Punctuation and spelling have been our topics the past couple of months. It’s time to have fun with them. First of all, trying the name of this column “The Poets Corner” with no apostrophe. Heavens forfend!! What would my fourth grade teacher, Miss Sims, have to say about that?
Althya Youngman founded Artists Embassy International in the 1950s. Ahead of her time, she preferred no apostrophe in “Artists.” With the informality of the Internet, Althya’s choice is now widespread. “Althya’s choice”? Well, habits persist.
What we are doing when we leave out an apostrophe is saying, “The context tells us what’s going on. You don’t need the silly apostrophe!” And, yes, I’ve used two apostrophes to say that! It’s really the same thing that happened when the printing press came in.
When written language gets transferred to the printing press — or the internet — usage changes. With the printing press alone, formalities of spelling came into being. But as more diverse social groups got their thoughts into print, the more usage changed and “rules” were “broken.” The more people share a writing system, the more varied it becomes. We tend to think, consciously or not, that we are simplifying, while we are actually multiplying the points of view about communicating in words.
Althya Youngman founded Artists Embassy International in the 1950s. Ahead of her time, she preferred no apostrophe in “Artists.” With the informality of the Internet, Althya’s choice is now widespread. “Althya’s choice”? Well, habits persist.
What we are doing when we leave out an apostrophe is saying, “The context tells us what’s going on. You don’t need the silly apostrophe!” And, yes, I’ve used two apostrophes to say that! It’s really the same thing that happened when the printing press came in.
When written language gets transferred to the printing press — or the internet — usage changes. With the printing press alone, formalities of spelling came into being. But as more diverse social groups got their thoughts into print, the more usage changed and “rules” were “broken.” The more people share a writing system, the more varied it becomes. We tend to think, consciously or not, that we are simplifying, while we are actually multiplying the points of view about communicating in words.
That’s what leads to spelling variation. So this month, as we celebrate summer, from near and far, indoors or out — with face coverings — I propose a little fun with words.
This morning, looking at the dwindling lunch options in our kitchen and postponing a trip to the grocery store as long as possible, I said to Bob,
“Let’s keep the canned goods for as long as we can.”
“Can we?” “I think we can.” “Did your Mom used to do canning?”
How would a speaker or reader who is new to English relate to “canned” (adjective), “can” (verb), “canning” (noun), let alone “used to do”?
But kick up our heels, flip off our flip-flops, who cares? We can have fun with these variations. After all, school’s out.
Here are a few selections from the alphabet. B: be, bee (these two words do not relate to the same thing). Neither do “eye,” “I,” “aye aye” (as in “yes”), and aye-aye (a cute nocturnal primate).
Then there’s our bare feet, “feat of grandeur” (painted toenails?), grate and great, heart and hart, roll and role, see and sea, through and threw (not to mention thru), very and vary, waist and waste, you and ewe.
After a while, it can actually be fun!
And then there is George Bernard Shaw’s witty comment on why “fish” is spelled “g-h-o-t-i.”
You take the GH in “COUGH”
The O in “WOMEN”
The TI in “NATION”
And “Whaddya got? FISH!”
If the formal side of language is desired, keep an extra computer window open for spelling and grammar checks. In the meantime, this just came in from one of our readers.
There is a well known computer programming language called “Perl,” created by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant. Turns out one of them is a fan of my fave rave fourteenth century poem, “Perl,” and, yes, that was an OK spelling back then for what we call “Pearl” (noun). (There’s also “purl” as in knitting.)
In the Perl book, fun with language is included in examples of “natural language” (the ways we use words). Natural language is distinct from “computer languages,” which can not — as yet — even come close to the complexity of how we speak and write. Here’s an example, just right for the season.
“If you dog a dog during the dog days of summer, you’ll be a dog tired dogcatcher.”
That’s “dog” adjective, noun, adjective phrase, different adjective phrase, compound noun.
So for the dogcatcher, dreamcatcher, star catcher, and all around artist in each of us, enjoy!
Tanya Joyce
Poet, Painter, Pinole Artisan
This morning, looking at the dwindling lunch options in our kitchen and postponing a trip to the grocery store as long as possible, I said to Bob,
“Let’s keep the canned goods for as long as we can.”
“Can we?” “I think we can.” “Did your Mom used to do canning?”
How would a speaker or reader who is new to English relate to “canned” (adjective), “can” (verb), “canning” (noun), let alone “used to do”?
But kick up our heels, flip off our flip-flops, who cares? We can have fun with these variations. After all, school’s out.
Here are a few selections from the alphabet. B: be, bee (these two words do not relate to the same thing). Neither do “eye,” “I,” “aye aye” (as in “yes”), and aye-aye (a cute nocturnal primate).
Then there’s our bare feet, “feat of grandeur” (painted toenails?), grate and great, heart and hart, roll and role, see and sea, through and threw (not to mention thru), very and vary, waist and waste, you and ewe.
After a while, it can actually be fun!
And then there is George Bernard Shaw’s witty comment on why “fish” is spelled “g-h-o-t-i.”
You take the GH in “COUGH”
The O in “WOMEN”
The TI in “NATION”
And “Whaddya got? FISH!”
If the formal side of language is desired, keep an extra computer window open for spelling and grammar checks. In the meantime, this just came in from one of our readers.
There is a well known computer programming language called “Perl,” created by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant. Turns out one of them is a fan of my fave rave fourteenth century poem, “Perl,” and, yes, that was an OK spelling back then for what we call “Pearl” (noun). (There’s also “purl” as in knitting.)
In the Perl book, fun with language is included in examples of “natural language” (the ways we use words). Natural language is distinct from “computer languages,” which can not — as yet — even come close to the complexity of how we speak and write. Here’s an example, just right for the season.
“If you dog a dog during the dog days of summer, you’ll be a dog tired dogcatcher.”
That’s “dog” adjective, noun, adjective phrase, different adjective phrase, compound noun.
So for the dogcatcher, dreamcatcher, star catcher, and all around artist in each of us, enjoy!
Tanya Joyce
Poet, Painter, Pinole Artisan