Bookaholic

My fascination with the English language, the one I grew up with but didn’t pay that much attention to, has led me to understand it from various angles. Lately I rediscovered a little booklet I had done called the Deadword Dictionary. DD was devoted to all those words that seemed unnecessary or were “orphaned” words — by which I mean words which in previous ages may have had a connection to a root word that has since been lost. “Unbeknownst” is a good example. We don’t say “beknownst” and I’ve never heard “beknown” or even “beknow” used in a sentence, so the branch to “know” has been severed, although “unbeknownst,” floating off by itself, continues to haunt our dictionaries as a lost orphan. Do we really need it in a rational language?

Well, the point I’m coming to is that English is somewhat irrational. Pronunciation is another quirky aspect of English. I woke up thinking about “flange,” the ending of which is not pronounced the same as in “change” or even “orange.” And there’s the famous “I had a cough even though the bough had been through enough.” That’s five different pronunciations for one ending! And neither “g” nor “h” are sounded.

So, I was thinking of calling my new minim opus Quirky English, but now I’ve decided on “Exceptional English” for a double-edged title. Think of it as advanced English; a lot of the “correct English” sounds, spellings, and vocabulary are exceptions to one rule or another. By putting all the exceptions to rules in one place, I’m hoping to provide a handy resource for struggling English learners. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for me to point out the warts and anomalies of my own language.

If you enjoy puncturing the prissy as much as I do, I invite you to send me examples that you think should be in such a booklet. Exceptional exceptions will be acknowledged if and when I publish the work.

Just with too much time on my hands, I uploaded a radio series I did in the 1980s on the Beecher family (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher and others). So, if you’re interested, the audio and the scripts are at Beechers, along with some other projects I’ve done relating to the 19th Century (Poe, Whitman, etc.).

I like old things, that’s my only excuse. Not that I would have liked to live in those days, that would be hard to imagine. Maybe because life seemed so difficult then that I admire the people who managed to accomplish so much.