April 13, 2014
by gpointon
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I talked about the etymology of the names Welwyn and Willian in an earlier post (here). I apologize in advance for the length of this post. The earliest reference to Welwyn that is given in the English Place Name Society … Continue reading
February 22, 2014
by Graham
17 Comments
The present upheavals in Ukraine bring the pronunciation of its place names into prominence. Even the country’s name is now subtly different from what it was thirty years ago. Then the geographical area was always called “The Ukraine”, which was … Continue reading
January 25, 2014
by Graham
5 Comments
This is what I call the place where I catch the train both to and from London. Increasingly, what I’ve always considered to be an Americanism – train station – is being used, even by friends of my own generation. … Continue reading
January 14, 2014
by Graham
16 Comments
I wrote in an earlier post about regional variation in terms for lying snow. There are also phrases that belong to one part of the country rather than another. My mother would look at a lowering sky, when dark clouds … Continue reading
December 14, 2013
by Graham
6 Comments
About a month ago, John Maidment wrote about an ambiguous phrase: here Now here is a proverb that has two meanings, and they are quite difficult to distinguish even by their intonation: “No news is good news”. When this means … Continue reading
December 8, 2013
by Graham
3 Comments
These are two villages in Hertfordshire. Welwyn /ˈwɛlɪn/ is better known these days for Welwyn Garden City, founded by Ebenezer Howard, but somewhat later than Letchworth Garden City (the world’s first garden city), and which is situated a couple of … Continue reading
December 1, 2013
by Graham
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According to the OED’s examples, Lewis Carroll may have invented the use of ‘portmanteau’ to mean a word made up of the elements of two or more other words in order to somehow combine their meanings: in Through the Looking-glass, … Continue reading
November 25, 2013
by Graham
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This weekend it has been almost impossible to avoid Doctor Who. Even Google introduced a simple game to its home page for both Friday and Saturday. I don’t understand why they didn’t commemorate JFK’s assassination on Friday, but there was … Continue reading
November 17, 2013
by Graham
7 Comments
It’s over a week since the appalling typhoon hit the Philippines and I’m still unsure what the “official” BBC pronunciation of these names is. Most broadcasters are calling the typhoon itself /ˈhaiˈjæn/ or /ˈhaiˈæn/, but Radio 4 newsreaders appear to … Continue reading
November 11, 2013
by Graham
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The other day, I forget exactly when, I heard someone on BBC Radio 4 use a word I hadn’t come across before, and one to which my immediate reaction was “he’s making it up”. However, I should have remembered that … Continue reading