Tuesday 21 November 2006

I shall enquire what time the inquiry begins

Americans have added many useful words to our (and their) language, but they have also lost a few. They use inquiry for all purposes and for them at least enquiry seem to be disappearing—Google offers 108 million pages containing the first and only 42 million with the second. (They sometimes pronounce either of them oddly to our ear: en-kwuh-ree, where we say en-kwahyuhr-ee.) In England we can, if we want and can be bothered, preserve a distinction: enquiry is used for asking a question, inquiry for making an investigation.

There is another distinction we can make which the Americans cannot. We can write programme when we mean a plan of activities, a radio or television performance, or a list of items, performers, etc in a theatrical or musical entertainment, or we can write program when we mean a sequence of instructions enabling a computer to solve a problem, while they can only write program, whichever they mean.

My programme for the rest of the afternoon is to launch an inquiry into the reasons why I have spent so much time on a matter of no importance to writers and of very little interest to anyone, including me.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being as how you know about these things, do you know why Americans feeled compelled to add redundant syllables, for exampe public transportation when transport would do?

Anonymous said...

For the same reason that they feel compelled to add superfluous prepositions (check up on, meet with)

Anonymous said...

Ah I see. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Wait up! What's that reason again?

Anonymous said...

How do you mean?

Anonymous said...

What's the reason they feel compelled to add redundant syllables or superfluous prepositions? Or indeed to remove perfectly unsuperfluous prepositions – I wrote you a letter Tuesday?

Anonymous said...

Well, there are two reasons for this.

Anonymous said...

Oh.

I was expecting three. Are you sure?

Anonymous said...

Irregardless of whether it be the Americans or the British who entrap themselves in the necessitation for supererogative syllables, it seems to me that excessive syllabic loquacity is just an ironical measure orientated to confuscate the euphemistically challenged.

Anonymous said...

Grumio: No, only two.

Amanda: I daresay you are right. Let us agree that logorrhea and similar afflictions are prevalent in equal measure on both sides of the Atlantic and are to be deplored wherever they are found.

Anonymous said...

Yeah too much words.