The Feb-R-uary Fix
Hello friends … It’s Friday the thirteenth, in FEB-roo-EHR-ee … the month I receive calls and emails from incensed members of our audience … the month that has TWO “r”s in it … the month that is difficult to pronounce. But I know we can do it! We’re professionals!
1. This is also a month of difficult weather across the country. Snow. Rain. Ice. Sun. Snow. Rain. Ice. Everything possible. The weather has been a news story, so we tried to vary our description, and make it sound new and fresh. “Schizophrenic” and “insane” are two words that are not particularly appropriate.
2. Taser is a registered brand name for a product. It should always be written with a capital “T“. It is becoming common to hear it used as a verb. Try to avoid that, and explain exactly what it does to a person. It stuns, shocks, disables, hits. One alternative phrase is “electroshock gun”. There is a fuller discussion in the Lang File (alt/F2 … enter Taser in the search window)
Now for your consideration, some alternative “understandings” of common medical terms …
Artery……………………. The study of paintings
Bacteria………………….. Back door to cafeteria
Barium…………………… What doctors do when patients die
Benign…………………… What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section…….. A neighborhood in Rome
Cat scan…………………… Searching for Kitty
Cauterize…………………. Made eye contact with her
Colic…………………….. A sheep dog
Coma………………………. A punctuation mark
3. Automakers around the world are struggling to adjust to the new economic situation, reacting with layoffs, and cutbacks, and the elimination of vehicle lines. In the past, we have referred to Ford, GM and Chrysler as “The Big Three“. That description doesn’t work anymore without a qualifier. North American car sales are challenged by Japanese car makers. How about the “Detroit Big Three” or “The Detroit Three” or the “U.S. Big Three”.
4. And while we’re on the subject .. Hyundai rhymes with Sunday. HUN-DAY
(Not hy-UN-dy or hy-UN-day) Nissan is pronounced NEE-SAWN. (Not NIH-san or NEE-san)
5. When referring to a person, use “who” not “that”. As in … “She was the last person WHO left the plane.” “He was the one WHO saved the cat”.
6. In the category of redundant redundancy heard on our network .. “totally destroyed”, and “killed fatally”. (My favourite)
Medical Terms D to N
Dilate…………………….. To live long
Enema……………………..Not a friend
Fester……………………. Quicker than someone else
Fibula……………………. A small lie
Impotent……………………Distinguished, well known
Labor Pain……………….. Getting hurt at work
Medical Staff…………….. A Doctor’s cane
Morbid……………………. A higher offer
Nitrates………………….. Cheaper than day rates
Node……………………… I knew it
7. Earlier this month, this question came into my email box … “Is it forest industry, or forestry industry?” I had also noticed that flip flop in scripts and reports. After checking the dictionary (what a great book!) it seems that “forest industry” is correct for talking about growing and cutting down trees for profit. Forestry is the science and practice of planting, caring for, and managing forests.
8. Debt and Deficit are two different concepts, though both of course deal with a shortage of money.
Deficit refers to figures for the fiscal year. Government spending is more than government revenue.
Debt is the accumulated budget deficits of more than one year.
So, if a government projects a DEFICIT of $10 for this year, and a DEFICIT of $10 for next year, it produces $20 in new DEBT. Similarly, a budget surplus refers to figures for one fiscal year.
And now the Medical Terms O to U
Outpatient………………A person who has fainted
Pelvis…………………….Second cousin to Elvis
Post Operative…………A letter carrier
Recovery Room……….. Place to do upholstery
Rectum………………….Nearly killed him
Secretion………………..Hiding something
Seizure…………………..Roman emperor
Tablet……………………A small table
Terminal Illness………..Getting sick at the airport
Tumor……………………One plus one more
Urine……………………..Opposite of you’re out
9. When is a black box not a black box?
When it’s orange… (It’s easier to find in a crash)
The stories about the plane crash this morning near Buffalo, and the safe landing on the Hudson River last month have both included references to “black boxes”. These boxes contain cockpit voice recordings or flight data information. First reference should be clear about the type of recording. Second reference can be to a “black box”. And of course you can see the full entry in the Lang File … alt/F2 Black Box.
Thanks for reading this, and thanks for sending your suggestions and questions. It’s good to know CBC broadcasters care so much about finding the best language to tell the stories.
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Um, no. The first R in February is silent for most speakers, and in fact the Febyuary pronunciation is listed first in the Canadian Oxford. We don’t pronounce the second E in vegetables or the second O in chocolate, either. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, but when that happens in Febyary, it comes down as snow.
Canadian English prefers [æ] for many words that Americans pronounce with [a:], lika pasta, Mazda, nirvana. So no, Nissan is not pronounced Neesaaan by most Canadians. In fact, just as Celica had one pronunciation here and another in the U.S., any rational reporting of actual usage would admit that NISSæn is the dominant pronunciation here. Again, cf. Mazda.
“Tasered” is clearly a verb form by now whether trademark attorneys like or or not.
‘separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com ‘ is a great web site to learn about the difference in usage and pronounciation of the two (or three) languages.
What’s wrong with the term “Big Three”? They are big after all and the term isn’t “Biggest Three”. If you want to be pedantic only GM is based in Detroit so “Big Three” is more accurate than “Detroit Three”.
A phrase that I hear repeatedly that I find annoying is “shot to death”. Was the victim repeatedly shot until dead or did he more likely die from a single gun shot which would mean he was “shot dead”.
Naval and Air Force personnel are not “soldiers”.
Downtown core is redundant.
America is the name of two continents.
Please ask radio announcers to relax on their french pronunciations. The pronunciation of the Montreal NHL hockey team is a prime example. After all the city isn’t called “More-re-al”.
RCMP
Regrissive
Cops
Massive
Power
We’re goin’ to tase you bro!
And get away with it.
February: I default to the British pronunciation: FEB rary. Easy to say and totally correct. There is no such thing as a silent “r.” There are just lazy speakers and illiterates, further stimied by pop culture.
I have been east as far as Vienna. Standing by the great black cathedral, the bells tolling at midnight on Christmas Eve. Snow settling over that torn and repaired carcass of the big war.
I have been west as far as Nagoya – Endless city of industry, mile after mile after mile. The people where pleasant to me everywhere I went. I have see ground zero at Hiroshima. My father trained the B29 flight engineers of the big war.
I have been north as far as Banff. I have walked the Ptarmigan pass in Watertown-Glacier. Seen the roof of heaven. The earth bending it’s orb beneath me.
I have fished the Salmon with the fly on River of Ponds, near the site of the first Norse men. My ancient fathers (of a mix).
I have sat on the beach in Marquette at high summer and wascone with the earth turn beneath the sunrise. Truly.
I have spent the high summer’s evening at Presque Isle Point, as the full sun set and the full moon rose, all in the same moment. All in the same view, over the blue of the great North lake.
I had a full esthetic experience beneath Tristan and Isolt at the Tate Gallery’s Turner retrospective. 1975. One moment of perfect beauty.
I have a BFA in painting, and a MA. I was a stained glass apprentice for two years and replace or made new the glass of our faiths. I was a toolmaker for 10 years. I became an engineer for Ford, father of the common man’s car. I have made things that make things now for 32 years. I bagged groceries, & sold shoes. Mopped floors. I read the ancient Greeks in translation. I am going bust like the rest of us in this travail of the new world order.
Once, I stuck out my hand and touched the face of God, at least as far as he would allow.
I and my partner have raised 6 kids. Angles and devils.
So you might say I’ve been around, not unlike most of us from the last ½ of the 20th century.
Of the demise of CBC2: I am reminded of a passage from Kenneth Clarke that went something like..”when the light of intelligence becomes so narrow a vision, that making anything worthwhile having majesty, or great beauty, or great and lasting wonder is not worth doing, because it is considered a waste of money.”
Or from Billy who Shakes Pointed Stick:
Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam;
and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall to expel the winter’s flaw!
I hope the money they saved will stuff up someone’s bung & keep them warm….
Geoff, Separated by a Common Language is strictly about U.K./U.S. variants. Trust me; I’ve been reading her for a long time.
Now, Damian, for “lazy speakers,” I assume you mean “speakers whose usage disagrees with yours”?
PapaJohn’s comment is off-topic and needs to be sent back for an edit, or just deleted.