Mayor4Unley

I was interested to find an article claiming that most South Australians speak posh; compared with the rest of Australians. There is Adelaide English and 3 regional varieties of English; Eyre and Yorke Peninsula English, South East South Australia English and Northern South Australia English. Also, due to the prevalence of the South Australian long a , the South Australian accent appears to be closer to a cultivated and posh sound compared with dialects in other Australian States. It seems that we're a posh mob (in SA). Have a read. Here's the link ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australian_English

We all know the word and what it means; and probably sniggered over it at school. The word is Fornication; the verb is to fornicate. I was surprised to learn that the root of this word was derived from an architectural term, Fornix. The word first appeared in English in the early 1300s. Now, on to the origin of the word ... Back in Roman days there were official brothels. However, there was also the unofficial side of the business which was conducted out of sight in the streets and lanes beneath the City. The business (of sex) was preferred under an arch, which in Roman architectural terms was known as a Fornix. The prostitute was known as a Fornatrix and the client was known as the Fornicator. In strictly architectural terms, the fornicator had sex with the fornatrix beneath the fornix. It is interesting to learn the meaning of some words. Try using the word Fornix in your next game of scrabble.

FYI a friend sent me an article on the pervasiveness of acronyms today; the push for more and more acronyms is probably driven by the desire to fit more words into a 140 characters text message. BTW I am simply reprinting what was sent to me; without my usual edit of spelling and grammar. This article is from the August 15 issue of The Australian Digital Edition.   The acronyms are coming. Marching across the language in their thousands, blunt, unlovely, artificial abbreviations, easy to coin and virtually ineradicable, forcing out perfectly good words and replacing them with ugly initials. Acronyms are the grey squirrels of language. Two acronymic films will be competing at the box office: The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, and the Bond movie, Spectre (Special Executive for Counterintelligence , Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). The men from U.N.C.L.E. fight an evil organisation called Thrush (Technologic...

A work colleague (and also a relatively recent migrant) asked me if the word News was actually an acronym derived from North East West South. I explained that it was nonsense; I had never heard of such a meaning. Then again, at times I have been wrong. So I Googled the word. Here’s the result. Myth: the word “news” derives from the four cardinal directions. While this potential origin of the word news seems plausible enough, it isn’t true.  The truth is, the word news can be traced back to late Middle English around the 14 th century as a plural for the adjective “new” or “new thing”.  This is a somewhat rare instance of an English adjective becoming a noun when made plural.   Making this leap from “new” to “news” in English is thought to have been influenced by the Old French “nouveau”, meaning “new”.  “Nouveau” in its plural feminine form becomes the noun “nouvelles”, meaning “news”. Before the 14 th century, instead of using the word “news”, Engl...

Each year the Plain English Foundation highlights examples of poor communication and poorly constructed sentences. The really bad get awarded as the worst for the year. Here are some samples: Conscious uncoupling – used to describe the decision of a married couple to separate. Rapid disassembly – used by a car maker to describe the reason for the recall of 14 million vehicles with airbags that had a tendency to explode. Potential for dangerous aquatic organisms – a Queensland coastal Council erected signs warning about the potential for dangerous aquatic organisms in a local waterway. The Council CEO later explained that the danger was from bull sharks that could physically penetrate the waterway. and my favourite (that I will try to use a lot in 2015) … Appropriate financial envelope – used to describe staying within tight financial/budget constraints. Here are links to the Plain English Foundation … http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-23/conscious-uncou...

People can be harsh judges when it comes to noticing spelling errors. I am. However, the judging is harsher when a word is incorrectly used. It makes you look rather foolish. Here’s a link to an article titled 40 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb Take the time to learn the correct use of the words. Don’t worry, many people have a problem with some. Link to incorrectly used words

Something that annoys me ... Have you noticed that many people now start a sentence, usually in response to a question with the word so , followed by a pause. An example: Q. What do you think of this or that? A. So (pause) I feel that etc. Typically it is the older well educated 'youth' eg. 25-35 who start a sentence with so . I frequently hear it during TV interviews. It is so bad. But, who am I to complain? I remember when growing up, sentences were commonly ended with but . Or if you came from Queensland, you ended a sentence with hey (pronounced hay). I still drop one now and then.