How does a hurricane move? It “barrels” and “churns,” to judge from the most popular verbs. “Lumbers” is the oddest verb choice, yet it is used rather often, I guess to convey a large scale (hearing it on the radio this morning led me to this investigation). But can a hurricane really “march”? I guess that’s to show inexorability. Can it “aim”? Here’s just a small sample of today’s journalistic prose at work.

• “Hurricane Irene … makes its way toward the US mainland.” –ABC News
• “Hurricane Irene [is] churning toward the New York/New Jersey area.” — ESPN
• “Hurricane Irene churned on a northwest track.” –Scientific American
• “Irene churns toward North Carolina.” — Bloomberg
• “Hurricane Irene … advances toward the East Coast.” — Ydr.com
  
• “Hurricane Irene may be hurtling menacingly toward the coast.” — Wall Street Journal
• “Hurricane Irene … barrels toward the East Coast.” — Technolog
• “Hurricane Irene barreled toward the region. — Boston Globe
• “Hurricane Irene made its way toward the region.” — Boston Globe
• “Irene continues to steam through the ocean.” — Boston.com
• “Hurricane Irene … roars toward the U.S. East Coast.” Los Angeles Times
• “Irene lumbered into the Bahamas.” — Patch.com
• “Hurricane Irene … bore down on the Bahamas.” — PBS
• “Irene … spins toward the Bahamas.” –WSBTV
• “Hurricane Irene slammed the Bahamas [and] heads toward the East Coast. — Washington Post
• “Irene takes aim at Long Island.” NY Daily News
• “Hurricane Irene aims its fury toward the North.” — brunswickbeacon.com
• “Hurricane storms toward Philly region.” – myfoxphilly.com
• “Hurricane Irene moves toward the Carolinas.” — Charlotte News
• “Irene continued its march across the Caribbean toward the U.S.” — Fox News
  
• “Hurricane Irene marched north.” — Wall Street Journal

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Fun with verbs

Jill Schoolman of Archipelago Books asked recently if I would be interested in translating the major twentieth-century Spanish poet Jose Angel Valente.  As it happens I would, and I am grateful to her for thinking of me. Valente is a kind of platonist of the word, who seeks to ruthlessly strip bare received language and produce a vitalized text of absolute immediacy. (I’m far from an expert on twentieth-century poetry of Spain, so I’ll need to work at getting up to speed in better understanding his place in the scheme of things.)

I will select roughly eighty poems from his body of work. Unfortunately, I won’t have the sustained time to work on this project until I finish my work on 1616, but I’m looking forward to this challenge. Here’s a very preliminary example:

The wine was the indeterminate color of ash.

I drank it with residue of dark
shadows, shadows, a wet
body on the sands.

You arrived,
You came tonight.

The insidious depths of the glass
conceal an anonymous god.
+++++++++++++++++++++You gave me
blood to drink
tonight.
+++++Depths
of the god drunk to the dregs.

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By the way, I think I finally figured out how to keep WordPress from stripping out spaces when you have to indent lines in irregular ways like this. You can insert invisible characters, with this kind of code:

<span style=”visibility: hidden;”>++++++++++++++++++</span>

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UPDATE: Looks like the hidden style attribute doesn’t work with RSS.

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Another new book: Selected Poems of Jose Angel Valente

El Pais is talking about a new Dictionary of Americanisms (Diccionario de americanismos) published by the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua in Madrid under the direction of Humberto Lopez Morales, secretary general of the academies. Lopez Morales, though now a resident of Madrid, was born in Cuba and lived in Puerto Rico.

Americanisms are a more vexing problem in Spanish — the second most spoken language in the world — than in English. Travelers across the Americas have to learn new words even for simple things like straws, napkins, and avocados as they travel from Mexico to Argentina.

And of course the language is always changing. While dictionaries of Americanisms exist, there has not been a major new work in this area for twenty or thirty years. This book fills that void.

Logging in at 2,500 pages, the dictionary costs 75 euros — about a hundred U.S. dollars — but for those of us who sometimes translate from Latin American Spanish it will be an essential reference to own or at least consult.

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World Book News: Dictionary of Americanisms

This may be the earliest example of written English to survive in a British church. Recently discovered on a wall in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, it probably dates from the fourteenth century. But what does it say?

Dr John Crook, who produced the digitally enhanced image of the text shown above, is asking the public for help in deciphering the incomplete inscription. “If anyone thinks they can identify any further letters from the enhanced photographs,” he said, “please contact us via the Salisbury Cathedral website…. It would be wonderful for us to solve the mystery.”

Read more at the Daily Mail Online.

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Can you read this?

“Hilburn . . . had the access and longevity to get to know musicians better than few in the media do today.”
– Associated Press

Is “better than few” the same as “less well than many”?

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Say what?

Right Reading  received the following e-mail (slightly edited) from Jag Bhalla.

Hello Tom

I discovered your blog via Twitter and was very impressed by your chucklesome publishing world ‘devils dictionary’.

Also as a lover of language play, thought you might enjoy the following:

a) On “language addiction (its our most ubiquitous mind altering drug) and the thrill of the novel (semantic ambush).” http://bit.ly/m6DQ5 (National Post Canada)

b) A new National Geographic book – called “I’m Not Hanging Noodles on your Ears” which is the Russian idiom that is the equivalent of our ‘I’m not pulling your leg’.

The book is primarily intended as an amusing gift book. To which end it features over 1000 idioms from 10 languages, plus illustrations by a New Yorker cartoonist. The majority of the idioms have not been exposed before in English (other than in bilingual dictionaries). It also contains lighthearted essays on related linguistics, psychology, anthropology and neuroscience.

Mr. Bhalla also provides the following examples from his book of idioms:

To live like a maggot in bacon – German – to live in luxury
Squeezer of limes – Hindi – self invited guest, idler
To reheat cabbage – Italian – rekindle an old flame
Like fingernail and dirt – Mex. Span – well suited
Bang your butt on the ground – French – to die laughing
To make tea with your navel – Japanese – laughable
Swallowed like a postman’s sock – Col. Span – in love
Plucked like a chicken – Yiddish – exhausted
To bite the elbow – Russian – to cry over spilt milk
Belch smoke from 7 head orifices – Chinese – furious
Ant milker – Arabic – miser, tight wad
Give it to someone with cheese – Spanish – to deceive

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Mailbag: A book of idioms

A study by a research team appointed by the European Commission finds that multililngualism may benefit brains in a variety of ways:

• learning in general
• complex thinking and creativity
• mental flexibility
• interpersonal and communication skills
• delay of age-related mental diminishment

“It is obvious that enhanced memory can have a profound impact on cognitive function,” says David Marsh, specialized planner at the Continuing Professional Development Centre of Jyväskylä University, who coordinated the international research team behind the study. ” This may be one reason why the multilingual shows superior performance in handling complex and demanding problem-solving tasks when compared to monolinguals. They seem to be able to have an advantage in handling certain thinking processes.”

Apparently learning a language as a discreet subject does not work as effectively as embedding second-language learning into other subjects. The methodology of the study is unclear to me, but I haven’t read the whole report.

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Image from Nature magazine

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Better brains through foreign-language learning

According to Langenscheidt, “This phrasebook contains all of the most important expressions and words you’ll need for your trip.” In that case, what a trip it will be! Imagine yourself with no knowledge at all of Italian and armed only with phrases such as the following (which I have assembled into a brief narrative, occasionally adding my own punctuation –the ellipses, however, are Langenscheidt’s — but retaining the phrases otherwise unaltered).

Good afternoon. Please help me. The engine sounds funny — I need a pair of pliers. It’s not my fault. It’s your fault. I had the right of way. You cut the corner. You were following too closely. You were going too fast.

I don’t feel well: I feel nauseous, I’m dizzy, I’m from the United States. What is your name? Are you married? Could you repeat that, please? How old are you? Do you have children? What sort of work do you do?

It was a misunderstanding. I need someone to accompany me. I’d like to come with you. May I sit here? I like it very much. This is my address. Shall we meet this evening? I’ll take you home. I’d like to invite you to . . . What does . . . mean? I like that.

What is this called in Italian? It’s very good, thank you — satisfied! Did you like it there? Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for a lovely evening. Will I see you again? Do you mind if I smoke? I have not been vaccinated against . . .

Is there a nice bar around here?

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A universal story

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Pop quiz: 10 word sources

awkward birth both cake dirt gap get give ill mire muggy ransack root rotten rugged same scant scathe scowl seem skill skin skirt sky sprint steak their them they wand wrong

Answer after the jump . . .

All of these words were brought into English, mostly in the eighth through tenth centuries, by the Norse (Viking and Dane) invaders who followed the Romans and preceded the Normans. Words of Norse origin make up a fairly small percentage of the total number of English words, but they include some common ones.

A few more words in this category include anger, bag, bait, blackmail, bleak, bloom, booth, call, cast, club, crooked, die, drag, fellow, freckle, gaze, hit, husband, kid, kindle, knife, law, leg, lift, loan, loft, loose, low, meek, oaf, raft, raise, reindeer, rid, rug, sale, scalp, scare, score, scrap, scrub, scuffle, simper, slaughter, sleuth, sly, snag, snare, take, tangy, thrift, thrive, troll, trust, ugly, want, weak, window, and wing.

On balance the Norse contributed to English an abundance of useful dark and gloomy words that are handy when life is a drag and one is ill, hit, wronged, scowling, angry, simpering, ensnared, low, scared, or otherwise in an ugly mood.

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Pop Quiz: Identify the Commonality

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Norwegian Hell Children

“Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.” — Benjamin Franklin

“I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.” — Walter Savage Landor

Whether none should be singular or plural is the kind of question that makes the nonprescriptive linguists feel smug and superior. But people who work in publishing know that some standards are needed — even if not the same ones for every book.

So, which is correct?

1. None of the editors really understands language.
2. None of the editors really understand language.

The first sentence presumes that none takes a singular verb, the second sentence that it takes a plural verb. I think more people would be likely to use the second formulation in ordinary speech, but some editors insist that none should be considered equivalent to “not one,” and therefore should take the singular.

That sounds plausible — except that it’s nonsense. None derives from an Old English word that is related to the German nein. Its constellation of meanings centered on the concept of “not any,” but there is no reason to consider it a strict equivalent to “not one.” In fact, back in the early twentieth century even old tight-assed Henry Fowler, in his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, urged writers to avoid the singular.

The reality is that sometimes none takes the singular and other times the plural. Rather than think of it as equivalent to “not one,” think of it as sometimes used that way and other times used as equivalent to “not any.” Thus:

1. None of the linguists are good writers [not any of them can write]
2. None of us is the chosen one [not one of us is Harry Potter]

In other words, you have to use your judgment. Sometimes you could go either way. Trust your ear — after all, there are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

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Is none singular? Are none plural?

According to Language Log

Lakoff wrote a 23-page single-spaced blast against this man’s recommendations, showing in detail and with clear arguments the nature of the hole up which the editor’s head was. And then unusually it turned out to be all happy endings: the linguists won, the editor resigned from the project, the editing changes were not made, the title was kept, and the book was a huge hit.

Is a happy ending from editing so unusual? Is there then no useful role for the copy editor? Of course there is. These folks can and often are quite helpful — even to nonprescriptive linguists — but they need to bring the proper attitude to the job. (It shouldn’t be necessary to say this.) Rather than seeing their role as grammar dominatrices they need to recognize that their assignment is to help authors realize their goals according to the strategies implicit in their works.

Years ago one of my favorite free-lance editors was an aspiring actress. Working with her I realized that copy editors are not unlike actors. Both are trying to immerse themselves in and in effect embody an author’s words. Copy editors need to be flexible, let go of their own voice, and adapt to the author’s individual style. Each edit should be a collaboration between the author and the editor, a unique work of art.

Some editors, though, can’t let go in that way — they stick to their guns come hell or high water. But don’t damn the whole profession because of them.

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image via freefromeditors.com

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A role for the copy editor

Now some folks are proposing that we also ban apostrophes, claiming that its easy to read text without them. Considering that hardly a day goes by that one doesnt wince at wrongly used examples, the proposal has a certain appeal.

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Whos to say whats best?

This is an excellent choice. Copper Canyon has been a reliable publisher of international poetry for decades, and all of their books are prepared with care and attention to detail. Bravo!

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Copper Canyon to publish Chinese anthology

I’ve mentioned I’ve been helping to judge a translation award. Now that a set of finalists has been announced (although the Chronicle, true to form, omitted the translation category from their story; I’ll list the finalists later) I can say that the book I especially liked among the eligible titles was The Old Man’s Verses byIvan Divis, translated from the Czeck by Deborah Garfinkle.

Divis (1924–99) fled Soviet-occupied Prague for West Germany in 1968. He returned a quarter century later, looking at his homeland (and himself) with the jaundiced eye of sober experience. Garfinkle does a great job of capturing the distinctive voice of these poems, and making it look easy.

Here’s a sample, borrowed from Carol Peters’s site:

In memory of Pavel Plavec

Pavel and I entered the cathedral in Passau,
ill-timed, late, that is, as the services were ending.
The fortissimo tutti of the world’s largest organ
nailed me to the floor.
The institution driving lambs to the fold
with these ear-splitting contraptions, not Christ?
And where did He remain? I asked myself in disbelief,
with the character trait engrained in me,
backed up by everything I’ve known
and scrutinized through and through? And where is He?
And right there He stirred in my breast.
I was flooded with warmth. Come, he said –
and we left. It was September, the month
in which I celebrate my birth.
The pristine trees were clinging to their stiff leaves.
With a clap, a flock of doves took off
like a gunshot.

1.27.1995

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The Old Man’s Verses

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It’s urgent!

I hope you are all enjoying The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction. I wanted to send along some of the press the book has received. Martin Riker at Dalkey Archive Press has done a tremendous job of promoting the book.

There’s an excerpt from the book on the PEN website as part of their 2009 Translation Feature:

http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1491

There’s a review on OMNIVORACIOUS, Amazon.com’s official blog, which is read by thousands of readers every day:

http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/02/translated-best-of-contemporary-mexican-fiction.html

Another very positive review:

http://quarterlyconversation.com/best-of-contemporary-mexican-fiction-edited-by-alvaro-uribe-and-olivia-sears

From the Latin American Review of Books:

http://www.latamrob.com/?p=663

And there have been numerous bloggers singing the book’s praises. Here are a few of those:

http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/short-fiction-sunday-lvaro-uribe-and.html

http://www.keirgraff.com/

http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/02/translated-best-of-contemporary-mexican-fiction.html

Advance reviews are also positive, such as this one in BOOKLIST (a publication that goes out to libraries around the US):

http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=3139485

Feb. 2009. 562p. Dalkey Archive, hardcover. REVIEW. First published January 1, 2009 (Booklist).

Short-story fans hungry for something that doesn’t taste like it was cooked up in an MFA program workshop should take note of this anthology of contemporary Mexican writers. There’s great variety here, but what all 16 stories have in common are distinctive voices. For the most part eschewing realism, these stories are exuberant, playful, informal, and experimental, and may make some readers nostalgic for the years before U.S. fiction got so institutionalized. Standouts include Álvaro Enrigue’s “On the Death of the Author,” a metafictional account of the author’s attempts to tell the story of Ishi, the last Yahi Indian; Jorge F. Hernández’s “True Friendship,” about a man’s perfect but probably fictional best friend; and Juan Villoro’s hilarious “Mariachi,” the tale of analysand El Gallito de Jojutla, “the only mariachi star who has never sat on a horse.” Stories are printed in both Spanish and English on facing pages; bilingual readers will be able to judge the translations for themselves, and readers who only know English will at least be able to see the shape of the originals. — Keir Graff

I’m sorry to say that individual translators are only occasionally mentioned by name in these reviews, but given that this is often the case in reviews of novels (in which there’s only one translator to keep track of), I’m not terribly surprised they didn’t try to keep the 15 translators straight. I hope you will take the positive comments about your individual translations to heart. Thanks for being a part of this project.

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The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction

Aoccrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny ipormoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed the txet wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

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via hosted.pl
image via Gary McMurray’s photostream

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Why proofreading is hard

According to BusinessWriting.com, these are the 25 most  commonly misspelled words in English.

I don’t consider myself a very good speller, for an editor (I just look everything up). But this test seemed easy to me. The only question that I thought was a little tricky was the one that asked about a British spelling, since I’m only familiar with U.S. style.  I figured it was a trick question and answered with the U.S. spelling, which luckily was right.

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Spelling test