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The English Project launches Kitchen Table Lingo: A first book of home made words

One person's podger is another's cajunka. Only the English language could have 57 words for a remote control. You'll find them in Kitchen Table Lingo: the first collection of home-made and personal words in the English language, which is available now. The book aims to record and liberate the words that thrive behind closed doors, words that are used every day by English speakers around the globe.

The words in Kitchen Table Lingo were submitted by people from all walks of life, as well as quite a few household British names; including a foreword by Melvyn Bragg, an afterword by language expert David Crystal, and contributions from Sir Trevor McDonald, Alan Titchmarsh, Jeremy Vine, Philip Pullman, Rosie Millard and Meera Syal. It gives a unique snapshot of linguistic life in the kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms of urban and rural Britain. Kitchen Table Lingo allows readers to discover tinsellitis[1] sufferers in Tunbridge Wells, elephant[2] users in Edinburgh and chobblers[3] in Cardiff. Whether it's a slip of the tongue that becomes a permanent part of the family vernacular or a word invented when all others fail, Kitchen Table Lingo is part of what makes English so rich and creative.

Kitchen Table Lingo was written and edited by The English Project, which is creating a global community dedicated to the history of, and the ongoing changes to, the English language. Kitchen Table Lingo shows that English is arguably the most dynamic language in the world with thousands of new words being generated to meet the needs not just of business, technology, science and changes in society, but also the simple tasks and pleasures of everyday life.

Bill Lucas, an English Project trustee, says: "You won't find these words in a dictionary, but you will hear them on the streets of Bulwell or at the dinner table of the Whitworth family in Yorkshire. Kitchen Table Lingo is the unrecorded English spoken by people today; it reflects our belief that English belongs to the people who speak it, and that it's not the dictionary-makers or academics who own the language, but people like you and me who are on the front line day-in, day-out using and extending it."

Edward Fennell, co-editor of Kitchen Table Lingo, added: "Our work at The English Project is just beginning - we'd love to hear from more people about the private, invented words and phrases which they use at home, school or work - Kitchen Table Lingo is the start of something bedooftey[4]."

For further information, please contact:

Claire Wordley/ Tali Robinson/ Andrew Gregory
Spada
020 7269 1430

NOTES TO EDITORS

Kitchen Table Lingo is published by Virgin Books and is available now. For more information on the collection and to submit new words and phrases please visit www.englishproject.org/ktl, which will go live on Thursday 16th October.

Based in Winchester, Hampshire UK, The English Project's mission is to deepen people's understanding and awareness of the English language, its history and continuing development so that all English speakers everywhere can better appreciate, use and enjoy it. It will undertake a range of projects (of which Kitchen Table Lingo is the first) in a variety of media in an innovative and entertaining way with a strong emphasis on public participation.

For more information about The English Project please visit www.englishproject.org.

[1] Noun: the rage you feel at Christmas due to inflated shop prices and extra long shop queues

[2] Noun: kitchen paper

[3]Noun: a garden shredder

[4] Adjective: something which is so big - usually referring to a bodily part - that words like huge or massive cannot do justice to it