The History of English in Ten One Minute Movies

Enjoy!



You can find the other bits, here.

The Incomprehensibility of William Shakespeare

Can we understand Shakespeare in real time? When we're watching "Titus Andronicus" on stage, can we really follow what the actors are saying?

From a piece in the New Republic...

I was interested in testing my convictions under what many consider the ideal conditions for experiencing Shakespeare: I am often told that the comprehension problem all but vanishes when the plays are performed with top-notch British actors. Even the acoustics were right, as the RSC has actually reconstructed their theater inside the Park Avenue Armory (ah, real government subsidies for the arts).

First, however, I should dispel two possible misimpressions. I am not arguing that Shakespeare’s language can be too “dense” or “poetic,” but that it can be simply incomprehensible because of the passage of time. Also, I am referring to taking in the language through the ear during a live performance, not reading and referring to footnotes. In any case, the question at As You Like It: When an excellent and highly trained British actor delivers Shakespearean language a few feet away from us, can we always understand the basic meaning of the sentences he or she utters?

I found that the company’s high level of skill, including the lucid staging and direction, indeed did much to get across the language’s meaning. It left me still uncomfortable that it takes these kinds of chops to pull it off: After all, there are only so many companies like this. But more to the point, in more than a few places, even in this production, it was quite impossible to follow the meaning. Not because the actors weren’t doing their job, but simply because time has passed.

Using the Word "Haboob" Pisses People Off

For reals. Don't use the word, haboob.

From a piece on the Encyclopedia Britannica blog...

It’s the Arabic part of the mix that is driving certain Arizona nativists batty. “How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?” one wrote in a letter to the Arizona Republic. “haboob? english please?” wrote another, while still another urged, “were not in india.” (Sic, sic, sic.) Added yet another, sagely, “Haboob comes from a foreign language!”

Making allowance for some of the writers’ seeming unfamiliarity with English in general, we might dust ourselves off and consider that one of the great strengths of our language is its long-standing habit of picking up useful words from wherever they might come. We already use thousands of (now-suspect) borrowings from Arabic, from algebra to zenith, that may not figure in the vocabulary of uneducated speakers, but that do necessary jobs all the same. Haboob has been in general use for generations, alongside another Arabic word, monsoon, and a Spanish one, chubasco.

Literally is Literally the Most Misused Word in the English Language. Literally!

So says the Boston Globe.

From an article there...

Schur isn’t the only one peeved by “literally’’ gaining popularity as both a throwaway intensifier and a replacement for “figuratively.’’ It’s a word that has been misused by everyone from fashion stylist Rachel Zoe to President Obama, and linguists predict that it will continue to be led astray from its meaning. There is a good chance the incorrect use of the word eventually will eclipse its original definition.

What the word means is “in a literal or strict sense.’’ Such as: “The novel was translated literally from the Russian.’’

“It should not be used as a synonym for actually or really,’’ writes Paul Brians in “Common Errors in English Usage.’’ “Don’t say of someone that he ‘liter ally blew up’ unless he swallows a stick of dynamite.’’

Bakku-Shan, And Other Words That Have No English Equivalant

The list, care of Mental Floss.

OMG! OMG Nearly 100 Years Old?

Fo sho.

From a piece on the History News Network...

In a quite lovely bit of sleuthing, the Oxford English Dictionary has discovered a use of"OMG" from 1917 [1]. It comes in a letter by British Admiral John"Jacky" Fisher, who wrote that:

I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!

The letter was published in his Memories, published in 1919.

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

The list, care of Deshoda.

The list is incomplete, however, because it doesn't include my favorite word: sequoia.