Wordorigins.org

Grant Barrett over at The Lexicographer’s Rules has an excellent and devastating review of Daniel Cassidy’s book How the Irish Invented Slang. I haven’t read the book (nor do I intend to), but I have encountered Cassidy’s work in the past. He is the epitome of bad scholarship and gives valuable lessons in exactly how not to conduct an intellectual inquiry.

The proximate cause for Grant’s review is a credulous article published in The New York Times that failed to ask anyone else in the field whether there was any merit to Cassidy’s work. Had the reporter done, or the editor insisted on, some basic research, then it would have become readily apparent that Cassidy is a crank. We expect better from the “paper of record.” If there is a reason that old, mainline media will be killed by bloggers and the internet, it’s articles like these. The advantage that newspapers have is their editorial staff and systems of review and fact checking. But if newspapers fail to take advantage of their strengths, then they will certainly die a swift and well-deserved death.

If you’re thinking about buying the book, read Grant’s review first.

Podcasting is new medium of sorts and there are several podcasts about language that are worth taking a look at. I say, “of sorts,” because at its heart podcasting isn’t much different from radio. The method of transmission is different and the barrier to entry has been significantly lowered—enabling almost anyone to create their own podcasts—but it’s still just an aural communication medium.

The following are some language-oriented podcasts that you should check out. All are free and all are available via iTunes, as well as separately through their websites.

One of the daunting things about looking at Old English text is the alphabet. It has, to the modern English speaker, some odd characters. These put people off, although they are not difficult to master. Less obvious is the fact that some modern letters are absent from Old English texts.

Modern versions of Old English texts frequently add diacritical marks, usually as an aid in pronunciation (or, more accurately, an aid in how the transcriber thinks the words were pronounced). These do not exist in the original texts and can usually be ignored.

Slate has a neat video featuring a British-born reporter visiting a dialect coach to find out how British actors learn to speak with American accents.

Do you have any little bottles of water?

With the New York Times ending their disastrous “TimesSelect” online service (that charged people for “premium” content, the equivalent of which was given away for free by every other newspaper in the country), the entire archive of New York Times articles, dating back to 1851, is now available for free to everyone. Simply go to www.nytimes.com and do a search.

The archive is broken into two sections: articles since 1981 and articles published between 1851 and 1981. The older articles are delivered as PDF documents. Unfortunately, they’re not full text searchable once downloaded, so locating the exact word or phrase your looking for in the article can be a challenge. But for a free service, this is a minor annoyance.