Fun Facts About English

Fun Facts About English #94 – The Power of X

12/21/2020 by admin

When published in 1755, the letter X was left out of Johnson’s Dictionary with the claim that X “begins no word in the English language.” Historically, words like xylophone and xenophobia didn’t enter the English lexicon until the 19th century. Today, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) contains about 400 words that begin with X. Compare this to the letter S with 79,900+ words! Nonetheless, where X may fall short in word count, it packs a punch as a symbol, a classifier, and in popular culture.

History and Phonology

Briefly, X is derived from the Phoenician letter samekh, meaning “fish” and denoted a hard /s/ sound. The Greeks borrowed the samekh, named it Chi, and used it for the digraph /ks/. The Romans took Chi from Greek alphabets for their letter X and the numeral “10.” Old English adopted the Roman alphabet where it eventually replaced the German runic alphabet around the 7th century. This orthographic relay spans about 1,800 years of history. Since the medieval period, we’ve been using X and the Roman alphabet for almost fourteen centuries.

X is a bit of a phonetic chameleon when it comes to spelling and pronunciation in English. X is used for the digraph /ks/ in words such as wax and fox. In words like auxiliary and exhaust, the X changes to a /gz/ sound. X can also be a /z/ sound (xylophone), a hard /k/ sound (excite), and a /kzh/ sound (luxury). X can be silent as well, as in Sioux or the French loan-word faux.

The letter X is used in a variety of commercial, academic, social, and religious contexts. We rely on these contexts to tell us whether to engage with the letter as a sound, a classifier, or a symbol. Below is a long short-list that exemplifies the power of X.

Mathematics

An independent or unknown value in algebraic algorithms, x + 5 = 0, x = -5
The horizontal axis on a Cartesian coordinate system
Roman numeral for 10, e.g., LXII
Multiplication symbol; 3 x 5 = 15, pronounced ‘times’
Dimension; 3 x 5 card, pronounced ‘by’
Power; e.g., 50x telescope

Science

Botanical hybrids; iris x germanica
Out of, foaled by, as in “a colt by Secretariat x Merrylegs“
Non-binary gender; M/F/X
Chromosome provided by the female ovum; XX=female, XY=male
Stands for any halogen group in organic chemistry
Rx; prescription, Latin for “recipe”
Branding in pharmaceuticals; Sominex, Xylocaine, Xanax; Vitamin X (Ecstasy), a rave and dance-club drug
Indicates “experimental” in the aerospace industry and Google [x], an innovation arm of Alphabet, Inc.

History

Meaning ‘between’ in historical dating; 1483 x 1485

Sports & Gaming

A capture in chess
A strike in baseball and bowling
A defensive player on a football-play diagram
One of two players in tic-tac-toe, X and O
Indicating ‘extreme,’ as in X-Sports
Incorrect, missed, not allowed

Religion

Denotes “Christ” in Xtian and Xmas
Symbol of dark arts, black magic, witchcraft and occults

Commercial, Manufacturing & Branding

In advertising, a trade term for a generic version; Brand X
Denotes “trans” as in XMIT or XFER and “cross” in X-ing and XREF
Alcoholic strength, such as moonshine; XXX (150 proof)
Level of eroticism, violence, or offensive language, as in the movie rating, Rated X, and pornography
Indicating ‘extra’ in clothing sizes as in XXL, XS
Signifies excellence or precision; Jaguar X, Xbox, Model X
X-factor, entertainment industry term indicating star quality (now associated with the television musical talent show)
A placeholder in airport codes; LAX

Popular Culture & Social Contexts

Unknown or secret; Malcolm X, Project X, X-ray, X-files, Planet X, Agent X, Camp X
Generation X; 10th generation of Americans since 1776
A collaboration in arts or fashion; Smith x Brown
X ‘marks the spot’ for labeling a specific location or scene of a crime
Choice or position on a ballot, survey, or test with multiple options
Serves as a signature for illiteracy and a place marker for a signature or initials, x______________
To delete
A promise; crossed heart
A lie; crossed fingers
A “kiss” in correspondence
Indicates “no beer, no drugs, no promiscuous sex;” XXX
Denotes death or ‘out cold’ in cartoon drawings with X’s for eyes
Rebel, piracy, and a symbol of a skull and crossbones

Not included in the above list are the myriad national flags, songs, bands, albums, books, advertisements, commercial products, paintings, and movies that have included X as part of their symbology.

If you enjoyed reading about X, you might also be interested in the surprising facts about S, Z, E, and the R sound in English!

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Fun Facts About English #86 – The English Language Academy

12/19/2020 by admin

Kinney Brothers Publishing English regulators language academies

To the chagrin of some and the pleasure of many, English is lacking in any authority to direct its ever-expanding use and lexicon. L’Académie Française, based in Paris, is in charge of overseeing the French language. For Spanish, there is the Real Academia Española. German has the Rat für Deutsche Rechtschreibung. There has never been an equivalent academy for the English language anywhere or at any time.

Historically, there have been a number of outspoken and clearly distressed men of letters who believed that English, with all its unruliness, desperately needed a formal academy.

In the mid-17th century, John Dryden, a poet laureate of England, chaired a committee to create such an academy. Unfortunately, as Dryden was attempting to organize, the Great Plague struck London. A year later, the Great Fire of London razed central parts of the city. These events resulted in an equally great exodus from the capital and any hope for an academy was lost.

In the 18th century, Jonathan Swift, best known for his prose satire, Gulliver’s Travels, lobbied the crown for an academy. He stated, “Our Language is extremely imperfect… its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions (and) in many Instances it offends against every Part of Grammar.” Queen Anne supported the idea but passed away before any formal decisions could be made.

In the U.S., a bill for the incorporation of a national language academy was introduced in congress in 1806 but was unsuccessful. During Quincy Adams’ presidency two decades later, an American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres was proposed and then abandoned after receiving little political or public support.

So… whatcha do?

Language references like the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and style guides such as the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage are what many people consider to be at least semi-authoritative. Dictionaries are generally descriptive in that they reflect the organic usage and evolution of English but don’t set out to dictate how the language is to be used. Style guides, on the other hand, are prescriptive; an approach that recommends how the language should be used when composing documents.

Style Guides

A style guide establishes standard style requirements to improve communication by ensuring consistency within a single document and across multiple documents. A style guide may set out standards in areas such as punctuation, capitalization, citing sources, formatting of numbers and dates, and table appearance. A guide may outline recommendations in language composition, visual composition, orthography, and typography. For academic and technical documents, users often reference guides for best practices in ethics such as authorship, research ethics, and disclosure. In pedagogy, users look for guidance in exposition and clarity, or compliance, both technical and regulatory. Of course, all this will depend on the register of the user.

Register, in a general sense, refers to the language used by a group of people who share similar work, research, or interests, and the degree of formality of the language used when creating documents. Document requirements, though they often overlap, will differ by necessity between different groups, such as doctors, lawyers, journalists, and scholars.

English language style guides Kinney Brothers Publishing

For British English, style guides such as H. W. Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage and Sir Ernest Gower’s Plain Words: A Guide to the Use of English are very influential. The Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide (MHRA) is mainly for writing theses. Judith Butcher’s The Copyeditor’s Handbook is a reference guide for editors and those involved in preparing typescripts and illustrations for printing and publication.

In the U.S., The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook contains commonly accepted journalistic standards most U.S. newspapers, magazines, and broadcast writers use as their go-to style guide. The Chicago Manual of Style is used by writers, editors, and publishers in fiction and nonfiction and often put to use in the arts and humanities for academic papers. The Modern Language Association’s MLA Handbook is mostly suited to the academic world. The Elements of Style is a writer’s companion and considered to be the grandfather of all style guides.

For those looking for humorous and unapologetically opinionated voices on the English language, there are many authors more than willing to assert their preferences, bemoan the inadequacies of our current authorities, and thoroughly berate speakers of the language. They include the Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon’s Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker, and Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (a popular book that was excoriated for its grammatical errors when first published).

For a fascinating look at the gargantuan effort of documenting a language, you may enjoy The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also be interested in reading why Pikes Peak is spelled without an apostrophe by law! Check out the reason the U.S. doesn’t have an official language or how English became the official language of the sea and air!

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Craft activities can be excellent hands-on learning tools! Whether you teach very young newcomers or secondary ESL students, Donald’s English Classroom has a variety of activities that your students are sure to enjoy. Check out the Seasons Tree Stand or House Activity Set for your younger students. For students learning community places, you’ll love using the Community Places Activity Set that includes game boards and flashcards. For older students, building Wall Maps are excellent activities to bring students together.

Fun Facts About English #83 – Acronyms and Initialisms

11/13/2020 by admin

The acronym POTUS (President of the United States) also began as a telegraphic code around 1895. FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) didn’t appear until the 1980s, where it may have originated as the Secret Service’s code name for Nancy Reagan.

Acronyms and initialisms have been part of our language for a very long time, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that our need for more contractions began percolating. During the 20th century, they moved into the parlance of our everyday lives. Today, like telegraphers of old, we deftly tap out abbreviated messages, relaying them to recipients near and far with a device we carry in our pockets. Consider this example:

GR8 ASAP THX IDK AZ ACCT PIN POTUS on FOX @IHOP in SF SMH USA FUBAR 2M2H ARR LAX @8AM 2MORO TTYL I❤︎U

Great! As soon as possible. Thanks. I don’t know the personal identification code for the Arizona account. The President of the United States is on Fox News at the International House of Pancakes in San Francisco. I’m shaking my head. The United States of America is fucked up beyond all repair. It’s too much to handle. I will arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll talk to you later. I love you.

While some may look at the message as a breakdown of language in a modern world, it helps to consider its density. The code relays a lot of information in a short space. That is the simple function of acronyms. The online dictionary, Acronym Finder, lists five million entries divided into categories like Information Technology (IT), Military & Government Agencies, Business & Finance Agencies, and Pop Culture. Today, acronyms are so ubiquitous, linguists see their 20th and 21st-century use as a language phenomenon moving in tandem with our industrial and post-industrial ages.

Acronyms vs Initialisms vs Abbreviations

In general, abbreviations shorten a word or phrase but don’t always create new words, e.g., Dec. is pronounced “December,” and N.Y. is still “New York.”

An acronym, on the other hand, is an abbreviation where the first letter or series of letters in a phrase create a new “pronounceable” word, e.g., NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Today, acronym is commonly used to include both acronyms and initialisms; a trend many grammar mavens believe should be kept distinctly separated.

The term initialism (1899) is older than acronym (1940), but less often used. As the word implies, it’s an abbreviation consisting of initial letters that are pronounced separately, like CPU (central processing unit), and the four-century-old AM/PM (ante meridiem, “before noon”/post meridiem, “after noon”).

Ancient Acronyms

Two thousand years ago, when larger works required labor-intensive use of hard materials like clay, stone, and metal, or parchment, which was an expensive commodity, artists, engravers, and copyists were forced to use their resources efficiently. Throughout the medieval period, when writing implements and parchment were scarce, acronyms were more frequent. Terms like RIP (requiescat in pace; “Rest in Peace”), or the abbreviation Xmas, (Χριστος, Christ; “Christmas”), are quite ancient and served as a revered shorthand in early religious writing. More examples, both BCE (before the Common Era) and CE (the Common Era) include:

SPQR – The official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it (Senatus Populusque Romanus). The Italians have long used a different and humorous expansion of this abbreviation, “Sono Pazzi Questi Romani” (literally: “They’re crazy, these Romans”).
ΙΧΘΥΣ – The early Christians in Rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus in part because of an acronym: “fish” in Greek is ichthys (ΙΧΘΥΣ), which stands for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ (Iesous Christos Theou huios Soter; “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”).
INRI – For centuries, the Church has used the inscription INRI over the crucifix, (Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum; “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”).
TANAKH – The Hebrew Bible (“Old Testament”) This is acronym composed of the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections: “Torah” (five books of Moses), “Nevi’im” (prophets), and “K’tuvim” (writings).

Modern Acronyms

From the late 19th century, a trend of abbreviation use swung into the fields of business, science, technology, government, and the military. Convenience, space restrictions, and cost are some of the reasons contractions became popular, if not necessary.

The American and European business communities of the late Victorian era led the charge. Shortened versions of company names started appearing on the sides of railway cars, on barrels, ticker tapes, newspaper headlines, stock listings, and in telegraph code manuals. Examples include RF&P (Richmond Fredricksburg and Potomac Railroad), AT&T (American Telegraph and Telephone Company), Nabisco (National Biscuit Company), and Sunco (Sun Oil Company). These contractions were treated as abbreviations and initialisms. The habit of forming pronounceable acronyms wouldn’t take off until the mid 20th century.

By the end of the Great Wars, the common vernacular adopted many military acronyms like G.I. (General Issue/Galvanized Iron) for soldiers, AWOL (Absent Without Leave) for those deserting their ranks, and SNAFU (situation normal, all fucked up.) Today, one needn’t have served in the military to know acronyms like MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital), AFB (Air Force Base), and DOA (dead on arrival). We learn to navigate this language in popular media, highway signage, government forms, IDs (identification), and in daily TV (television) news reporting.

During WWI (World War 1) and WWII (World War 2), when letters to and from soldiers overseas numbered in the billions, our great grandparents were doing their own form of sexting on the backs of envelopes: SWAK (sealed with a kiss), NORWICH (kNickers Off Ready When I Come Home), CHINA (Come Home I’m Naked Already); and from sailors, OOLAAKOEW (Oceans Of Love And A Kiss On Every Wave). These patriotic missives were referred to as V-Mail (Victory Mail).

FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) was well known for his New Deal alphabet agencies, like CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp), CWA (Civil Works Administration), and DRS (Drought Relief Service). With the explosion of acronyms came YABA (yet another bloody acronym) and the need for “YABA-compatible” abbreviations in government and the military that could be easily pronounced while not creating an offensive word.

As acronyms moved into common use, from whence they came is sometimes forgotten. Relatively recent acronyms that have lost their initialized form to become common words include RADAR (radio detection and ranging, 1940s), SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, 1950s), and LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, 1960s).

While the younger generation will never know how hip and cool things like CB radios (citizen’s band radio), VCRs (videocassette recorders), and FAXs (facsimiles) once were, with the times, so goes the technology. In the 21st century, as we move deeper and more wholly into an online world, Millennials have taken the ball and are running.

The wide use of text messaging and the need for abbreviated language to fit character limits, SMS (short message service), IM (instant messenger), and platforms like Twitter have dedicated patrons inventing acronyms as fast as we can learn them. Just about every sector of military and civilian life has its own list of must-know acronyms. Today’s youth, like medieval scribes of old, write private messages in a revered code: GF/BF (girlfriend/boyfriend), BFF (best friend forever), DL (down-low), BAE (before anyone else), #’s (hashtags), and /s (end sarcasm.) According to online search data, the top ten in this category include:

ROFL – Rolling on the floor laughing.
STFU – Shut the fuck up.
LMK – Let me know.
ILY – I love you.
YOLO – You only live once.
SMH – Shaking my head.
LMFAO – Laughing my fucking ass off.
NVM – Never mind.
IKR – I know, right?
OFC – Of course.

While prescriptivists disdain abbreviations for degrading clarity and proper language, others argue that evolution is inevitable where changes most often occur in response to a cultural need. In a fast-paced world, that need is brevity, convenience, and saving space.

If you enjoyed reading this post, you might also be interested in what the X in LAX actually means, how the industrial revolution changed the English language, or the NSFW use of expletive infixations!

Go to the previous or next Fun Facts About English.

Fishing games are easy to set up and so fun to play! ABC Fishing, Sight Word Fishing, Sentence Fishing activity sets can be used as a classroom activity, flashcards, or a classroom display! Check out all the fishing activity sets in Donald’s English Classroom!

Fun Facts About English #84 – Grammatical Ambiguity

11/05/2020 by admin

Often presented to students as a linguistic puzzle, the sentence demonstrates grammatical ambiguity. Where written language lacks the critical element of a human expressing it, punctuation serves as a necessary substitute for intonation, stress, and pauses used in speech.

Disambiguated, the sentence reads, “It is true for all that, that that “that” which that “that” refers to is not the same “that” that that “that” refers to.”

If still unclear, this may help to unravel its meaning: “It is true, despite everything you say, that this word to which this word refers, is not the same word to which this word refers.”

Ambiguity

Ambiguity in language appears in a variety of ways, intentional or not, with some cases more celebrated than others. Consider the difference between the ‘suggestive’ language of poetry and a ‘misleading’ advertisement. Ambiguity can be the result of an absurd juxtaposition or the sudden and hilarious turn in a comedian’s routine. In a world where transparency and clarity seem to be the goal, we are often on guard against social uncertainty, while at the same time give ourselves wholly to the lyrics in a favorite song – whether we completely understand them or not.

To understand how language works, linguists differentiate lingual ambiguity into a variety of categories, including lexical (words and their definitions), syntactic (words in context), phonological (the sounds of words), and semantic (meaning in language and logic). The research goes further into the field of neurolinguistics; the playground of cognitive scientists who study the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language.

For case studies, there’s no better place to begin than with toddlers, whose rapid acquisition of language brings about valiant but flawed attempts at language construction. Pity the poor parents who, upon pain of an emotional meltdown, must mentally sort compound mashes that only an emphatic toddler can construct.

“A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, ‘What did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?'”

Or consider a casual conversation where one might ask for clarification to fully understand.

A: Alice told her mother she won the lottery.
B: Who won the lottery?

Humor

At the crossroads of lingual uncertainty and clarity sits humor. A good comedian is a master manipulator of such language. Combined with comical timing, a standup artist uses the sometimes ambiguous nature of language to trip confusion and, in turn, make you laugh. It’s a linguist’s pleasure to understand the mechanics of humor and how ambiguity, from set-up to punch line, fuels a comedic routine.

Lexical ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word, is the anchor of many children’s riddles and wordplay. One of the first jokes I remember telling was, “Why is the corn angry at the farmer? Because he keeps pulling their ears.” I might have found this especially funny at the time because my own father was an ear puller.

Syntactical ambiguity, the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words, is part of many comedians’ strategies for surprising their audience.

Phonological ambiguity occurs when words sound identical but have different meanings. The standup talents, Abbot and Costello, rely on this confusion in their legendary “Who’s on First?” comedy routine. Likewise, the puzzling aspect of the sentence, “Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses,” rests on a series of homophonous words. When rewritten for clarity, the sentence is far less lyrical or interesting: “A woman named Rose got up to put red fish eggs on the bands of flowers after which she was named.”

Headlines

There are occasions when syntactical ambiguity enters more sober spheres. Cognitive confusion occurs when it’s difficult to determine if a newspaper headline is purposefully being humorous or not. Headline-ese relies on loaded words and expressions to attract a reader’s attention. This and a stringent need for lexical brevity can result in unintended smirking and chortling.

The Last Word

The brain has a particular response to semantic incongruities as well. Sometimes known as senseless or absurd sentences, they result in what some call an absurdist’s humor. The Flaming Lips used this brand of ambiguity in their song, “She Don’t Use Jelly” from the album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, to drive a light-hearted song about friends with peculiar habits:

I know a girl who thinks of ghosts
She’ll make ya breakfast
She’ll make ya toast
But she don’t use butter
And she don’t use cheese
She don’t use jelly
Or any of these
She uses Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline

If you enjoyed reading about the wonderful ambiguity of our language, you might be interested in proverbs that are often misconstrued, or the conundrums of capitonyms and contronyms!

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Fun Facts About English #87 – Capitonyms

11/05/2020 by admin

A capitonym is a word that changes its nuance, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation when it’s capitalized; capitalization being applied due to one form being a proper noun, such as Bill/bill, or an eponym, such as Augustus/august. Some capitonyms are homonyms (Rose/rose), and others can be heteronyms (Polish/polish, Tangier/tangier) where pronunciation changes accordingly. The word capitonym is a portmanteau of the word capital with the suffix -onym.

Besides the list of first names above, last names that are capitonyms often fall in the realms of labor, colors, and animals, like baker, cook, farmer, brown, white, green, wolf, fox, and parrot. When first meeting people with such surnames, best to spare them your witticism.

Capitonyms may or may not be etymologically related in their capitalized and un-capitalized forms. The month of May and the verb may don’t share an etymology, whereas Catholic and catholic both derive from a Greek adjective meaning “universal.”

Capital letters can be used to differentiate a set of objects or people and an example of that set, like a moon and the Moon, a dad and Dad, or a bible and the Bible.

Religious contexts have very specific rules for capital spelling. The general word god is capitalized to God when referring to the deity of monotheistic religions. When referencing said deities, common pronouns like me, mine, you, and yours are usually capitalized as well. Within the liturgy, there is Mass as opposed to physical mass, and church denoting a building compared to Church when referring to members of a religious group. In the same lofty vein, words carrying a meaning of transcendence, religious or secular, are often capitalized, such as Truth, Beauty, and Justice.

Because political parties are often named after political philosophies, capital letters differentiate one who supports a philosophy, such as a conservative believing in a philosophy of conservatism and one who claims herself a Conservative in support of the Conservative Party.

Finally, there’s one pesky little glitch in the English scheme to differentiate capitonyms: the beginning of a sentence. Consider the mental sort and the necessity of context and punctuation when reading these examples:

Bill the patient, please.
Turkey requires a visa.
Rusty waters plants.
Crystal is clearly delicate.
Nice winters are mild compared to Paris.
Cook wages war in court.
Iris blossoms on the piano.
Pat the dog.
Will Will?
March!
Randy?

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in reading about palindromes, the conundrum with contronyms, or why the word widow is unique among gender-specific nouns!

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Stories for Young Readers is a graded textbook series for students studying English as a second language (ESL/EFL). The series presents English in clear, grammatically simple, and direct language. Most importantly, the textbooks have been designed to extend students’ skills and interest in developing their ability to communicate in English. Visit Donald’s English Classroom for pdf downloads, or purchase through the Kinney Brothers Publishing website!

Fun Facts About English #85 – The Big Bad Wolf

11/01/2020 by admin

ablaut reduplication Kinney Brothers Publishing

To understand this anomaly, we’ll need to review a few grammar points. Bear with me and you’ll come to a sparkling revelation by the end of the post.

Adjectives

An adjective is a word or phrase that describes a noun, e.g., small, red, or awesome. When using multiple adjectives in a sentence, there are two orders: coordinate and cumulative adjectives.

Coordinate adjectives are in the same category and require a comma between each one:

My dog is brown, black, and white. (color)
This is a Spanish, English, and French dictionary. (purpose)
He’s intelligent, handsome, funny, and a great dancer! (opinion)

Cumulative adjectives come from various categories and don’t require commas, but must be ‘stacked’ in a specific order:

Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Origin
Material
Purpose

This is a cute little blue bag.
We rode two gorgeous big black Arabian horses.
I have a tiny 10-week-old brown beagle puppy.

Reduplicates

Reduplication is when a word or part of a word is repeated and sometimes modified to make a longer term, like hush-hush or boogie-woogie. There are two types of reduplicates: exact and rhyming.

Exact: goody-goody, choo-choo, bye-bye, wee-wee, yum-yum, aye-aye, boo-boo, so-so, tut-tut, no-no, night-night, poo-poo, yada-yada, ta-ta
Rhyming: okey-dokey, itsy-bitsy, arty-farty, razzle-dazzle, fancy-schmancy, walkie-talkie, raggle-taggle, super-duper, boo-hoo

Interestingly, there are a large number of ‘h’ words in the rhyming group: hocus-pocus, hanky-panky, hokey-pokey, hoity-toity, higglety-pigglety, harem-scarem, helter-skelter, holy-moly, honey-bunny, hum-drum, Handy Andy, Humpty Dumpty, and Henny Penny.

Ablaut Reduplication

Ablaut is a term introduced by the 19th-century German linguist, Jacob Grimm, the elder of the Brothers Grimm duo. Ablaut refers to a vowel change which, in reduplicates, often follows a particular vowel pattern, such as zigzag or sing-song. If there are two words, the first vowel is I and the second is usually either A or O. If there are three words then the order is often I, A, O.

Two-Word: flim-flam, knick-knack, mingle-mangle, dilly-dally, pitter-patter, chit-chat, Tic Tac, wishy-washy, criss-cross, flip-flop, tick-tock, ping pong, clippity-cloppity, bibbity-bobbity, King Kong
Three-Word: bing-bang-bong, ding-dang-dong, bish-bash-bosh, splish-splash-splosh, clink-clank-clunk

We have our Germanic/Old English heritage to thank for this familiar vowel pattern. A similar vowel shift occurs with verb conjugations like drink, drank, drunk (trinken, tranken, getrunken) or sing, sang, sung (singen, sang, gesungen).

The Anomaly of The Big Bad Wolf

If we understand that cumulative adjectives are stacked in a specific order, a sentence with the words bad (opinion), big (size), and wolf (noun) should read, “bad big wolf.” This logic holds true for “cute little kittens,” “scary old house,” or “nice long drive.” So, why are the two adjectives in “big bad wolf” flipped? The writer, Mark Forsyth, explains this phenomenon in his title, The Elements of Eloquence:

“The reason “big bad wolf” is reversed is that the phrase skips the stacked-order rule to follow the ablaut reduplicative I-A scheme where big-bad acts like zig-zag!”

It would be easy to assume this anomalous ordering is the way it’s always been said, until you look at early versions of The Three Little Pigs. In Jacob’s English Fairy Tales (1890), the story includes “not by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin” and lots of huffing and puffing, but not the phrase “big bad wolf.” In the much older Grimm’s Fairy Tales version, you’ll find the piggy threesomes’ “Tra-la-la!” refrain, as well as the agreeably-ordered “wicked black wolf,” but no “big bad wolf.” So, when did this happen?

In 1933, the song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” was featured in Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony rendition of The Three Little Pigs. The theme song was a Depression-era hit and continues to be one of Disney’s most well-known songs. So successful was the animation, the studio spun several sequels. The theme song was repeated in The Big Bad Wolf with Little Red Riding Hood, and Li’l Bad Wolf, the son of Big Bad Wolf. Unsurprisingly, the wolf pup inherited his father’s ablaut reduplication, further cementing the adjectival reversal in our collective memories.

So, now you know! (I was going to say “That’s all folks!” but remembered that’s a different pig altogether.)

You might also be interested to learn about the most common adjectives, test your own knowledge of stacked adjectives, or how to begin teaching stacked adjectives to your youngest ESL students! Read more on the Kinney Brothers Publishing blog!

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