AWADmail Issue 249
February 18, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Beth Williams (b-b3 juno.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--butte
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/butte.html
Here in Central Oregon, we have many buttes. While hiking with friends
one day, we climbed one that had a lookout point on which there were
signs designating that to the north was "such and such butte", over there
was "so and so butte", etc. One woman who was enthusiastic about the
view but did not know how to pronounce the word "butte" cried out to a
friend "Oh, look at that beautiful butt!" You should have seen all the
heads whip around to look!
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From: Hans Heilman (nshep rcn.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--butte
This homophone brought to mind an exchange from the Firesign Theatre comedy
troupe's radio play, "Temporarily Humbolt County", from their album "Waiting
for the Electrician or Someone Like Him":
....
Elder #1: That's not a well, it's the eye of the Holy Serpent Mound on which
you're standing.
Settler #2: It's a beaut!
Elder #2: No, it's a mound.
Settler #2: And right purty too...
....
The full text at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/5310/firesign.html
For those unfamiliar with Firesign Theatre, they are a comedy troupe whose
humor includes much stream-of-consciousness wordplay. They have recorded a
number of albums -- their best known albums date from the late 60s/early
70s and include "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers", "I Think
We're All Bozos on This Bus" and "Nick Danger".
----------------------------
From: Nancy Leek (nancy roadq.com)
Subject: butte
Greetings from beautiful Butte County, California!
Butte County has a number of buttes, but is actually named for the largest
of them, the Sutter Buttes, which are no longer within the county. They
didn't move, but the size of the original county was reduced, and now the
Sutter Buttes are located in Sutter County. They are known as the world's
smallest mountain range, and stand out in the otherwise flat Northern
Central Valley, surrounded by orchards and rice fields.
When we first moved here 15 years ago, our teenage daughter took a look
at the cover of the phone book and asked, "Why would they name it Butt
County?" We explained to her that Butte and Butt are very different
things, both in meaning and pronunciation.
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From: Bryce Babcock (bandz commspeed.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--butte
A rule of thumb here in the southwest is that if the elevated land is wider
than it is high, it's called a mesa. If it's higher than it is wide, it's a
butte. The problem with that distinction is that the elevation when viewed
from one side may appear wider than it is high, and be called a mesa, but
viewed from another angle may appear higher than it is wide, thus fitting
the description of a butte. That is why there is little rhyme or reason to
geographical names for these flat-topped, steep-sided prominences, some
bearing the name mesa and others called buttes. Other anomalies occur
through the frequent mixing of English and Spanish words, such as a
formation north of Phoenix called Table Mesa!
----------------------------
From: Sue Levy (slevy jalcomputer.com.au)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--annalist
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/annalist.html
Seeing the unfamiliar word 'annalist' reminds me of the day I choked on
my coffee while glancing at the birth notices in the morning paper. A pair
of very ignorant (or cruel) parents had named their daughter Analyse. I
couldn't help wondering if the child would one day have a sister, and if
so, would she be named Analysis?
----------------------------
From: Gavin Kreuiter (kreuiter ananzi.co.za)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--annalist
Does this mean an annalist is annals retentive?
----------------------------
From: Danielle Juzan (djuzan earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--boll
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/boll.html
In promotion of my home state, I must mention the Boll Weevil monument
of Enterprise, Alabama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_Weevil_Monument
The general idea was that weevil devastation forced the area to diversify
their crops, which ultimately led to greater prosperity.
----------------------------
From: Shannin Schroeder (smschroeder saumag.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--boll
Interestingly, a nearby university here in Arkansas has as its mascot the
boll weevils.
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From: Susan Walker (violetwind earthlink.net)
Subject: Boll
When I looked at "boll", a homophone did not instantly come to mind.
So I spoke the word aloud and then it became clear -- with our
Midwestern/country accent, "boll" also means to heat water until it
bubbles!
----------------------------
From: Bob Green (rgreen med.umich.edu)
Subject: homophone
Here is a fun one: what would you call private army groups set up to do evil?
Malicious militias.
----------------------------
From: Abby Kaplan (kaplanas gmail.com)
Subject: talking parrot (Re: AWADmail 248)
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail248.html
I appreciate the thought and care that goes into every edition of A
Word A Day. As a linguist, I've been especially impressed over the
years with AWAD's generally very good track record of not perpetuating
the many myths about language that linguists find so frustratingly
ubiquitous. That's why I was disappointed to see a link in AWAD Mail
Issue 248 to a three-year-old BBC story about a parrot that has
purportedly acquired a rudimentary grasp of human language.
The claims made in the article about the parrot's linguistic abilities
are unsubstantiated and wildly optimistic, in some places attributing
abilities to N'kisi that suprass even what has been proven for chimps.
Although many species have their own (sometimes complex)
communication systems, no species has the communication system
specific to humans that we call "language", and it has never been
convincingly demonstrated that any animal can learn this particular
system. Steven Pinker's discussion of the topic in "The Language
Instinct" is entertaining and informative.
A brief discussion of one of the more egregious statements in the
article is available at
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000398.html . A
more detailed discussion of some of the claims that have been made
about N'kisi is available at http://www.skepdic.com/nkisi.html (with
emphasis on the bird's claimed telepathy, which has been deleted from
the BBC article, but also some discussion of his purported linguistic
abilities).
Thank you very much for the valuable service that AWAD provides; I
look forward to continuing to receive your thoughtful reflections on
English vocabulary.
............................................................................
His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command.
-John Milton, poet (1608-1674)
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