Author Archives: brinton

According to this New York Times article, Americans are using more British expressions such as “Cheers” and “kit”:  

In this recent New York Times article, Robert Lane Greene, author of You are What you Speak, takes the descriptivist side, and Bryan A. Garner, author of Garner’s Modern American Usage, takes the prescriptivist side. In the course of the long exchange, they … Continue reading →

Professor Avuncular Feldspar (Ari Hoptman of Copacabana fame – see earlier post) has three videos explaining the First Sound change: Part 3 may be a bit too detailed for our purposes.

The Open University in the UK has produced a funny video on the history of English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s&list=PL0B3F3F2E7BCC0F51&index=1&feature=plpp_video Caution: There’s a bit of language which might offend some.

Archeological evidence in Denmark provides convincing evidence that the Germanic tribes fought fiercely: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/warrior-remains-2000-years-old-found-in-denmark.html?_r=1  

In this insightful article from the New York Times, Geneva Smitherman and H. Samy Alim discuss Obama’s use of a range of dialects: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/obama-and-the-racial-politics-of-american-english.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 Be sure to click on the link to Obama’s visit Ben’s Chili Bowl and listen to … Continue reading →

The New York Times has done an analysis of the most frequent words used at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. This is nicely represented graphically in the linked article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/06/us/politics/convention-word-counts.html?emc=eta1 It shows you that words matter!

Thanks to Ari Hoptman for making syntax fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB1m4w9j79o  

Merriam-Webster editors have produced a variety of short YouTube segments on questions of English usage (“flat adverbs”, “who” vs. “whom”, etc.) and vocabulary. (“gridiron”, “cop”, “literally”, etc.). They’re quite well done. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UULGx1Xl1Nd1iJ37dWeNnp-A&feature=plcp  

Slate.com recently had a very interesting discussion of the Northern Cities Shift, a change in short vowel which is affecting US cities around the Great Lakes but which has not crossed the Canadian border. Here is the link: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2012/08/northern_cities_vowel_shift_how_americans_in_the_great_lakes_region_are_revolutionizing_english_.html Another … Continue reading →