Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Is English Evolving?

The Oxford English Dictionary has released it's 2015 Word of the Year: The emoji Face with Tears of Joy.



An emoji is defined by Wiktionary as "any of the standardised ideogrammatic icons used in Japanese text messaging (which have since been adopted internationally)." It comes from the Japanese characters for picture (e) and character (moji).

I know a lot of people are going to be horrified by this announcement. "It's not even a word!", I hear them scream, "They're destroying English!" and such similar outbursts. This sort of thing happens every time something new gets added to the great tome that is the OED and as such, I think we can ignore the uproar as repetitive.

For my two cents, I think that this year is far more interesting than last year's word (Vape). What is language if not the way in which we communicate with each other? If that's the case, then the emojis are certainly becoming an integral part of our shared language and it's important that the OED acknowledge it.

What I find fascinating is that English is now incorporating pictographs into everyday use, even replacing previous usages. Pictographs seem to be useful for quickly communicating general but complex ideas (such as emotion), but I think they would be less efficient in technical discussion where details are important.

It will be interesting to watch how our language adapts to our new modes communication and how quickly it will change.

-Odd
“Language, never forget, is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.” ― Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

The Last Discworld novel

A couple weeks ago, my gorgeous lady bought me The Shepherd's Crown for my birthday. I had been waiting with a rabid anticipation (as I always have for a new Discworld novel) but when I actually had it in hand a strange thing happened. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.

The abstract on the back of the jacket ends with a devastating line: "The Last Discworld Novel". Thats it. The last one. Fin.

This, the 41st Discworld novel, rushed up the best seller lists, taking just three days to sell over 52 000 copies in the UK alone, and Terry Pratchett's daughter (Rhianna Pratchett) and his assistant (Rob Wilkins) have confirmed that neither of them will be writing any more Discworld books.

The series has been a running theme in my life for so long that I can't really envision a world where it doesn't continue. It occurred to me that if I don't read The Shepherd's Crown, there will always be a new Discworld novel waiting for me.

That's obviously insane and I am, of course, going to read it. Still: if ever there was a time to build the anticipation, the last Discworld novel must be it. To that end I'm going to re-read the other Tiffany books before I sit down with The Shepherd's Crown.


If you're a fan of Pratchett I wonder if you thought of this at all and if you're not, then I envy you the discovery of the Discworld.

-Odd

"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong." -Terry Pratchett