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'.

Offense and Offence

I'm back. Sabbatical year? Not really, just got busy with other pursuits.

I got rejuvenated with an email that I wrote to my A-level classmates from Ipoh in the late sixties. We were recalling nicknames given to each other, when I decided to chip in a bit to remind ourselves of how cheeky we could be those teenage years. Among those listed were a few who were no longer with us. I would offer a posthumous apology in each  case. Nickname, So and so. (no offense meant, So and so.)

It dawned on me that I used the word offense in each case, and being a former British Colony, Malaysians are taught the English or English English. So, the correct spelling should be offence.

So what is the difference between offense and offence?

Both words have the same meaning. Americans prefer offense.

Now, this opened a new kettle of fish. In the post independence era, some fifty over years now, many Malaysians went to American universities and they came home bringing along the American variation of  numerous everyday words. Color for colour, organise for organize. So, we now have a mixture of both American and British English spellings depending on the prevailing influence in the schools or office that you go to, the kind of books and newspapers that you read, and your preference for McDonalds or Fish and Chips.

For a simple introduction to American and British spellings this website is quite appropriate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences

Other variations comes from major English speaking countries like Australia, Canada and NewZealand and the British Commonwealth countries.

Same Spelling Different Pronunciation Different Meaning

It has been awhile that I wrote anything. June and I are back at Sarah and Scott's place in Parramatta,  Sydney. The weather is fine, and whether or not (homophone here unintentional) you realise it, there are many words in English that are pronounced differently, with different meanings, even though they have the same spelling. I am sure you can name quite a few. Such words, usually pairs, are referred to as Heteronyms.

Here are some examples (with sub-classification indicated for some variations of Heteronyms)

Read -  present and past tense. (Rhymes with hid and had) (Grammatical Function Heteronyms).

Polish -  wax and polish the floor and citizens of Poland (Capitonyms)

Resume and Resumé -  to begin again and a summary (Accent Heteronymns)

Now for the True Heteronyms - words that have the same spellings but have unique pronunciations and unique meanings.

lead - to guide and the metal. (Rhymes with lid and led)
row - row, row, row your boat and quarrel or have a row with your boss. (Rhymes with crow and cow)
wind - wind the clock (behind) and blowing in the wind (Bob Dylan)
minute - there are 60 seconds in a minute and there were minute amounts of arsenic in the dead husband's body.
present - the past and present and let me present to you our latest collection of diamonds from Pulau Ketam.

How about the following words :
desert
refuse
produce

For a more thorough discussion of heteronyms, the following website should be of interest: 

http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_heteronyms.html

A and An

Today, let's talk about "a" and "an". When I was in school, may I add, a long time ago, my teacher told us this simple rule. Use "a" for words beginning with a consonant letter....a pussy cat, a church mouse, a silly nanny; use "an" for words beginning with a vowel....an orang utan, an old horse, an idiot, and so on.

Actually, the choice depends on whether the word begins with a consonant sound or not. This may be right or wrong, and is a bit tricky, as some words may be pronounced differently with dialects from different parts of the world. Take the word "history". The "h" is usually prounounced, hence "a history". However, with Cockney English,  sometimes the word is pronounced with the "h" dropped.  Hence, "an historian" or "an historical novel".  Saying "an history", "an hotel", etc., is incorrect and is not in keeping with proper English pronunciation anywhere, and does not appear in standard writing.

Above everything, in proper English, with words beginning with "h" but not pronounced, "an" is used. "An hour", "an heir". This is correct.

"A" is also used for words beginning with a "You" sound.  Thus, we say "a used old bag" or "a United fan"

Finally (?) , common errors occur in report writing, where numbers are involved. These are usually out of sheer carelessness or ignorance. For example, "They are going to build a RM80 million sports complex down the road." "An" should be the correct word.  "With a Do-It-Yourself bookshelves and wardrobes available in the market, furniture makers are losing out to the departmental stores". The "a" should be dropped.      

Flammable and Inflammable

Look at these pairs of words. Accurate and inaccurate. Appropriate and inappropriate. Decent and indecent. You can name many pairs like those I have pointed out. The second word is the opposite of the first, simply by adding the prefix "in".  There is, however, a strange case, in the words flammable and inflammable.

There is no difference in meaning between flammable and inflammable. Both mean burn easily. There is a preference, however,  for flammable in both British and American English. 
   
Actually, inflammable is the original form, derived from the verb inflame. "In" is derived from the Latin preposition meaning en (engulf, endanger, enslave) not the prefix meaning un. But because it’s easy to interpret the in as the common negative prefix in (as in inaccurate, inappropriate), the word has always caused confusion. Therefore it was only a matter of time, that Safety and Fire Protection Agencies and Associations would urged the use of the word "flammable" rather than "inflammable".

Bill Bryson (Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Penguin Reference, 1984) has this to say, "Because the meaning of inflammable is so often misapprehended, there is an increasing tendency to use the less ambiguous flammable. In other cases this might be considered a regrettable concession to ignorance. But it would be even more regrettable to insist on linguistic purity at the expense of safety."

Hanged and Hung

Now, hanged and hung are derived from the same word "hang". You hang pictures on the wall. So they were hung there last week. When prisoners are sentenced to be executed by hanging, it is laughable to say that they were hung yesterday. The correct term is "hanged". It is not that difficult to remember then. People are hanged. Pictures and other objects are hung.

But a reminder. Prisoners were hanged. Not "hanged to death". "Hanged" means that the prisoner is dead already.

Can and May

It's August 8. I suddenly remembered one common colloquialism which is unacceptable in formal usage. You have probably heard it quite often before, but can applies to ability and may denotes permission. Thus we say, " Yes you can go, but no you may not." In other words, we mean, " Yes, you have the ability to go, but no you dont have my permission."

In informal usage, can and may are used interchangeably. [Can is generally used for both permission and ability. Can I go now? You can if you want to ....This is in such general usage that it should be regarded as good English in speaking and in informal writing. (Book of Usage and Abusage; Eric Partridge, 1954)] Thus I often hear this from friends, " Can I borrow your dictionary?", or "Can I have a ride back home today?" They are both grammatically wrong in formal usage. May should be substituted for Can.

May also implies uncertainty, possibility and wish in some usage: "We may buy a new washing machine when the company gives us a month's salary as bonus this year."

Could and might also add to the confusion. Could implies ability but with conditions attached: "We could get new computers for the office if we had the money". Could is also a polite way of asking a question: "Could you do this for me?" Might shows less probability that can, could or may. "The PC we ordered might get here next week." "Sure, they have been telling us that for three months, but it might never get here." (The New American Dictionary of Confusing words; Wiliam C Paxson, Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990).

Might is used after a governing verb in the past tense, may after such a verb in the present tense: "She says we may go." "She said that we might go." (Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression; Harry Shaw, Washington Square Press, 1975)

Repeat Again

This is another of those common redundancy in spoken English. When we want someone to say what he had said earlier, we do not request him to "repeat again" what he said. The correct way is to ask him to "repeat" what he said.

Repeat means to say or write something again. The prefix re means again. So we say" Please repeat that", or "Please say that again", NOT "Please repeat that again". In the last sentence "again" is superfluous.

Pronounciation?

Just the other day, I overheard this guy talking about how words can often be mispronounced. I joined in the conversation. When he said that "pro-noun-ciation" must be right or it may convey a different meaning, I was amused at his apparent ignorance of the pronunciation of the word.

Pronunciation is the noun formed from the verb pronounce. It is not pronounciation. Certainly, it is not surprising then that, the uninformed would pronounced it as pronounciation.

Anyway, most of us, me included, would have been guilty of mispronouncing words like zoology, culinary, awry, macabre, and misled, at one time or other. Understandably, mispronunciation occurs when we are confused by the different ways words with similar spelling are pronounced differently. For example, dough and tough, beard and heard and bear and dear. This is especially so with the way locals spell certain words especially names of people and places. Try Geoffery or Julio, Durham, Worcester, or Derby. How about the Mojave Desert or Mexico?

There are exceptions where American English is concerned. Common examples are schedule, vase, and route. They are pronounced differently in English English.

Alumnus, Alumna and Alumni

Nowadays my wife June is busy with her MGS (Methodist Girls School) Alumni. Alumni are the former students or graduates of a school, college or university. Hence MGS Alumni comprise of the former students of that school.

It is quite interesting to note that where before, alumnus (singular) and alumni (plural) referred to male graduates of academic institutions, alumni has now evolved to mean former men and women graduates of coeducational institutions. Most dictionaries define alumnus as a male graduate or former student. A new term alumna has now been coined to refer specifically to a female graduate or former student of the school, college or university (alumnae plural). Hence David is an alumnus of UNSW and Sarah an alumna of UTS.

Usage has changed over the years, and the words now also refer to former employees of organisations, and former inmates of prisons. It is quite interesting to note that many terms are now being rephrased into sex-neutral language, for example stewardesses are called Flight Attendants, Freshman to First Year Student, and Coed to the gender-free Student. Graduate is preferred in a non-sexist world. (Dictionary Of Confusing Words by William C Paxson, Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990).

Biannual, Biennial, Bimonthly and Biweekly

I used to get a bit confused when the words biannual and biennial were mentioned. Biannual means twice a year and bienniel means every two years. Thus we go back to our home town biannually, for Chinese New Year and for Christmas. We take a vacation abroad biennially, that is once every two years.

Biennial can also mean lasting for two years. Thus a bienniel plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its lifecycle. It bears leaves, stems and roots in the first year, and then flowers, produces fruits and seeds and dies in the second year.

Now there are confusion where bimonthly (or bi-monthly) is concerned. Bimonthly means occurring every two months, but is often taken to mean twice a month! A similar error is encountered with biweekly (or bi-weekly). I guess to be clear, we should say "twice a month" or "every two months".

Split or Spit Image

Today our first grandchild is home (she's two month's old). Welcome home, Kaitlyn!!


At breakfast I mentioned that in her latest movie, Meryl Streep looks very much like Margaret Thatcher..the split image of the then British Prime Minister. June (my wife) said the phrase should be "spit image". Wow, I was caught there for a second and insisted that split image was the correct term.

A search in contemporary English dictionaries reveal that "spitting image" was the more likely, and correct idiom for "someone who looks exactly like another person" [Macmillan English Dictionary]. "Split image" was not mentioned at all in all the dictionaries available in my library.

However, for fear that I might be splitting hairs or spitting in disgust over which is the correct phrase, those interested in a discussion on the origin of the above phrases, the following websites should be enlightening:
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/8509/spitting-image-or-splitting-image
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spitting-image.html
There is even an amusing webpage http://www.splitting-images.com/celebrity_list.html on clones of your favourite personalitites.

Soulmate

Recently, a well known artiste got married and the newspaper headline screamed "...... Found His Soulmate At Last". It got me thinking about the misleading usage of the word.

My Macmillan English Dictionary defines soulmate as someone who you have a special relationship with because you share the same feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. For example a political or philosophical soulmate.

A soulmate can be of the same gender or opposite. Having said that, your spouse may or may not be a soulmate (can be a nightmare sometimes). Although, ideally, a spouse should be your soulmate.

Believers, Fanatics, and Bigots

Nowadays, these three words are quite often (there are more, actually) inferred to some followers of the major religions of the world. I will limit this mini-discussion to the usage of these words in this aspect although one can be a believer of health food or fashion, another a football fanatic, and yet another a racial bigot.

Generally, these words are an indication of the depth (rightly or wrongly) of the follower's conviction in his particular faith. A believer then is a person who has a religious belief (or who has the confidence in something good). He could be a Christian, a Muslim or a Hindu, for example.

Let's have a look at the Christian believer. He could be a passive follower, meaning that he professes the faith in name only and rarely engages in the rituals of the faith. About the only time that he exhibits his particular faith are during the festive occasions, when he gets married, or when he gets buried. An active follower, on the other hand, attends church on Sundays, participates in the various activities of the church such as welfare for poor and needy, visitations of the sick and elderly, prayer meetings, helping out with the Library, or sings in the choir. Passive or active devotees do not make them fanatics or bigots.

A fanatic is a believer filled with excessive and often misguided enthusiasm for his particular faith. For example, fanatic Christians wear thorny crowns and carry heavy wooden crosses during Easter in the Philippines. A fanatic talks incessantly about his faith and indulges in wild and extravagant notions of the religion. A zealot is a fanatic who has extremely strong beliefs, and is too eager to make other people share them. Being a fanatic, enthusiast, or zealot do not make one a bigot. They are still friendly people, if you know them.

Who then is a bigot? Webster's New World Dictionary defines bigot as a person who holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed or belief. He thinks that anyone who does not hold the same beliefs is wrong. In particular, a bigot is one who exhibits intolerance and animosity towards one of another creed or belief (Wikipedia).

However, take note that he may not be a true believer, devotee or fanatical about his belief. He just takes an active part in showing his displeasure claiming to be a loyal, ardent and firm believer of his superior creed or belief.