Are you lonely because you don’t know anyone else who collects pet rocks? You don’t need to be alone; chances are there is an internet forum for people who love to talk about pet rocks.
That might seem a silly example but on the internet there is a forum, or discussion board, for almost any topic you can think of. People like to talk about things and share ideas and an internet forum is one of the places that allows you to do that.
Email has become the most popular way for people to communicate with each other; some say it’s even more popular than using the telephone, which might seem hard to believe until you take a look at some of the reasons why people prefer email to phone calls.
LIKE a cat that got the cream . . .
That neatly sums up the expression of a 64 year old granddad approaching his 40th wedding anniversary who has suddenly found himself a cult figure on British TV.
I studied linguistics at university. The emphasis was on how language changed over the years from Beowulf to hip-hop.
We are decorating at the moment so old books have been moved and I have in front of me ‘Historical Slang’ - some 50,000 terms, many of them quite crude, that are no longer used by English speakers. Elsewhere I have ‘Hobson, Jobson’ a book of words used in British India – some of which are still in use both by Indians and Brits, but most of which are obscure to say the least.
I was born only a few miles from the geographical centre of England. My cousin, the daughter of my mother’s twin, was born a few weeks earlier only 18 miles further south. Throughout our childhood we saw each other several times a month. You would think then that our accents would be similar, but even in this relatively small island there are numerous differences – few men from Cornwall would understand first time round someone from Tyneside in the North East and vice versa. My cousin and I are quite similar in lots of ways, we even look alike and in early photographs it is difficult to tell her children from mine. However, we pronounce many words rather differently. She has always lived below the line that differentiates those who use a long vowel and those who cut it short. – She says ‘BARTH’ and I say ‘BATH’. She says ‘PARTH’ and I say ‘PATH’. My children, who spent their early years in the south and grew up near Manchester, have combined the two - They have a ‘BARTH’ in the ‘BATH’ or even a ‘BATH’ in the ‘BARTH’, while hers are definitely southerners.
THERE is a mood swing taking place amongst the British public which over the last couple of weeks has been given a massive nudge by the Olympic Games.
Could it be that we are beginning to see through the King’s clothes?
Could it be that we are beginning to realise that hype should not take precedence over substance, that fame comes through hard work and dedication and not by just turning up at the right party.