STUDY: Trump Fans Don't Spel Gud

Via USA Today:

Fans of Carly Fiorina venting their views on Facebook are far more likely to do so with proper grammar than fans of Donald Trump. A new study by the folks at the grammar-checking app Grammarly concluded that commenters on Fiorina’s Facebook page made an average of 6.3 grammatical and spelling errors per hundred words compared with 12.6 errors per hundred for folks posting on Trump’s page. The grammar used by Ben Carson’s Facebook followers ranks up there near Fiorina’s at 6.6 errors per hundred words, while Rick Perry’s commenters are second worst, at a 12.5 goof rate.

Shocking!

Easiest Languages To Learn

According to the US State Department. More difficult languages are here.

How Gay Men Used To Speak

I've long been fascinated with Polari, which I first learned about when I asked British friends about the title of Morrissey's 1990 album, Bona Drag, which means "nice outfit." From the clip recap:

Polari was a form of slang used by gay men in Britain prior to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, used primarily as a coded way for them to discuss their experiences. It quickly fell out of use in the 70s, although several words entered mainstream English and are still used today.

The text of the clip is here.

Scrabble Updates Its Dictionary

CNN reports:

Scrabble dictionary has added lotsa new words for its players, and some are so ridic, they'll make you lolz. The venerable board game has an additional 6,500 words, including a few once limited to social media and technology. The words are straight from the mouths of the cool kids. There's lotsa, twerking, lolz, emoji and ridic -- short for ridiculous. Facetime, which means talking with someone via the Apple app of the same name, will earn you a cool 15 points. Emoji, that ridiculously expressive digital icon, will get you 14 points. Bezzy -- best friends in regular speak -- adds 18 points. The list goes on and on. Wahh -- a shorter, more lyrical word for wailing, is in there. And who knew that shootie, a shoe that covers the ankle, is even a word?

Also: blech, sexting, and shizzle. Yes, shizzle.

Sweden Adds Gender-Neutral Pronoun

Via the Guardian:

The official dictionary of the Swedish language will introduce a gender-neutral pronoun in April, editors at the Swedish Academy have announced. “Hen” will be added to “han” (he) and “hon” (she) as one of 13,000 new words in the latest edition of the Swedish Academy’s SAOL. The pronoun is used to refer to a person without revealing their gender – either because it is unknown, because the person is transgender, or the speaker or writer deems the gender to be superfluous information. “For those who use the pronoun, it’s obviously a strength that it is now in the dictionary,” one of the editors, Sture Berg, told AFP on Tuesday. The word “hen” was coined in the 1960s when the ubiquitous use of “han” (he) became politically incorrect, and was aimed at simplifying the language and avoiding the clumsy “han/hon” (s/he) construction. But the word never really took hold. It resurfaced around 2000, when the country’s small transgender community latched on to it, and its use has taken off in the past few years.

Many gender-neutral pronouns have been proposed for English, but none have gained wide usage.

Why Pronouns Matter For Trans People

600K views in four days.

ANALYSIS: Obama's State Of The Union Address Was Written At 10th Grade Level

An interesting analysis from Vocativ:

President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address was written for a tenth-grader, which makes it the most high-minded of all his SOTU speeches, a data analysis by Vocativ reveals. Generally, in order for Obama to make himself understood to the broadest possible swath of the population, he tailors his speeches to the intellect of a 14-year-old. But over the last few years the grade level of the president’s speeches has edged up. Vocativ analyzed all of Obama’s SOTU addresses using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test—the most widely recognized reading comprehension algorithm—and gave each speech a numerical grade. Roughly speaking, the spectrum begins at first grade and goes up from there, corresponding to elementary, middle and high school, and then to college and graduate school.

Hit the link for an infographic on SOTU addresses going back to Woodrow Wilson.

Merriam-Webster's Word Of 2014: Culture

Via the Associated Press:

A nation, a workplace, an ethnicity, a passion, an outsized personality. The people who comprise these things, who fawn or rail against them, are behind Merriam-Webster's 2014 word of the year: culture. The word joins Oxford Dictionaries' "vape," a darling of the e-cigarette movement, and "exposure," declared the year's winner at Dictionary.com during a time of tragedy and fear due to Ebola. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last on Merriam-Webster.com, along with interesting, often culture-driven - if you will - spikes of concentrated interest. In the No. 2 spot is "nostalgia," during a year of big 50th anniversaries pegged to 1964: the start of the free speech movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the birth of the Ford Mustang and the British Invasion heralded by the landing of the Beatles on U.S. soil for the first time.

China Enacts Pun Control

Via the Wall Street Journal:

No puns, please. This is China. That’s the message from the country’s media regulators, who on Thursday derided the use of wordplay in advertisements and broadcasts, saying they were “contradictory in spirit to the promotion and continuance of excellent, traditional Chinese culture.” Examples cited by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, or SAPPRFT – whose dim view of language abuse evidently doesn’t include any reticence about long-winded names — include slogans that have been previously used to promote tourism and medical treatment. “They can create misunderstandings for the public, especially for minors,” the regulator said in a notice posted to its site. “They need to be firmly corrected.” The agency isn’t alone in its campaign for linguistic purity. Earlier this year, Communist Party flagship paper People’s Daily also railed against the seeping of English terms such as “CEO” and “wifi” into the Chinese language.

2014 Word Of The Year: Vape

Via CBS News:

Of the many, many words that editors at Oxford Dictionaries review which have newly come into the language lexicon, only one has had enough of an influence in society to make it as 2014's International Word of the Year. This year it's "vape." The Oxford Dictionary defines it as follows: v. Inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device, n. An electronic cigarette or similar device; an act of inhaling and exhaling the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device. Editors at Oxford found that use of the word has doubled in 2014 over the prior year. It can also be traced back to the explosion of the electronic cigarette industry which topped $1 billion in sales in 2013 according to Forbes.

This year's runners-up: bae, budtender, slacktivism.

Tweet Of The Day

Duluth Trading: Purses Are For Pansies

A reader just sent me the above insulting pitch from Duluth Trading Company. Let them know what you think.

UPDATE: Less than two hours after this post went up, the company tweeted an apology and a promise to "making sure this never happens again." THAT, folks, is how you handle these things.

UTAH: Language School Fires Teacher For Blog Post Explaining Homophones Because There And Their Is Totally Gay

From the you-can't-make-it-up-department in Provo, Utah:

Homophones, as any English grammarian can tell you, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings — such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch, their and there. This concept is taught early on to foreign students learning English because it can be confusing to someone whose native language does not have that feature. But when the social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center wrote a blog explaining homophones, he was let go for creating the perception that the school promoted a gay agenda. Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center, his boss and Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, called him into his office and told him he was fired. As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw. "Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained, according to Torkildson, who posted the exchange on his Facebook page.

The school has denied the teacher's claim of homophonia - but has also deleted his post from its website. Their clunky mission statement could use some work: "Nomen Global Language Centers substantially helps students from all cultures and walks of life to excel in each aspect of their English acquisition and to obtain their goals for the future. We achieve this goal by means of qualified and experienced faculty, dedicated staff, engaging and challenging curriculum, and professional and ethical student services." (Tipped by JMG reader Joseph)

IOWA: Newspaper Editor Sues After Being Fired For Using The Word "Gaystapo"

An Iowa newspaper editor is suing on the grounds of religious discrimination after being fired for using the word "gaystapo" on his personal blog. Via the Des Moines Register:

Bob Eschliman, former editor of the Newton Daily News, filed a complaint this week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Milwaukee arguing that he was terminated May 5 because of his religious beliefs. If the dispute isn't resolved to Eschliman's satisfaction, he could sue in federal court to seek financial damages. In late April, Eschliman, 41, a member of Christian Reformed Church of Newton, wrote a personal blog post criticizing the "Queen James Bible," a website that rewrites the Christian Bible to be friendlier to gays. Eschliman accused "the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo" of trying "to make their sinful nature right with God." Jim Romenesko, who hosts a widely read online blog about the news media, reported on Eschliman's post and questioned whether Eschliman, in light of his publicly stated views, would be able to fairly cover issues involving gays. Shaw Media, a Dixon, Ill., company, suspended Eschliman with pay and eventually fired him. Eschliman's attorneys claim that violated his constitutional rights of religious expression. Newton Daily News Publisher Dan Goetz declined to comment Wednesday.

Eschliman, who is is being represented by the Christian Liberty Institute, writes in his suit:

On April 28, 2014, I penned a theologically based article stating my sincerely held religious beliefs about efforts by some to criticize and remold my faith through what I believe is false teaching. In my article, I quoted at length from a variety of sources, most prominently, from the Holy Bible. That blog post described my sincerely held religious beliefs regarding Holy Scripture and the definition of marriage. My comments on my blog were personal in nature and reflective of my sincerely held religious beliefs. Furthermore, I felt compelled by my sincerely held religious beliefs to share my Biblical view with the few folks who read my blog. I would like to have obtained a religious accommodation for my sincerely held religious belief to share my Biblical view with the few family members and friends who read my blog. Shaw Media directly discriminated against me because of my religious beliefs and my identity as an evangelical Christian who believes in Holy Scripture and the Biblical view of marriage.

And another martyr is born. (Tipped by JMG reader Ed)

MINNESOTA: Vikings Coach Suspended For Anti-Gay Remarks, Kluwe Vindicated

Early this year former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe declared that Vikings Special Teams Coach Mike Priefer had called for rounding up all gay people, putting them on an island, and "nuking it until it glows." Kluwe has contended that his departure from the team came, at least in part, because Priefer objected to his nationally famous advocacy for LGBT rights. On Friday, the Vikings announced that their investigation showed that Priefer had indeed made the anti-gay remarks and that he has been suspended for three games. Via CBS Sports:

The Vikings said that three-game suspension could be reduced to two games provided that Priefer "also attend individualized anti-harassment, diversity and sexual-orientation sensitivity training." Priefer also apologized in a statement. "I owe an apology to many people -- the Wilf family, the Minnesota Vikings organization and fans, my family, the LGBT community, Chris Kluwe and anyone else that I offended with my insensitive remark," Priefer said. "I regret what has occurred and what I said. I am extremely sorry but I will learn from this situation and will work on educating others to create more tolerance and respect." The team announced that it would donate $100,000 to LGBT rights charitable and educational organizations.

The Vikings report also contains "negative information" about Kluwe, prompted him to threaten to release more "dirty" stories about the Vikings. He also said that his $10M lawsuit against the team will continue. The Vikings' action against Preifer is being denounced as "homofascism" across Teabagistan.

More from Think Progress:

The Vikings lawyers acknowledge that Kluwe was encouraged by Vikings management to scale back his activism in support of LGBT rights, but insist it was completely unrelated to the substance of his activism. The analysis claims that “players and management were concerned about the distraction that Kluwe’s activism was creating, as opposed to the nature and content of his activism.” Of course, it was the “nature and content of his activism” that ultimately created the “distraction.” It’s hard to image if Kluwe was speaking out to reduce childhood obesity that it would have become an issue.

Although the full investigation has not been released, the Vikings lawyers did make sure to include information that casts Kluwe in a negative light. Specifically, the analysis alleges that Kluwe made crude jokes about the Penn State rape scandal. Kluwe appeared to confirm the allegations were true on Twitter but that the jokes were pervasive throughout the entire team. No one claims Kluwe was fired for the jokes so it’s unclear what relevance they had to the investigation.

Weird Al Yankovic - Word Crimes

Stereogum raves:

A masterfully assembled lyric video for “Word Crimes,” which transforms Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” into a slightly priggish grammar lesson. Yankovic, you see, is taking a stand against Twitter English. He’s also doing a nice take on Thicke’s smarmy falsetto and credibly delivering his version of T.I.’s verse, as well. The end result is, as you can probably imagine, a lot of fun.

2.3M views in the first day.

How To Speak British

Anti-Redskins Ad Airs During NBA Finals

Via ABC News:

Native Americans are sending a loud message to the Washington Redskins. A northern California tribe paid for a commercial to air in seven major U.S. cities during halftime of Tuesday's NBA Finals game, their latest plea for the NFL team to change its “racist” name and mascot. “In my opinion, the ‘r’ word is just as derogatory a slur as the ‘n’ word,” Marshall McKay, chairman of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, said in a video about the “Change the Mascot” campaign. The minute-long commercial, called “Proud to Be,” is a shortened version of a similar ad that was posted online earlier this year. In it, a narrator lists adjectives that could describe Native Americans -- “Indian,” “Navajo, “Sioux,” "Spiritualist,” “strong” -- before the camera zooms in on a Redskins helmet, “the one thing they don’t” call themselves.

Here's the full original clip.

(Tipped by JMG reader Al)

Tonight Show: Jonah Hill Apologizes For "Hateful, Grotesque" Anti-Gay Slur

Two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill appeared on the Howard Stern show yesterday to apologize for a calling a paparazzo a "faggot" after the man insulted him. Last night Hill again delivered a heartfelt apology on the Tonight Show.

Grammar Nazis, Literally

UPDATE: Take a visit to their full Twitter feed. As you'll see, the account's author is a vegan and a pet lover (presumably because Hitler was supposedly both).  Also, the Nazis really like to cite Matt Drudge.