In the following series of posts, I do a little etymology- origin of the character names and the spells(of course, many are quite obvious). But first, a warning to those who haven’t read all 7 books or watched the movies- these posts contain a lot of spoilers. When I read my first HP over 11 … Read more

Pornification of Pop

April 26th, 2012 | Posted by admin in Diatribes - (2 Comments)

I thank god that I do not own a television set today. Ten years ago, it disgusted me to watch music videos on TV because many of the most romantic of songs would have cleavage-baring women in them. Today, of course, that is classy. Back in my teens, I used to think ten times before … Read more

It is common knowledge that English constantly borrows from languages all over the world. As a language, it is one of the most commonly evolving, with words in common dictionaries being replaced with almost every new publication. There are many words that are etymologically easy to dissect. Words like Cashmere, Guru, Jungle, Gymkhana, Pajamas, Bungalow are quite obvious … Read more

The Chaos

April 5th, 2012 | Posted by admin in Language - (0 Comments)

The Chaos is a lengthy poem by the Dutch writer G. Nolst Trenité (famous under the pseudonym of Charivarius). The poem effectively demonstrates the high number of irregularities in English pronunciation and was often used as a guide by English studies in European countries in 1920 on how to drop one’s foreign accent while speaking English. Today, the … Read more