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<a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca"><h2 class="">Lingua Franca</h2></a>
<div class=""><p>Language and writing in academe.</p> </div>
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March 20, 2015 by <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/author/ametcalf/" title="View all posts by Allan Metcalf" rel="author">Allan Metcalf</a>
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<h2 class="">Monday Is OK Day</h2>
<p><img alt="Inline image 1" src="cid:ii_14c37d4f0b9be318" height="224" width="225">Monday is the anniversary of the birth of the expression OK, 176 years ago, on the second page of the <em>Boston Morning Post</em>
for Saturday, March 23, 1839. OK began as a joke, a deliberately
misspelled abbreviation of “all correct.” And it remained a joke for the
better part of a century, even as it was being put to serious use in
OK-ing documents, train departures and arrivals, and wholesome products
like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1862/10/23/news/the-best-soap-in-use-james-pyle-s-ok-soap.html">Pyle’s O.K. Soap</a>.</p>
<p>But that’s not the most important reason for celebrating OK. In all
seriousness, OK contributes to making the world a better place, or at
least more tolerable.</p>
<p>There was no “gap in the language” that OK was called on to fill.
Before 1839, speakers of English (and the many other languages that have
adopted OK) got along quite well without it. For an equivalent
expression, they could, and we still can, say “all right.” (In the 1830s
Boston newspapers had a humorous abbreviation a.w. for “all right,” but
that quickly died out. Why OK persisted instead is a whole ‘nother
story, having to do in part with the <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2015/03/02/ok-konspicuous-kurious-komical/">letter K</a>.)</p>
<p>I have claimed that this OK is the two-letter essence of an American
philosophy of pragmatism, of being concerned above all with getting
things done. Something did not need to be perfect to be OK.</p>
<p>But to put it another way, OK introduced a new dividing line between
success and failure. If an arrangement or a product is OK, it may be
only a partial success, but it’s good enough to get by. Maybe very good,
maybe just tolerable. The important thing is that the speaker or writer
considers it satisfactory.</p>
<p>We use this OK all the time. If someone slips and falls, we
immediately ask, “Are you OK?” And the downed person performs triage
with a quick Yes or No—Yes, give me a minute and I’ll recover, or No,
call an ambulance.</p>
<p>OK performs this function countless times every day as we coordinate
meeting times and places. Like in Shakespeare: “OK, Caesar, see you in
the Capitol on the ides”; “OK, Hamlet, I’ll join you on the watchtower
at midnight.”</p>
<p>What is OK for one person, of course, may be quite different from
what is OK for another. Negotiations are often necessary until everyone
is OK with an arrangement. Some may be happy, others reluctant, but the
arrangement isn’t definite until everyone has given the OK.</p>
<p>There are different ways of saying and writing OK to indicate
different degrees of enthusiasm. I’ve heard from some members of the
current millennial generation that texting “K” means grudging approval,
“OK” means positive approval, and “okay” implies a degree of enthusiasm.
At least those are the signals for some; others surely have different
forms of OK for their friends, just as everyone can say OK aloud with
varying degrees of enthusiasm.</p>
<p>Since OK is known for this use around the world, it’s possible to
arrange a picnic or safari with someone whose language you don’t know,
all by using OK with appropriate inflections. How’s that for a
universal language? A little easier to learn than Esperanto.</p>
<p>OK performs this important function, and many others, so efficiently
and modestly that we hardly realize how much we depend on it. So let’s
take one day to celebrate America’s and the world’s greatest word. OK?</p><p>Forwarded from the Chronicle of Higher Education<br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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