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OPINION & COMMENT Email linguist.editor@gmail.com with your views Going local Paul Guest's experience of being addressed abroad in English when one has spoken to someone in the local language (TL52,4) is certainly familiar. I have found it to be particularly common in Austria and Germany, in public places such as restaurants, hotels, shops and tourist offices (the latter may also insist on giving you brochures in English). It is especially irksome when you can speak the local language reasonably fluently and the other person addresses you in broken English. If you have spoken first, it always strikes me as rather rude. It is also discouraging for beginners trying to get practice in the local language in an 'authentic' setting. The most effective counter-measure (if you speak the language well) is to pause, look at your interlocutor in puzzlement or apologetic surprise and, still speaking in the local language, inquire whether he or she speaks it. The shock effect alone is usually sufficient to ensure they revert to their native tongue. Martin Weston Crossword puzzle no.7 Answers page 33 1 2 3 4 7 9 12 13 15 16 18 19 22 Who wants to be a linguist? The Linguist 17 20 Across 7/12 Translating as 'Farmhand Rupert', he is the companion of St Nicholas in German folklore. (6,8) 8 Christmas in Rome. (6) 9 In Latin, I forbid this ban. (4) 10 Seasonal benefactor of French children. (4,4) 11 Pertaining to the Egyptian god of the afterlife. (7) For my first degree, in the mid-1950s, I 13 Christmas-e-shoma studied English Language and Literature, a mobarak bashad is vital component of which was philology, covering the history and development of the 'Merry Christmas' in structure of English. Over the next ten years, this language. (5) 14 Sanskrit word for a philology became linguistics, and the emphasis was on the analysis of contemporary Buddhist shrine. (5) 16 It gave us chutzpah language, with several fresh approaches to and schmaltz. (7) analysis and description, such as those of 20 Colloquially, to live Michael Halliday and Noam Chomsky. The teachers and students of linguistics were off the generosity of others. (8) linguists, and teachers of modern languages 21 In Italy to make… were up in arms about it, suggesting that food at Christmas, for ex-philologists find another name, eg example. (4) 'linguisticians'. These were all people whose 22 A Methodist or livelihood depended on words: they had to Baptist chapel, from find les mots justes. Yet no real solutions were found, and I am Hebrew 'House of writing to see what my CIOL colleagues think God'. (6) of this today. What do you want to be called, 23 Merry Christmas in Sweden and whether your business is with foreign languages or the structure of language per se? Norway. (3,3) Maurice Varney FCIL 28 6 10 11 14 5 8 DECEMBER 2013/JANUARY 2014 21 23 Down 1 Divine messengers which include cherubim and thrones. (6) 2 Her unrequited love for Narcissus resounds through history. (4) 3 A non-place imagined by Thomas More. (6) 4 Quarry of Lewis Carroll's poem. (5) 5 Modern _______ Arabic is also known as Fusha. (8) 6 A child does this with difficulty on Christmas Eve. (6) 12 See 7 across. 15 Seasonally very popular country. (6) 17 Plant and colour of the rainbow. (6) 18 Just one EU-friendly accompaniment to 15 down. (6) 19 Ivy's companion is also known as ilex. (5) 21 A Portuguese lament. (4) TERESA TINSLEY If you want to have a global impact, you have to do it multilingually. That's the message from a report in The Mirror that Pope Francis, by dint of setting up Twitter accounts in different languages, has now reached 10 million followers (he is @Pontifex by the way). The paper also reported on the death of someone who reached millions through music: Manolo Escobar, whose 'Y Viva España' provided the theme tune to many a 1970s package tour to the Costas and beyond. The Languages Show Live at Olympia provided The Independent with an opportunity to carry an item based on an interview with the EU Commissioner about the UK's poor record in languages, with the warning that the UK cannot carry on 'at the bottom of the class'. This was followed up by a glowing report on Rosetta Stone's linkup with Harrogate Grammar School, which gives pupils access to online courses in a vast range of languages via iPads. Meanwhile The Evening Standard carried an article on the growing number of people who speak three languages in London, or are bringing their children up to be trilingual, and The Business Insider ran a piece on 14 celebrities who speak multiple languages, including Leonardo di Caprio. Once again, language issues were brought into the political battle over immigration, with The Express reporting 'fury' over a move to 'let migrants used foreign language in town hall debates'. The 'fury' in question was from Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds in relation to a decision by Tower Hamlets to let a member of the public ask a question in Bengali through an interpreter. But it is The Guardian's partnership with the British Academy that is producing the most coverage of language issues at the moment, with a clutch of articles ranging from the debate over grading at GCSE and A-level to the UK's indigenous languages (of which, I learned, there are 10). Long may it continue! Teresa Tinsley is Director of Alcantara Communications; www.alcantaracoms.com. www.iol.org.uk