28487
#ielts #toefl #gre #english_vocabulary #english
Word of the Day
Word of the Day: infraction
This word has appeared in 51 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
put on (2)
to make an appliance or a piece of equipment start to function
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Poor Mr. Fardass #BrianHuskey #WillFerrell #ZachGalifianakis
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
@nimayndolo pulled a Paul Mescal #KMK #DNC2024 #CreatorsForKamala
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
The City of Angels in Latin
"The Best New Book Written Entirely in Latin You’ll Try to Read This Year: Why Donatien Grau, an adviser at the Louvre, decided to write 'De Civitate Angelorum,' a book about Los Angeles, the Roman way." By Fergus McIntosh, New Yorker (September 16, 2024)
Since even elite schools like Penn and Princeton no longer have a language requirement in their Classics departments, I doubt that many people, other than a few extraordinarily conscientious lawyers and biological taxonomists, will understand much of what Grau has written. Still, it's an interesting experiment to see how much of his book fluent speakers of French, Spanish, and Italian comprehend.
Donatien Grau, an adviser on contemporary programming at the Louvre, was in town from Paris to do a reading from his book “De Civitate Angelorum,” a treatise on Los Angeles written entirely in Latin. He wore an intellectual’s patterned scarf and a too-heavy blue blazer, and was fortifying himself with a pre-reading iced tea.
…
In 2018, Grau was curating an exhibition about Plato at the Getty Villa, in Los Angeles, when he had an idea. “For Jean Paul Getty, the United States were the new Roman Empire, and the Pacific Palisades were the new Amalfi Coast,” he said. “The way the villa was received, in the seventies—it was very strongly criticized as being, you know, Miami. But a lot of scholars, they spoke to archeologists who said that it actually was a fairly accurate rendition of what a Roman villa would have been.” He mopped his brow. “So I thought, What if I do this silly thing and write a book on L.A. in Latin?”
The project soon turned serious. A numismatist by training, Grau took inspiration from fourth- and fifth-century Latin literary texts. An art-house publisher in Paris agreed to print a few hundred copies. For a title, he borrowed from St. Augustine’s “City of God” (“De Civitate Dei”), written when the Roman Empire was in its decline. “In the late fourth century, a number of writers and aristocrats and members of the élite thought that their time was over,” he said. “Christianity had arrived, and would erase the heritage of paganism.”
He wondered: Could Los Angeles be at a similar juncture? Perhaps writing in Latin would help him decide. “Latin was, of course, an imperial language,” he said. “And now it’s a non-hegemonic language. Whereas English is an imperial language that still has that sense of hegemony.” He went on, “We have to accept the foreignness of Latin in order to be able to understand it again.”
After Fergus McIntosh has described the cognoscenti who had gathered for the reading at 192 Books, on Tenth Avenue, "to hear Grau declaim in a dead language", the author begins:
“In ultima terra Civitas Angelorum locata est. Nam inter solitudines et mare, montes et caelum, silvas et urbem, posita est.” So far so good: The City of Angels is at the end of the earth, amid deserts and sea, mountains and sky, forests and sprawl. The next bit was trickier: The city is diverse (“Civitas varia est”), crossed by raised freeways (“viae altae liberae”), prone to earthquakes (“motus terrae”); everyone always thinks that they’re young and happy (“Omnes semper se iuvenes ac beatos esse putant”). Some people frowned in concentration; others looked out the window. Occasionally, Grau slipped in a familiar name—Venice Beach, Topanga, the Oscars—to grateful chuckles. The last section was about David Hockney. “Ad civitatem pictor e Britannia venit,” Grau intoned: A painter came from Britain.
Afterward, fans waited for Grau to finish stacking chairs. “Oddly, I could follow certain parts,” Aisha Butt, who works for the Guggenheim, said. “I think I ended my Latin education at sixteen, but there are little parts you keep.”
For some, it was more about vibes. “He read it without one hint of irony,” Ernesto Estrella, a poet and a philo[...]
Word of the Day
Word of the Day: prescient
This word has appeared in 144 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
stand up
to get to your feet from a lying or sitting position
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
imitative
Definition: (adjective) (Of words) Formed in imitation of a natural sound.
Synonyms: echoic, onomatopoeic.
Usage: Onomatopoeic words like "buzz" and "murmur" are imitative of the noises they describe.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
Trump as brass: score
Following up on "Trump as brass", I was curious about the relationship between the spoken pitch track and the score that Jase used to generate the trombone sounds. Here's his Xeet again, showing his score and playing his trombone synthesis overlaid on Trump's audio:
Donald Trump's 'Eating The Dogs' transcribed for trombone. pic.twitter.com/UpK4hNjNuR
— The Jase (@jasemonkey) September 11, 2024
And here's the original audio, with a text-aligned pitch track:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClip.png
Here's the audio and the pitch track for the first phase "In Springfield", with lines corresponding to the values of the score's first three notes (G, C#, F#) assuming A=440:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClipHist2.png
As you can see, Trump's pitch track in this case is not a series of more-or-less level pitches, but rather shows the gliding contours of normal intonational patterns. To the extent that there's perceived musicality here, I think it's more because of the rhythm; but in any case, Jase has chosen representative notes that are in the middle of each syllable's contour, probably amplitude-weighted.
And the same thing is true for the subsequent phrases:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClipX2.png
Your browser does not support the audio element.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClipX2.png
Your browser does not support the audio element.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClipX4.png
A histogram of his F0 values, translated to semitones relative to A 110, confirms (the obvious perception) that he's not singing:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpEatingClipHist1.png
And yet Jase's trombonification is persuasive…
If you want to explore the patterns for yourself, here's
* the audio
* a .csv file of F0 values
* a Praat TextGrid with the words
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
weirdo
a strange, eccentric or weird person
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
have a light heart
To have a carefree, uplifted attitude; to be in a happy or gladdened state or condition. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Oedipa thinks that Trystero exists as a countercultural secret society with unknown goals.
She researches an older censored edition of The Courier's Tragedy, which confirms that Driblette indeed made a conscious choice to insert the "Tristero" line. She seeks answers through a machine claimed to have psychic abilities but the experience is awkward and unsuccessful. As she feverishly wanders the Bay Area, the muted post horn symbol appears in many random places. Finally, a nameless man at a gay bar tells her that the symbol simply represents an anonymous support group for people with broken hearts. Oedipa witnesses people referring to and using mailboxes disguised as regular waste bins marked with "W.A.S.T.E." (later suggested to be an acronym for "We Await Silent Tristero's Empire"). Even so, Oedipa sinks into paranoia, wondering if Trystero exists or if she is merely overthinking a series of false connections.
There's more, for which you could read the rest of the extensive Wikipedia article (and its links)— or just the original novella, which might even be shorter…
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
bugger up
to ruin, spoil, mess up
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
live the life of Riley
To lead a life of great ease, comfort, or luxury. The phrase is likely of early 20th-century Irish-American origin, but to whom Riley refers is uncertain. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
French Horn Church
Mark Swofford stumbled upon this church in Taipei:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~bgzimmer/frenchhorn.jpg
The Chinese part of the sign reads:
fàguó hào língliáng táng
法國號靈糧堂
"French Horn Hall of Spiritual Food"
This may be a branch of Táiběi língliáng táng 台北靈糧堂, which calls itself "Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei" and has a history that goes back to 1948-1958 in Shanghai. Another translation of "língliáng 靈糧" is "manna".
The next time I'm in Taipei I will go visit this church because the French horn has special meaning for me. I played it from the time I was in high school, including professionally in the Canton Orchestra and various bands. I even trekked it up into the mountains of Nepal where I was a Peace Corps volunteer for two years and people from valleys far away could hear me playing it.
The French horn is notorious for being the most difficult instrument to play since it is prone to burble (I think that's because of the tight, twisted acoustics of all that tubing), but I love the rich, smooth sound it produces when you control your embouchure perfectly. That takes a lot of practice, but when I was good at it, I could play melodies with my lips alone. I am grateful to my high school band director, Donald M. Kennedy, for guiding me to the French horn and helping get one of my own when I was a freshman.
By the way, you're no longer supposed to call the brass instrument under discussion a "French horn". It's supposed to be just a "horn". I don't know who decided that and why, but it's now the politically correct thing to do. It doesn't make sense to me, because there are so many other kinds of horns out there. Much as I am partial to it, why should this one alone be the horn? I still call it a French horn, but if someone made a good case (historical, musicological, or otherwise) for calling it a "German horn", I'd be open to such a proposal.
Selected readings
* "Les Baguettes à Pékin" (7/2/12)
* "Names and Systems of Naming" (4/18/08)
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
shitload
a large amount or number
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
like a chicken with the pip
In low spirits; in a weak or sickened state or manner. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
callous
Definition: (adjective) Emotionally hardened; unfeeling.
Synonyms: indurate, pachydermatous.
Usage: He was a callous man and cared not for the suffering of others.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
logist, said. “It was beautiful. He read it as if everybody would understand everything, and that makes you understand.”
Magnifique!
We do this all the time when we listen to operas in languages we don't know. Selected readings
* "Sanskrit resurgent" (8/13/14)
* "Spoken Sanskrit" (1/9/16)
[Thanks to Don Keyser]
➖ @EngSkills ➖
⚠️ Best of English Learning Channels
👉 @EnglishLearn
---------
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
dag
an unfashionable or socially awkward person
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
(as) quick as a bunny
Incredibly quickly or speedily. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
“Weak point; holler louder!”
My debate analysis for The Economist included these charts:
:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/PublishedDebateMADM.png
…with the commentary
The final charts show the average pitches of the two candidates and their variability within each speaking turn (which can be a rough proxy for emotional arousal). Both candidates start at a lower average pitch and with lower variability, before showing a fair amount of range throughout the debate. Mr Trump was at his most animated (a highly variable pitch) when asked if he had any regrets about his behaviour during the Capitol attack on January 6th 2021.
A particularly striking difference can be seen at the right end of the chart. Ms Harris’s final statement returned close to the tone she began with—low and stable—much like a prosecutor closing a case that she thinks she made well. Mr Trump, in clear contrast, and unusually for a closing statement, gave one of his more animated turns of the night, rising in pitch and variability as he denounced “what these people have done to our country”; “they’re destroying our country, the worst president, the worst vice-president in the history of our country” was his final line. In other words, Mr Trump sounded like a man still trying to put energy into changing the narrative—or possibly just like a man who knows he has not had his best night.
Here's the text of Trump's "most animated" turn:
2699.510 2774.899 DonaldTrump You just said a thing that isn't covered peacefully and patriotically. I said during my speech, not later on. Peacefully and patriotically. And nobody on the other side was killed. Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out of control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It's a disgrace. But we didn't do this group of people that have been treated so badly. I ask, what about all the people that are pouring into our country and killing people that she allowed deported? She was the border Czar. Remember that. She was the border czar are she doesn't want to be called the border czar because she's embarrassed by the border. In fact she said at the beginning, Well, I'm surprised you're not talking about the border yet. That's because she knows what a bad job they've done. What about those people? What what are they going to be prosecuted? When are these people from countries all over the world, not just South America, They're coming in from all over the world, David. All over the world. And crime rates are down all over the world because of it. But let me just when it does, every one of those people going to be prosecuted? One of the people that burned down Minneapolis is going to be prosecuted. Or in Seattle. They went into Seattle. They took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle. One of those people are going to be prosecuted.
And the audio:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
Jerry Goldman sent this comment:
Sen. Huey Long was reviewing a speech he was to give on the Senate floor. He penciled in the margin, “Weak point; holler louder!”
There are interesting things to be said about Kamala Harris's variation in median and MADM pitch, but I'll leave that for another post.
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
Trump as brass
Trombone, specifically:
Donald Trump's 'Eating The Dogs' transcribed for trombone. pic.twitter.com/UpK4hNjNuR
— The Jase (@jasemonkey) September 11, 2024
See also:
For those people asking for a fretless bass version… pic.twitter.com/xBCpSZoNZz
— The Jase (@jasemonkey) September 11, 2024
Some relevant past posts:
"Poem in the key of what", 10/9/2006
"More on pitch and time intervals in speech", 10/15/2006
"'An essay towards establishing the melody and measure of speech'", 3/20/2016
"Trump's prosody", 8/8/2016
"Trumpchant in B flat", 10/2/2016
"Blues in Moore flat", 12/15/2017
"Emergency in B flat", 2/17/2019
"Dinosaur intonation", 8/28/2021
"Hummed 'I don't know'", 8/29/2021
"More 'I don't know'", 8/31/2021
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
come over (2)
to seem to be a particular type of person
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
gullible
Definition: (adjective) Easily deceived or duped.
Synonyms: fleeceable, green.
Usage: Maddie was a gullible young girl, and we easily convinced her that our homely history teacher was actually a runaway princess in disguise.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
"We Await Silent Tristero's Empire"
Abbie VanSickle and Philip Kaleta, "Conservative German Princess Says She Hosted Justice Alito at Her Castle", NYT 9/9/2024: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/vonThurnUndTaxis.webp An eccentric German princess who evolved from a 1980s punk style icon to a conservative Catholic known for hobnobbing with far-right figures said on Monday that she hosted Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife at her castle during a July 2023 music festival.
Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis also told The New York Times that she viewed the justice as “a hero.”
As explained in one of the comments, the article puts "Princess" in the wrong place in her name, and arguably should not translate it, any more than the "von" should be translated as "from":
While the titles of Fürst (prince), Herzog (duke), Graf (count), Freiherr (baron) etc. do not give you any privileges and are not used ahead of the first name (as in e.g. "Prince Charles of so-and-so" or "Countess Lisl von Schlaf"), the former title has become part of the family/last name. So her official name is Gloria Fürstin (princess) von Thurn und Taxis. That doesn't mean one has to address her as "Fürstin", but it is part of her name. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/MutedPosthorn.png I was a bit surprised that none of the comments (nor any of the other mass-media stories) mention the central role of the Thurn-und-Taxis postal monopoly in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, or that book's anticipatory echoes of today's political paranoia. As Wikipedia explains:
The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old feud between two mail distribution companies. […]
In the mid-1960s, Oedipa Maas lives a fairly comfortable life in a northern Californian village, despite her lackluster marriage with Mucho Maas, a rudderless radio jockey and ephebophile, and her sessions with Dr. Hilarius, an unhinged German psychotherapist who tries to medicate his patients with LSD. One day, Oedipa learns of the death of an ex-lover, Pierce Inverarity, an incredibly wealthy and powerful real-estate mogul from the Los Angeles area, who has left her as the executor of his estate. Oedipa goes to meet Inverarity's lawyer, a former child actor named Metzger, and they begin an affair, which fascinates a local teenage rock band, the Paranoids, who begin following them voyeuristically. At a bar, Oedipa notices the graffiti symbol of a muted post horn with the label "W.A.S.T.E." and she chats with Mike Fallopian, a right-wing historian and critic of the postal system, who claims to use a secret postal service.
It emerges that Inverarity had Mafia connections, illicitly attempting to sell the bones of forgotten U.S. World War II soldiers for use as charcoal to a cigarette company. One of the Paranoids' friends mentions that this strongly reminds her of a Jacobean revenge play she recently saw called The Courier's Tragedy. Intrigued by the coincidence, Oedipa and Metzger attend a performance of the play, which briefly mentions the name "Tristero". After the show, Oedipa approaches the play's director and star, Randolph Driblette, who deflects her questions about the mention of the unusual name. After seeing a man scribbling the post horn symbol, Oedipa reconnects with Mike Fallopian, who tells her he suspects a conspiracy. This is supported when watermarks of the muted horn symbol are discovered hidden on Inverarity's private stamp collection. The symbol appears to be a muted variant of the coat of arms of Thurn and Taxis, an 18th-century European postal monopoly that suppressed all opposition, including Trystero (or Tristero), a competing postal service that was defeated but possibly driven underground. Based on the symbolism of the mute, [...]
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
owe to (1)
If you owe something to someone, you feel that you only have it because of the person's help or support.
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
laic
Definition: (adjective) Of or relating to the laity.
Synonyms: lay, secular.
Usage: He was a laic leader, but many of his followers believed him to be a prophet.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Points were made #StonedDebate #Politics #Debate #2024Election
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
