Language and Humor Blog » dictionary

‘Dictionary of American Regional English’ nearly complete and tweets

Kevin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:32:02 +0000

If you’re interested in American dialect words, look no further than the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). The nearly completed multi-volume dictionary (with Volume I, A–C released in 1985 and Volume V, Slab–Z due in 2011 [Fall 2010 newsletter]) would cost you hundreds of U.S. dollars (electronic version coming eventually), but on the site you can get 100 sample entries, plus quizzes and more.

You can also get a word a day by following darewords on Twitter. I have.

‘The Extensive Hip Hop Rhyming Dictionary’: Phrasal rhymes

Kevin — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:14:47 +0000

If you’ve been here to Language and Humor Blog before, you may have noticed a certain lack of roadway license. Er, street cred. That’s all about to change with this post about The Extensive Hip Hop Rhyming Dictionary (On-line Records, US$8.95) (on-linerecords.com/). [EDIT (6/7/10): dead link]

I’m not a fan of rap music or hip hop, but I find the phrasal rhymes very interesting. The book could be of use not only to rappers but also to song parodists (including science-fiction filkers), whose alternate lyrics often rhyme with those of the original song.

I notice that some of the examples in the book aren’t rhymes proper (same vowel sound and same final-consonant sound) but assonance (same vowel sound). For example, the phrase asthma attack rhymed with blast from the past has the “az-” of asthma and “(bl)ast” of blast. That’s assonance, but the consonant sounds are so close that it’s also an approximate rhyme. However, the “-(t)ak” of attack with the “(p)ast” of past is just assonance. With the unstressed schwa vowels, there’s also rhyme (“uh” of attack with “uh” of the), which keeps the rhythm/beat to STRESSED-unstressed-unstressed-STRESSED. The last set has the same schwa assonance as well as consonance (same consonant sound) of the initial “m” in asthma, “-muh,” and the final “m” in the word from, “(fr)um.” [EDIT (6/7/10): This paragraph edited for clarity.]

You might want this book if your level of “free flow” now is at “zero.”

2007 US words of the year, vote for Australia’s

Kevin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:55:43 +0000

In addition to the already posted locavore from the New Oxford American Dictionary (Vote for Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year; Visual Dictionary) and w00t! from Merriam-Webster (Merriam-Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year), the latter from an online poll:

Webster’s New World Dictionary named grass station and
the American Dialect Society voted subprime as words of the year.

Grass station (a gas/petrol station for ethanol, perhaps made from switch grass) is clever, but I doubt it would ever be a serious word.

Subprime (as in “subprime mortgage”) has certainly been in the news a lot in the United States. I suppose it will be around a long time unless the laws change; has anyone had a need to say “junk bond” since the late 1980s?

Meanwhile, until January 31, 2008, you can vote for Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary 2007 word of the year.

I’d like to point out a couple of omissions in the Macquarie Dictionary entries.

Helengrad

noun NZ Colloquial (humorous) Wellington, seen as controlled by the government of Prime Minister Helen Clark. [Helen Clark + -grad common Russian ending meaning `town']

Helengrad isn’t just Helen + -grad; it’s clearly a blend of Helen and [Sta]lingrad and perhaps to a lesser extent of [Len]ingrad.

data smog

noun electronic information as by emails, internet searches, etc., which, by its volume, impairs performance and increases stress.

Data smog is most likely based on the accessible data cloud (popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4205068.html?page=2) [EDIT (6/7/10): revised content on linked page] of all your digital stuff (a different meaning at Wikipedia, a way of visually displaying data).