Language notes from the slopes of E-15.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yet another note. There appears to be an official committee, rather like the
French Academy, that determines what neologisms shall be allowed "into the
language."

Foreign words, or words with non-Norse etyma, are evidently not admitted.
The usual word for "telephone," for ex., was intentionally lifted from one
of the sagas, though I didn't get a chance to ask just what it meant there.


A glance at a couple of Icelandic newspapers suggests just how effective the
committee is.  There's very little in the way of terms for modern technology
that are even vaguely guessable by a speaker of English.

Yet, as noted before, Icelanders officially start to learn English in the
third grade.

JL

On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Language notes from the slopes of E-15.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jun 25, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think my
> > daughter had a class with him.
>
> "It's a small world," to coin a phrase.
>
> BTW, someone here once gently pointed out to me something along the
> lines of, "to use a cliche" is more apt, in cases such as these. You
> know who you are. Now, I'd now like to respond.
>
> Shit, man! Iss spodin t' be a got-dam *joke*!
>
> Sadly, you weren't the first person to have the intended jocularity
> escape his notice. People have been failing to get it, IME, since
> about 1967.
>
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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