what is vocal fry?

What indeed is 'vocal fry' - and why is it such a controversial thing?

Here are a couple of short videos:

🗣️ Vocal fry, a secret weapon or a bad habit? 🎤 - YouTube

Is Vocal Fry Really an Issue? - YouTube

Here's Wikipedia giving a summary: Vocal fry register - Wikipedia

But the point is that more of us are finding it annoying: What is vocal fry and when and how did it become a thing? : r/GreatBritishBakeOff

And it's been an issue for over a decade now: 'Vocal Fry' Creeping Into U.S. Speech | Science | AAAS

Finally, here's an excellent discussion from a couple of years ago:

Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it! - YouTube

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trurl's electronic bard vs chatgpt

BBC Radio 4 does a 'bedtime story' most evenings - and this week, it's been The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem - Trurl's Electronic Bard.

As the BBC blurb says: Stanislav Lem's comic parables The Cyberiad, first published in the 60s, anticipate nanotechnology, our ambivalent relationship with the internet and debates around AI and creativity.

Published 60 years ago, The Cyberiad is indeed very relevant to today's 'debates'...

Especially in the last couple of years, there's been a lot of commentary:

Stanisław Lem’s The Cyberiad: I started on the part of the work called “The First Sally (A) or Trurl’s Electronic Bard,” and it hit me! The Electronic Bard is basically Lem’s prediction, from 1965, of ChatGPT. The Twenty-Third Sally, or How ChatGPT, The Electronic Bard, Created a Cacophony of Digital Storytelling in a Literature Class

"Have it compose a poem--a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!" The Lippard Blog: Trurl's Electronic Bard vs. ChatGPT

The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much of its promise and peril. Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem | The New Yorker

Rather creepily, one of Google's AI things is named after the story - as discussed on this Google Group's pages: Trurl's electronic bard

And here's a service which calls itself a Google bard ai detector AI Detector – Trusted AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT5 & Gemini | JustDone AI

And to finish this bit, here's the full story - in digital format of course: Trurls-Electronic-Bard.pdf

AI news: Artificial Intelligence absorbs of Shakespeare’s sonnets to create original poem | Science | News | Express.co.uk [from 2020]

Finally, though, today's news from the BBC shows that it's not just poetry that AI is producing but pop divas: Sienna Rose: AI suspicions surround mysterious singer - BBC News

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parodying websites

Parody is often linked to dissent and satire, as well as irony - and today it is very much part of the current issues around populism, culture wars and woke.

One example of parody would be the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And in the news, we have: Comedy duo create Band Aid parody, Spicy Burlesque Parody 'The Empire Strips Back' and Die Hard musical parody showing at Norwich Puppet Theatre.

And back to the politics, it is suggested that 2025 was the year the far-right became a parody of itself.

This also brings us to the world of the parody website - for example: The Onion and ClickHole - Because All Content Deserves To Go Viral.

Whereas website spoofing might be legally questionable, as the Spoof website service suggests, it can actually work as a piece of political activism. In many countries, you can legally make a parody website:  Under US law a parody often counts as fair use, but it must be a “true parody” — that is one that seeks to comment on or criticize the original, not just a work that modifies the original to be funny.

The latest parody website parodies the United States' most prestigious performing arts venue, formerly known as The Kennedy Center - YouTube. The actual website is currently offering a Queue-it system because it is unable to manage the traffic wanting to enter it...

From the 'Trump-Kennedy Center', we do get this press release: Kennedy Center Board elects President Donald J. Trump as Board Chair | Kennedy Center Or as the USA Today news website asks: Did Trump rename the Kennedy Center after himself? Yes, that and more. Which has meant that artists cancel Kennedy Center shows after the Trump name change.

Also in today's news, we learn that a South Park writer has already purchased ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ website domain to troll the president:

A former South Park writer bought two website domain names in order to troll Donald Trump after predicting the president’s move to rename the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Toby Morton saw that the writing was on the wall before the writing was on the wall, and purchased TrumpKennedyCenter.org and TrumpKennedyCenter.com back in August.

Earlier this month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the world-famous performing arts center would be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center after a unanimous – but potentially illegal – vote from the institution’s new board, made up of members hand picked by the president. The move has already prompted public protests, as well as multiple artists to pull out of performances scheduled at the center in the coming weeks and a lawsuit that claims that the name change is unlawful as it can only be approved by Congress.

Morton, who has credits with the satirical cartoon and Mad TV, is known to have bought political domains in order to turn them into satirical. He told The Washington Post that he had purchased the Kennedy Center names after guessing the president’s plans.

And here is HOME | Trump Kennedy Center... [which does say at the bottom of the home page: 'THIS WEBSITE IS PARODY']

It's all a bit of a mess, with suggestions that Trump's White House, Kennedy Center moves could hurt the GOP in 2026, in that Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette thing’ could cost Republicans in midterms.

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6-7 or parasocial or enshittification - what makes a good word of the year?

How do we add new vocabulary in English dictionaries? 

The problem is that the UK does not have an official language - nor does it have an official dictionary.

So, it's really a matter of choice as to what is put into dictionaries - or, rather, a matter of choice of those out there who are using the English language.

Looking at the online dictionary.com, it asks and answers the question: How Does A Word Get Into The Dictionary?

This is one of the most common questions we get—and it’s a great one.

The answer involves one of the most misunderstood things about dictionaries, so let’s set the record straight: a word doesn’t become a “real word” when it’s added to the dictionary. It’s actually the other way around: we add words to the dictionary because they’re real—because they’re really used by real people in the real world.

In other words, our lexicographers add a word to the dictionary when they determine that:

• It’s a word that’s used by a lot of people.
• It’s used by those people in largely the same way.
• It’s likely to stick around.
• And it’s useful for a general audience.

All four of these points are important. Our lexicographers look for use not just by one person, but by a lot of people. Of course, many words have different shades of meaning for different people. But to be added to the dictionary, a word must have a shared meaning (that is, it must communicate a widely agreed-upon meaning from one person to the next). If everyone used a word in a completely different way, we wouldn’t be able to give it a definition, right?

But what about how dictionaries claiming that x is 'word of the year'?

It's probably about marketing: getting the name of the dictionary out there. And it works! 

The Daily Mail says the internet is divided as Dictionary.com unveils its 2025 word of the year - or as The Independent tells us, ‘6-7’ is named 2025 Word of the Year: Here’s what it means...

Alternatively, as reported in the E L Gazette, the Cambridge Dictionary names parasocial as the Word of the Year.

This social media and Gen Z/Alpha derived vocabulary was critiqued in last year's choice, as reported in the Guardian: ‘What many of us feel’: why ‘enshittification’ is Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year:

“The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.”

Take your pick!

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clichés, pragmatics and how we use language to connect us beyond the actual words used

What is the purpose of language? Do words carry meaning? Is language communication?

These are questions Michael Rosen looks at in his excellent weekly programme on BBC Radio 4 - and this week, it's: Word of Mouth - It's not what you say, it's how you say it - BBC Sounds

Michael Rosen on the linguistic comfort food of clichés, pragmatics and how we use language to connect us beyond the actual words used. Derek Bousfield explains how words do more than carry meaning: context governs what we say and how it’s understood. Dr Bousfield is Reader in Pragmatics and Communication and Co-Director of The Manchester Centre for Research in Linguistics and co-author of Talking in Clichés: The Use of Stock Phrases in Discourse and Communication.

They look at Pragmatics - how we say things beyond what they literally mean - for example "How are you?" is not asking about your health/problems: Jay Doubleyou: pragmatics: it ain't what you say it's the way that you say it

Language is not literal! Especially in conversation, which is guided by culture and context.

Language is non-direct - for example: "Why don't we have a coffee some time?" is not making a specific arrangement to meet. Another example: "We'll see how it goes" means I don't agree with you but I don't want to talk about it any more. 

The British love understatement or litotes - which are codes to build rapport.

There is the world of clichés - and comedians such as Peter Kay enjoy playing with them. We use them all the time to connect people -  and that "we are all on the same page", to use a cliché.

We live by metaphors: Metaphors We Live By - Wikipedia [metaphor is a tool that enables people to use what they know about their direct physical and social experiences to understand more abstract things like work, time, mental activity and feelings.] and Metaphors We Live By: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson - YouTube [Lakoff and Johnson argue that metaphors aren’t just poetry, but a fundamental part of our brain conceptual system. That is, they’re central to the way we perceive ourselves, others, and the world.]

A favourite example from Prof Bousfield is 'literally': Urban Dictionary: literally

And a favourite from Michael is 'the bottom line': BOTTOM LINE definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary and What does ‘bottom-line’ mean here? : r/EnglishLearning

The word 'cliché' comes from French: Cliché - Wikipedia

To finish this look at the programme, here's Derek Bousfield's book: Talking in Clichés: The Use of Stock Phrases in Discourse and Communication: Amazon.co.uk: Bullo, Stella: 9781108458139: Books

For decades, social perspectives, and even academic studies of language, have considered clichés as a hackneyed, tired, lazy, unthinking and uninspiring form of communication. Authored by two established scholars in the fields of Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Discourse Studies and Pragmatics, this cutting-edge book comprehensively explores the perception and use of clichés in language from these complementary perspectives. It draws data from a variety of both written and spoken sources, to re-interrogate and re-imagine the nature, role and usage of clichés, identifying the innovative and creative ways in which the concepts are utilised in communication, interaction, and in self-presentation. 

Observing a rich, complex layering of usage, the authors deconstruct the many and varied ways in which clichés operate and are interdependently constructed; from the role they play in discourse in general, to their functions as argumentative strategies, as constructs of social cognition, as politeness strategies, and finally as markers of identity.

And here's a look or two at clichés:

What is a cliché? Check out this list of examples.

SUPER IMPORTANT EXPRESSIONS | Clichés in Spoken English - YouTube

See also:

Jay Doubleyou: pragmatics

Jay Doubleyou: juergen habermas: communicative rationality and deliberative democracy

Jay Doubleyou: ambiguity is everywhere in englsh

Jay Doubleyou: behaviourism >>> krashen... pinker... skinner... chomsky

Jay Doubleyou: small talk, phatic communication and the games people play

Jay Doubleyou: english is not transparent

Jay Doubleyou: writing with register: a lesson in using different levels of 'politeness'

Jay Doubleyou: what is 'politeness' and how can we teach it?

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present perfect in conversation

The present perfect is a problematic tense for students to use - so perhaps we need to make it feel a little more natural.

Here are a couple of lists to start us off:

Present Perfect Conversation Questions (100+ questions)

Present Perfect Conversation Questions

Then there is the full conversation. Let's have one about travel:

Dialogues in the Present Perfect tense: Travelling – Along Came English

Of course it's "grammar", but we can also see it as learning fixed phrases:

7 Present Perfect Phrases You Can Use In Conversation – Get into English

We can talk about specific things, such as:

on the albatross or the ant

But what's the perfect tense all about?!

English Tenses and Aspects 5 - The Retrospective Aspect - UsingEnglish.com

Perfect (grammar) - Wikipedia

Here's a little more:

Jay Doubleyou: the present perfect with goldilocks and the three bears

    Special Education - Goldilocks and The Three Bears - YouTube

    Goldilocks and the Three Bears - YouTube

Jay Doubleyou: present perfect for experiences

Jay Doubleyou: the use of tenses in the news

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ambiguity and humour

Humour is everywhere, just as ambiguity is everywhere.

There are lots of academic studies on ambiguity in humour, for example: The ambiguity of humor, Ambiguity, jokes, and trick questions - Society for Linguistic Anthropology and The usage of ambiguity-based humour in EFL classrooms.

Here's a professional linguist by day, and stand-up comedian by night: Where Humor Hides in Language | Emily Sabo | TEDxUMDearborn - YouTube

Here's a good overview of ambiguity - whether funny or not: Ambiguity in Language: Funny but Deadly - YouTube

Can you make up your own examples of these types of ambiguity: Humorous Examples of Ambiguity - Four Linguistic BRAIN Hacks! - YouTube

Let's have a look at some examples from comedians...

Ethnically Ambiguous - YouTube [is it OK to make jokes about yourself?]

Aamer Rahman (Fear of a Brown Planet) - Reverse Racism - YouTube [this is not ambiguous!]

“Evil Genius: Needlessly Ambiguous Terms” — That Mitchell and Webb Look - YouTube [is indirect language always ambiguous? are euphemisms always ambiguous?]

The Prawns Are Off | Fawlty Towers | BBC Comedy Greats - YouTube [this is polite language, but not ambiguous!]

The Two Ronnies Four Candles HD - YouTube [can you think of any more homonyms and homophones?]

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ambiguity is everywhere

AMBIGUITY: THE FIRST STEPS

A lot of things in life have more than one meaning, one different interpretation.

> Look up 'ambiguous' in your favourite online dictionary:

ambiguous: having or expressing more than one possible meaning, sometimes intentionally:

His reply to my question was somewhat ambiguous.
The wording of the agreement is ambiguous.
The government has been ambiguous on this issue.

AMBIGUOUS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

> But why would you want to be ambiguous?

ambiguous: Very vague. A person who avoids answering any questions ever, even avoids the most direct questions.

Urban Dictionary: ambiguous

It's everywhere today.

> See what the headlines are in the news:

Trump’s ambiguous stance on China raises the risk of accidental conflict in the Indo-Pacific | Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank

Leading In Volatile, Uncertain, Complex And Ambiguous (VUCA) Times

White House published a black-and-white photo of Trump and Putin with an ambiguous caption | УНН

> When might we want to avoid being ambiguous?

Why do we need certainty? The short answer is: We’re hardwired to want it.

Yes, but No. What’s wrong with ambiguity? The… | by Liz Rios Hall | Medium

> And when might we want to be ambiguous?

Ambiguity is often perceived as a source of confusion and discomfort, but it holds a surprising power to influence our thinking, creativity, and resilience. In a world that increasingly values clarity and certainty, understanding and embracing ambiguity can offer profound psychological benefits.

The Power of Ambiguity | Psychology Today United Kingdom

Dealing with and embracing ambiguity is one of the most important skills for success in life. And yet it is likely a skill you never learned in school.

Ambiguity Is the Most Important Idea You Never Learned | by Roo Benjamin | Counter Arts | Medium

> How do we handle ambiguity?

Why do interviewers ask Ambiguity questions?

The main purpose of ambiguity interview questions is to evaluate a candidate's ability to thrive in uncertain and unpredictable environments. Interviewers ask these questions to gauge how well an individual can make decisions, prioritize tasks, and adapt to changes without having all the necessary information.

How to Answer the 25 Most Common Ambiguity Interview Questions

> Finally, to what extent is ambiguity part of being human?

In this new RSA Animate, renowned experimental psychologist Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.

RSA ANIMATE: Language as a Window into Human Nature - YouTube

AMBIGUITY IS EVERYWHERE IN ENGLISH:

> Have a look at this list:

Ambiguities > Ambiguous headlines

> Have a look at some English sentences:

I'm glad I'm a man, and so is Lola. — "Lola" by the Kinks (written by Ray Davies) 

John saw the man on the mountain with a telescope. 

British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands.[7]

Syntactic ambiguity - Wikipedia

> And have a look at the most famous newspaper headline:

Jay Doubleyou: ambiguous newspaper headlines

> How good is your English?

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana - Wikipedia

> Where do such sentences lead us?

Garden-path sentence - Wikipedia

> How important is punctuation?

Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Wikipedia

Relative clauses: non-defining relative clauses | LearnEnglish

> And how does ambiguity work in your own language?

When is a car on the road in front of your house not a car any more?
When it turns into your driveway.

How prevalent is ambiguity in English and in other languages? | ResearchGate

Are some languages more ambiguous than others? - Quora

For a cross-linguistic example, Swahili has no separate words for "he", "she", "him", or "her": yeye is used regardless of case and gender. Ancient Greek has thirty (it just uses the demonstratives), allowing it to distinguish "the first man I mentioned" from "the second man I mentioned" from "a man newly introduced to the dialogue", along with five different grammatical cases (subject, direct object, indirect object, possessor, addressee).

So it seems that Swahili is significantly more ambiguous, right? It would need more words than Ancient Greek to convey the same amount of information: one Swahili word could correspond to any of thirty different Ancient Greek words, and only context can make it clear which is intended.

ambiguity - Are some human languages significantly less ambiguous than others? - Linguistics Stack Exchange

AMBIGUITY IN CULTURE:

> Do you like ambiguous film endings?

Top 10 Movies with Ambiguous Endings - YouTube

Top 10 Movies That You Have To Watch Twice - YouTube

> Do you like stories and novels with ambiguous endings?

Ambiguous Ending Books

6 Books with the most ‘wtf’ ENDINGS - YouTube

> Do you know this book and film, now 50 years on?

Picnic at Hanging Rock is just as unsettling and relevant 50 years on - ABC News

Picnic at Hanging Rock premiered 50 years ago on August 8th, 1975 at the Hindley Cinema Complex in Adelaide : r/australia

Picnic at Hanging Rock review – Australian fever dream still dazzling 50 years on | Film | The Guardian

> Finally, is ambiguity in culture a good thing?

Ambiguity of Culture - YouTube

> And in politics?!

Five studies indicate that conservatives are less tolerant of ambiguity than liberals

The Politics of Choice: Political Ideology and Intolerance of Ambiguity - Farmer - 2021 - Journal of Consumer Psychology - Wiley Online Library

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different types of humour

There is British humour:

Jay Doubleyou: what are the elements of 'british humour'?

There is German humour:

Jay Doubleyou: british vs german humour

There is Norwegian humour:

Ättestupa Norsemen - YouTube

But are there really separate senses of 'national humour'?

Jay Doubleyou: there is no such thing as 'national humour'

Perhaps it's more fun when we laugh at each other:

Spain is laughing at British tourists 'stampeding' to sunbeds in viral video

Brits sprint for sunbeds at Magaluf hotel pool | LOVE THIS! - YouTube

1994 Carling Black Label Beating The Germans To Sunbeds Advert - YouTube

Can humour save the world?

Jay Doubleyou: humour can save the world: a saudi, an indian and an iranian walk into a qatari bar...

Jay Doubleyou: what is a 'native speaker' of english? the issue of race...

Jay Doubleyou: european jokes about the british

Jay Doubleyou: brexit: and punctuation

Jay Doubleyou: a history of dissent and satire

To finish:

BBC Radio 4 - Funny in Four - The best European jokes about the British

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managed dystopia

The writer of 'Trainspotting' has just given The Interview - Celebrities: 9. Irvine Welsh: The Next Chapter - BBC iPlayer [See from 2:30 minutes, 7.30, 13:30 and 19:00 - and at 14:25 he talks about 'managing dystopia']

This is managed dystopia.

Or, from George Carlin - The American Dream.

Taking us from America to Russia to Ukraine, here's a piece by Paul Mason in the latest The New World

It started on the eve of independence day. In an hour-long phone call with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin told the US president that Russia had played a major role in America’s war of independence, offered to send him a movie about traditional values, chatted about mutually beneficial business ventures… and then flatly insisted that “Russia would strive to achieve its goals” in Ukraine. That night Russian forces staged the biggest strike of the war so far, launching 539 long-range drones and seven ballistic missiles at Kyiv.

This is what's happening in Russia now, in its war on culture:

• Russia’s ‘guardian of traditional values’ How the Kremlin plans to sell Putin to voters in his fifth presidential campaign — Meduza
• ‘It could undermine the traditional family’ Insiders say the Kremlin is keeping an anti-domestic violence law in limbo on purpose. Here’s why. — Meduza
• Russia bans distribution permits for films that discredit ‘traditional values’ — Meduza
• ‘Thrown to the wolves’ How a Texas man moved his family to Russia to escape ‘DEI’ — and ended up on the front lines in Ukraine — Meduza

As predicted in science fiction:

• ‘I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe’: what Blade Runner 2049’s dystopia tells us about 2017 | Blade Runner 2049 | The Guardian
• Blade Runner 2049 review – a gigantic spectacle of pure hallucinatory craziness | Blade Runner 2049 | The Guardian

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black mirror: a cautionary tale

There's something about the TV series Black Mirror:

Black Mirror is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. The series explores various genres, with most episodes set in near-future dystopias containing sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction.

Black Mirror - Wikipedia

``Black Mirror,'' created by Charlie Brooker, serves as a cautionary anthology series that explores the dark side of technology and its impact on society. Each episode presents a standalone narrative, often set in a near-future world where technological advancements lead to unsettling, dystopian outcomes.

What is Black Mirror warning us about? - Quora

Black Mirror is very much about political satire:

Jay Doubleyou: political satire on film

For example:

Jay Doubleyou: checking in at the airport

That particular episode is heavily satirising one aspect of modern Chinese life:

Jay Doubleyou: controlling ai - part three: china controlling ai

Here's an interview from a couple of years ago, when the sixth series was launched:

The sci-fi anthology is a social satire playing with society's deepest fears about our increasingly digital lives. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant caught up with show creator Charlie Brooker in London to discuss why he thinks this work has gripped audiences.

‘Black Mirror’ creator on why the techno-dystopian show has gripped audiences | PBS News

The next series has just started:

Black Mirror Season 7 Review — 'Wildly unpredictable'

Black Mirror season seven review – Charlie Brooker’s thrilling satire gets its warmest, most human season ever | Television | The Guardian

The point is that it tells us a lot about now:

After years of creating dark, disturbing, thought-provoking TV, Charlie Brooker is changing it up. The creator and star-studded cast of Black Mirror talk about why this season is the most moving and vulnerable yet

‘If you want dystopia, look out your window!’ Black Mirror is back – and going beyond tech hell | Black Mirror | The Guardian

But some aren't happy about it:

Black Mirror is more than science fiction – its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future.

Each new innovation gets an allegory: smartphones as tools for a new age caste system, robot dogs as overzealous human hunters, drones as a murderous swarm, artificial intelligence as new age necromancy, virtual reality and brain chips as seizure-inducing nightmares, to name a few. Episodes most often channel our collective anxieties about the future – or foment new ones through masterly writing, directing, casting and acting. It is a must-watch, but must we take it so seriously?

Black Mirror fails to consistently explore the duality of technology and our reactions to it. It is a critical deficit. The show mimics the folly of Icarus and Daedalus – the original tech bros – and the hubris of Jurassic Park’s Dr Hammond. Missing are the lessons of the Prometheus myth, which shows fire as a boon for humanity, not doom, though its democratization angered benevolent gods. Absent is the plot twist of Pandora’s box that made it philosophically useful: the box also contained hope and opportunity that new knowledge brings. While Black Mirror explores how humans react to technology, it too often does so in service of a dystopian narrative, ignoring Isaac Asimov’s observation: that humans are prone to irrationally fear or resist technology.

Black Mirror is more pessimism porn than Plato’s parable, imparting to its audience a tacit lesson: fear the future more than the past. Fear too much technological change, not too little. It is an inherently populist narrative, one that appeals to nostalgia: intellectually, we understand the present is better than the past in large part due to scientific and technological change, yet emotionally and instinctually we can’t help but feel this time in history is different, that the future can only get worse...

We must move away from binary tales of catastrophe, not towards naive utopianism that ignores problems and risks that comes with change, but hopeful solutionism that reminds us we can solve and mitigate them – stories that don’t make us forget that brain chips can liberate paraplegics, robot dogs can protect us from landmines, AI can prevent super bugs and VR can connect us rather than cut us off from reality – even if their vibes are “a bit Black Mirror”.

Black Mirror’s pessimism porn won’t lead us to a better future | Louis Anslow | The Guardian

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ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tr

English is a Germanic language:

Why English Is a Germanic Language | Grammarly Blog

This matters because for centuries the powers that be have effectively willed English to be a Romance language, for reasons predominantly of prestige. Grammatical assessments, for example, almost always included reference to the “future” (and often also to concepts such as the “subjunctive”), which are useful for describing Latin but misleading when used for Germanic languages.

English is a profoundly Germanic language | Ian James Parsley

Here's a nice little video - very helpful for both learners and teachers of English:

Is English Really a Germanic Language? - YouTube

Apparently, the European Union has decided to switch to English as the official language of the union. This will make communication easier for all Europeans and will free up a lot of vowel space.

EU Progress: Official Language Change to "Euro-English

And by 'Euro English', they mean something... as bit more Germanic:

Here's what it'd look like (taken from Reddit): "The European Commission has jus... | Hacker News

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'the english language doesn't exist'

A recent news story about the English language which excited the British press was reported differently, depending on the politics and sense of humour of each newspaper:

Do you think the English language exists? You do, don’t you? That’s quite odd because, according to Bernard Cerquiglini, it doesn’t, and his credentials are probably more impressive than yours.

The English language doesn’t exist, it’s mispronounced French - The New European

A French linguist has controversially claimed that the English language 'doesn't exist' and is just 'badly pronounced French'. Bernard Cerquiglini, a linguistics professor from Lyon, points out that the English language uses thousands of words taken from French about 1,000 years ago.

Ironically, many of these have since reentered the French language but in a bastardised English form – such as 'stew', 'people' and 'shopping'. Professor Cerquiglini, an adviser to President Macron, has already slammed the continued use of English words in French culture as 'distressing'.

English 'doesn't exist' and is just badly pronounced French, linguist claims | Daily Mail Online

Few would deny that English has conquered the world. But the French have always refused to take this linguistic victory lying down.

For centuries, the “immortal” guardians of the French language at the Académie Française, France’s linguistic authority since 1634, have arguably been fighting a losing battle to contain the invasion of anglais. Theirs is a Sisyphean task as they toil in coming up with French alternatives to English words such as “gazoduc” instead of pipeline, or the more recent “icône de la mode” instead of “it girl”, in the hope they will catch on.

'English is not a language – it's just badly spoken French'

There's been a lot of interesting commentary:

L’anglaise n’existe pas : r/DuolingoFrench

France: English does not exist as a language, says Macron adviser - ProtoThema English

English Just 'Badly Pronounced French', Paris Academic Says | Barron's

This is the main point of the book:

The title of the book translates as “The English language doesn’t exist – it’s just French that’s badly pronounced” , which is a quip First World War French President Georges Clemenceau used to make. The author admits from the outset that he’s writing somewhat tongue in cheek. But he’s a distinguished linguist – and he pulls no punches as he sets out his case.

The English language doesn’t exist – it’s just French that’s badly pronounced

Here's a book review - in bad French:

Parlez vous? 
The English language’s debt to French
By Judith Flanders

Bernard Cerquiglini is a former director of the Institut national de la langue française, and the first part of his catchy title quotes the former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau, who was married (unhappily) to an American. The author then backtracks: of course, English is spoken as a first or acquired language by more than a billion people worldwide. But the textbook definition of English – a language descended from a Germanic source – masks “la vérité”, which is that it owes its influence and power to the amount of French it contains.

Cerquiglini begins with a brief outline of the imposition of Norman French on England and the English from 1066 onwards, and the long admiration for France and French among the upper classes. He uses Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, set in 1194, to illustrate the bifurcation of English: in Scott’s romance there is a French-derived vocabulary for the upper and educated classes, and Anglo-Saxon derivations for the working classes. Anglo-Saxon peasants raise “old Alderman Ox”, which becomes “beef” when the prosperous eat it.

The shift in vocabulary has not always been class-based. The Old Frisian-derived “mouth” describes the facial orifice, but its adjective is the French-sourced “oral”; the Old Saxon “town” is the noun, the French “urban” the adjective. And English’s enormous vocabulary, one of the largest of any language, is in good part based on exactly this kind of doubling of Germanic and French words: ask/demand, buy/purchase, build/construct.

“La langue anglaise …” is interesting, too, on how English today can clarify the pronunciation of vanished Norman dialects. Norman French replaces the “ch” sound with a “q”, which in English becomes a hard “c”. Thus, “car” from char (chariot), “carpenter” from charpentier, “escape” from échapper. Most fascinating of all is the journey from “w” to “g”. Norman French used a “w” for the sound that other French dialects pronounced with a hard “g”, and so it is that our “wardrobe” comes from guarde-robe and “wicket” from guichet. This also solves the mystery of why we have warranties and guarantees, guardians and wardens in English. These words travelled twice from France: once with a “w” during the Norman Conquest, then again centuries later with a “g” in now-standard Parisian French.

Cerquiglini has statistics to hand: 29 per cent of English vocabulary comes from French sources; another 29 per cent from Latin; and only 26 per cent from Germanic sources.…

‘La langue anglaise n’existe pas’ by Bernard Cerquiglini | Book review

"La langue anglaise n'existe pas": C'est du français mal prononcé: Amazon.co.uk: Cerquiglini, Bernard: 9782073056610: Books

Finally, a video discussion:

Is English just badly pronounced French? - YouTube

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talking about your passions

One way to get into a good conversation is to ask your opposite number about their passions, their interests, what really drives them.

That might be the type of music they listen to:

Jay Doubleyou: what's your playlist?

Or the food they enjoy:

Jay Doubleyou: slow food: "pleasure, hedonism, enjoyment, tranquility, conviviality, richness"

But 'passion' involves deep feelings, not just a 'hobby' or 'pastime' activity:

Jay Doubleyou: emotions

Jay Doubleyou: emotional intelligence

Ultimately, if we are to have good conversations which really engage, then we need to ask the right questions and listen in the right way:

Jay Doubleyou: how to be open to other people's opinions

Of course, this is also a typical if rather to-be-expected question at an interview - so we need to be careful how we answer!

What are you passionate about? Crafting an ideal interview answer | Indeed.com UK

How to Answer “What Are You Passionate About?” (Samples) | The Muse

Interview Question: "What Are You Passionate About?"

How To Thoughtfully Answer "What Are You Passionate About?" | Indeed.com

But maybe it's a question we shouldn't be asking!

Remember back when you were a kid? You would just do things. You never thought to yourself, “What are the relative merits of learning baseball versus football?” You just ran around the playground and played baseball and football. You built sand castles and played tag and asked silly questions and looked for bugs and dug up grass and pretended you were a sewer monster.

Nobody told you to do it, you just did it. You were led merely by your curiosity1 and excitement.2

And the beautiful thing was, if you hated baseball, you just stopped playing it. There was no guilt involved. There was no arguing or debate. You either liked it or you didn’t.

And if you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no second-level analysis of, “Well, is looking for bugs really what I should be doing with my time as a child? Nobody else wants to look for bugs, does that mean there’s something wrong with me? How will looking for bugs affect my future prospects?”3

There was no bullshit. If you liked something, you just did it.

“How Do I Find My Passion?”

Today, I received approximately the 11,504th email this year from a person telling me that they don’t know what to do with their life. And like all of the others, this person asked me if I had any ideas of what they could do, where they could start, where to “find their passion.”

And of course, I didn’t respond. Why? Because I have no clue. If you don’t have any idea what to do with yourself, what makes you think some jackass with a website would? I’m a writer, not a fortune teller.4

But more importantly, what I want to say to these people is this: that’s the whole point—”not knowing” is the whole point. Life is all about not knowing, and then doing something anyway. All of life is like this. All of it. And it’s not going to get any easier just because you found out you love your job cleaning septic tanks, or you scored a dream gig writing indie movies.

The common complaint among a lot of these people is that they need to “find their passion.”

Screw Finding Your Passion

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what english sounds like

There is a video from Liverpool going viral - of a baby babbling away not actually speaking anything but with perfect pronunciation - if you can understand the accent that is:

Me and my friends baby. Viral Scouse Baby. Scouse baby babble. - YouTube

The point being that we need to mimic the sounds of any language we learn - just like a baby.

Here's another look at what English sounds like:

How English sounds to non-English speakers - YouTube

Jay Doubleyou: how english sounds to non-english speakers

And another:

Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensinainciusol - YouTube

Here's another look at these:

What Does English Sound Like To Non-English Speakers? | QI - YouTube

It's all about mimicry:

Language Learning Like A Pro With The Mimic Method - YouTube

Learn Languages With The Mimic Method! - Interview With Idahosa Ness - YouTube

How Fast Can You Learn a New Language? - YouTube

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comparing: education, society, culture

When we compare different countries or cities, especially our own, we tend not to be too critical.

Jay Doubleyou: comparing: countries

Jay Doubleyou: comparing: cities

EDUCATION:

The US and UK are not doing very well:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/13_02_07_nn_unicef.pdf

Here's a critical look at the state of the United States some fifty years ago:

Jane Elliott Brown Eyes vs Blue Eyes 1 - YouTube (incl intro - first minute)

Jane Elliott “Blue Eyes - Brown Eyes” Experiment Anti-Racism - YouTube (incl subtitles)

Here's the same experiment forty years later - and in the UK (main part from 9 mins - and to 14 mins)

How Racist Are You? - Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise - YouTube

The issue of class and race and gender in our education system is very complicated and very controversial:

‘Forgotten’ White working-class pupils let down by decades of neglect, MPs say - Committees - UK Parliament

Poorer white pupils let down and neglected - MPs - BBC News

White “working-class” boys aren’t failing because they’re White - Make it Plain

Looking at girls:

More than half of British girls lack confidence learning maths, poll finds | Schools | The Guardian

Ada Lovelace Day – Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths

Cafe Scientifique: Floating Offshore Wind Farms – Sidmouth Science Festival

2021 Sidmouth Science Festival programme.pdf

Let's compare the education system in India:

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education | TED Talk

SOCIETY:

It seems that every 'marginalised' group have a hard time.

For example: Are British police interested in 'crimes against women'?

Every week in the UK, two women are murdered; as the documentary explained, a staggering 94 per cent of those cases involve stalking. As such, its illustration of the police response, near-universally dismissive or inept, was maddening – and terrifying. As State of Fear ended, there was precious little in the way of resolution – of course, there’s no way of wrapping up such a sprawling, systemic failure with a bow. Nonetheless, in its unflinching, forensic gaze, the show did essential work in simply taking women seriously and attending to their stories with measured and diligent interest. We can only hope that it pushes police to begin doing the same.

Stalking: State of Fear took women seriously - if only the police did too

And: Do immigrants commit more crime?

The academic literature and official statistics provide mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime. Research in the United States tends to suggest that immigration either has no impact on the crime rate or even that immigrants are less prone to crime.[1][2][3] A meta-analysis of 51 studies from 1994–2014 on the relationship between immigration and crime in the United States found that, overall, the immigration-crime association is negative, but the relationship is very weak and there is significant variation in findings across studies.[4] This is in line with a 2009 review of high-quality studies conducted in the United States that also found a negative relationship.[5]

Research and statistics in some other, mainly European countries suggest a positive link between immigration and crime: immigrants from particular countries are often overrepresented in crime figures.[6][7][8] The over-representation of immigrants in the criminal justice systems of several countries may be due to socioeconomic factors, imprisonment for migration offenses, and racial and ethnic discrimination by police and the judicial system.[9][10][11] The relationship between immigration and terrorism is understudied, but existing research is inconclusive.[12][13][14] Research on the relationship between refugee migration and crime is scarce and existing empirical evidence is often contradictory.[15][16] According to statistics from some countries, asylum seekers are overrepresented in crime figures.[17][18][19][failed verification]

Immigration and crime - Wikipedia

The mythical tie between immigration and crime | Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)

Trump says migrants are fueling violent crime. Here is what the research shows | Reuters

Immigrants less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born : NPR

Many people who oppose immigration say that it increases crime. But does immigration really affect crime? Studying a country whose proportion of migrants has tripled in less than ten years, researchers find immigration significantly impacts people’s perceptions of crime but has no effect on actual crime.

Does immigration really increase crime? - McGill University

We causally analyse the link between immigrants and crime in Germany for 2008–2019. The effect is positive for the early sub-period and negative or insignificant for the later one. When analyzing the total period, the estimates average out to zero.

Do immigrants affect crime? Evidence for Germany - ScienceDirect

Reality Check: Are migrants driving crime in Germany? - BBC News

And: Are strangers dangerous when it comes to children?

Statistics on child sexual abuse | NSPCC Learning

And: What are the countries with the highest/lowest crime/murder/suicide rates?

Crime Rate by Country 2024

List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia

List of countries by suicide rate - Wikipedia

And: What makes the English? Let's go to Munich (at 10:30)

From football fans watching England, to Dover, a Druid gathering, and a mass trespass near Reading, Grayson wonders who are the English?

Grayson Perry's Full English - Series 1: Episode 1 | Channel 4

FINALLY: CULTURE, COMEDY AND ENTERTAINMENT:

Here are some lists: how many of these represent 'minorities'?

Movies:

Greatest American Film Directors | Pantheon

Driven to Darkness: Jewish Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir on JSTOR

Musicals:

West Side Story (1961 film) - Wikipedia

West Side Story is the product of a bunch of GAY JEWS!!

Musicians:

Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog - YouTube

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog (1956) HD 0815007 - YouTube

The Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster - YouTube [1:30]

Comedians:

Top 10 Best Comedians of All Time

Top 10 American Male Stand-Up Comedians of All Time - YouTube

The 20 Best Stand Up Comedy Specials of All Time - YouTube

Top 10 Absolutely Fabulous Moments - YouTube

Footballers:

Une équipe de foot multiculturelle peut-elle encourager la France à l'être aussi ?

It’s not just football – it’s a barometer of diversity. Bring on the Euros… | Euro 2020 | The Guardian

Finally, what country could possibly compare?

THIS IS RUSSIA WINTER IS COMING - YouTube 

Discussion of Tchaikovsky's personal life, especially his sexuality, has perhaps been among the most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time.[102] It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to homosexuality and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at analysis by Western biographers.[103]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Wikipedia (23 secs into the youtube video)

Compare:

BBC Radio 3 - Discovering Music, Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather, was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), a Cameroonian[14] page kidnapped and taken to Constantinople as a gift for the Ottoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great.

Alexander Pushkin - Wikipedia (15 secs into the youtube video)

Compare:

Rare Editions of Pushkin Are Vanishing From Libraries Around Europe - The New York Times

Forgery or History? Peter Harrington Rare & First Edition Books.

whatthehell

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dumbing down high culture

What do we mean by 'high culture'?

Jay Doubleyou: high vs popular culture

Jay Doubleyou: high culture > popular culture --- high register > low register

Jay Doubleyou: romeo + juliet and west side story

And what do we mean by 'dumbing down'?

Jay Doubleyou: dumbing us down [and school]

Jay Doubleyou: education: dumbing us down [and Prussia]

Jay Doubleyou: brexit, trump and dumbing down [the cult of ignorance]

What about opera? Does it have to be 'dumbed down' to make it 'popular'?

I'm a young opera fan - we don't need them to be dumbed down for us (March 2024)

Daily Research News Online no. 8123 - Research 'Dumbing Down' Opera? (March 2008)

But what a snob! Or is this critic criticising with tongue firmly in cheek?

What’s so good about young people? I only ask because English National Opera seems so desperate to entice the yoof that it is willing to let them through the door in their pyjamas and slippers, and possibly in nothing more than their birthday suits if that whole dressing-up lark feels like too much effort.

This week, ENO enlisted the help of Blur’s Damon Albarn (well into middle age) and Terry Gilliam (old enough to start resembling a badger) in an attempt to woo a younger audience. Albarn and Gilliam, who both dress like 14-year-old boys, launched the Undress for the Opera initiative, which invites newcomers to turn up in their jeans and trainers instead of the usual suits and frocks. The London Coliseum will also offer beer promotions, “club-style bars” and “specially themed cocktails”. Come to the opera and get as drunk as you like, kids!

If you don’t like the music, Gilliam (hopefully) joked that you could “wear your earphones”. Meanwhile, the ENO’s artistic director, John Berry, said that “there are lots of people who are put off by the way opera is presented…We’re going to greet you when you come through the door, look after you and make sure you have a really fantastic evening.” Eeww! Please don’t!

Why are we so obsessed with courting young people? They’ve got no money, and when they do they spend it all on super-strong alcohol, rolling tobacco and condoms. The few young people who do want to spend their savings on Don Giovanni hardly need the promise of hooch as an incentive. Does this craven appeal to young folk make an institution look cool? No. It just makes it look like a sad teenager trying to attract the focus of their unrequited love.

I have never been to the opera – not because you have to dress up, or because, in the words of Gilliam, I think it is “for a bunch of old farts – the bourgeoisie in dinner jackets”. I haven’t been to the opera because it generally costs a small fortune. So while it’s great that ENO will be making 100 seats available for 25 quid, it would be even better if we could sit in those seats in our finery, without the threat of a pint of beer down our backs. You don’t need to lure people to The Magic Flute by turning it into The Pig and Whistle.

Dumbing down won't attract the young to the opera

Finally:

Jay Doubleyou: register: populism, culture wars and woke [how Trump speaks, defining populism...]

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listening to bbc radio

The Radio Times is a weekly magazine listing the UK's TV, radio and streaming - and their Radio listings guide | Radio Times opens out a lot of listening possibilities. Just click on a programme to get more details - and see if you'd like to listen.

The magazine itself has a daily list of recommnded listening - in "Today's Choices" - with a couple of examples here:

On Star Trek: Thursday radio - 22 Nov 2022 - Radio Times Magazine - Readly

On the race to the North Pole: Broadcast - BBC Programme Index

There is a lot to listen to - but you just need to register with a UK address to be able to listen.

Here are a couple more places to explore what's on offer:

Jay Doubleyou: short history series on bbc radio

Jay Doubleyou: talking about music - on audio

Jay Doubleyou: north, east, south, west - what do they mean?

Jay Doubleyou: china, the bbc and disinformation

Jay Doubleyou: walter benjamin on the radio in english

And:

Jay Doubleyou: radio 4 in 4 minutes

Jay Doubleyou: poetry on bbc radio

Jay Doubleyou: drama on radio 4

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 4's history of ideas - animations

Jay Doubleyou: sharing our lives with wolves: on bbc's shared planet

Jay Doubleyou: history from objects: the british musem, radio 4 and neil macgregor

Jay Doubleyou: the listening project - listening to britain

Jay Doubleyou: just a minute

Jay Doubleyou: sport on the radio - in english

Jay Doubleyou: getting the most out of bbc radio 4 - for esol students

And finally:

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 6 to help you with your english...

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 5 to help you with your english...

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 4 to help you with your english...

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 3 to help you with your english...

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 2 to help you with your english...

Jay Doubleyou: bbc radio 1 to help you with your english...

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