ExoEnglish... Great words from other languages

Sometimes other languages have words for things that are pretty handy... or just plain cool. (See the interesting book They Have a Word for It by Howard Rheingold or the more serious, though no less interesting, book Empires of the Word by Nicholas Ostler.) Here are few gems I recently discovered.

gaiatsu- Japanese, meaning "external pressure." Used to describe the influence of an outside force on decisionmaking or negotiations between parties. (Bloomberg Businessweek, April 18-April 24, 2011 issue)

siloviki-Russian, meaning "men of power."  Term for supporters of Vladimir Putin, many of whom worked in the Soviet security apparatus, who rose to power under Putin. (Bloomberg Businessweek, April 11-April 17, 2011 issue)

huang- meaning "royal" and zhongyang- meaning "central" but is a shorthand for the top leaders or the central government. These Chinese words are being banned from use in advertising in China because they could promote social instability among the haves and the have-nots: (Bloomberg Businessweek, April 11-April 17, 2011 issue) TCL

Speak like a Jedi Master you can

Excellent and brief article at World Wide Words (WWW), on a rhetoric technique called anadiplosis. Loosely translated from the Greek, it means "doubling" or "redoubling." It's very powerful oratory technique that calls attention to the connections between a series of ideas by using a word to end one sentence, and then starting the next sentence with the same word.

WWW's Michael Quinion points out this technique is used with impact in the opening of Genesis in the King James Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void.” He also  notes its use by Yoda in the Star Wars films (looked for word for double trilogy... "hexilogy"? but couldn't find it): “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” [See the excellent Silva Rhetoricae online reference for more good information, or see American Rhetoric to seek out examples.]

Also putting in appearances in the column are some other tropes that sound familiar, but are differenet in meaning:

• epanadiplosis (Explore: http://gog.is/epanadiplosis)
• anaphora (Explore: http://gog.is/anaphora)

And three terms that sound different, but have similar meanings:

• antistrophe (Explore: http://gog.is/antistrophe)
• epiphora (Explore: http://gog.is/epiphora)
• epistrophe (Explore: http://gog.is/epistrophe)  

I suggest that when dealing with these foreign-sounding but perfectly legitimate English words you keep a notebook to write them down in--with examples. I picked up the idea from my martial arts training. When trying to recall the moves for "twin dragons seeking pearls," it helps to write down what that includes. Similarly, boning up on your rhetorical techniques will improve your verbal agility and ability to communicate with impact. TCL

The Cost of Bad Grammar

You were warned in elementary school, now it's payback time

Although it's hard to come by, finally there is proof poor English skills matter in the real world. MakeUseOf.com, a great site by the way for new online tools, highlighted FatFingers.com, which helps you find misspelled (are two "s"s in "misspelled"? It looks funny...) items on eBay.

The idea behind this is quite cool. Since the products are listed with spelling mistakes only few people are able to find them. Thus the items often close at considerably lower price or no bids at all. FatFingers helps you find such products through its search engine.

MakeUseOf.com also points out two more similar sites: AuctionBloopers and TypoBuddy. Score one for English teachers everywhere.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Deidersehen, Adieu...

How to say "goodbye" in 2,498 lanaguages

The UN says thousands of languages are in various stages of going extinct.
Each point on the map in the represents one of those languages. The mere fact that many langugages exist is amazing in and of itself. I wonder if out there in one of the myriad languages there's a word for crusty buildup of dried ketchup that accumulates around the mouth of a Heinz 57 bottle. Maybe will never know.