Lavengro

Lavengro books in the Kindle Store

At last I am publishing my books in Kindle format, starting with Pearls of the English Language. It is available worldwide in the Kindle Store.

I am able to do this easily through Kindle Direct Publishing. Because of the phonetic symbols, which do not display in Kindle’s converted ‘reflowable text’, I have used Kindle Textbook Creator. This is an application that takes a pdf file and converts it to a format that is an image of the original. In this way, any image, chart, graph etc. can be preserved in the display on the Kindle. This display is only available on tablet devices like Kindle Fire, iPad, Kindle for PC etc. It is not available on Kindle e-ink devices and the book cannot be downloaded to them.

It is a useful idea and one that has solved a big problem: the impossibility of making my books available on Kindle because the phonetic symbols could not be displayed.

Amazon describes this as a ‘print replica’ but it is not a simple replica of the pages of the printed book. It is a completely new presentation which has been carefully designed and laid out to make it easy and pleasant to read.

 

Print version	iPad display

Dwarfs and the Guardian

One of 17

It is no secret that I dislike apostrophes and would abolish them if I had the power to do so. Hyphens, on the other hand, are a different matter. They have a useful purpose in indicating compound words. A Spanish-English dictionary is one that describes the two languages while a Spanish English teacher is a person of Spanish nationality who teaches the English language.

Hyphens seem to be disappearing. I regret this. However, they are commonly used to combine numbers and units: a 20-tonne lorry, a 40-year-old woman. Somehow something went wrong in the Guardian and we have this splendid correction:

An unwanted hyphen, introduced during the editing process, had us claiming in our print edition that the Villa Valmarana ai Nani in Vicenza, Italy, was “named for the 17-stone ‘nani’, or dwarfs, that surround the home” To clarify: there are 17 dwarf statues surrounding the villa, they are made of stone, and we’re not sure how much they weigh.

People outside the UK may not understand the point. In the system of imperial (sic) weights and measures, which is still commonly used there, a stone is equivalent to 14 pounds. That is pounds weight, not the country’s currency of pounds sterling. Seventeen stone is about 108 kg – rather a lot for a dwarf! The imperial system of weights as used in the UK (it is different in the USA) is:

16 ounces (oz) = 1 pound (lb)
14 lb = 1 stone (st)
2 st = 1 quarter (qr)
4 qr = 1 hundredweight (cwt)
20 cwt = 1 ton

An imperial ton is thus 2,240 lb (believe me, I learnt it all by heart at school along with rods, poles and perches for measuring land, and a mile is 1,760 yards, 5,280 feet or 63,360 inches). Coincidentally but conveniently, the metric tonne of 1,000 kg is equivalent to 2,205 lb. The two words ton and tonne are distinguished in spelling but are both pronounced /tVn/.

This is the avoirdupois system. Precious metals are weighed in the Troy system, where a pound is 12 pounces or 5,760 grains.

There is no likelihood of the UK adopting the metric system in any foreseeable future.

The plural of dwarf
The standard plural is dwarfs. J. R. R. Tolkien used dwarves in his books. According to Wikipedia:

The original editor of The Hobbit “corrected” Tolkien’s plural dwarves to dwarfs, as did the editor of the Puffin paperback edition of The Hobbit. According to Tolkien, the “real ‘historical’” plural of dwarf is dwarrows or dwerrows. He referred to dwarves as “a piece of private bad grammar”. In Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings it is explained that if we still spoke of dwarves regularly, English might have retained a special plural for the word dwarf as with goose—geese. Despite Tolkien’s fondness for it, the form dwarrow only appears in his writing as Dwarrowdelf, a name for Moria.

Tolkien used Dwarves, instead, which corresponds with Elf and Elves. In this matter, one has to consider the fact that the etymological development of the term dwarf differs from the similar-sounding word scarf (plural scarves). The English word is related to old Norse dvergr, which, in the other case, would have had the form dvorgr. But this word was never recorded, and the f/g-emendation (English/Norse) dates further back in language history.

Punctuation
Connoisseurs of this arcane subject will appreciate the alternating double and single quotation marks in nested quotations in both the above pieces from the Guardian and Wikipedia.

Image from magicoveneto.it

Firstable

In Great English Mistakes, published in 2008, I write:

Firstable
A classic mistake is to write this because you have heard a speaker say it at a meeting. But you haven’t. What he actually said was, First of all, I would like to thank …

I can’t remember when I first saw it in written work from a student – and I remember being astonished when I did – but it wasn’t by any means new to me when I wrote that.

Now the Language Log reports that it is appearing on the internet from native speakers with quotations going back to 1996. It is perfectly understandable from a non-native but surely there is something wrong when native speakers use it.

Grammar poll

Tom Freeman at the Stroppy Editor quotes a YouGov poll that showed 1000 Americans some sentences and asked them to pick which one of each pair or group was grammatically correct.

These were the results:

1. My oak tree loses it’s leaves in autumn. – 31%
   My oak tree loses its leaves in autumn. – 67%
2. The dogs are happily chewing on they’re bones. – 4%
   The dogs are happily chewing on their bones. – 89%
   The dogs are happily chewing on there bones. – 4%
3. I think you’re very smart. – 91%
   I think your very smart. – 6%
4. I consulted an attorney whom I met in New York. – 61%
   I consulted an attorney who I met in New York. – 32%
5. I don’t trust fruits and vegetables which aren’t organic. – 24%
   I don’t trust fruits and vegetables that aren’t organic. – 68%
6. The beneficial affects of exercise are well documented. – 17%
   The beneficial effects of exercise are well documented. – 77%

His comments on these figures are just what I would have written myself but he got there first so please follow the above link to see them.

BBC English: their, there and they’re

(Click to enlarge the image.)

The BBC quotes David Cameron on the result of the Scottish referendum on its live blog (07.50):

"Now the debate has been settled for a generation, or as Alex Salmond has said: 'Perhaps for a lifetime'. So their can be no disputes, no re-runs, we have heard the will of the Scottish people. (My emphasis.)

I long ago gave up using the BBC as a model of English usage for my students but even so this is egregious. The confusion of their, there and they’re is well known – so well known that for that very reason the correct use of these words should be second nature to BBC writers.

For those who may not be sure there is a simple way to remember which is which.

• Their is the possessive of they. The y changes to i as happens in other cases in English: easy/easier or lady/ladies for example.
• There has the same form as its opposite here. This is a coincidence but it is useful to help the memory.
• They’re is the contraction of they are with the apostrophe representing the missing a.

And now there is this (10.38):

Sandra voted No: "I was terribly worried because I feel that united we stand, divided we fall." She adds that she never waivered in her decision.

Thru and through

Thru is an American spelling of through. It is not standard. The COED says:

thru

• prep., adv., & adj. chiefly US informal spelling of through.

According to Wiktionary:

• Thru is mostly used where the preposition through could be used (e.g. Monday thru Friday); it is less common as an adjective or adverb (I'm thru with the vacuuming). It is less used in formal situations, except in cases where brevity is wanted such as roadway signs or date ranges.
• This spelling is not used in standard British English, though it can be used as an abbreviation – similar to thro' that's still sometimes seen – and is recently becoming noticeable via American-based companies.
  • Through is rarely used in any spelling to indicate ranges in British English; to, till and until are used instead.
• It is often – in both American and British English – used in professional drafting (5/8″ thru hole) to save space and simplify annotation on a drawing for fabrication or construction.

As with other Americanisms it is simpler than the British spelling, e.g. :

GB/US

‑our/‑or (colour/color)

‑re/‑er (theatre/theater)

‑ogue/‑og (dialogue/dialog)

-ae-/-e- (gynaecology/gynecology)

-oe-/-e- (foetus/fetus)

‑ce/‑se (defence/defense)

axe/ax

plough/plow

tyre/tire.

Of arms and anuses

The Guardian reports this and other similar gems of OCR scanning:

"Mrs. Tipton went over to him and put her anus around his neck. " My dear," she said, rapturously. " I have been hoping for years that you would talk that way to me."

Not being able to tell your arm from your anus may seem an amusing misfortune, but one great advantage of digitising books is the ability to search the text. This ability is lost if instead of being carefully scanned they are carcfully scannod.

A BBC accident

The BBC reports that a cleaner in a museum Italy threw away an art work by accident. Except that what it says is

It is not the first time artwork has been accidently thrown away by a cleaner.

A search of the BBC News site shows 36 examples of accidently since January 2013. The Microsoft spell-checker accepts it.

Ngram shows accidently practically disappearing in the ten years up to 2008 (its latest record.

Incidently has not been recorded on BBC News since June 2010. It is  not accepted by Microsoft.

Publically appears 63 times since January 2013. It is  accepted by Microsoft.

Ambiguity, hyphens and cats

Unlike apostrophes hyphens can play a genuine and important role in parsing sentences. This has come my way:

Amazing German Designed Cat Climbing Furniture

Wirth appropriate hyphenation it could mean any of:

1. Amazing German Designed Cat Climbing Furniture

An amazing German designed a cat* while climbing furniture.

*It could be a toy or model cat.

An amazing German designed a cat that is climbing furniture.

2. Amazing German-Designed Cat Climbing Furniture.

An amazing cat designed in Germany is climbing furniture.

3. Amazing German Designed Cat-Climbing Furniture.

An amazing German designed furniture on which cats can climb.

4. Amazing German-Designed Cat-Climbing Furniture.

Amazing furniture designed in Germany on which cats can climb.

The link shows that we are looking at 4.

This incredible line of handcrafted designer cat climbing furniture comes from German company Goldtatze, which seems to translate to “Gold Paw”.

I have mentioned the importance of hyphens before, here and here.

Image from the quoted website.

Los Huancas

The Huancas are a Quechua people living in central Peru. Their name is also spelt Wanca or Wanka. It is perhaps unfortunate that a musical group using their ethnic name should have chosen the last spelling. It seems that the greengrocer’s apostrophe has made it to the Andes.

Huanca people, Wikipedia.

Image, the internet.