Obstructing vision with a transparent adverb

One of life’s great mysteries is the offside law in football. It causes a lot of discussion and controversy among football fans and commentators, as well as among players and managers. A comment on a recent controversial decision about offside made me look at the wording of the offside law. I discovered a surprising (and,…… Continue reading Obstructing vision with a transparent adverb

Another error in spaceflight

‘This is another error in spaceflight’. This is what I heard a NASA Planetary Scientist saying on the radio one morning recently. She was talking about the previous day’s unexpectedly short maiden flight by SpaceX’s new rocket Starship.   The rocket exploded just a few minutes into the flight, so ‘error’ might seem like the…… Continue reading Another error in spaceflight

Albert Grammar Zone

Seeing this advert in the window of an estate agent in Auckland excited me unreasonably. Is there really a grammar zone in that city? What does it mean? Is some minimum level of grammar a prerequisite for living there? Is bad grammar illegal? Do they tolerate rhetorical questions? The reality is more prosaic, as I…… Continue reading Albert Grammar Zone

Answer to a puzzle

Here is the answer to the puzzle I posted a couple of weeks ago. Puzzle [A man] had sent home a letter simply addressed: WOOD JOHN ENGLAND and it was safely delivered. Those Post Office people are very smart. Can any of you read that address in its completeness? Answer The letter was intended for…… Continue reading Answer to a puzzle

Can you deliver this letter to the right address?

Here is a classic puzzle: [A man] had sent home a letter simply addressed:WOODJOHNENGLANDand it was safely delivered. Those Post Office people are very smart. Can any of you read that address in its completeness? I’ll post a hint next week. I’ll post the answer (and the source) in a couple of weeks.

Pāṇini and Panini

A great grammarian of Sanskrit, Pāṇini, lived sometime around the 6th to the 4th century BCE. Pāṇini is often considered to be the first great descriptive linguist. The name Pāṇini is not to be confused with name of the Italian sandwiches known as panini.  https://languagemiscellany.com/2022/06/paninis-apostrophes/ According to a comment made by a user on a…… Continue reading Pāṇini and Panini

Learning by rote for non-rhotic speakers

There are many varieties of English pronunciation. The existence of different varieties has implications for English spelling. A paper by the retired phonetician John Wells discusses some of those implications. https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/accents_spellingreform.htm One of those implications arises from the distinction between rhotic varieties and non-rhotic varieties. In the following positions, rhotic varieties pronounce the sound /r/…… Continue reading Learning by rote for non-rhotic speakers

Cross-language blues’

I found this week an odd blend of English pronunciation and spelling with French pronunciation and spelling. Writing about last Saturday’s Football World Cup match between England and France, a journalist wrote the following:   Philippe Auclair, the French writer, calls him Les Bleus’ “beat-giver”. The Times, 12 December 2022(‘him’ refers to the French footballer…… Continue reading Cross-language blues’