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August 26, 2014 edition

Jennifer Lindsay*
Over the past couple of months I have been translating a book that frequently refers to compass points. The words for the four cardinal points I do not have to think about (utara, north; selatan, south; timur, east; barat, west), nor tenggara for southeast because it is so familiar from Asia Tenggara for Southeast Asia, but the words barat daya, barat laut and timur laut for southwest, northwest and northeast, stump me every time. After all these years, they just don't stick.

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More Word Watch articles in other editions

January 1, 1970 edition

Jennifer Lindsay*
The past month has been ringing, resounding, pounding, blaring with noise. It is the fasting month, so the mosques are more active at night than usual. The World Cup has been onroadside stalls and cafes have been showing the matches broadcast live and replays. But all this was drowned out by the chatter, clamor and noise of the bitterly fought presidential election campaign.
Banners, posters, concerts, speeches, text and Twitter messages, songs, Facebook chatting, film clips, newspapers, yelled slogans and conversations have all been about the two candidates; about which one people will choose, and opinions about the smear campaign which was such a nasty part of the general noise.

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January 1, 1970 edition

Jennifer Lindsay*
I confess to being a bit of a spelling Nazi. I cannot stand misspelled signs. I admit itin Australia I often carry a black texter pen around with me to correct words in shops and on menus, like 'stationary' to 'stationery', 'tomatos' to 'tomatoes' (or 'tomatoe' to 'tomato') and to save the precious, maligned and unappreciated apostrophe. In Indonesia, misspelled (and incorrect) English is everywhere, and oh it hurts! For instance, there is a large sign in Yogyakarta for an English language teaching college that says, 'XX college for English. Center of Excellent.' I try not to drive that way as it ruins my day.
But how important is spelling, really? In the end, it is merely a concern of official communication, and a way of facilitating sharing across broad differences of pronunciation. Shared spelling allows shared writing.

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