word verification

Some blogs (including this one) require you to type in a random word to show you are a human and not a spam-bot or the like. The words are, inevitably, random and usually nonsensical. Today's word, however, looks like it deserved a proper definition and ought to come into regular use in the English language.

The word? Squituse

It's splendid. memorable, yet somehow has slightly disgusting overtones.

Now I'm talking about a word like a wine-taster. Time to stop.

400 years of the Authorized Version

On May 2, 2011 it will be 400 years since the Authorized Version (often referred to as the King James Version) of the Bible was first published. To mark this, you can even get a widget to add to blogs and websites to give you a countdown to the anniversary. An odd juxtaposition of high tech and heritage.

The AV wasn't the first translation of the Bible into the common tongue of people living in England (calling it English might be a bit misleading!) Parts of the Bible had been translated into vernacular going back to the time of the Venerable Bede, and the first full translation into English was completed by Wyclif in the 14th century. The first printed Bible in English was the Coverdale Bible of 1535, which in turn drew on Tyndale's earlier translation work. In fact Tyndale's Bible is regarded as the main foundation for what became known as the AV.

What distinguishes the AV is that it not only had official sanction (earlier versions had also received that), it was the widespread acceptance as the definitive translation of its era. Along with the Book of Common Prayer and the plays of Shakespeare, it shaped the English language, and gave us many phrases that continue to be used to this day. It also shaped the style and form of English used in subsequent translations, such as the Revised Standard Version and New International Version.

More recent translations have access to older manuscripts and greater scope of scholarship, and are certainly more understandable for the modern-day reader in English. However, even if you regard it as a piece of English literature and no more, it has to be acknowledged that it is a tremendous piece of work.

Read more about the celebrations here http://www.2011trust.org/

Equal and Diverse

We recently caught up with some telly viewing, which included a couple of episodes of George Gently, the police stories set in Tyneside in 1964. Great North East locations, a fantastic collection of classic cars and the rather shocking reminder that we still had the death penalty when Merseybeat was on the radio.

The last episode touched on issues of race and religion. People of Yemeni Arab descent, born in NE England with Geordie accents featured in the story, and terminology of the era to refer to people with 'non-white' skin regularly featured in the script. Some stereotypes were also included (in a sometimes slightly clunky way) such as 'they all look the same'.

I thought it was a very interesting way to hold a mirror up to society today. The language used in 1964 (or even the Life on Mars scenes from 1973) seems quite alien and shocking now, especially when it comes from the lips of characters who are otherwise the heroes of the piece. Gently himself refers in this episode to a time when his 'racialist' [note the terminology which is correct for 1964] language led to a sequence of events which may have criminalised a young man.

The question in my mind is whether our sanitisation of language has actually achieved as much for equality and diversity as we sometimes want to believe. Prejudice is no longer publicly articulated, except in certain notable cases such as the recent BNP success. However, E & D policies can lull us into thinking that prejudice is over, or (worse) that we no longer have any prejudices.

Personally, I think that we all have prejudices. It may be about certain ethnicity, nationality or religion; it may be about other human qualities. They often leak out very slowly, or get projected on to relatively safe issues - long 'a' or short 'a' in grass, football allegiances, etc. - but they continue to be present. An approach to E&D that implies otherwise hasn't properly taken human nature into account. Perhaps those of us concerned with these issues need to be a bit more humble and a bit more more understanding (as distinct from tolerant) of where people's prejudices come from and how the fears behind them can be addressed.

A matter of punctuation

I wasn't really listening, but on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, I heard something like:

"It's not the Lord's role to bring down legislation."

then I realised it was:

"It's not the Lords' role to bring down legislation"

Political, not theological, then. All due to an apostrophe!

Racist Language

The recent concern over Prince Harry being caught using the term "paki" on a video raises interesting questions. How much can context and intention mitigate the use of language, which would be offensive in other contexts? What difference does the attitude of the recipient of the language make to the way those outside the conversation should judge it (such as the man nick-named "Sooty" at Cirencester Park Polo Club)? Would it matter if the video had remained private, rather than falling in the hands of the News of the World (whose concern is to sell papers, not raise moral standards)

I guess most people have friendship where the banter of conversation includes words that would be insulting in other circumstances. That includes terms that relate to people's origins, such as the Aussie/Pom exchanges during test cricket matches. The problem is where there are connections fresh in the corporate memory of prejudice and violence. For people of Pakistani background (and Indian / Bangladeshi / Sri Lankan) there will be painful recent memories of violence against their communities from racist thugs yelling "paki". I doubt the term can ever be redeemed, although some are trying, but white Anglo-Saxons aren't going to be the people who can do it.

The use of a word doesn't define someone as a racist for ever, and I'm sure there are racists who are very careful about the words they use. This episode is just a warning that carelessness can cause great offence, kindle fear (and prejudice) and remind us that although racism may be less overt in our society, it is still a fresh memory and sometimes current experience for many people

Swearing

The whole Ross / Brand thing has raised quite a debate about bad language on TV, and more generally in society. I've recently corresponded with a friend who was somewhat surprised at the amount of swearing he heard in a church context. It was timely, then, that Clive James decided to address the issue on Radio 4 on Sunday in his contribution to Points of View. In it he also refers to Frank Skinner's experiment in eliminating swear words from his routine, which had little effect on the number of laughs he got.

Skinner's observation in an interview I heard was that he was surprised how well it went. He will continue to use swear words, as they are more dramatically and comically effective when rationed, but add punctuation. As he puts it "clever swearing, the beautiful, eloquent swearing", referring to Chaucer as a literary precedent!

James is in sympathy with this view and suggests that laughs from audiences that are shocked / embarrassed by over-use are very different from proper laughs from an audience that has been amused by clever wit and humour.

Best to read the article - he puts the case much better.

Quaint Road Works

Yellow road sign in M6 contraflow: Free Recovery. Await Rescue.

When did you ever hear anyone use the word "await" in spoken English. How did it find its way on to a road sign, especially those yellow ones with black lettering they use in road works?

English Theme Tunes

My son was looking for theme tunes for his school English group - it was a task they were set this week. He settled on Paperback Writer by the Beatles (he is his father's son). I wondered what else we could suggest:

Great American Novel - Larry Norman
Lady Writer - Dire Straits

Help me out here!

More predictive

Debs texted the other day, saying she was having tea and circuits. Better than coffee and bald, I suppose.

Opposites

What's the opposite of 'big up'? Neg down?

And what's the opposite of cool? It can't be hot, because some things that are hot are cool. (Top of any what's hot, what's not list must be the coolest item). So the opposite of cool must be warm, because nothing warm is hot or cool, unless you count getting warm in a quiz. Getting the right answer could be cool, but by then you're hot, not warm.

And what's the opposite of average?

Where is the South?

Following on from being northern, it led me to think about where 'the south' begins. (Berwick if you're Scottish). For the English, it's a bit more tricky.

Real southerners talk about north of Watford. North of the Trent was more credible. I just wonder if it's where you start pronouncing 'bath' and 'grass' with a short 'a'. I used to live in Coventry (predominantly short 'a') and often went to Leamington Spa or Kenilworth (a lot more long 'a') so the boundary must be somewhere near Stoneleigh or Bubbenhall in Warwickshire.

Of course, the border isn't straight, so other candidates for north/south would be interesting. I suspect Cornwall has more in common with the north than with Surrey

Pythonesque aside

For some reason I was thinking about the Python sketch where someone can't say the letter 'c' and it comes out as 'b' (hard to describe in writing!). Describing their education, they refer to Queens' Bollege, Bambridge (or Keble Bollege Oxford in another version).

Just as well this University didn't exist then, or we'd be the University of Bumbria. Sounds like something from The Importance of Being Earnest!

Soccer

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there does seem to be a fairly recent trend in suggesting that 'soccer' is a US-English term for what we know as football. It's complete rubbish, of course. I remember Soccer Special on the TV in the 70s, and I think there used to be a comic aimed at boys called Soccer, too.

If I remember right, Association Football was nicknamed 'soccer' by posh kids at independent schools to distinguish it from the (then more prestigious) Rugby Football or 'rugger'.

So if Becks is now playing soccer for LA Galaxy, he stands in a fine English linguistic tradition and he needs to claim the word back on behalf of this side of the Atlantic, along with 'posse', 'gotten' (features in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer) and various other alleged Americanisms.

Redefinition PS

Steve asked if I wanted people to join in with this. Please do - just add your own suggestions in the comments.

Redefinitions

Invent a new definition for a known word - just for fun.

Biomass: a service of Holy Communion with an environmental theme

Cliché

A recent radio programme was lamenting the number of clichés being used by presenters and newsreaders. It made me wonder when something becomes a cliché. How many times does a phrase have to be used before it qualifies, and why do some phrases escape the label? After all, no-one says "God is love" is a cliché.

I suppose repetition and meaninglessness have to be qualities of a good cliché. Politicians have a particular skill at their deployment, along with the legendary linguistic skills of English football managers. Ernest Bevin once described a fellow politician as "clitch after clitch" (His pronunciation left a little to be desired!) I am sure we can agree on that, but what about Christian clichés? Maybe we ought to try and start a list.

Please contribute, because at the end of the day, I'll be over the moon to hear from you and sick as a parrot if I don't.

Is there a green hill outwith the city wall?

Outwith. It's a word that gets used in College meetings to mean outside - as in "let's deal with that outwith the meeting". Apparently although it's not in the dictionary, Google has Scottish references (e.g. civil marriages in Glasgow). As my spoof title suggests, it has the ring of without (=outside) when used in hymns. What is it about corporate documentation and meetings that makes us talk like this, given that we are some way south of the border?