Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Papy Oli]

Gal Gadot called.

She's not coming.

[Cato]

Gal Gadot called.

She's not coming.

Too busy saving the world!   

This morning a "news show" was on television (it really has very little "news") and a 40-something blonde woman reporting on "fashion news" was just rapidly babbling about her products, and I kept picking up oddities, e.g. she was unable to pronounce the word "odor" properly (difficult to describe: quasi-"O-Ah-der").

I was mulling whether she was perhaps originally Dutch or Scandinavian, when it struck me that she might be from a certain area in America influenced by Scandinavia and Germany.

And after some Travels With Charley Google, the answer made sense: she was born and lived in northern Wisconsin, where one can hear curious pronunciations and conversational music both stemming from ancestors hailing from Germany or Scandinavia.   

The movie Fargo is famous for its portrayal of the accent in what is known as The Upper Midwest (e.g. Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and a few others).

[Florestan]

I was mulling whether she was perhaps originally Dutch or Scandinavian, when it struck me that she might be from a certain area in America influenced by Scandinavia and Germany.

Then it should have been "oo-dawr", methinks.

AFAIC, the last word on pronunciation, especially English, has been unwittingly written by a Romanian poet:

Nu cerceta aceste legi,
Că ești nebun când le-nțelegi!

(Do not inquire into these laws,
For you are mad when you understand them!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Co%C8%99buc

 

[Cato]

So, in America and Canada, there is a doughnut (which is also spelled donut) named after U.S. Army General John Pershing, famous for his role in the Mexican Punitive Expedition and later in World War I.

During World War II, when he was in his 80's, he visited a Canadian bakery, and so impressed the owner, that he named one of his creations after the general.

The Pershing Doughnut usually - not always - has cinnamon on caramel icing and is made from rolled dough layered with cinnamon and sugar.

In my childhood, the local bakery always had Pershings in stock: they were favorites of my parents.

Yesterday, at a large grocery store, we saw an area with signs proclaiming "50% Off."

Among the items were one-day-old doughnuts: the labels called them however "Persian Doughnuts."

Apparently in the last 80 years, people have misheard "Pershing" as "Persian," and so the box had the latter name.

I also blame the decline in teaching History properly in our schools: I suspect very few in the younger generations could identify General Pershing! 

Anyway, these versions were not made from a strip of rolled dough, but came from a ball of dough.  The icing was the same type found on an original Pershing.

[Karl Henning]

So, in America and Canada, there is a doughnut (which is also spelled donut) named after U.S. Army General John Pershing, famous for his role in the Mexican Punitive Expedition and later in World War I.

During World War II, when he was in his 80's, he visited a Canadian bakery, and so impressed the owner, that he named one of his creations after the general.

The Pershing Doughnut usually - not always - has cinnamon on caramel icing and is made from rolled dough layered with cinnamon and sugar.

In my childhood, the local bakery always had Pershings in stock: they were favorites of my parents.

Yesterday, at a large grocery store, we saw an area with signs proclaiming "50% Off."

Among the items were one-day-old doughnuts: the labels called them however "Persian Doughnuts."

Apparently in the last 80 years, people have misheard "Pershing" as "Persian," and so the box had the latter name.

I also blame the decline in teaching History properly in our schools: I suspect very few in the younger generations could identify General Pershing! 

Anyway, these versions were not made from a strip of rolled dough, but came from a ball of dough.  The icing was the same type found on an original Pershing.

"Persian doughnuts!" Hah!

[JBS]

So, in America and Canada, there is a doughnut (which is also spelled donut) named after U.S. Army General John Pershing, famous for his role in the Mexican Punitive Expedition and later in World War I.

During World War II, when he was in his 80's, he visited a Canadian bakery, and so impressed the owner, that he named one of his creations after the general.

The Pershing Doughnut usually - not always - has cinnamon on caramel icing and is made from rolled dough layered with cinnamon and sugar.

In my childhood, the local bakery always had Pershings in stock: they were favorites of my parents.

Yesterday, at a large grocery store, we saw an area with signs proclaiming "50% Off."

Among the items were one-day-old doughnuts: the labels called them however "Persian Doughnuts."

Apparently in the last 80 years, people have misheard "Pershing" as "Persian," and so the box had the latter name.

I also blame the decline in teaching History properly in our schools: I suspect very few in the younger generations could identify General Pershing! 

Anyway, these versions were not made from a strip of rolled dough, but came from a ball of dough.  The icing was the same type found on an original Pershing.

A Doughnut for The (Head) Doughboy.

[Karl Henning]

An exquisite typo in a "Tai Chi for Seniors" ad:
7 minutes a day to relish stress.

[Kalevala]

An exquisite typo in a "Tai Chi for Seniors" ad:
7 minutes a day to relish stress.

Hey, what doesn't break you makes you stronger. 

K

[Cato]

An exquisite typo in a "Tai Chi for Seniors" ad:

7 minutes a day to relish stress.

Maybe hot dogs are involved? 

So, we recently received a video of our 3-year old grandson at a gymnastics class trying to do a somersault.  (He is tall for his age, 99th percentile, and so far has shown no interest in soccer or swimming or certain Asian martial arts.  He does like the toddler version of baseball called T-Ball.)

Later, we were able to talk with him and asked: "So, did you do a somersault in gymnastics class?"

"No, I did not!  I did a front roll."

So, our son explained that - for some reason - the gymnastics world has restricted the term somersault to airborne somersaults.  A somersault on the ground is a "front roll."

I checked our 1969 American Heritage Dictionary, (which was an award to Mrs. Cato from her university days) the classic one edited by William Morris, the leading lexicographer of his day, and no such restriction on the word was given.

So, I will stick with "somersault."   😇 

[JBS]

Checking Wikipedia, it seems airborne somersaults are called flips.
It also seems salto has become an vernacular term for somersault.

What led me to Wikipedia was curiousity about the word's origin.

The word 'somersault' is derived from Old Provençal sobresaut (via Middle French sombresault) meaning "jump over", from sobre, "over" (from Latin supra-, as in supranational); and saut, "jump" (from Latin saltus, the same root as salient).

[Kalevala]

Maybe hot dogs are involved? 

So, we recently received a video of our 3-year old grandson at a gymnastics class trying to do a somersault.  (He is tall for his age, 99th percentile, and so far has shown no interest in soccer or swimming or certain Asian martial arts.  He does like the toddler version of baseball called T-Ball.)

Later, we were able to talk with him and asked: "So, did you do a somersault in gymnastics class?"

"No, I did not!  I did a front roll."

So, our son explained that - for some reason - the gymnastics world has restricted the term somersault to airborne somersaults.  A somersault on the ground is a "front roll."

I checked our 1969 American Heritage Dictionary, (which was an award to Mrs. Cato from her university days) the classic one edited by William Morris, the leading lexicographer of his day, and no such restriction on the word was given.

So, I will stick with "somersault."  😇 

Now, be a nice grandpa, and just go with it.  Languages change/evolve, and most importantly, he's your grandson.    I'm sure that you love him.

Best,

K

[Florestan]

What led me to Wikipedia was curiousity about the word's origin.

The word 'somersault' is derived from Old Provençal sobresaut (via Middle French sombresault) meaning "jump over", from sobre, "over" (from Latin supra-, as in supranational); and saut, "jump" (from Latin saltus, the same root as salient).

The exact Romanian translation is suprasalt. There are other words prefixed with supra: supratensiune (overcharge), suprateran (overground, as opposed to subteran=underground), suprascriere (overwriting), supradimensionare (oversizing, as opposed to subdimensionare, downsizing) etc. Notice that the opposite of supra- is sub-, which is also an unmodified Latin.word. However, you cannot use supra to mean "over something)", for that you'll have to use "peste": I jumped over the fence = (Eu) am sărit peste gard. And peste in turn comes for the contraction of two Latin words, per super. Its obsolete form was actually preste.

[ritter]

And curiously, in Spanish, the word sobresalto (which comes directly from the etymological roots of somersault --supra and saltus--) means a fright, an emotional shock, or a startle.

[Karl Henning]

I should have said "Soprano sub urgently needed," but "urgent soprano sub needed" did make me smile.

[Kalevala]

I should have said "Soprano sub urgently needed," but "urgent soprano sub needed" did make me smile.

Is that a new type of hoagie?

K

[Karl Henning]

Is that a new type of hoagie?

K

(* chortle *)

[Kalevala]

(* chortle *)

*Created in Jersey?

*I'll run away now! 

K

[Karl Henning]

"Monet and Manet were often confused even in their own lifetime."

That's unkind gossip. Presumably confused for one another was meant.

[Cato]

From the BBC, which is usually hailed as a Defensor Linguae Anglicae, but one wonders how many editors let this slip through:


 (An official's career)...was marred in controversy."      


It could be that the career was marred by controversy, or, mired in controversy.


From a scholarly article on Shakespeare and Freudian Psychology"

"....which are believed to underly]/i] mental problems."      

Not a typing mistake!  I learned that "underly" does exist, but is considered an obsolete adverb.


And...

A national news show from New York recently had a report on "Tores of Grand Central Station in New York City.


"Tore" guides were interviewed during the "tores."


I have always heard a glide in "Tour" i.e. "too-er" and never heard the word pronounced "Tore." 

English does not need more homophones!   



Whether this is a pronunciation heard outside of New York City, I do not know.

[steve ridgway]

...
A national news show from New York recently had a report on "Tores of Grand Central Station in New York City.


"Tore" guides were interviewed during the "tores."


I have always heard a glide in "Tour" i.e. "too-er" and never heard the word pronounced "Tore." 

English does not need more homophones! 



Whether this is a pronunciation heard outside of New York City, I do not know.

Tour is pronounced Tore, rhyming with Sore and Saw, in England  .