Free translations, guides, books and, er, sex

I've been meaning to share these links for a while:

Bab.la Phrases: translations of useful phrases to and from any two of 14 languages - with a special focus on formal writing (business and academic). Bab.la is also offering downloadable travel survival guides - but they don't contain any information on pronunciation, so in my view their use is limited.

Lit Drift: a website about fiction-writing, notable for its 'Free Book Fridays' - "the best titles in indie publishing for the low low price of nothing". Oh, you can also follow Lit Drift on Twitter. Somewhat surprisingly, the site is blocked at work:

Blog recommendation: Awful Library Books

Today's blog choice is Awful Library Books, which lists library holdings that are "amusing and maybe questionable for public libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection". Most of the books aren't actually awful, just dated...

Sarah recommended this blog to me, and one of the books that caught her eye is Clothes for Disabled People (published 1981):

Win a copy of Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit

So recently I've been dipping into Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit, a collection of insults and curses from around the world.

For some reason I've found the African-language insults the most entertaining, such as the Afrikaans "jy was uit jou ma se gat gebore want sy so besig was om te naai". I can't really give you the translation as my mother reads this blog, but trust me, it's crass. Perhaps Google can help you out if you're curious.

It's difficult for me to vouch for the accuracy of the book, as to my shame I'm only fluent in English. I do remember some Russian from my time in Moscow, including a phrase that translates literally as 'hanging a noodle on someone's ears' (and is, perhaps, equivalent to the English 'pulling the wool over someone's eyes') - and that's in the book, at least.

Unfortunately Uglier gives a transliteration of the phrase and a guide to pronunciation but no Cyrillic version - less than ideal for the serious language student. For the record, I think it's something like 'лапшу на уши вешать кому-нибудь'. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!

Anyway, Uglier Than a Monket's Armpit is well written and certainly informative, if more from a cultural viewpoint than a linguistic one. And as luck would have it, I have a (non-tatty) copy to give away. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is come up with an original curse or insult and add it to the comments following this post. I'll give the book to the person whose insult I like the most.

Please note, the emphasis should be on creativity and rather than profanity. Extra kudos for writing your curse or insult in a language other than English (and providing an English language translation). Good luck!

• Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit at Penguin.com (USA)

Chocs and cigs and ripping and topping

I blogged about Books v. Cigarettes, a collection of essays by George Orwell, a few weeks ago - but there's one more passage I'd like to share with you. Here he's writing about the years immediately preceding the First World War:

It was the age when crazy millionaires in curly top-hats and lavender waistcoats gave champagne parties in rococo house-boats on the Thames, the age of diabolo and hobble skirts, the age of the 'knut' in his grey bowler and cut-away coat, the age of The Merry Widow, Saki's novels, Peter Pan and Where the Rainbow Ends, the age when people talked about chocs and cigs and ripping and topping and heavenly, when they went for divvy week-ends at Brighton and had scrumptious teas at the Troc.

I just love how Orwell captures the spirit of the period primarily through its vocabulary.

And does anyone know what a 'knut' is in this context?

Love, Death, Madness, and an American Biography

I've recently finished reading The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, a biography of Mark Roget by the Boston-based writer Joshua Kendall. You have to love that title.

The book made for a pacy read - partly because of Kendall's writing, partly because of Roget's surprisingly eventful life.

In his twenties, for example, Roget was staying in French-occupied Geneva when war broke out between France and England; Napoleon ordered the imprisonment of British nationals, turning Roget into a détenu. Only by first declaring himself a citizen of Geneva and then... oh, but I won't spoil it for you.

Instead, what I'd like to blog about is the experience of being an Englishman reading the biography of a famous Englishman written by a writer who is (I assume) an American writing primarily for an American readership. Phew!

For example, Kendall has to explain some things that the average Brit would know, such as the meaning of 'Mancunians':

Perhaps that’s why so many Mancunians (the Latin-derived term for Manchester citizens) gravitated towards the teachings of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism

Of course, I can't criticise him for this. I did, however (and perhaps unaccountably) find some of his Americanisms jarring - especially this use of 'write':

From Cornwall, she wrote Mrs. Reid, “We three get on capitally together. I am sure Kate is already better and enjoying all enthusiastically."

Kendall also uses the least formal style I've ever come across in a biography. For example:

On Saturday, July 16, 1803, Roget learned that the French weren’t kidding. After several weeks of issuing threats, they had finally stepped up their aggression toward all foreign nationals.

Or:

Roget was also overwhelmed with anger. He couldn’t believe that a Frenchman was forcing him out of the city where his father had been born. A Frenchman was kicking him out of Switzerland!

I don't know if this is how American biographers usually write, but I found it surprising. To be fair, Kendall does admit in his acknowledgements:

This book is not meant to be a scholarly biography. Though all the scenes are based on actual events, in several instances, where primary source material was lacking, I offered my best approximation of specific details.

So The Man Who Made Lists is, if you like, the TV re-enactment of the biography world: Crimewatch with added classification.

I might even send it on to Apus to see what he makes of it.

• The Man Who Made Lists at Penguin.com (USA)

Friday roundup: Damp Squid and Adam Smith

Spotted this week:

***

1. A widely reported story on the 10 most irritating expressions in English. It's another book tie-in, the book in question being Damp Squid (pictured) by Jeremy Butterfield.

There's a related quick quiz on the OUP blog and it's also worth checking out the Underwire coverage (thanks, Harry) simply for all the comments.

***

2. An even more widely reported story concerning Adam Smith, a reporter for the Birmingham Mail (that's Birmingham in England!). While in Miami, Smith got drunk celebrating Barack Obama's election victory and was filmed:

• jokingly admitting to cutting and pasting from the BBC website – while filing copy
  

• swearing at the camera

• resigning from his job to set up his own magazine

• referring to himself as 'Steve Zacharanda' (I'm not sure why... he may have had a reason)

We've all had nights like that.


UPDATE 18:30 - Yes, I know it's not a Friday. But it certainly feels like one...