Planeta Tangerina

These books make adding 'learn to speak Portuguese' to my 'to do' list, a must do!

French

Greg's paternal family is Francophone, which enhances my desire to ensure that our son is fluent in both of Canada's official languages. I can attest personally to the difficulty that many unilingual people experience in trying to grasp a second language later in life when they've had limited exposure to the language (aside from memorizing the endings to er, re, and ir verbs) early in life. While I know that there are many things I could be doing to make Thomas keenly aware of French at this time, I'm not exactly sure where to begin. I'd like to create a home where listening to French radio, chatting with Greg casually in French while making dinner, and reading French story books are common occurrences. Any tips on introducing your child to a second language when you're far from fluent in it yourself? So far we're principally introducing Thomas to new cultures and languages though Wee Sing global lullabies (thank you for the cds MIL). Images via Little Circus.

Words to Avoid

I'm a civil servant by day, so my list of words and phrases we "don't" say includes: on a go-forward basis, incentivize, massage, close the circle/loop, COB (close of business), KIV (keep in view), synergy, drill down, engage, due diligence and fulsome (used in lieu of the term thorough). *Note: I'm a public servant too and I've never used any of these horrendous terms...or at least I won't on a go-forward basis! Greg*

If you're a journalist, perhaps your list looks like Kurt Andersen's (above). Via Swiss Miss.

Words

Words can become endangered species and everyday many English words float into obscurity.

As a child, I took it upon myself to teach my younger brother (four and a half years younger, that is) a new word. Continuing our long love of words, as teenagers, my mother would share one new word per day (I think she had a web-service that emailed her the word, its origin and its meaning daily) over dinner and challenge us to put it to use.

This website, Save the Words, offers a similar challenge: adopt a word that is at risk of becoming obsolete/forgotten and use it to assist in maintaining its relevance. The idea is that when others hear it they too will commit it to memory and the word will be saved from endangerment. The site asks you select one word, and promise to use that word as often as possible. Some such words available for adoption, you ask? Solennial (meaning annually), brochity (meaning crooked teeth) and odynometer (meaning a measurement for pain).

Interestingly, in typing this entry, the only words that my spellchecker has flagged are those three words ripe for adoption... sounds like proof of their worthiness to me.

Dialect

I think people often say "accent" when then real mean to say is "dialect". I'm not terribly proficient in imitating dialects, but I think my version of a Harlowite is spot on. If you think you're a master dialect impersonator, you must visit the speech accent archive. For fun, you can listen to various dialects to see how close they come to your interpretation.

The site compiles the way people from all over the world recite this English elicitation paragraph (which contains most of the consonants, vowels, and clusters of standard North American English):

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Give it a try. I'm inclined to record myself and submit it to the site, so that a true, not stereotypical, Newfoundlander can be on record. Illustration by James Collins.