BS: Language Pet Peeves part II

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 08 Dec 24 - 08:18 AM

..... if you're following the street pronunciation, it should be "I cant see nothin"

More like "I cant see not'n".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Dec 24 - 07:00 PM

Dubliners do indeed say howya - an occasionally, ironically, yo. I've never heard alright in Ireland, and in England it's mostly orright?

Today's peeve: spotting 'n' used as a short form for and (eg rock 'n' roll), but with the apostrophes the wrong way round - the first and second apostrophes should both face the same way, as these are not quotation marks, but markers indicating a missing letter. (Since the Courier used in the typing of this translates into Times, my expression of this here will probably look confusing.)

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Dec 24 - 04:24 AM

Apparently YO is considered insulting in Kerry

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: meself
Date: 09 Dec 24 - 10:48 AM

Re: "'n'". Trouble is, often word-processing programs will decide which way the apostrophe is going to face (the wrong way), and, in my experience, it takes some time and ingenuity to trick the program into allowing the apostrophe you want. And, to make matters worse, a lot of text you see now on-line has originated on a cell-phone, which is even less accommodating.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 13 Dec 24 - 06:20 PM

I can't remember whether this has been covered here before, but it's just raised me to red heat: "learnings" looks to me like an illiterate's way to say "lessons" in a way which doesn't invoke the spectre of Teacher. Is it some fragment of the horrific null-content space-filling suit-speak that's started leaking from board meetings into real life? Not to put too fine a point on it: *ARGH*issimo.

Sorry about that; I feel a bit better now. Now where was I?

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 03:24 AM

This morning I'm reading a thesis which includes the use of the flinchworthy malopropism "giving X free reign". Free rein! Free rein! It's like when you're riding your hunter across the countryside and let the reins fall so the little darling can answer the signals of your body as she leaps the walls and ditches! Nothing to do with reigning!

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 12:53 PM

How about "aircrafts"? It'sp ractically the rule in US media.

Also, "I'm a twenty-three-years-old fashion model."

I hear the pointless pluralization frequently. The first I noticed, maybe twenty-five years ago, was "the jobs market." Now it's normal.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 04:12 PM

celtic rock

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: meself
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 04:39 PM

And then there's the recently-ubiquitous "an elite" in reference to a single (high status) person.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Thompson
Date: 15 Dec 24 - 04:51 AM

Ah, now, I have to object to the objection to Celtic Rock. What about Cashel?
Today I read again "Low and behold" and flinched so hard I nearly threw my tea over my shoulder.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 01:59 AM

‘Lo and behold’ seems to be almost as common as ‘Et viola!’.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 02:20 AM

Try again…damn autocorrect!

‘Low and behold’ seems to be almost as common as ‘Et viola!’.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 04:16 AM

I suspect that while ‘Low and behold’ is most likely a mistake, ‘Et viola!’ may be Fractured French used for comic effect.

Another example of Fractured French would be ‘Mersey buckets’ to say thank you.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 06:34 AM

Possibly, Doug. Although I see it mostly in non-humorous posts by Americans on several US-based guitar forums (where I mostly lurk), so I’m persuaded that it’s nothing more than illiteracy or semi-literacy, more often than not.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 05:57 PM

Low and behold is only one of a flock of migrating spellings; another two are the aforementioned giving free reign, and hone in for home in. If there's a vaguely similar in sound word with a vaguely similar meaning, it'll rush gratefully into the arms of the linguistically confused.

Subject: RE: BS: When Pet Peeves Attack.
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 06:33 PM

Low and Bee Holed. now toss that tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Dec 24 - 12:00 PM

Fresh peeve: something being described as "actionable", when it's merely meant that some seldom-specified action can be taken about said thing. In my lexicon, "actionable" only ever pertains to things that yield lawsuits (sense 2 in the Wictionary entry); but perhaps that comes from reading Private Eye at a formative age, wherein Messrs Sue Grabbit and Runne feature heavily.

Is this yet more leakage of management memo-speak into real life? Would that this were actionable in the legal sense.