A Bologna Pony

A couple years ago I saw a post on tumblr that wondered why the words "pony" and "bologna" rhyme.  Specifically, they asked, "why the fuck do bologna and pony rhyme."

Firstly, bologna is an Italian word, coming from the Italian city of Bologna (Source), while pony traveled from Latin pullanus (young of an animal) to Middle French poulenet (little foal) to Scottish powny.  (Source)  They're from different language families, which have different spelling and phonemic systems, so there's no reason for them to rhyme.

Italian is a Romance language, and English is a Germanic language.  Latin and Middle French had huge influences on the development of the English language as it is today, which explains how pony jumped from Middle French in the Gallic Romance family to Scots and English in the West Germanic family.  (Check out this cool Indo-European languages map)

But secondly, and perhaps most importantly, North Americans pronounce bologna wrong, which happens with so many words that we borrow from other languages.

Behold, the Italian pronunciation of bologna:

So you see, rather than being pronounced [bʌloni] which does rhyme with pony [poni], it's actually pronounced [bʌloŋə].

The [ŋ] sound is a nasal palatal/velar sound, meaning your tongue touches the hard part of the roof of your mouth (the palate) and/or the soft part of the roof of your mouth (the velum).  It is hard for Americans to pronounce the sound when it's followed by a vowel.  In American English [ŋ] is typically only found at the end of -ng words, such as rang or singing.

Therefore, the American English pronunciation is really just a bastardization of the Italian pronunciation.  And because of that, there is actually another spelling of bologna: baloney.

Baloney is a spelling that fits more with the American English phonemic system of spelling.  It looks like it rhymes with pony, like how we expect a word that sounds like [bʌloni] to be spelled.  This spelling of bologna emerged around the 1920s and is primarily used to describe something that's ridiculous rather than to describe a kind of meat.  It's not a common spelling, but it is out there.  (Source)

So what do you think?  Is this all a load of baloney?

A Target Dictionary

The art of practical lexicography is, simply, creating dictionaries.

When you see or hear the word dictionary, you probably think of a general dictionary, like Webster's English Dictionary or the Oxford English Dictionary.  There are many different kinds of dictionaries, though, as there are many different reasons for needing a dictionary.

There are bilingual dictionaries for language learning, or picture dictionaries for children, and other specialized dictionaries for all sorts of different fields.  In this post, I'll be focusing on language for specific purposes dictionaries.  These dictionaries compile specialized vocabulary or jargon used in a certain field.  For instance, medical or legal dictionaries.

There's all kinds of specialized language all around us, in various fields and hobbies and cities and cultures.  In embroidery, "floss" is not something you put between your teeth, but is the name of embroidery thread.  In rock climbing, to "on sight" a route is to climb a route cleanly without having seen or practiced it before.

Oftentimes, we just don't realize the jargon in our every day lives, or we're used to it.  In fact, I think sometimes jargon is used as a form of social gatekeeping, or the way people control and allow access to social groups.

The first example that comes to mind is the LGBTQ+ community, of which I am part of.  I think just about anybody--regardless of how much they know about the community--can admit that there's a lot of specialized language and jargon within the community.  There's so many different identities and slang words and concepts, and as an outsider it can be really intimidating.  People can also be shamed or be called ignorant for not knowing words or concepts that seem simple to experts in the community.

This is one reason why specialized dictionaries can be useful, so people can educate or prepare themselves.

I began thinking about the jargon in my life when I started working at Target back in October.  There's so much jargon and acronyms and weird names for things that don't really make sense but I just accept anyway.  Most of the jargon wasn't even explained to me, and I just had to figure it out.

So I thought it would be fun to create a Target dictionary:

backroom

• (n) the backroom of the store, where products are received and stored when not yet released for sale or when there's no room on the sales floor.  "There's more in the backroom."
• (n) team member(s) working the backroom.  "Is backroom on break?"

backstock

• (n) products that are or need to be stocked in the backroom.  "Most of these mascaras were backstock."
• (v) the act of storing products in the backroom.  "I need to you backstock these toys."
• (adj) typically describing vehicles holding products that are or need to be stocked in the backroom.  "Let's put it on a backstock tub."

Bullseye

• (n) the Target dog, Target's mascot.  "Did you see the Bullseye statue?"
• (n) when a team member signs a guest up for a Target REDcard.  "John Doe got a bullseye!"
• sometimes called a "boom."

Bullseye's Plaground

• (n) the section in the front of the Target store that features cheap products, typically $1-$5.  "I found this notebook in Bullseye's Playground."
• sometimes called "C-Spot" or "Dollar Spot" or "BPG."

d-code

• (adj) a product that has been discontinued.  "Are those sheets d-code?"
• see "pre-transition merchandise"

front end

• (n) the front of the store, specifically the check lanes and Guest Services.  "I'm at the front end."
• (n) an umbrella department that includes the Cashier, Guest Services, and Cart Attendant sub-departments.
• (n) team members working Cashier and Guest Services.  "That's a question for the front end."

hardlines

• (n) an umbrella department that includes the Electronics, Beauty, Hardlines, and Market sub-departments.
• (n) all sales floor zones excluding clothing and special hardlines sub-departments; including pet supplies, stationary/office, home decor, kitchen, bathroom, and housewares.  "There's a lot of guest traffic in hardlines right now."
• (n) team member(s) working the hardlines sales floor. "Hardlines, can you answer this call about cat food?"

operator

• (n) a team member working the Fitting Room who's also responsible for answering the phone and making intercom announcements.  "Operator, what line was that call on?"
• Also called "Fitting Room."

push

• (n) products that need to be put out on the sales floor.  "This is a flat of seasonal push."
• (v) to put product out on the sales floor.  "Let's push these paper towels out."

racetrack

• (n) the main aisles in the hardlines zones, which create a large rectangle or racetrack.  "Walk the racetrack and fix the endcaps."

runway

• (n) the main aisle in softlines from the front to the back of the store.  "Can you help the guest in the blue shirt that's walking the runway?"

softlines

• (n) an umbrella department that includes the Fitting Room and all clothing zones.
• (n) all clothing sales floor zones, including women's, men's, girls', boys', shoes, sleepwear, hoisery, intimates, and athletic.  "Please do a pickup through softlines."
• (n) team member(s) working the softlines sales floor.  "Softlines, where are the women's camisoles?"

truck

• (n) products that come off of the distribution truck.  "Is all the softlines truck sorted?"

zone

• (n) any specific sales floor area, such as pet supplies or girls' clothing.  "Your zone tonight is pet food though paper products."
• (v) to straighten and organize products on the sales floor.  "I'm zoning the notebook aisle."

That's just a little taste of Target jargon.  There are a lot more that I didn't include simply because this would've gotten really long and probably boring.

Writing this was interesting, and it was sometimes hard to come up with definitions for some of the words.  I work the hardlines sales floor, so trying to come up with a way to describe that there's a difference between hardlines sales floor (2nd definition) and all of hardlines (the umbrella department including Electronics, etc) was kind of tricky.

It also got me thinking about how we learn vocabulary and pick up on terminology just through context.  For instance, almost nobody's explained acronyms to me.  Nobody told me that BPG means Bullseye's Playground, or that BGI refers to boys', girls', and infants' clothing zones, I just had to figure it out.

I think it would be fun to look at other areas of my life and figure out the jargon or specialized language that now feels natural to me but isn't to other people.

What jargon do you use in your life?

First Post

Hello interwebs!  My name is Sydney, and last year I graduated from Western Oregon University with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics with a minor in American Sign Language.  I'm a self-published author and also an assistant submissions editor at Not a Pipe Publishing.  I have a cat, I love to read, I've recently picked up embroidery, and I love linguistics.

I've been wanting to start this blog for a while now.  It began as a New Year's Resolution, but, as befalls so many resolutions, it was not fulfilled.  January passed without any action from me, and as February dragged on and turned into March, I felt even more intimidated by the idea of it.

"I need to start my blog," I told myself. "I should start now."

"Just wait till the beginning of the next month, that way it's a fresh start," myself replied.

"What will my first post even be?" I wondered.

"Well it has to be good otherwise what's the point?"

"Ugh!"

And so my inner monologue continued until now.

There's always a lot of pressure on the first.  First kiss, first car, first date, first time doing anything.  I began thinking back to why I wanted to start this blog in the first place--so I could keep up with my linguistics skills while not in school for it.  I began to put pressure on myself that my first post needed to be some incredible research or idea.

Then I thought to the first page in my Copic sketchbook.  Artists put a lot of pressure on the first page in sketchbooks, thinking it has to be great, that it'll set the tone for the rest of their sketchbook.  The first page of my Copic sketchbook is a swatch page, where I can test out colors and blends.  A swatch page takes the pressure off the first page, because it gets you started but it also doesn't have to be perfect.  It doesn't have to be anything.

So this is my swatch page, of sorts.

Rather than using this blog as a place where I can put my groundbreaking research and never-before-though-of linguistic ideas, I'm going to use it more like a journal.  I'm going to write for an audience of me, and hopefully anyone that comes across this blog will enjoy it as well.

I'll make posts that might be just speculative, jotting down questions and ideas for research before I actually delve into them so I don't forget.  Some posts might just be notes as I reread some old textbooks.  Others could be responses or thoughts on a video I watched or article I read.

The point of this for me is to keep my head in the game, to not forget everything I learned as an undergrad before I eventually go to grad school.  I also want to hopefully figure out what subfield I'd like to focus in.  But really I just want to continue exploring the world of linguistics, because there's always more to learn.

So here we go!