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The surprising stories of how these 10 words came to be

<p>Ever hear or read a word and think, “where on earth did that come from?” Well, for the etymologists of the world, that’s exactly what they try to figure out. In a post on online forum <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4tqrix/etymologists_of_reddit_what_is_your_favorite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Reddit</span></strong></a>, user russellbeard asked, “Etymologists of Reddit, what is your favourite story of how a word came to be?” The community delivered, and some of what we learnt was very interesting indeed. Here are 10 of our favourites.</p> <ol> <li>The Latin prefix “pen-” comes from the word “paene”, meaning “almost”. Therefore, a “peninsula” is almost an island and something that is “penultimate” is almost last.</li> <li>“Muscle” is derived from the Latin word “musculus”, which means “little mouse”. Physicians used the term after noticing the muscles in the biceps and calves look like little mice running under the skin.</li> <li>“Daisy” comes from the Old English term “day’s eye”, since the flower is open during the day and closes at night.</li> <li>The words “traitor” and “tradition” have the same root as they both denote something being handed over.</li> <li>“Eavesdropping” is named after people who used to spy on their enemies from rooves with wide eaves to listen to their conversations.</li> <li>“An apron” actually used be “a napron”.</li> <li>People often break “helicopter” into “heli-” and “-copter” to make new words like “helipad” and “newscopter”, but it really should be broken into “helico-”, which means “spiral” or “helix” and “-pter” which means “wing”. In fact, that’s why pterodactyl starts with a p.</li> <li>“Sinister” is actually the Latin word meaning “left”. It was given the connotation of “evil” because left-handed people were historically blamed for being demonic and villainous.</li> <li>The word “dunce” comes from the medieval philosopher Johannes Duns Scotus. His enemies disagreed so strongly with his theories that they turned his name into an insult 200 years after he had died. He was, in fact, an incredibly smart man and well known for his debating abilities.</li> <li>“Uppercase” and “lowercase” are named as such because in the days of hand printing, capital letters and lowercase letters were literally kept in different cases.</li> </ol> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

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‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and other Oscars 2023 films show a trend towards linguistic realism in Hollywood

<p>At the 95th Academy Awards, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/13/daniel-kwan-and-daniel-scheinert-win-best-director-oscar-for-everything-everywhere-all-at-once">Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s</a> Everything Everywhere All at Once took home <a href="https://variety.com/2023/awards/awards/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-oscars-record-1235544633/">wins in acting, editing and directing categories, and also won the coveted best picture</a> award.</p> <p>The quirky and expansive sci-fi action film is famed for its absurdist take on the idea of a multiverse, yet it is still grounded in realness and humanity: In one masterfully choreographed scene in Everything Everywhere, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2wID9_FFD0">three languages are spoken by three generations of one chaotic immigrant family</a> over dinner.</p> <p>As a linguist, I am interested in how screenwriters and directors use language in film to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Multilingualism_in_the_Movies.html?id=hfhclpshb8UC&redir_esc=y">do much more than just convey dialogue</a>: Language and subtitles also provide characterization, establish the tone of a scene and ground fictional stories in reality.</p> <p>Increasing use of non-English languages and subtitles demonstrates both a trend toward linguistic realism in Hollywood and also broader acceptance of linguistic diversity in a globalized society.</p> <figure></figure> <p>But filmmakers must negotiate the tension between narrative goals and audience engagement. By <a href="https://www.routledge.com/English-with-an-Accent-Language-Ideology-and-Discrimination-in-the-United/Lippi-Green/p/book/9780415559119">examining different ideologies held by filmmakers and audiences alike</a>, we can also still sometimes find long-standing associations between foreign language and villainy.</p> <h2>Languages breaking through</h2> <p>As South Korean filmmaker <a href="https://www.cjenm.com/en/news/director-bong-joonhos-parasite-wins-the-best-foreign-language-film-at-the-77th-golden-globe-awards/">Bong Joon-ho</a> described in his <a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/awards/south-koreas-parasite-crashes-the-subtitles-barrier-1203488979/">Golden Globes acceptance speech for 2019’s Parasite</a>, when audiences move past the “one-inch tall barrier of subtitles” a richer world of film awaits.</p> <p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947013519551">Telling authentic stories</a> in a modern, globalized and multicultural world means fairly portraying the languages spoken and signed all throughout our society. Hence, at times, the need for subtitles.</p> <p>In another scene in Everything Everywhere, spoken language is eschewed altogether: Two rocks converse silently while gazing over a barren canyon, with black and white subtitles appearing on a bright blue sky. This simple yet <a href="https://twitter.com/Refinery29/status/1635118157206794243">emotionally resonant scene</a> was somehow enough to <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review">move many viewers to tears</a>.</p> <p>Although <a href="https://ew.com/movies/movie-reviews/tar-cate-blanchett-todd-field-nina-hoss/">Todd Field’s Tár</a> did not clinch any Oscar wins this year, star Cate Blanchett notched multiple <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/full-winners-list-golden-globes-2023">other acting awards</a> <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/awards-insider-critics-choice-awards-2023-winners">for her role</a> as the titular orchestra conductor. In some of the film’s best scenes, the maestro uses only German during orchestra rehearsals and subtitles are dropped completely.</p> <p>Non-Germanophone audiences might not understand the words Blanchett says, but they are instead encouraged to focus on the visual aspects of the character’s communication: her facial expressions, physical tics and tremors and the building tension, both visible and audible, between her ego and everyone around her.</p> <p>The Oscar performance of “Naatu Naatu,” from the Indian <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64935389">Telugu-language blockbuster</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64935389">RRR</a>, which received a standing ovation, was evidence that performances can cross language boundaries by leaning into creative elements far beyond words.</p> <h2>Two sides of language representation</h2> <p>The flip side of positive aspects of linguistic representation is that filmmakers, free to use the tool of multilingualism to provide characterization and establish tone, and even to showcase threatened languages, are also free to use it to entrench certain linguistic stereotypes, namely the association between foreignness and villainy.</p> <p>The <a href="https://screenrant.com/black-panther-wakanda-forever-talokan-lore-phase-5-complicated/">warriors of the underwater Talokan kingdom</a> in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever never speak a word of English. In this Marvel Cinematic Universe story, the fictional kingdom of Atlantis was <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mesoamerican-influences-behind-namor-from-black-panther-wakanda-forever-180981106">repositioned as a Mesoamerican-inspired society</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2023/01/05/indigenous-and-proud-a-maya-speakers-reaction-to-black-panther-wakanda-forever/">language of Talokan is the real-world language of Yucatec Maya</a>, spoken by Indigenous people in present-day <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yucatec-language">Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico</a>.</p> <h2>Sharing an Indigenous language</h2> <p>Yucatec Maya is stigmatized and marginalized in the geographic areas where it is traditionally spoken, one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-mexico-how-erasing-black-history-fuels-anti-black-racism-175315">long-lasting consequences of colonization</a>.</p> <p>But Coogler’s creative decision to use Yucatec Maya as the language of Talokan, as well as to borrow heavily from Mayan and Aztec cultures for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/black-panther-wakanda-forever-ruth-e-carter-oscar-costume-design-1235349112/">visual inspiration</a>, has delighted some <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2023/01/05/indigenous-and-proud-a-maya-speakers-reaction-to-black-panther-wakanda-forever/">Maya-speaking Indigenous moviegoers</a> who say they saw their culture represented and are happy to see the language widely shared.</p> <p>Two strong minor characters, Namora and Attuma, speak only in Yucatec Maya throughout the entire movie, with English subtitles in an elegant blue script.</p> <h2>Archetypes of antagonism?</h2> <p>Yet, these characters are the primary villains of the story, portrayed as powerful and physically otherworldly. Thus, while the characters are not one-dimensional, their language seems to narratively underscore certain archetypes of antagonism, beyond simply showcasing a real Indigenous language of the world.</p> <p>This is especially noticeable when contrasted with the protagonists, the mostly-anglophone Wakandans. Although the <a href="https://screenrant.com/black-panther-movie-wakanda-language-xhosa-explained">language of Wakanda is the real-world language of Xhosa</a>, spoken in South Africa, in Wakanda Forever, it was mostly relegated to greetings and asides. Instead, the protagonists speak a kind of pan-African accented English. Unlike in James Cameron’s <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/avatar-the-way-of-water-vfx-oscar-2023-1235343383/">Avatar: The Way of Water</a>, viewers are never explicitly told that what the audience hears has been “translated” for us.</p> <h2>Refreshing to see, hear more languages</h2> <p>In Avatar, which took the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/oscars-2023-all-the-kiwis-nominated-at-the-academy-awards-this-year/G7PU6REBKFDRVLTOTUZJ4TEM4A/">Oscar for best visual effects,</a> the protagonists all speak Na'vi, the language of <a href="https://gamerant.com/avatar-creation-human-navi-hybrids-explained/">the species living across</a> the fictional Pandora.</p> <p>Most of the language has been “translated” in the mind of the narrator, Jake Sully. In a neat expositional trick, the main character narrates the beginning of the film and explains that he learned the alien language well enough that it just sounds like English to him.</p> <p>This way, audiences won’t have to read for the entire film, and the heroes (and actors) can speak only English without sacrificing the “realism” of the science-fictional universe.</p> <p>It has been refreshing to see, <a href="https://mashable.com/article/minari-korean-language">in recent years</a>, many productions in film achieve critical and commercial success in the anglophone world despite being in non-English languages and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-03-04/sound-of-metal-deaf-actors-chelsea-lee-jeremy-lee-stone">using subtitles</a>. There’s much more room for films to highlight both linguistic diversity as well as authentic characterization of characters who speak and sign without resorting to potentially harmful tropes.</p> <p>And I’m sure audiences wouldn’t mind hearing more Na'vi in Avatar 3.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

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How to make children do anything you ask

<p>A new book by hypnotherapist and neuro-linguistic programming practitioner Alicia Eaton claims that linguistic strategies used to influence adults can be adapted to create obedient little children.</p> <p>In her book, <em>Words That Work: How To Get Kids To Do Almost Anything</em>, Eaton shows how changing words we use and structuring sentences differently can influence children to do almost anything. Here are five of her top tips.</p> <p><strong>1. Always say what you DO want children to do, and not what you DON'T</strong></p> <p> “We use negative talk and then we're surprised when our children don't do what we want them to,” Eaton says.</p> <p>Eaton suggests turning the phrases around into a positive to get more effective results.</p> <p><strong>2. Create the illusion of choice</strong></p> <p>If there is a reluctance to do something than give the child an illusion of choice.</p> <p>Pose questions such as, “Which T-shirt will you be wearing this morning, the blue one or the red?”</p> <p>“This pre-supposes that the child has agreed to get dressed and overcomes the impasse,” she explains.</p> <p><strong>3. Talk as if it's a given that your child will do what you ask</strong></p> <p>“The word ‘when’ is often referred to as the most hypnotic word in the English language. It gently implies that something will be done in the initial instance,” says Eaton.</p> <p>Use this when speaking to children to give the subtle message that the task needs to be done. For example: “When you've tidied your room, we'll have some lunch”, “When you've finished your maths homework, we'll be able to go out to the park” or “When you've put your uniform on, we can go downstairs for breakfast”.</p> <p><strong>4. Create a linguistic connection between you and your child</strong></p> <p>According to Eaton, creating a link in the language you use can be a powerful way of getting children to listen. She suggests using phrases like “I, like you, realise you have lots of choices in front of you” or “You, like me, realise how much easier it is to do homework with a tidy desk”.</p> <p><strong>5. Say “thank you” before, rather than after</strong></p> <p>“We're used to thanking people after they've done something for us, but what about thanking before it's been done?” poses Eaton. “This often works well because children naturally want to please people, especially their parents.”</p> <p><strong>6. Always give your reasoning</strong></p> <p>Eaton says, “By explaining why we're asking for something, our request is more likely to be granted.” She suggests adding a “because” to every request.</p> <p>If you need help with the shopping, she suggests you try: “Can you help me carry the shopping from the car because there are just too many bags for me to do them in one trip.”</p> <p><strong>7. Front-load your sentences</strong></p> <p>“Front-loading your sentences with phrases such as 'think about it' and 'listen' sends a powerful suggestion to your child to do just that,” says Eaton.</p> <p>Phrases like, “Think about it. How good will it feel once you've finished your homework?” create an incentive for children to finish their homework.</p> <p><strong>8. Put a positive spin on moaning</strong></p> <p>Eaton suggests reflection or bouncing back negative statements with a positive spin.</p> <p>For example, if your child complains “I'm too hot”, Eaton suggests bouncing back with something positive like “Ah, you'd like to feel cooler. What would make you feel better – opening a window or removing your jacket?”</p> <p><strong>9. Use leading questions</strong></p> <p>“Using leading questions is a useful language pattern that can help to take your child from a problem to a desired solution,' explains Eaton.</p> <p>Asking questions that put a positive spin on a problem and at the same time help your children feel part of the solution like: “So, you're telling me about how much you hated this year's maths teacher – so you can begin to look forward to the new one you'll be having when you go back to school?”</p> <p><strong>10. Help your child stop using the “can't” word</strong></p> <p>“To get your child out of this habit, highlight that things can and do change,” says Eaton. “Your child is changing all the time, which means not being able to do something is merely transient.”</p> <p>When children say things like, “I can’t do maths”, Eaton suggests turning it around into, “Ah, you just haven't yet found a way to do that particular exercise yet”.</p> <p>“The idea is to switch focus to talk about what your child can do rather than what they can't,” Eaton explains.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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