World Wide Words -- 15 Apr 00

[Michael Quinion]

WORLD WIDE WORDS         ISSUE 186           Saturday 15 April 2000
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Sent weekly to more than 8,000 subscribers in at least 97 countries
Editor: Michael Quinion    ISSN 1470-1448    Thornbury, Bristol, UK
Web: <http://www.quinion.com/words/>    E-mail: <words at quinion.com>
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Contents
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1. Turns of Phrase: Golden rice.
2. Book review: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary.
3. Weird Words: Logan stone.
4. Q & A: Slang, Derby, Donkey's years, Girl and youth.
5. Administration: LISTSERV commands, Copyright.


1. Turns of Phrase: Golden rice
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It's really a carroty-orange colour, but that doesn't carry with it
the associations with value and excellence that 'golden' has. The
rice is this colour as a side effect of genetic modifications that
add beta-carotene to the seeds, a substance that human beings can
turn into Vitamin A. Millions of malnourished people worldwide
don't get enough of this vitamin in their diet; lack of it leads to
blindness and greater susceptibility to disease. It is hoped that
the level of beta-carotene can be made high enough to provide the
average person eating 300g of rice a day with all the Vitamin A he
or she needs. The modified plants have other genes that double the
amount of iron in the rice, to combat another dietary deficiency
that can lead to anaemia. The new variety of rice was created in
Switzerland with financial backing by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Unlike some genetically modified crops, the seeds will be widely
available to farmers in developing countries without conditions
being attached; for example, farmers will be able to keep seed to
sow next year's crop. The new rice should be available in two or
three years' time.

The result is 'golden rice' - yellow grains that contain enough
beta-carotene to supply all of a person's vitamin A needs.
                                       [_New Scientist_, Aug, 1999]

The new green revolution driven by biotechnology will vastly
improve the nutritional value and pest-resistance of basic food
crops, such as the new vitamin-A rich 'golden rice.'
                                    [_Washington Times_, Mar. 2000]


2. Book review: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
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This new edition of a work first published in 1990 is firmly in the
tradition of British linguistics. Its author, John Wells, is the
Professor of Phonetics at the University of London, a chair once
held by Daniel Jones. Professor Jones wrote a work that was my
bible when I worked for the BBC in the sixties, the _English
Pronouncing Dictionary_, one that is itself not only still in
print, but in a new edition published in 1997.

It's a brave man who attempts to chart the subtle shifts in the way
that English speakers handle their native tongue, especially when
you consider the substantial national and regional variations that
must be taken into account. Professor Wells has built on the first
edition to produce a new edition of great breadth.

It would be impossible to note those shifts without using the
International Phonetic Alphabet, a system now common in British
dictionaries - partly because the IPA concept was invented in
Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by a
group that included Daniel Jones himself. However, it is found less
often in general works published outside the UK. Readers who have
not been exposed to this notation will need time to master it.
(World Wide Words regulars have an advantage, as mailings use a
simplified version of the same scheme.)

If you're prepared to work at it, this book is a treasure house of
information on how to say a very large number of words - about
130,000 of them on the publisher's estimate - not only those to be
found in dictionaries, but proper names, foreign words, local and
regional variants, and inflected and derived forms.

It also charts the shifting pronunciations of some common words,
such as the way some speakers put a 'y' before the vowel in 'lure',
or how 'issue' is more often said by younger people in Britain with
a slack-jawed vowel and an 'sh' sound. Such notes, partly based on
a 1998 survey, are often accompanied by graphs and diagrams to show
differences between age groups. There are pronunciation notes for
every letter and the text is peppered with about a hundred boxed
texts that discuss matters of phonetic importance, such as
assimilation, plosive sounds, diphthongs and labiodental sounds.

All in all a valuable reference work for the student of phonetics
or the serious enquirer into the way our language is spoken.

{Wells, Prof John, _Longman Pronunciation Dictionary_ published by
Longman Education, March 2000, ISBN 0-582-36467-1. British
publisher's prices are GBP14.99 (paper) and GBP19.99 (cased).]


3. Weird Words: Logan stone
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A rocking stone.

Britain has several celebrated examples of this odd geological
formation, which can be moved back and forth by applying varying
amounts of force. Logan stones were formed through selective
weathering of layered rocks, a softer lower layer being worn away
by wind, rain and frost until only a thin neck remained. This
became understood only in the nineteenth century - before then many
believed they had been constructed by the ancient Druids. Their
weirdness has long given them supernatural associations and made
them a focus for witchcraft. It was thought, for example, that the
rocking stone near Nancledrea in Cornwall could only be moved at
midnight when witches were abroad; people believed that if you
touched it nine times at midnight, you turned into a witch. The one
at Land's End was said to have been put there by a giant who rocked
himself to sleep on it. 'Logan', as odd a word as the object it
describes, has an origin that's not well understood. It comes from
the English dialect 'log' that means to rock (in some parts of
Britain the stones are called 'logging stones'). We can't go
further with confidence, but the word may have a link with Danish
'logre', to wag the tail, which could suggest a Norse origin.


4. Q&A
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[Send queries to <qa at quinion.com>. Messages will be acknowledged,
but I can't guarantee to reply, as time is limited. If I can do so,
a response will appear both here and on the WWWords Web site.]

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Q. Yesterday a student asked me the etymology of the word 'slang',
suggesting it might be derived from two words, the second being
'language'. I admitted that I had no idea of the word's history but
said I would look it up for her. However my Shorter Oxford (new
edition) admits ignorance too. [Elisabeth Okasha, Ireland]

A. That's true of all the sources I've consulted, as well. Nobody
seems to know where the word comes from (though everyone is sure it
is not a compound of any word with 'language'). It appeared in the
eighteenth century, itself as what we would now call a slang term,
with various meanings, of which our modern sense is the only one
that has survived. Some have tried to trace it back to a Norwegian
form 'sleng-', implying offensive language (found only in
compounds) but others deny that connection on the grounds that the
dates don't support a link. There is a modern facetious formation
'slanguage', but that's an obvious blend of 'slang' and 'language'.

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Q. This one has been worrying me for a long while - ever since I
was asked and didn't know the answer. So why do we call a game
between two local sides a Derby? I presume it has nothing to do
with the name of the horse race which was named after Lord Derby.
[Mick Sandham]

A. Actually, it does. That race, first run in 1780, was named after
Edward Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (its proper name is the 'Derby
stakes', universally abbreviated, and always said as though it were
spelt 'Darby'). It soon became established as the high point of the
racing season as part of the meeting at Epsom in Surrey in early
June. Disraeli once famously described it as "the Blue Ribbon of
the Turf". It became so important that other classic races were
named after it, such as the Kentucky Derby.

'Derby day', the day of the race - always a Wednesday until very
recently - became a hugely popular event, not just for the toffs
but as a big day out for all Londoners, a public holiday in all but
name. Great numbers of people drove or took the train down to
Epsom, making a day of it with picnics and lots to drink. In 1906
George R Sims wrote: "With the arrival of Derby Day we have touched
the greatest day of all in London; it may almost be said to be the
Londoners' greatest holiday - their outing or saturnalia".
(Fashions change: this is no longer so, which is why the race moved
in 1995 to a Saturday.)

At about the time George Sims was writing, the word moved into more
general use to describe any highly popular and well-attended event.
In particular, it came to be applied to a fixture between two local
sides, first called a 'local Derby' and then abbreviated. (In
Britain we've tended to keep the full form, to avoid confusion with
the Derby itself.)

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Q. Is there a story behind the phrase 'donkey's years'? [Jess
Paxton, USA]

Q It's a pun on 'donkey's ears', they being long. The phrase,
meaning a long time, is chiefly in British use, though known in the
USA and elsewhere, and was first recorded in 1916 as 'donkey's
ears' (which is why we're sure about the punning origin). Within
ten years or so it is recorded in the modern form.

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Q. Recently I came across an Internet site where a writer claimed
that the word 'girl' used to mean any young person whether male or
female, and that today the word 'youth' means any young person of
either sex. Both assertions came as news to me. Do you know whether
there is any truth in them? [David Hughes, UK]

A. For about two hundred years after it arrived in the language in
the thirteenth century 'girl' was indeed a general term for any
young person. If a writer wanted to make clear the sex of the
person, he had to add a qualifier: 'knave girl' for a boy, and 'gay
girl' for a young woman. But by the sixteenth century the word had
shifted to our modern sense.

'Youth' is rather more complicated. In one sense, it can be used
for young persons of either sex, usually when we are thinking of
young people as a group or in the abstract. We can, for example,
speak of 'youth culture', a 'youth club', or a 'youth hostel'. In
all these cases, there is no distinction of sex. The same applies
when the word appears as an abstract noun for the state of being
young, as in "in the days of her youth", "in his youth he was a
fine footballer".

On the other hand, when the word refers to individuals it almost
always means young men: "the youths were arrested in the shopping
centre" or "They caught a youth in a nearby park". But these tend
to be formal usages, as the examples show.


5. Administration
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