TheCleaners.net

The average American teenager knows about 12,000-15,000 words (and lots of them are incomprehensible to his parents.) An educated adult may know 50,000 words or more, but that only scratches the surface of the English language. (If you don't believe that, flip open a dictionary to ANY page and see how many of the words listed on it you actually know without reading the definitions.)

Three years ago, our lives were thrown into turmoil, and that experience is still sending out ripple effects through our vocabulary. This week, learn a little more about the English language and its incredible fluidity. We'll also clue you in to a few terms that might confuse you when it comes to garment care, so read on!

See you soon!

Jim Nixon
www.thecleaners.net

Linguistic Evolution

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September Spiff Up Coupon!

Everybody seems to feel more serious about work once September rolls around. Time to put aside the summer informality and focus on your career -- and we can help! Have two pieces of regular drycleaning done and we'll do any similar garment at no additional charge. (Include first page of this newsletter with your order. Offer expires 9/18/2004. Cannot be combined with other offers. "Similar" means of comprable cost to process)

Our Evolving Language

One of the hardest questions you can ask a linguist is, "How many words are there in the English language?" Sounds like a simple question, but the answer is mind-bogglingly complex. What do you count -- only words "officially" accepted? Those that have made it into a dictionary? Which dictionary? And what about words that have two meanings, like "yarn", which can mean the stuff you knit with, or it can mean a long story. Does it count as one or two? You begin to see the difficulties.

As if the task weren't hard enough, people keep adding words all the time, or adding new meanings to old ones. This is the essence of a living language -- it changes as the people who use it change. Cultural shifts, technological leaps, historical events all shape our language, just as they shape our society.

As we approach the anniversary ofSeptember 11, 2001, we can already see how it has influenced our vocabulary. Our way of turning the bitter experiences of that day into a manageable shorthand is the phrase, "9-11" (pronounced "nine-eleven" now.) Since that date, the world has changed, and our language with it. Suddenly, terms that were foreign or non-existent have become common, or taken on new significance. Ground zero. Bunker Buster. Bioterrorism. Anthrax (and we even know the difference between "cutaneous" and "inhalation".) Spider hole. Burka. Jalalabad. WMD.

Absorbing new terms and putting words to experiences is the way people in a society process experiences and put them into some kind of perspective. Moments define us and divide time into "before" and "after." Lately, a new term has gained momentum: "That's so September 10th," referring to a time of being unconscious of peril, threat andresponsibility.

Foreign Language?

Somber events are not the only ones to impact language. In fact, were you to travel back in time even 20 years, you'd sound like you were speaking a rather bizarre foreign language if you carried on a modern conversation. Think of what has burst into our language and our culture just since the mid 1980s:

• Cell phones (and their accompanying jargon).
• PC -- both the personal computer and the penchant for "political correctness".
• Mega, Giga... where do we go from here? Megabytes used to be HUGE; now gigabytes aren't nearly enough.
• The internet, with its "googling", "blogging" and whole new shades of meaning to the words "search", "online" and "site."
• B2B -- Business-to-Business commerce via the internet, as well as a host of other acronyms and abbreviations.
• Chat rooms, and their attendant shorthand for everything from laughing out loud (LOL) to getting on one's soap box (IMHO -- in my humble opinion).
• E-everything! E-mail, e-commerce, e-tickets to get you on the plane.
• Multitasking -- something that only computers used to be expected to do, now it's a point of pride on the over-achiever's resume.

We've been weaving web technology into our lingo long enough to see some terms die out already -- anybody remember Y2K?

Dictionary publishers have a field day trying to keep up. Theydetermine which words are really here to stay and deserve inclusion in the language,as well asattempt to keep us on the narrow path to linguistic excellence. Americans, in particular, have a penchant for making up words as they go or changing nouns into verbs and the drop of a comma. We've drifted so far from ourEnglish roots that listening to a Yank and a Brit hold a conversation can be as funny as anything Abbott and Costello ever performed.

Solving the Mystery

When it comes to care for your wardrobe, you might have trouble keeping up with the lingo, as well. So, let us simplify it for you. Here are a few terms that might have you stumped.

• Dryclean -- To cleanse garments using a solvent that is not water,which is able to remove soils and stains from fibers that can't tolerate immersion in water.
• Wetclean -- Professional cleaning that involves water, specially-formulated detergents, and computer-controlled equipment that regulates moisture content and thedegree of agitationin ways that consumer or coin-operated machines cannot.
• Finishing -- A multi-step process that removes the last of the moisture from garments as they are pressed, including adding sizing to the garments for better body, if needed. This is not "ironing"!Some equipment directs warm air through the garment while it is held under tension. Other equipment press pleats or other creases ata temperature and pressure that cannot be achieved non-commercially.
• Free time -- What you receive in return for allowing us to care for your garments. Enjoy!