Hello again, I’ve just finished my last lecture before Christmas, yay (I mean boo, I want to do more linguistics (I hope I get brownie points for saying that))!

I’m currently listening to Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, and getting in the Christmas spirit. This activity has got me thinking, how on earth do we understand what Shane MacGowan (he’s the lead singer, I know my stuff) is saying?

It’s a wonder of human communication that the noises departing his mouth can have any meaning whatsoever to a hearer, and to be honest, it’s a wonder he can make such vague word-like sounds.

When someone’s singing voice sounds like… that (I was trying to think of a simile/metaphor but I couldn’t quite do it justice) it’s kind of inevitable that everyone will have a different idea of what the lyrics actually are. Try getting a group together, putting the song on quietly in the background, and hearing all the different versions as a fun Christmas activity.

Until today I’d never listened to the song whilst reading the lyrics, and to be honest, it was rather strange.

It was also unpleasant. The song is unpleasant. Our friend Shane, at one point, sings:
‘You´re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed’…
Yes, not very nice, is it?

So, I guess the meaning of this rather strange but somewhat wondrous post is to not listen to the lyrics of Fairytale of New York, and just go along with the vague noises. It’s much more fun to sing along to.

Or you could use my guide to how to sing along, which is here, give it a try, you won’t regret it:

IwasChristmaseeeevebabe
Ithadrutak
Anolmasetome   wonseeanerrthrrone
Athetheysaso
Thrareolmantendew
Iturmfaceway andreamderboutya
Gotonaluckywen

Cameinatenterone
I´vegotafeelin
Thsyersformeenya
Sappychristmas
Iloveybabeeee
I cseeyabedrtime
Whenallourdreamscometrue.

(this bit is Kirsty it’s more clear)
They got cars big as bars
They got rivers of gold
But the wind goes (or windows) right through you
It´s no place for the old
When you first took my hand on a cold christmas eve
You promised me broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome you were pretty
Queen of new york city when the band finished playing they yelled out for more
Sinatra was swinging all the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night.

And the boys from the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out for christmas day.

You’re a bum you’re a punk
Yeranolsludnjun
Layenntherealmodeadnadripenthabed
You scumbag you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy christmas your arse I pray god it´s our last.

And the boys of the NYPD choir’s still singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For christmas day.

Icudvbeesomeone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
Ikethemwimebay
Iputhemwimyown
Candmekidoutalo
Avbillmadreamsroundyou
And the boys of the NYPD choir’s still singing Galway Bay
And the bells are ringing out
For christmas day.
I hope you enjoyed this festive post, this might be the last before the new year, I don’t know if anyone else has anything planned. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the blog this year, some more of you better get involved in the new year!

And to end, to paraphrase Shakin’ Stevens, Merry Christmas Everyone!

Marketing has always fascinated me. Sometimes, it works well and sells the product; other times, it is dire, bland and forgetful. Who remembers any other Cadbury advert after the eyebrow one? I don’t. Today, we have a new breed of marketing. Marketing that works, but throws out any rules of grammar they so wish. This irks me somewhat.

First is a rather fabulous PlayStation 4 advert that appeared on the back of many newspapers, in particular the Metro for me on the way to University.  It has in total 70 words, but only two commas and one full stop in the entire advert. If you were to hear this read aloud I’m pretty sure you would not be listening by the time you got to the third line. Commas are very much needed, prescriptively, but in terms of this advert maybe less so. It just about gets away with it, but varying font size to symbolise each new line has a voiced pause.

The other piece that caught my eye was the tag-line on the back of the Game of Thrones box set for series one (they learnt their lesson by the next series, thankfully). The quote reads: “Bloody and ambitiously epic… It’s addictive… once you start thrones dominates your life – Empire”. The problem, again, lies with the punctuation. For me, there needs to be a comma before thrones.

Maybe I’m just being a petty linguist, but is it that hard to read your (tiny) work out loud?

At four o’clock yesterday the Linguistics section held its second reading group. For some reason the turnout was significantly less than three weeks ago; in fact there were just four of us. Although this sounds like a complete disaster, I think it was actually a blessing in disguise. The four of us chose not to talk about the paper but rather general linguistics, university life and travelling. By the time we had left Checkland the meeting had lasted for longer than the first reading group.

We spoke about our experiences studying or, in Sandra’s case, teaching at Brighton University. I feel all four of us enjoy being part of the Linguistics department at Brighton and it’s testament to the department that the three students who came to the group – Connie, Justine and I – came to University primarily to study English Language but now all three of us are more interested in Linguistics. This seems to be a common trend amongst the English Language and Linguistics students at Brighton.

By speaking to Justine and Connie I got the impression that the third year linguistics group are close. The same can be said for the second years. Although we are 27 very different people, we get on really well and after over a year together I don’t think I have heard about any angry words being exchanged or a major falling out (*touch wood*). This isn’t the case with every course, which makes me think there must be something about studying a Linguistics degree at Brighton University that brings people together: the reason?  A common fear of a lecturer? Perhaps… A much needed outlet to complain about your housemates? Possibly… A shared passion for the subject? I’d like to think so. Whatever the reason I hope the first years are making the same effort with one another.

We also spoke about Sandra’s blog https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/linguistics/2013/11/30/losing-a-language/ and how sad it is that so many languages are dying out. Sandra felt the reason Low German has all but died out is due to the perception of the language amongst school children; it is seen as the language of farm folk and the uneducated. The same reason can be applied to the failed attempts of reviving Irish Gaelic. We came to the conclusion that in order for a language to be resurrected it must be seen as desirable by the children who are trying to learn it. We can see this in the revival of the Maori language in New Zealand which must be a result of the language’s association with the All blacks and the importance Kiwi culture places on the it’s rugby team. We also exchanged ideas about the course I found it surprising how often the four of us agreed about what was good and what needs improving on our course, this felt like an important exercise and in my experience it’s often the way issues are resolved.

If like me, you see your future career in Linguistics you are pretty limited in job choice; writer, speech therapist, teacher, lecturer, translator… that’s about it. These are all jobs where it helps to know people in the same line of work; either as a reference or someone to take advice from. For this reason I think it is a really good idea to get to know the students and lecturers in the Linguistics department because in my experience the world is indeed very small and the chances that you will encounter another Brightonian Linguist in your professional life are pretty high.

I see my future career in education and over the summer I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to teach English in Bratislava. One of the things that struck me is that in order for education to be effective it has to be built on good relationships amongst students and teachers. I don’t know if this was one of Tim and Sandra’s reasons for starting the reading group but if it was, he should be pleased because I think it’s starting to work.

Most of the people I know who study Linguistics think the reading group is a really good idea and I understand that people have lives outside Linguistics. But If you saw the demonstrations on Tuesday or have read about the five Sussex students who have been suspended from University for their involvement in an occupation you will understand just how important education is to people (myself included) and how it is fast becoming a commodity. With this in mind, I think we must recognise that when a group of people are willing to give away their time and knowledge for free, it is something really special.

‘Ello again, how are you? I hope you’re good.

Today I thought I’d write about moving from Sheffield up in’t north, down to Guernsey in the south, and how I changed how I spoke, rather consciously, in order to fit in.

Those of you that know me now are probably thinking that I don’t seem like someone who would be bothered too much about fitting in, and thankfully, I’m not any more. Back in the day though I was very nervous and shy, and when I did move down all I wanted to do was make a few friends and not be laughed at for sounding all funny.

I made a very bad start. I remember on my first day I had no idea that some of my vocabulary would be completely alien to the people of Guernsey. ‘Mint’ meaning good, seemed to have everyone confused, and sitting next to some one and saying ‘utch up’ (make room) had them completely dumbfounded.

Working in groups was very hard due to the language barrier. ‘Stop faffin about’ (stop messing around) did not stop people messing around, but it did provoke a good laugh from the rest of the group at my expense. ‘I’m fed up wi’im’ I said about one of the laughers. Again, no one understood, and I could tell it was going to take a lot of effort for me to truly fit in in this place.

One day I walked into form and said ‘ow do?’ to one of my new friends. This flummoxed him, he had no idea, so again I had to explain myself, I decided the best thing to do was to try and speak as much like the Guernsey folk as possible, and my South Yorkshire expressions disappeared pretty quickly.

The pronunciation, though, was a different matter. That was something that was very hard to get rid of, and I found myself, for quite a while, talking like this:  ‘summetsupeer’ (something’s wrong here), ‘gerrartnit’ (get out of it) or ‘azeeginiter’ (has he given it to her).

Again, this brought great joy to the people of Guernsey, but still I felt like I didn’t fit in.

I guess it took me about 3 years to sound like I do today, and when I did finally start to sound like a Guern I felt great, I finally fit in, I’m not an outsider. Now though, I kind of wish I still had the Sheffield accent, after all, that’s home, and it’d be nice if I could take a bit of home around with me while I’m not there.

Thanks again for reading, have a lovely day!