The Rabbit Rule

A week or so ago I posted some statistics about English spelling from an article in American Educator. This article also mentioned an English spelling rule that was new to me, the Rabbit Rule. Upon researching the Rabbit Rule, I realized that I remembered the rule from elementary school but I didn't know the rule by this name. I also discovered a few other English spelling rules that have acquired new names since I was in elementary school (ages upon ages ago). The rules are as follows:

The Rabbit Rule: Double the consonants b, d, g, m, n and p after a short vowel in a two syllable word.

The Banana Rule: Every unaccented open-a syllable will change to schwa. An a at the end of a word is never accented, so always changes to schwa (plasma). An a by itself at the beginning of a word usually changes to schwa (adopt). In three syllable words the last syllable is never accented. Only one syllable in a word is accented. So if a three syllable word has two open-a syllables that are not accented, both of them will change to schwa.

The Picnic Chicken Basket Rule: In the middle of multi-syllable words, spell the k-sound with a c when you can. If a c won't work, use ck if the k-sound is right after a short vowel. Otherwise, use k.

The Catch Lunch Rule: This rule applies to the ch-sound at the end of a word. Use tch when you have a short vowel coming right before the ch-sound, otherwise use ch. Exceptions: such, much rich, which.

The Milk Truck Rule: This rule applies to the k-sound at the end of a word. Never end a one syllable word using a c. If you have a short vowel sound coming right before the k-sound use a ck. Otherwise, use k.

The Floss Rule: Double the consonants f, l and s at the end of a one syllable word following a short vowel. Common exceptions to this rule are gas, yes, and bus.


How did anyone ever learn to spell without these fancily named rules. I think I will now go eat a picnic lunch of rabbit, bananas and milk after which I will immediately floss.

NCIS - Ziva's Linguistic Error

Another observation from last week's NCIS - I am pretty sure that I heard the actress who plays Ziva make a phonological error that is common to native speakers of English but would not be common to an Israeli (like the character of Ziva) that struggles with the syntax of English.

Often times I will start to use the contraction don't but for some reason my brain switches mid- contraction to do not. The phonological result of this psycholinguistic phenomenon is that the normal /o/ or "o-sound" found in the contraction don't cancels the normal /u/ or "u-sound" found in the do of do not.

Do /du/ not you agree?

Here are some additional linguistic traits of Ziva's.

The Linguistic Aspects of NCIS - Part II

I just caught last week's episode of NCIS and I still can't stop laughing about Agent DiNozzo's comment to a witness that he was driving to the office. He was talking to the witness (who happened to be a call girl) about the new director of the NCIS and he was so distracted by her attractiveness and demeanor that he re-emphasized his wording by stating, "I said 'new director' not 'nude erector'."

DiNozzo then said something about the two phrases being homonyms...well, kind of...but to be more technical they are actually oronyms (a string of words that sounds the same as another string of words but they are spelled differently and composed of different words with different meanings). Either way, the writers of NCIS sure do know how to have fun with language.

*more on NCIS linguistics and oronyms.

Georgia's Pole Tax - What a Difference that "e" Makes

Apparently the state of Georgia is considering passing a tax that would charge gentlemen's club visitors an extra $5 fee at the door. The tax has been humorously dubbed the "pole tax" as a playful variation on the well-known "poll tax". Regarding the name of this new tax, in the March 16th issue of Newsweek a writer commented about "what a difference that 'e' makes."

Well, what difference does that "e" make? It is certainly not a phonetic difference because poll and pole are homophones. The "e" definitely makes a difference orthographically, however, because the difference is noticeable in print. Obviously, though, the most important difference the "e" makes, and the difference to which the writer was undoubtedly referring, is the semantic difference.

A poll tax is a fixed amount of money that a person must pay as a requirement for the right to vote.

And a pole tax is...well, you get the idea.

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On a separate note, it is not just the "e" that makes the difference it is also the deletion of one of the "l's." If it were simply adding an "e" to poll then we would be talking about a chicken tax.

More Obama Logo Semiotics

Having previously posted about the semiotics of Obama's campaign logo, I found it interesting that the March 16th issue of Newsweek included a review of the logo that Obama had created for the projects that will be funded by his economic stimulus bill. Interestingly, the new logo was designed by the same firm that created his campaign logo. According to the Newsweek article, "graphic designers say, (this logo), missed the mark. The individual icons - the plant, the gears - are too generic to send a clear message, and they're crammed into too small a space."

Craigslist Conundrums - A Bracketing Paradox and a Semantically Unclear Preposition

Following is a screen shot from craigslist that has a couple of interesting conundrums.

1. If the travel website is disabled, why do they need bloggers? Or is it a website for disabled travelers? [[disabled][travel website]] or [[disabled travel][website]]

2. Is this an ad looking for someone to write on the subject of caffeine or is it an ad looking for a writer who is drinking caffeine and is therefor "on caffeine?"

Speech Rate by Language

A good friend and I have a mutual friend from France who speaks English very well; however, some of our other mutual friends think that our French friend talks at a faster rate in English than native English speakers do. This brought up the question of whether or not certain languages are spoken more quickly than other languages...there does not seem to be a simple "yes or no" answer to this question. Here are a some of the various themes I came across while looking into speech rates:

Speech rate should be measured by the number of syllables per second.

Languages with multi-syllabic words tend to be spoken at a faster rate.

Speech rate should not be measured by the number of syllables per second because open syllables are spoken more quickly than closed syllables.

Speech rate is influenced by extralinguistic variables (sex, age, profession, emotional state).

Speech rate should take into consideration variations in continuity of speech.

An article in Language and Speech titled "Speech Rate in a Pluricentric Language: A Comparison Between Dutch in Belgium and the Netherlands," presents the findings of a linguistic study that, "confirms the traditional view that speech rate is determined by extralinguistic variables, but also suggests there may be intrinsic tempo differences between language varieties."

While I agree that extralinguistic variables affect speech rates across all languages, I think it would be fascinating to learn more about the tempo differences between languages, which obviously exist as well.

Unusual Word of the Day - Ergasiophobia

As yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, many people may be suffering from ergasiophobia today. And no, this phobia has nothing to do with the build up of gas in the body due to excessive consumption of green beer...Dictionary.com defines ergasiophobia as, "a fear of work of any kind."

Sports Word of the Day - Bracketology

I have been hearing the word bracketology in the news almost nonstop of late and my linguistic mind immediately thinks about bracketing paradoxes when I hear the word. I have posted about bracketing paradoxes a couple of times in the past but I have never posted about bracketology. For those who don't know, bracketology is defined by Reference.com as, "the process of predicting the field of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, named as such because it is commonly used to fill in tournament brackets for the postseason." A bracketologist, "places teams in the tournament in the various regions (East, West, Midwest, and South)."

Perhaps a person who notices bracketing paradoxes all the time should be called linguistic bracketologist.

Additionally, another newer sports word is NIT-ology which is defined as a process similar to that of bracketology that is used for the National Invitation Tournament.

Clear Blue Easy Advertising - Poor Word Choice

This is from a current print ad campaign for Clear Blue Easy Pregnancy Tests:

1 in 4 women can misread

a traditional pregnancy test.

Read this one.

Oh semantics...semantics, semantics, semantics.

Sure 1 in 4 women can misread a traditional pregnancy test but will 1 in 4 women misread a traditional pregnancy ? Give us women a little more credit.

The word can semantically implies that it is possible but not necessarily so.

A better word choice would have been:

1 in 4 women will misread
a traditional pregnancy test.

or, more simply put:

1 in 4 women misreads
a traditional pregnancy test.

By the way, if Clear Blue Easy's research does not support phrasing the statement in a more definitive way, perhaps they should consider a different approach entirely.