Whisky or whiskey

Both the words refer to the alcoholic drink made from grains like barley, maize or rye. The British version is whisky, originated from Scots Gaelic uisge beatha. All Scotch whisky are labelled as such. However, the Americans and Irish prefer the spelling whiskey which originate from Irish Gaelic uisce beathadh. Both are traced to the Gaelic word for 'water of life' usquebaugh. So the next time you have a whisky or whiskey, check the spelling out, it is most likely Scots or American. Irish a little less.

Dark Side Of The Moon

Most Rock fans would have heard of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.  This was a very successful album released in 1973.

The far side of the Moon refers to the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth. It was commonly referred to as the dark side of the Moon, more because it was unknown rather than lack of light. No humans have ever seen the far side directly until astronauts orbited the moon in 1968. The Russians photographed the far side during their lunar probe in 1959. Incidentally, when astronauts go behind the moon, there is no contact with earth as communication is not available. Radio communications go ‘dark’ and astronauts refer to the other side of the moon as the ‘dark side’.  

The near side of the moon refers to the side of the moon that is always facing the earth. Why is this so? The rotation of the moon about its axis is the same as it goes around the earth. There is a mistaken notion that the dark side of the moon never see any light. Actually, the approximately half the surface of the moon is bathe in sunlight at any one time, and that is the reason why we see phases of the moon during its orbit around the earth.

(A similar reference to Africa as the Dark Continent was because it was unknown rather than a reference to its inhabitants. I was quite surprised when I used the phrase in a comment some time ago and I had a group of rather highly irritated uninformed church-going women somewhere in the US ready to lynch me. They were most likely black ladies).

Migrants, Immigrants and Emigrants

Nowadays, the television networks are full of news about refugees from the Middle East and Africa, in Europe, North America and Australia. The word "migrant" is often cynically used by newscasters in describing movement of refugees from war-torned regions to safe havens, especially, Europe.

Migrate is a word related to the movement of groups of animals, or people, from one place to another, particularly during a particular season. For example, birds migrate south during winter. Migrants refer to those animals or people. Of interest is the migrant worker who travels from place to place within the same region or country looking for work. The term economic migrant, in particular, refers to the migrant worker who moves to another region to improve his standard of living. This classification is often used to distinguish unwelcomed migrants from genuine refugees who are granted asylum in a certain country because of political upheaval, racial or religious persecution.

This brings to mind two words, "immigrant" and "emigrant". An immigrant is a person who immigrates TO another country FROM his original country. An emigrant is a person who emigrates FROM his original country TO another country.

There are many reasons for immigrants to leave their former countries. The main ones are jobs availability or better paid ones, a better standard or quality of living, family reunification, retiring, escape from conflicts, religious or racial persecution, or natural disasters. Note that tourists and people who take up temporary or short-term jobs are not immigrants. So are passengers from another country in transit from trains, ships or planes.

Authorization from the country of interest is often required for the immigrant to enter for work, and the term "illegal immigrant" is used often in the news for those who have no authorization. Not too long ago, refugees fleeing the Vietnam War by sea were infamously referred to as "Boat People". It is now generally referring to people who flee their country by boat to hopefully be granted asylum in another country.

Finally, "transmigration", usually a state-sponsored program to move landless people from densely populated areas to less populous areas of the country. (For those interested, Wikipedia has articles on transmigration and social colonialism).

Parrots

Here I am, down under again, at David and Kelly's place in Adelaide, with our granddaughters, Kaitlyn, now 5 years old and Alyssa, 2.  When I first arrived, I was greeted by the squawkings of some colourful birds at the back of their house. I was told by Kaitlyn that they were parakeets. This reminded me of some similar birds behind my sister's house in Canberra. Pat said that the birds were parrots and sometimes cockatoos came too. Now this got me quite excited as I realised that the birds were all belonging to the Parrot family. I thought that it would be interesting to find out more about the various types of parrots and list them out, from a nomenclature aspect.

Here we go! I was quite surprised by my little research. Apparently, there are over 350 species of Parrots in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Three big families can be identified.

o   True Parrots,
o   Cockatoos, 
o   New Zealand Parrots.

Parrots can be found mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. This includes South America, Oceania, South and South East Asia, Africa and Australasia. They have various fancy names like ground parrots, broadtailed parrots, fig parrots, and pygmy parrots. From the Caribbeans, Mexico down to South America, there are the Amazon parrots known simply as Amazons, and long-tailed colourful king-sized parrots, macaws are found, as distinguished from medium sized parrots called lories, lorikeets, budgerigars (budgies), and parakeets. Parakeets are also spelt as paroquet and paraquet. The Australian budgerigar (long-tailed parrots) and Australian rosellas (broad-tailed parrots) are parakeets.  South American parakeets are also called conures.

Cockatoos include black, white, pink and grey cockatoos, and cockatiels. (Cockatoo is derived from the Indonesian name for these birds, kakak tua meaning older sister). There are over 40 different birds  in this family. They are larger than other parrots and less colourful. The cockatiels, however, are quite small. The galahs (pink and rose red cockatoos) and corellas (white cockatoos) are found all over Australia. Some old names for cockatoos include cacato, cockatoon, crockadore, cokato, cocatore and cocatoo.

There are eight species of Parrots from New Zealand. The kakapo, two species of Nestor (kea and kaka), and three species of kakariki or parakeets, and nestors and parakeets from the Chatham Island and The Antipodes Island. Two species of nestors (kakas) from Norfolk Islands are extinct. Nestors are large stocky parrots.

Well, that's a little bit of parrot ornithology for you.

Selfie

Cameras are now incorporated into mobile phones, ipads, and webcams. Being light and easy to use, taking pictures have become relatively simple, more so self-snapped pictures of yourself. Self-taken pictures used to be done using conventional cameras with built in self-timers. These are usually for group pictures with the photographer included.

A word very much heard nowadays is “selfie”.  Everybody is talking about selfie.  A selfie is a picture that you take of yourself with a camera.  The word was first used as far back as 2002, September 13 to be exact, in an Australian Internet forum, ABC Online (Wikipedia).  A self-portrait taken with a camera was first recorded in 1839 when Robert Cornelius took a photograph of himself.  The word “selfie” was not in use yet.  It was only added to the Oxford Dictionaries online in 2013, and is still under consideration for its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary.

As with most new words, there are bound to be misuse and confusion with some people.  I came across the word being used for pictures taken by a celebrity of her baby.  (This was in a well known newspaper, and prompted me to update this blog). A picture that you took of anyone or anything besides yourself is NOT a selfie. Most definitely, not baby’s selfie. Just baby's photographs. Also a selfie is NOT a photograph of yourself taken by someone else. Quite often, selfie has been used in place of photograph. This is probably because self-portraits or selfies are used widely in the social media on-line. To the uninitiated, selfies are any pictures in the social media. Having said that, a photograph of a plate of noodles that you took and posted is therefore not a selfie, even though it belongs to you and you are going to consume it.

Marmalade

Hello there. I am very fond of jams (not the traffic type but the sweet ones), and among my favourites is the blackcurrant jam from South Africa. I am also partial to strawberry and apple jams.  Before 2014 goes away, I bring your attention to something I noticed on the breakfast table this morning.   A “Three Fruit Marmalade” which, by the way, I found to be very delectable. Out of curiosity, I examined the bottle and label, and discovered that it contained three citrus fruits, grapefruit, oranges and lemon.  

This particular three fruit marmalade from England got me puzzled a bit, as I have always thought that marmalade was made from oranges. Maybe this was because, where I grew up, we had only the orange marmalade all the time. Dundee from Scotland produces a very well known orange marmalade since 1797.

A check with some of the best known English dictionaries revealed that marmalade is made from mainly orange but other citrus fruits are also used.

The Concise Oxford  Dictionary, “ a preserve of citrus fruits, usually, bitter oranges, made like jam”.

Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. “a sweet food  made from cooked fruits such as oranges or lemons that is usually spread onto bread and eaten at breakfast.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, ”a jam made from fruit such as oranges, lemons or grapefruit, usually eaten at breakfast.”

I like this one from Cassell’s English Dictionary, “a jam or preserve prepared from fruit, especially oranges or lemons, boiled with the sliced rind.”

Lastly, one from the Webster’s  Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, “  a jellylike preserve in which  small pieces of fruit and fruit rind, as of oranges, lemons, etc., are suspended.”

There you are, the next time you go to the supermarket, look for the ‘Three Fruit’ type. Or the other citrus fruits beside orange. 

For a detailed write up on marmalades  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmalade  would be a good start. It does give an indication as to why some of us in the British Commonwealth countries take it for granted that marmalade is made from orange only. The famous marmalade from Dundee Scotland is made from orange.

Footnote:  A Marmalade cat is a cat with orange fur. The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines it as a cat with fur which is dark orange with small strips of yellow or brown. It is not strange therefore that marmalade is associated with orange only.

With Regard To

This is another very common mistake that I often hear people make. It is simply ignorance of the proper usage of the word. Is it 'With regard to' or 'With regards to'? 

If it is regarding something, you say, 'With regard to your payment......'or  'With regard to the usage of the car,...'. It is not right to say, 'With regards to your payment this month', or 'With regards to the usage of my motorbike'.

'Regards' with the 's' is used in the endearment sense.  You can say, 'With regards to your grandmother', meaning 'With best wishes to your grandmother'. You can see that people say, 'Send my love to so and so. So, similarly you would say, 'Send my regards to Mei Yoke'.