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Fun Facts About English #71 – The Gallah People and Language

09/18/2020 by admin

In the Lowcountry region of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, along the coastal plain and Sea Islands, is a region referred to as the Gullah Geechee Corridor. Gullah is a term that was originally used to designate the creole dialect of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people; descendants of Central and West African slaves brought to the U.S. in the 1600s and 1700s. Because of the relative isolation from their masters while working on large rice plantations, they developed a creole culture that has preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage.

The communities are often distinguished and identify as Freshwater Geechee or Saltwater Geechee, depending on whether they live on the mainland or Sea Islands.

Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor

African words that disseminated through the Gullah Geechee speaking people and into the culture at large are familiar to many living in the South, such as goober, gumbo, yam, and cooter (an edible sea turtle). The Gullah custom of painting porch ceilings haint blue to deter haints (haunts), or ghosts, was also adopted by White Southerners though its spiritual significance has been lost. In popular culture, the stories of the Geechee peoples have been featured in movies such as Daughters of the Dust, by director Julie Dash, and Conrack, starring Jon Voight.

Luminary figures with their heritage in the Gullah Geechee culture are numerous. Click on the image below to see larger.

Dr. Emory Campbell is a community leader among the Gullah people and began his career in the 1970s as an activist working to implement public health measures in impoverished rural areas. Driven by the threat of out-of-control resort development on the Sea Islands, Dr. Campbell has worked to preserve traditional Gullah communities, their language, and customs. As the Executive Director of Penn Center, Inc. on St. Helena Island in South Carolina, Dr. Campbell leads an international movement to raise awareness of the uniquely rich African cultural heritage of the Geechee people.

Dr. Campbell was also a member of a committee that translated the New Testament into the Gullah language. De Nyew Testament took 26 years to produce and was released to the public in 2005. Annotated pages from the publication can be seen here.

Now Jedus been bon een Betlem town, een Judea, jurin de same time wen Herod been king. Atta Jedus been bon, some wise man dem dat study bout de staa dem come ta Jerusalem fom weh dey been een de east.

Therefore when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of king Herod, lo! astronomers, came from the east to Jerusalem, and said, Where is he, that is born [the] king of Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in reading about common English words inherited from Native American languages, Spanish, and French!

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Fun Facts About English #70 – Palindromes

09/11/2020 by admin

A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequences of characters that reads the same backward as forward. Palindromes can be found in a wide range of fields including music, computational theory, and genomes.

The word palindrome was introduced by Henry Peacham in 1638 and means “a running back.” Today, palindromes are one focus in the recreational linguistics community that includes such luminaries as J.A. Lindon, Dimitri Borgmann, and A. Ross Eckler, Jr.

The video below is a trailer for The Palindromists, a documentary that follows the world’s greatest palindromists as they prepare for the 2017 World Palindrome Championship.

Simple, character-unit palindromes are many and include civic, kayak, level, madam, racecar, radar, refer, and rotor. Some names are palindromes as well, such as Anna, Ava, Bob, Eve, Hannah, and Otto.

There are also word-unit palindromes in which the units of reversal are the words:

I did, did I?
She was, was she?
Fall leaves after leaves fall.
You know, I did little for you, for little did I know you.
You can cage a swallow, can’t you, but you can’t swallow a cage, can you?
Is it crazy how saying sentences backward creates backward sentences saying how crazy it is?

Well-known whole-phrase palindromes that ignore punctuation, capitalization, and spaces include:

Nurses run.
Borrow or rob?
Dammit, I’m mad.
Do geese see God?
Never odd or even.
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Murder for a jar of red rum.
A man, a plan, a canal – Panama.

Examples of whole-phrase palindromes that include the spaces are:

Step on no pets.
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
Live on time, emit no evil.

The Sator Square is the earliest datable 2D palindrome. It was found in the ruins of Pompeii at Herculaneum, a city buried in volcanic ash in 79 AD. It consists of the Latin sentence, “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas” (Arepo, the sower, carefully guides the wheels). It’s remarkable in that it can be read four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left. The meaning of the acrostic is debated but believed by some scholars to mean, “God controls the universe.” Throughout the medieval period, the Sator Square was commonly carved into amulets and worn to ward off disease and ill-fortune.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in the history of crossword puzzles, the cleverness of portmanteaux, or the artistic beauty of ambigrams!

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Fun Facts About English #69 – Expletive Infixations (NSFW)

09/04/2020 by admin

FYI: The symbols used to mask swear words in text are called grawlixes and have been in use since 19-fucking-01. They should always end with an exclamation point or question mark. Importantly, if you’re swearing with a British accent, the $ sign should be replaced with a £ symbol.

Expletive infixations have been popular for quite some time:

abso-bloomin’-lutely – “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” My Fair Lady, 1956
emanci-mother-fuckin’-pator – “Abie Baby,” Hair, 1968
Out-bloody-rageous – Third, Soft Machine, 1970
fan-fucking-tastic – Terms of Endearment, 1983
Cinder-fucking-rella – Pretty Woman, 1990
Viet-fuckin’-nam! – Forrest Gump, 1994

Linguists haven’t shied away from investigating how a person, with no other exposure, can form expletive infixations and be remarkably consistent. Researchers believe that the rules for placement of expletives are not arbitrary but instead derive from fundamental aspects of English phonology. Not all linguists are in agreement as to whether the insertion occurs at a stressed syllable boundary or a morpheme boundary (taking precedence over syllabic stress).

For example, most native English speakers intuitively understand that ab-fucking-solutely is not a quality infixation. Un-fucking-believable and unbe-fucking-lievable illustrate the syllable verses morpheme boundary argument and the flexibility of inserting a preferred blasphemy.

While the examples below use fucking as the curse word, please feel free to experiment with your favorite, e.g., friggin‘, freaking, motherfucking, bleeding, bloody, damned, goddamn, etc.

Abso-fucking-lutely
fan-fucking-tastic
no-fucking-body
im-fucking-possible
Minne-fucking-sota
Phila-fucking-delphia?

Now it’s time to test your swearing skill set. Correctly insert a cuss word in the following:

irresponsible
sensational
unrealistic
OK
45
California
Pakistan
hippopotamus

Congratulations! You’re a certified potty-mouth.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in why American’s prefer the word rooster, mondegreens that will make you LOL, or what the word jaywalker actually means!

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Fun Facts About English #68 – The Origins of Popular Idioms

08/28/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 68 Kinney Brothers Publishing

Our genteel Ms. Austen is also known for such phrases as shut up, dirt cheap, dog-tired, dinner party, and brace yourself. In fact, she is quoted 1,641 times in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary!

Here is a list of idiomatic expressions originating with some of our favorite authors and books of old. Enjoy!

William Shakespeare

Break the ice – The Taming of the Shrew – This phrase means to do or say something to relieve tension, get a conversation going at the start of a gathering, or when people meet for the first time.
Dead as a doornail – Henry IV – In the words of the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz, this expression means that someone or something is morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably dead. Not just merely dead, but most sincerely dead.
There’s method in one’s madness – Hamlet – This means that there is a reason behind someone’s mysterious actions or words.
Set one’s teeth on edge – Henry IV – This phrase is often used when feeling intense discomfort or irritation, especially in response to a harsh sound like the noise of nails scratching a chalkboard.
Wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve – Othello – If you wear your heart on your sleeve, you openly show your feelings or emotions rather than keeping them hidden or secret. This phrase can also be used as criticism for being too open and consequently vulnerable to disappointment.
The world is one’s oyster – The Merry Wives Of Windsor – Though the original context had more violent intentions (slicing one’s opponent open like an oyster), today it means you can achieve anything or go anywhere because you have the opportunity or freedom to do so.

The Christian Bible

By the skin of one’s teeth – Book of Job – To narrowly escape a given circumstance. In the case of Job, it was a stark description of the advanced stage of disease Satan had inflicted on him.
Live off the fat of the land – Book of Genesis and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – The phrase means getting the best of everything without having to work hard for it.
At one’s wit’s end – Psalm 107 – This means to be so worried and exhausted by problems or difficulties that you do not know what to do next.
Like a lamb to the slaughter – Book of Isaiah – This phrase refers to someone who is blissfully unaware of a disaster about to befall them.
A fly in the ointment – Book of Ecclesiastes – This is a minor irritation that spoils the success or enjoyment of something.

Various Authors

Go down the rabbit hole – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865 – Lewis Carroll coined this term as the title of the first chapter in his book where Alice enters Wonderland by following a rabbit down a hole. It is often used as a metaphor for someone entering a surreal state of mind, way of thinking, or situation. The same title gave us “Mad as a hatter” with the idea that hatters, who used mercury to set their felt hats, were a bit looney-tunes.
I can’t do [X] to save my life – The Kellys and the O’Kellys, 1848, by Anthony Trollope – This phrase indicates someone is no good at or will inevitably fail at a given activity.
Fly off the handle – Thomas C. Haliburton, a Nova Scotian politician, judge, and author, coined this phrase in 1843. It means to suddenly lose one’s temper. It was inspired by the way an ax-head will fly off its handle if loose. Haliburton also coined the phrase “won’t take no for an answer.”
Goody Two-Shoes The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes – This 18th century Christian retelling of Cinderella begins with a poor orphan with only one shoe. She is given two shoes by a rich man as a reward for her virtue.
Hold a candle to – The fower cardinal vertues of a Carmelite fryar by Edward Dering (1641) – Apprentices used to hold candles so that more experienced workmen were able to see what they were doing. Someone unable to do this menial task would be of very low status. Today it describes a person or thing that is distinctly inferior to someone or something else.
Keep up with the Joneses – Keep Up With The Joneses by Arthur (Pop) Momand – This American phrase emerged in 1913 as the title of a comic strip in the New York Globe. It refers to emulating or not being outdone by one’s neighbors.
Love is blind – The Canterbury Tales, 1387, by Chaucer – This means that loving someone makes them unable or unwilling to see a person’s faults or differences.
Pot calling the kettle black – Don Quixote, 1605, by Cervantes – This phrase suggests that one shouldn’t accuse or criticize another of something they’re also guilty of.
A sight for sore eyes – A complete collection of genteel and ingenious conversation, 1738, by Jonathan Swift – This means a welcome sight; something or someone you’re glad to see.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also be interested in words that are named after notorious personalities, proverbs that are often incomplete or misconstrued, or what makes a word autological.

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Fun Facts About English #67 – Language of The Gods

08/21/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 67 Kinney Brothers Publishing

The gods of old are still with us in our everyday language. All the highlighted words in the paragraph below are directly related to the mythological worlds of Norse, Greek, Roman, and Mayan cultures.

Atlantic – Greek – Atlas was a Titan condemned to hold up the celestial heavens for eternity.
chaos – Greek – Khaos was the first of the Protogenoi (primeval gods) and precedes the universe.
chronology/chronic – Greek – Chronus, is the personification of time.
cupid – Roman – Cupid, god of love in all varieties, was the son of Mercury and Venus.
erotic – Greek – Eros was a primeval god, son of Chaos. Later tradition made him the son of Aphrodite and either Zeus, Ares, or Hermes.
echo – Greek – Echo was an Oread (mountain nymph) who resided on Mount Cithaeron. She was punished by Hera with a spell that only allowed her to speak the last words she heard.
Europe – Greek – Europa was a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus and taken to Crete where she gave birth to King Minos.
Friday – Norse – Frigg is the goddess of motherhood and marriage. Her name comes from the verb fríja meaning “to love.”
fury – Greek – The Furies were the chthonic goddesses of vengeance.
halcyon – Greek – the halcyon bird had the power to calm the ocean waves so she could nest. Halcyon has come to mean a sense of peace or tranquility.
hurricane – Mayan – likely from the Taino word hurakán, a derivative of the Mayan god of storms, Jun Raqan.
hypnosis – Greek – Hypnos is the personification of sleep. The Roman equivalent is Somnus, giving us somnambulism, aka sleepwalking.
iridescent – Greek – Iris is the personification of the rainbow and a messenger of the gods.
lethargy – Greek – Lethe was the name of a river in the underworld that was also called the River of Unmindfulness or the River of Forgetfulness.
lunar – Roman – Luna is the goddess of the Moon and the divine feminine.
lycanthrope – Greek – Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus. When served a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy, Zeus turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves.
morphine – Greek – Morpheus, son of Hypnos (Somnus), is a god associated with sleep and dreams.
music – Greek – “art of the muses” The Nine Muses were deities that gave humans inspiration for creation.
nectar – Greek – Nectar was the divine drink of Olympian gods. It had the magical property of conferring immortality on any mortal who drank it.
nemesis – Greek – Nemesis is the goddess who enacts retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods).
ocean – Greek – Ôkeanos is god of the river Oceanus, the source of the Earth’s freshwater.
panic – Greek – Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs.
phobia – Greek – Phobos, son of Ares and Aphrodite, is the personification of fear. In Roman mythology, he is known as Pavor or Terror.
psychology – Greek – Psyche is the goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros. She was born a mortal woman, with a beauty that rivaled Aphrodite.
tantalize – Greek – For attempting to serve his own son at a feast with the gods, Tantalas was banished by Zeus to Hades, where he would forever go thirsty and hungry while standing in a pool of water and almost within reach of a fruit tree.
Thursday – Norse – Named after the god of thunder, Thor. The day was known as Þorsdagr meaning Thor’s day in Old English.

If you found this post interesting, you might also be interested in words that changed their meaning over time, the contributions of Shakespeare to the English language, or common phrases that are direct translations from foreign languages!

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Fun Facts About English #66 – Folk Etymology & Gender Nouns

08/14/2020 by admin

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, the word lord can be traced back to the Old English word hlāfweard meaning “loaf-ward” or “bread-keeper,” reflecting the Germanic tribal custom of a chieftain providing food for his followers. Likewise, lady is from the Old English word hlœfdīge and referred to the woman in charge of the household production of food, e.g., kneading of said bread.

As our culture moved into wholly agrarian-based urban societies, land holdings and titles came to denote wealth, authority, and nobility. As individuals rose in status, so did their titles, like Lord and Lady. Where wifman, meaning woman, is the word from which our lawful term wife is derived, so husband, meaning “tiller of the soil,” has come to refer to the legal male head of a household. Such language, revealing in its history, is constantly evolving.

Popular but Mistaken

There is a thing called “folk” or “popular” etymology where one overlays prejudices or preferences on language to justify contemporary ideas or concerns. For example, the “son” in person has no relationship to a male child. Likewise, the “his” in history, from the Greek word historia meaning “to seek knowledge,” has no etymological connection to a male-oriented view of past events, i.e., his story.* Old English hire or her, is the third person singular form of heo or she, with the absolute form being hers.

Another example of folk etymology is the misconception that the words womb and woman are related. Womb is from the Old English word wombe or wambe meaning “stomach” and, besides having no gender specificity, referred to either human or animal organs that sometimes included the intestines and the heart.

Gender Nouns

Next, let’s take a closer look at the nouns male, female, man, woman, and human.

Man or mann derives from Proto-Germanic and meant “person,” referring to both men and women. To be gender specific, wifman and werman were used for a female person and male person respectively. The “wer” in werman survives to this day in the word werewolf, meaning “man-wolf.”

Over time, wifman lost the ‘f’ and became first wimman, then wumman, and finally woman. After the Norman Conquest, the ‘wer’ disappeared from werman to become man, a gender-specific noun referring to males but still maintained the “mankind” inflection meaning “all humans.”

Surprisingly, the word world has its origins in a male-specific etymology. The Anglo-Saxon word werold means “age of man” derived from the compound wer (man) + ald (age). Its definition, on the other hand, is more closely related to a gender-neutral “human existence” or “affairs of life.”

Now, what about male and female? Both of these words came into the English language via Old French. Male is from the Latin masculus, meaning “male,” and was shortened to masle in Old French. Over time, the ‘s’ was dropped and the word became male. Female is derived from the Latin diminutive femina, became femelle in Old French, and finally female in English. In short, the “male” in female has no relationship to the word male meaning “dude.”

Finally, human comes from the Latin word humanus and the Latin root homo, meaning “human being.” It transformed into humaine in Old French and Middle English, and finally human and humane in Modern English. Once again, the word human has no etymological connection with the words male or man in a gender-specific sense.

You might also be interested in the peculiarity of the word widow, the explosion of acronyms in the past two centuries, or the fact that un-friend is actually quite old!

*The Herstory Archives is an archive of Lesbian history and literature founded in the 1970s. The use of “her” in the organization’s name, while clever, is not going to castrate the canons of history nor does it defile any linguistic integrities. Give the women their historical due and move on.

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