Lynne Murphy
@lynneguist
US linguist in UK. University of Sussex. Newsletter: Blog: Linktree:
In case you’re wondering why I chose Lincolnshire for a minibreak: it was a cinema pilgrimage.
Maybe "I'm afraid" bothers me in such contexts because it's a bit more BrE politeness than AmE?
Feeling the NYT’s pain in the absence of the BrE ‘allotment’. ‘Large garden patch’—so awkward.
It's a revelation that you can search in JSTOR for journal articles published before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Can't wait to dig into the dialectology of those days.
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series POLLARD** *really @jeffgrim.bsky.social **illustration here of past tense, to avoid the surname Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me: An Occasional Series LONGLIFE (more usually hyphenated, but single-word in good numbers in BrE) Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
I almost put DICTAT in the Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me list y'day, but it's a misspelling of DIKTAT & misspellings don't belong there. But, still, it's more common in BrE than AmE. separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series MIDDLED *really @ascotdad.bsky.social, cricket is not my thing. But really, it's more perfectly common in India. Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
This came up in a game today. BrE 'oven glove' v AmE 'oven mitt'. I'd never seen this type before I moved out of the US.
3/8 of the GB uses are for a brand/type of lathe. A lot of the Irish ones are the given name. I’m of two minds about whether to put it on the list because even if Americans did know it, it would be disallowed for being derogatory
Ohio State has Hollander's archives, it seems. While some of it is digitized, it's not really catalogued—you can't search for the cartoon you remember (but no one else does). library.osu.edu/dc/concern/g...
I've just been asked (by a BrE speaker who distinguishes 'biennial' and 'biannual') whether 'semi-annual' is an AmE solution to that particular annoyance of English. And the answer is 'yes'
Read "As a minimum," in a quotation of something I was editing, and noted to the author to check the original: had they said "At a minimum," But then I thought: maybe I should check if this is a AmE/BrE issue, and lo and behold. It is. Of course it is.
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series *really @bazzargh.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy LOCHAN Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
So I played a LinkedIn puzzle today and in the results it told me I was smarter than 3/4 of CEOs but smarter than only half of Lynnes. So, Lynnes are, on average, smarter* than CEOs. I'll bet you that Lisas and Deborahs and (yes, even) Karens are too. Older women should be in charge of more stuff.