A few weeks ago I became involved in the modern phenomena of podcasting. The podcast isn’t about language, however, it discusses household tips. Nowadays the young would call them “life hacks”, but I refuse to countenance such a silly neologism.
The podcast’s format is that I read out a tip that was sent to newspapers in the 1950s (I’m very interested in newspaper history). The tips are about cleaning, thrift, or mending. My two fellow podcasters invariably tell me it wouldn’t work nowadays. We discuss the point, argue, stray from the topic, then they make insulting remarks about my age. It’s interesting to compare the older-person/younger person approach to everyday problems. I find it amusing and surprisingly enjoyable.
The youngest of my podcast colleagues, the 21-year-old Connie, had never heard the word “gnat” (we were arguing about methods of keeping insects out of houses). This surprised me. I told her it had a silent “G”, to which she replied, “So is it nat-gih?” I laughed.
But it made me think of silent letters in modern English. You might be surprised to learn that almost 60% of our words contain silent letters. Fine (silent e); knee (k); bough (gh); psychiatry (p); debt (b); island (s). The reason there is so many is, often, that the words were imported from another language, or, more commonly, that while the spelling of a word remained the same its pronunciation changed.
“Knife”, for instance, used to be ka-neef; “business” used to be bizzy-ness; “Christmas” was Christ’s mass.
And there are many examples of words that don’t look like they’d sound anything like the way they are written: eight; indict; hiccough; one. “Queue” always looks to me like it should have two syllables.
This talk of silent letters and strange spellings brings me to one of my least favourite words in the entire language: colonel. It doesn’t merely have silent letters, it invents letters that aren’t there. It came to us from the French coronel, but the French took it from the Italian colonello, describing the man in charge of a column of infantry. We pronounce it cur-nal. It makes little sense and every time I see it written, it jars. I’ll write to the army and tell them to invent another word for this rank.
To listen to the podcast, search for “Pass It On Tips” wherever you usually find podcasts.
Word of the week
Neologism (noun)
A newly-coined word, expression or term. Sometimes an invented word. EG. “Neologisms such as ‘chilax’ or ‘noob’, in my opinion, sound stupid.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
