From the New York Times, a very interesting article on a useful website...

That Wasn’t Mark Twain: How a Misquotation Is Born

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI APRIL 26, 2017

Mark Twain is one of many who gets credit for famous quotations he never wrote or said. Credit Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

How fitting that the man often credited with saying “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” most likely did not invent the phrase.

Commonly attributed to Mark Twain, that quotation instead appears to be a descendant of a line published centuries ago by the satirist Jonathan Swift. 

Variants emerged and mutated over time until a modern version of the saying was popularized by a Victorian-era preacher, according to Garson O’Toole, a researcher who, like Twain, prefers a pseudonym.

Seven years ago, Mr. O’Toole started Quote Investigator, a popular website where he traces the origins of well-known sayings. 

This month, he published “Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations,” a book in which he collected and updated many of the posts from his site and offers new theories on how misquotations form.

“When I started off, it was mysterious exactly where these misquotations were coming from, and it was interesting that sometimes you could find these clues that pointed to how they may have originated,” said Mr. O’Toole, an alias for Gregory F. Sullivan, a former teacher and researcher in the Johns Hopkins computer science department who now spends his time writing.

In the book, Mr. Sullivan offers 10 common “mechanisms” that he says lead to misquotation and incorrect attribution.

Through one such process, which he labels “textual proximity,” a famous person mistakenly gets credit for a quotation merely by having their name or likeness published close to the words.

 In another, “ventriloquy,” a statement about an individual’s work is perceived to be so apt that it is eventually confused for their own words.

Both may explain how Anton Chekhov, the Russian writer, became associated with the saying: “Any idiot can face a crisis, it’s the day-to-day living that wears you out,” as outlined on Mr. Sullivan’s website and, now, in his book.

In May 2013, Mr. Sullivan heard from a reader who, after a fruitless attempt to prove Chekhov’s authorship of those words, wanted help uncovering the true history of the quotation.

Mr. Sullivan accepted the challenge.

Google Books led him to "The Tradition of The Theatre", a textbook published in 1971 and edited by Peter Bauland and William Ingram. 

Only snippets were available online, so he visited a university library to review the book in full. 

In it, he found the following, written by Mr. Bauland and Mr. Ingram:

A character in a Hollywood film of the 1950s casually drops this line: “Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.”

The screenplay was by Clifford Odets, America’s chief inheritor of the dramatic tradition of Anton Chekhov, and in that one line, he epitomized the lesson of his master.

Though Mr. Sullivan was unable to confirm Mr. Odets’s authorship of the sentence, he theorized that Mr. Odets wrote something similar, which was then misquoted in the 1971 textbook. 

The earliest citation Mr. Sullivan could find crediting the saying to Chekhov was from 1981.

That final attribution could have been the result of: textual proximity, in which an oblivious reader saw Chekhov’s name and blindly attributed the quotation to him; ventriloquy, in which a reader found the line so resonated with Chekhov’s style that these words were mistaken for his; or some combination.

Mr. Sullivan published his analysis in June 2013, but more than two years later, a reader came forward with a new lead, referring him to the 1954 movie “The Country Girl,” based on a play by Mr. Odets.

Mr. Sullivan watched the movie and discovered these words uttered by Bing Crosby:

I faced a crisis up there in Boston, and I got away with it. Just about anybody can face a crisis. It’s that everyday living that’s rough.

The movie was based on a play by Mr. Odets, but, after failing to find the line in a 1951 edition of the script, Mr. Sullivan believes that yet another man most likely coined the phrase. 

Ultimately, he would credit the “any idiot” line to George Seaton, who wrote the screenplay.

The other mechanisms Mr. Sullivan identified include:

• Synthesis and streamlining, a process in which a quotation is simplified over time;

• Proverbial wisdom, in which a quotation is elevated to the status of a proverb because its source is unknown;

• Real-world proximity, when an individual wrongly gets credit for a quotation because they share a real-world connection to the true author;

• Similar names, the mistaken attribution of a quotation to someone whose name resembles that of the true author;

• Concoctions, which are pure fabrications, intentional or otherwise;

• Historical fiction, when an individual gets credit for words uttered by a character portraying them in a movie, novel or other work of fiction;

• Capture, when a famous person gets credit for echoing the words of someone less well-known;

• Host, in which an individual, simply by being famous, attracts credit for quotations they never delivered, with Mr. Twain and Albert Einstein being popular examples.

Minimalist and her grand-children

"Hello Eden, how are you ? Take a cookies and a glass of milk in the kitchen and join me in the living room."

"Fine thank you. My last class was so boring..Hum..Grandma, you know, just the other day, I wondered: what were you like when you were younger and when you were our age ? Your cookies are delicious !"

"Well, When I was seventeen we were in 2017.  

I was in my last high school year and I prepared my degree, like you. 

I remember  the names of the persons who were in my class [and some teachers too. Mrs P.].

It was a very pleasant class with good persons. I liked very much spending time with some of them. We laughed and listened to some music. 

At that time, I remember, I wrote a lot quotes and texts in a notebook. I was trying to write songs and poems too. 

I was not always wise and I didn't still listen to my parents. 

Sometimes,  I made parties with my friends where we drank alcohol. It was so funny ! 

I lived in the countryside with my mom, and my sister but I dreamed all the time about Paris and about fashion.
I wanted to look like the models of magazines and to work in the field of makeup and fashion."

"Have you ever  done stupid things?"

"Oh yes, with a friend we  stole things in a store and one day, we bathed naked in a lake. Oh my god, it was at the same time horrible but so funny !"

"Oh no grandma ! You are completely crazy ! Haha. And after the high school ?"

"When I remember of that, It impossible for me to not laugh... Next, hum.. After my graduation I went to Paris where I began to work in the field of Makeup. It was one of my biggest passions. I started to be a makeup assistant and with the time and the experience, I met charming people who helped me to be a great makeup-artist. 

I made up many models in fashion shows before

 working for the brand Chanel. 

The work was very important for me and it was not always easy but one day, I had an opportunity and thanks to that I was able to create my own brand of cosmetic products. In the meantime, I travelled a lot with my job but also with my own money…"

"Oh yes ?! Where that grandma ?"

"Wait a second, I'll go get the computer to show you the photos of my travels… I remember when I was in New York for the Fashion Week. Here, I was in Sydney with my friends that I met in Paris… Oh yes, it's true I remember of this travel in Costa Rica with my friend Miguel. 

It was very interesting and very funny ! Now, here are the pictures of my first travel in Norway with my job. It was a dream for me !  When I was younger, when I was in high school, I was very interested about the Scandinavian countries so I learnt alone the Norwegian on the internet  and on my cell phone too.

I went a second time in Norway and I lived more than 5 years over there. This country is so pleasant and the landscapes are incredible. If you have the opportunity to go there, go ahead ! 

I also went  to Denmark,  Germany,  Poland and  Sweden. 

After my travels I wanted to turn in France and to have children. It is at this moment there that I adopted your mom and a few years after your aunt.

"But you did not want to have a boyfriend ?"

"Not really, I wanted to live alone and to dedicate myself to my work then to my daughters.. And you know, I had a boyfriend when I  was younger but I think that is not really my cup of tea. "

"And after.. ? "

"After, I continued to make up many celebrities and models in Paris, and my brand began to be more and more famous. It was a dream for me ! When I arrived to retirement, I began to like cooking and made some cakes. 

It began, another passion for me. When I heard about your birth, I was so excited. And now seventeen years after, we are here, together... I'm so proud of you."

"Oh thank you grandma ! It's was very funny and interesting to know more things about you and you life. "

Reese's advice to her grandchildren...

Today it’s my birthday, I’m 92 years old. I think I can say that I've lived a long time.

 I went through a lot of time, I met a lot of people, I learned a lot of things but today I’m done. 

I still have a good memory, but I’m afraid with the idea of forgetting the most precious time of my life.

This time was when I was a child but almost a teenager. 

During this period, I would like todiscover all new things, the secrets of nature and more : I was crazy about animals !

I was born in 1925, the day is not very important. 

When I was a child, my parents told me that a few years ago, there wasan horrible thing which they called The War. 

I didn’t know what it meant but the war seems to be a terrible event. 

They told me that I had a brother but I’ll never see him, and later I understood why, it was because of The War.

But I was a child, and, like the others children, I was an innocent child. 

As I said before, I was passionate by nature, for example, I was attracted by the flowers, theircolours, their smell, their shape, all was strange but so interesting to look at. 

So, I loved to pick them to do some bunch. But this bunch was not for my mom, my friends or my schoolteacher. 

I usually sold them. 

But it wasn’t the only thing I sold. 

For example, I stole some fruit or vegetables like potatoes, carrots or apples in the garden of my neighbours. 

Sometimes, their dogs barked when they saw me but I always ran away to hide myself. 

So, I concealed my money to buy some candies but my parents always talked about money problems so, sometimes, I put some coins in the drawers.

When they found them,they smiled in the hope it was part of the little miracles of  life.

I would like to speak about the christmases of my childhood. 

As I said, after The War my parents were in financional difficulties. 

Of course, I believed in Santa Claus but I was often disappointed because he brought me the old toys of my older brother. 

Incidentally, I remember a cuddly bear toy, it was my favourite present. 

All the family was here, we got together at my grandparents’house, in Baugy,  my grandparents' native place. 

Sometimes, my mother played the piano after the dinner.

One day, the first day of september 1939, when my father had to leave us to defend our country and this day, my childhood came to an end. 

I understood what The War was.

From now on, it is our last period...

... for comments on the blog (till the end of May), starting now, 15:55.

Answer to the last Game

The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on (usually) the second Saturday in June.

Therefore, this year, the Queen will celebrate her birthday on June 10th.

An interesting article on pronounciation...

 

Language

The Observer

 

Do you pronounce 'scone' to rhyme with 'cone' or 'gone'? It depends where you're from 

As linguists celebrate English Language Day and Shakespeare’s birthday, what does the ever-changing way we speak reveal about us?

Scone as in ‘gone’, or scone as in ‘cone’? Photograph: Alamy

Robin McKie Observer Science editor

Sunday 23 April 2017

It is a division as entrenched and as bitter as the split between Brexit backers and EU Remainers – though in this case, the issue is truly personal.

Do you pronounce the word “scone” to rhyme with “cone”, or to rhyme with “gone”?

To those in the latter group, it is a posh affectation to use a long vowel for this staple item of afternoon tea. 

By contrast, those in the former group believe they are merely following a logical extension of the pronunciation of the word cone by adding an s as a prefix.

The example of scone’s different pronunciations underscores the highly varied nature of Britain’s complex, shifting patterns of speech, and comes as the nation celebrates English Language Day and Shakespeare’s birthday on Sunday. 

It also marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Jones’s English Pronouncing Dictionary, which tracks how spoken English has varied in terms of geography and over time.

In fact, the way you pronounce scone says far less about your class and much more about your geographical origins – for, according to “The Great Scone Map”, produced by Cambridge University academics, its pronunciation follows a discernible pattern across Britain and Ireland. Those who rhyme it with gone predominate in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England. 

Those who rhyme with cone dominate in southern Ireland and the Midlands. The rest of the country is a mixture of the two pronunciations.

And, just to complicate the matter, there is a third pronunciation available for the word – in the form of the village of Scone in Scotland, which is pronounced “skoon”.

“It is not a matter of being posh, or thinking you are posh, if you pronounce scone as in cone,” says phonetics expert Professor Jane Setter of the University of Reading, co-editor of the English Pronouncing Dictionary. “It is more a matter of where you grew up. By and large, the pronunciation that rhymes with gone is more common, however.”

“Our language continually reshapes itself,” she says. “New words appear. In addition, pronunciations of existing words alter. The word trap used to be pronounced more like ‘trep’, for example. Similarly pat was pronounced more like ‘pet’. Changes like these have been tracked in our dictionary for a century now – though very often when we detect changes, we really don’t understand why they have taken place.”

Consider the words poor and pour. “In the past they were pronounced differently and still are in some areas,” says Setter. “However, as time has passed, more and more people, myself included, have come to pronounce them in the same way – as in the word ‘pore’. In phonetics, it is called a merger, but we don’t always know why it has taken place in some areas of Britain and not in other parts of the country.”

Other entries in the dictionary have been pronunciations that have virtually disappeared from the modern world. The word calibre – as in the quality of a person’s character – is now pronounced as “KAL-ih-ber”. “Fifty years ago, you would have been far more likely to pronounce it as ‘ka-LEE-ber’,” said Setter.

An even more striking illustration is provided in England by the word “arm”. In 1950 most people living to the south-west of a line drawn between London and Birmingham – as well as pockets in Lancashire and in Northumberland – pronounced the “r” in “arm”. The vast majority of those living outside these areas did not. Today virtually everyone in England now pronounces arm without the “r” – though people in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland still use it.

“This latter trend has become quite pronounced,” adds Setter. “A similar pattern has been noted with the word ‘square’ and also with ‘near’. Essentially, in England, we no longer pronounce these words with an ‘r’ in them either. We say something that is more like ‘squih’ and ‘nih’ today.”

The tendency to enunciate the letter “r” everywhere it appears in the spelling of a word is known as a rhotic accent and it is typified by people from Scotland and Ireland. However the use of the rhotic “r” was once more widespread in England, particularly in the south-west, but this has slowly disappeared.

Similarly the pronunciation of the letter “t” in words like metal is disappearing and is being replaced by glottal stops, in which a stop sound is made by rapidly closing the vocal cords. In this way, the word butter has ended up with a pronunciation like “bu’er”.

In a similar fashion, the pronunciation of “th” inside a word is disappearing and is being replaced by a “v” or “f” – to give us pronunciations like “muvver” or “bruvver” or even “bovvered” – the word so beloved of Catherine Tate’s schoolgirl character Lauren.

In fact, some experts believe that in 50 to 100 years the use of “th” in popularly spoken English will have disappeared. “The idea horrifies some English language teachers but at the end of the day we have to accept that words and their pronunciation are flexible and changeable,” says Setter.

“They are not fixed entities to be enshrined in stone.”

“One of the most profound influences is undoubtedly the London accent, which has a noticeable glottal stop,” she says . “It is the language of the capital, after all, so it is certainly going to affect the southern part of Britain. And you can trace the spread of the glottal stop and other features of the London accent moving westward along the M4 over time. Correspondingly, the rhotic “r” of the Berkshire accent has been lost over the years.”

And that is the crucial point, she adds. “Language changes – and for a variety of reasons. Incomers can affect it. Those who we perceive as being prestige figures or groups can affect it. There are plenty of reasons.

Setter concludes: “There is all sorts of discussion about how English might change over the years – and the truth is that we really don’t know exactly what is going to happen.”