Colonial English - 28 January 2019

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The anatomy of effective prose, and the poetry of anatomy. Ever wonder what it’d be like to audit a class taught by a famous writer? A graduate student’s essay offers a taste of a semester studying with author Annie Dillard. Also, what did George Washington sound like when he spoke? We can make a few guesses based on his social class and a look at dialect changes in colonial America. Plus, where is your body’s xiphoid process? Also: inept vs. ept, ruly vs. unruly, gruntled vs. disgruntled, cross and pile, lick the cat over, anyone vs. anybody, bloody, and rock, paper, scissors vs. paper, scissors, rock. Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it.
0:03.2	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.2	And I'm Martha Barnett.
0:05.6	Grant, I'm still glowy from our trip to Stumptown, also known as Birvana.
0:10.9	Portland, Oregon. Also known as Bridgown.
0:15.0	Yeah, it was very lovely, wasn't it?
0:17.0	Rain when I wanted it, sun when I wanted it.
0:19.0	It was very good.
0:20.0	Yeah, and we had a great evening at the Mission Theater,
0:23.0	met a lot of our listeners, and that was great.
0:25.6	The other thing that really excited me
0:27.4	about the name of Portland is that it's the only town
0:31.2	I know of that I've ever been in that whose name was decided by a coin toss.
0:35.4	A coin toss. Yes in the 1840s. The place was called The Clearing and the two founders of the town were Francis Pettigrove and Aisa Lovejoy.
0:47.0	Francis was from Portland, Maine, and Aisa was from Boston, Massachusetts,
0:52.0	and each of them wanted to name the town after his own hometown.
0:56.0	Yeah. And so how are you going to choose between the two of them?
1:00.0	They decided to have a coin toss.
1:02.0	Oh, okay. And Francis from Portland, Maine, won the coin toss. So
1:07.0	Portland was not called Boston, it was named Portland. As far as I know that's the only town whose name was decided by a coin toss, but maybe there are others or maybe you live in a place that has a weird story behind the name of it.
1:20.2	Yeah, let us know. 877 929 967967.9673. Email it. Yeah let us know 877 929 9 673 email us words at wayward radio
1:26.8	or talk to us on Twitter at w a y w o rd
	...

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