Comma comma comma comma, chameleon

Might I recommend a splendid book called Between you & me: Confessions of a comma queen by Mary Norris.

Comma queen Mary has worked for thirty years at The New Yorker, mostly as a copy editor. If you ever thought grammar was dry and fusty, this book will change your mind.

My favourite things about it:

• The chapter titles. The title of this blog post is the chapter heading for Chapter 5. Chapter 1 is called “Spelling is for weirdos”. And Chapter 9 about swearing has a very rude, asterisk-featuring title.
• Fun learning – How to use hyphens. How to deploy commas, including serial commas. Clever punctuation explanation.
• Great and thoughtful stuff about the feminine and masculine, and sex and gender in language.
  

  In a 2010 documentary about John Lennon, Yoko Ono remembered giving a beautiful silk pajama (she used the singular) to John. “She fit him totally,” Yoko said. (p.62)

• Mary looks for that elusive gender-neutral pronoun, and gives a shout-out to one of my favourites:
  

  There is only one documented instance of a gender-neutral pronoun springing from actual speech, and that is “yo,” … (p. 66)

• Her examples are brilliant – she analyses the words and style of writers like James Salter, Charles Dickens, David Foster Wallace, Herman Melville, and even Gillian Flynn (of “Gone Girl” fame).

This is a rather wonderful memoir as well as a guide. We follow Mary through her education, and into various jobs until she arrives at the New Yorker. We see how the importance of gender in language is personal, as her brother transitions into a woman. We get to know her colleagues and their eccentricities.

Mary Norris seems like the kind of woman you’d love to chat with over a coffee. She is supersmart, funny, thoughtful and kind.

You can listen to Mary talk to Kim Hill in Commas and Punctuation.

Find more books on:

• English language – grammar
• English language – punctuation
• English language – humour

Read our page on writing.

You can listen to Mary talk to Kim Hill in Commas and Punctuation.

Mangoで英語の勉強をしませんか？

こんにちわ！

ライブラリーでは本の貸し借りだけではなく、他たくさんのオンラインのリソースにアクセスできるのはご存知ですか？通常ではお金がかかりますが、ライブラリーメンバーにはなんと無料です。

その中で今回お勧めしたいのがMango Languages。英語の勉強はもちろん、フランス語、スペイン語、中国語、その他の言語も習えます。特に英語は、各言語に合わせた別々のカリキュラムがあって、選択すればその言語で案内してくれます。

プレイスメントテストを受けて、自分に合わせたレベルからスタートできるし、ログアウトしても前回終えたところから自動的に始めれるようになっています。毎回のチャプターにはちゃんとクイズもついていて勉強したところの復習ができます。答えを聞かれたらマイクで話せばちゃんと識別してくれるのでスピーキングや発音の練習にもなりますよ！

さあ、英語の勉強を一から始めたい人、もっとレベルアップしたい人、最近ちょっと使ってなくてやり直したい人、本気で習いたいけど語学学校に行くお金がない人、さらに海外旅行で他の言語の練習が必要な人、是非Mangoを使ってみてください！ライブラリー以外でのご利用の場合はカード番号とパスワードが必要となります。

AppleとAndroid用のappもあります。

Te Kupu o te Wiki – The Word of the Week

Kia ora. To celebrate Te Reo Māori we are publishing weekly kupu (words).

Kīwaha (colloquialism)

Rāua, rāua.
(They are) One and the same.

Kupu (word)

āe
yes

Āe, me haere tāua.
Yes, let’s go.

Watch video of someone pronouncing this kupu.

• Browse our Te Reo Māori resources.
• Previous Te Kupu o te reo Māori posts.
• Weekly kupu videos from Māori Television.

This week in Christchurch history (8 to 14 June)

8 June 1838
First French warship, the corvette “Heroine” (Captain J.B. Cecille), arrives in Akaroa.

8 June 1966
New “Wahine”, described as “the largest vehicular ferry in the world”, begins on the Lyttelton-Wellington run.

9 June 1869
Earthquake damages many buildings including the stone (second) Town Hall.

9 June 1917
Sign of the Kiwi opens.

French officers visit to the Sign of the Kiwi [ca. 1920], CCL PhotoCD 1, IMG0085

9 June 1937
Citizens War Memorial unveiled in Cathedral Square.

10 June 1935
John Drew and poet/typographer Dennis Glover founded Caxton Press to publish New Zealand literature. Most of the decade’s best writers were first published by the company.

12 June 1848
“Kemp’s Deed” signed by Ngāi Tahu giving the New Zealand Company control of land from Kaiapoi to Otago.

14 June 1923
New Zealand permanent Air Force established at Sockburn as the Government takes over the Canterbury Aviation Company. Included in the take-over was Sockburn Aerodrome, which was re-named Wigram a few days later.

More June events in the Christchurch chronology: a timeline of Christchurch events in chronological order from pre-European times to 1989.