Stop me if you’ve heard this before…..

… But I’m back on the punctuation trail. And, to my great joy, I’m supported by Susie Dent, my hero on etymology, the origin and historical development of words and meanings. 

Besides, I have discovered some random things in common with her. 

For a start we have a mutual love of words. Did that happen because we both attended the Marist Convent, an independent Roman Catholic day school in Ascot? Run by nuns in my day – 15 years before Susie Dent – the school inspired me with a love of learning before going to an academically competitive prep school. I still remember receiving several ‘Merit’ badges for good work. Swat!

Susie Dent also spent a term at Eton College to prepare her for Oxbridge entrance before gaining a place at Somerville College, Oxford. That’s where we begin to differ, although my alma mater, Hertford College, was one of the first to take female students.

She is also a scholar in German and went to Princeton in the US to take a masters. While I took German for A level, I struggled with the language and I’m a long way from being competent, let alone a master.

Her career as a lexicographer and etymologist took shape at Oxford University Press at about the same time that she first appeared in Channel 4’s Countdown in 1992.

In a recent article in the Sunday Times she expressed concern that modern text language was doing away with punctuation, from the full stop and beyond (and that reminds me of one of the great, but acceptable split infinitives, “to boldly go”). 

Apparently, young people opined in a recent Twitter debate that, in a text message, “the full stop … can imply sarcasm, unhappiness or even aggression”. But I’m not so worried, as text talk is a different language to English. 

She also defends the serial comma, or Oxford comma, in a list. “It is sometimes a matter of taste but at other times essential: the TV listings of The Times once included Peter Ustinov having an encounter with ‘Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo’.”

Note her use of the colon which I also defended in my recent blog - Pause for Breath- which you can find on the archive link at the bottom of this newsletter.

Now I’m settling down to listen to her latest blog exploring the English language with Giles Brandreth in ‘Something rhymes with purple’ – on humour in this edition. 

Also here is a link to her article in case you don’t subscribe to the Sunday Times.
(Anyone who cannot see the full article, please email me and I will send a copy in Word)