The fascinating story of the Swahili traffic island

"Swahili has some even stranger adaptations of English words: kiplefiti "traffic island" is from keep left. Swahili words which begin with ki- in the singular normally begin with vi- in the plural; we therefore find a plural viplefiti "traffic islands". Moreover, since a number of Swahili words have a plural prefix ma-, we find the English word mudguard adopted as a plural madigadi "mudguards", with a corresponding singular form digadi "mudguard"!"
Jean Aitchison, Language Change: Progress or Decay?, Cambridge University Press 2001.

P.S. If you find the English language fascinating, you might enjoy regular updates about English usage and word origins from Wordlady. Receive every new post delivered right to your inbox! If you are not already subscribed, you can either:

use the subscribe window at the top of this page

OR

(if you are reading this on a mobile device): send me an email with the subject line SUBSCRIBE at wordlady.barber@gmail.com

Privacy policy: we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. You can unsubscribe at any point.

Also check out my upcoming Rollicking Story of the English Language courses. 

Follow me on twitter: @thewordlady

Death of the Subjunctive

The post below about the origins of the word "oil" was published last week in the Toronto Star. Intriguingly, the editor "corrected" my subjunctive "were" in the first sentence to "was" (it has now been "re-corrected" at my insistence). "If only the oil... was...". I know the subjunctive is dying in English, but that an editor at a major newspaper didn't recognize it as correct suggests that it is further into its death throes than I thought.

Yum! Cookies and "Dairy Beverage"

Just flipping through a grocery flyer and noticed that chocolate milk now seems to officially be called "Chocolate Dairy Beverage" in Canada. Makes one wonder just how much real milk is in it....

If only it were olive oil...

If only the oil pouring until recently so apparently unstoppably into the Gulf of Mexico were as innocuous as its etymology suggests. The word comes from the Latin name for the olive tree, olea. Oleum was simply olive oil, and by extension any substance similar to it. “Petroleum” comes from oleum combined with petra (rock); it is an oil that comes from rocks.

History of the English Language course

I will be teaching a History of the English Language course on Monday afternoons Sept 13th to November 8th at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies:

Course Details

Did you know that the word "travel" is derived from an instrument of torture? That "tragedy" originally had something to do with goats? That hotels and hospitals have something in common? The fascinating history of the English language is full of such surprises. This course is a survey of the influences that have shaped English vocabulary over the years, covering the Anglo-Saxon and Viking origins, the influx of Norman French and Central French, later Latin and Greek borrowings, standardization and French borrowing in the 18th century, and international borrowing since the 18th century. We will tie linguistic developments in with the social and political events with which they coincided. Topics will include why English spelling is so difficult, why we have such a large wordstock, and how dictionaries are written.
To register:
http://2learn.utoronto.ca/uoft/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&cms=true&courseId=10855407#

That's the kind of fan I want!

I was just reading an item about keeping cool in the summer that suggested what you really need in your bedroom on a hot summer night is an "osculating fan". Much as I would like a fan that kisses me, what they meant was an "oscillating fan". "Osculate" (to kiss) comes from the Latin osculum (small mouth). It's possible that "oscillate" (to move back and forth) also comes from a Latin word meaning "small mouth", possibly in reference to a mask left to hang in the breeze. But this is not confirmed.

Photo by Filios Sazeides on Unsplash

Dialect coaches for Silicon Sally

I have long been annoyed by the automated announcements of departing flights in many Canadian airports. The English announcements are made by an American English voice and the French ones by a Continental French voice. It makes one feel like a stranger in one's own country to hear our capital city referred to as "Attawah". On complaining to Air Canada I was told there was no Canadian program available, which I find hard to believe.
I was equally surprised on a recent trip to Minneapolis to discover that the automated voice in the tram between the transit station and the terminal adjured us to stay "cleah of the doohs" in a decidedly British accent.
These computer-generated announcers need a dialect coach!