Pronunciation of -ed

After the explanations provided in class, I copy here some more precise instructions for the correct pronunciation of the final -ed in adjectives and verbs.

I hope you find it useful.

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 SELFIE

SELFIE

is named Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013

selfie noun, informal
(also selfy; plural selfies)

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website

19 November 2013, Oxford, UK:
Today Oxford Dictionaries announces selfie as their international Word of the Year 2013. The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date. Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000% since this time last year.
Selfie can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum.  The word gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph. Its linguistic productivity is already evident in the creation of numerous related spin-off terms showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one’s hair) and belfie (a picture of one’s posterior); a particular activity – welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture – shelfie and bookshelfie.
Judy Pearsall, Editorial Director for Oxford Dictionaries, explained the decision: “Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research programme, which collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as Word of the Year.”
The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months, but it does need to have become prominent or notable in that time. Selfie was added to OxfordDictionaries.com in August 2013, although the Word of the Year selection is made irrespective of whether the candidates are already included in an Oxford dictionary. Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but is currently being considered for future inclusion.

The earliest known selfie

Research shows the word selfie in use by 2002. The earliest known usage is found in an Australian online forum post:

2002 ABC Online (forum posting) 13 Sept.
“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”

The rise of the selfie

Judy Pearsall explained the evolution of the word selfie: “Social media sites helped to popularize the term, with the tag ‘selfie’ appearing on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004, but usage wasn’t widespread until around 2012, when selfie was being used commonly in mainstream media sources.
“In early examples, the word was often spelled with a -y, but the -ie form is more common today and has become the accepted spelling. The use of the diminutive -ie suffix is notable, as it helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing. Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words – barbie for barbecue, firie for firefighter, tinnie for a can of beer – so this helps to support the evidence for selfie having originated in Australia.”

If you found the article interesting and you'd like to know something else about 

The Word of the Year shortlist,

click here:  Selfie

Pronunciation Rules

You can find here the pronunciation rules we went through in our last class. I hope you try to take these rules into account when you come across a new word.

Pronunciation Rules p.15

Microvolunteers help blind people to ‘see’

Here you can read a very interesting article.

The Singapore-based MySmartEye app crowdsources identification of images taken by other smartphone users with visual impairments.

15th October 2013 in Non-profit, Social cause, Telecom & Mobile.

Smartphones enable workers to respond to emails when they’re not at the desk – whether they see that as a good thing or not. By the same token, it’s possible that volunteers could help to carry out microtasks for charities and nonprofits wherever they are. A new app from Singapore called MySmartEye is aiming to do just that, by crowdsourcing identification of images taken by other smartphone users with visual impairments.
Developed by telecoms firm StarHub for the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped, the app can be downloaded by smartphone users with a visual impairment. If they want to know the details of an object or view in front of them, they simply take a photo and upload it through the app. The image is instantly sent to one of MySmartEye’s microvolunteers, who offer a short description of the photograph. The description is sent back to the original user, who can then use text-to-speech software to have it read aloud. The video below offers more information about the project:
Available for free on the App Store and Google Play, the developers of the app hope that it could leverage the 7.4 million mobile owners in Singapore to carry out small, ten-second tasks that could improve the quality of life for those with disabilities. Are there other ways smartphone owners could be turned into charitable volunteers?
Website: www.mysmarteye.starhub.com