a Christmas Carol!)

It is hard to read the lyrics of that exquisite song without hearing the underlying chimes:

Carol Of The Bells

Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
Throw cares away.
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev’rywhere
Filling the air

Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O’er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, all!

Our store will reopen Monday. Harken my word!