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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program aboutmusic and American life. Plus we answer your questions.
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This is Doug Johnson. This week:
Music by John Mayer.
And a question about e-books.
But first, come along with some people who listen in to whatAmericans are talking about.
Word of the Year
HOST:
Throughout the year, members of a small group in the UnitedStates keep their eyes and ears open for how Americans use theirwords. The purpose is not to look for ways to correct them. Thepurpose is to see what new words come into use, and how old wordschange. Then, in January, after a year’s worth of observations,members of this group gather to vote. Jim Tedder takes it fromthere.
ANNCR:
The American Dialect Society is made up of language experts,researchers and teachers. They study how English is used in NorthAmerica. One of the things they do is choose a word or phrase of theyear. About sixty people voted this year. If nothing else, theyearly choices offer an idea of what Americans are thinking about.
The two-thousand-two word of the year, for example, is “weaponsof mass destruction.” This term, or W-M-D for short, describesnuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Scientists and politicalexperts have talked about weapons of mass destruction for years. Butonly more recently did other people start to use this term. Thishappened because of the situation with Iraq and fears of terrorism.
Another word considered for the two-thousand-two honor was thenew verb “google.” Google is a search engine on the Internet. Peopleuse it to find information. To google someone or something is tolook for information on the Internet about that person or thing.
Another computer word was also considered for word of the year.”Blog” is the short form of web log. Web logs are Internet sitesthat contain personal stories, comments and links to other sites.
The American Dialect Society also considered the phrase “Amberalert” for its two-thousand-two word of the year. An Amber alert isan emergency public announcement when a child is kidnapped.Information is put on radio, television and the Internet to get thepublic to help in the search. The program began innineteen-ninety-six. It started after a nine-year-old girl namedAmber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Texas. Since then,Amber alert programs have been put in place around the country.
The phrase got a lot of use in March, when fifteen-year-oldElizabeth Smart was found alive. She had been kidnapped nine monthsbefore from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
E-Books
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Karnataka, India.T. Basavanyappa asks by e-mail: “What is an e-book?
An e-book is an electronic book. It is like any other book. Only,instead of words on paper, it is words on a screen.
Anyone who uses the Internet canfind e-books. It took us only a few minutes to find the works of anEnglish writer you might have heard of: William Shakespeare. We alsofound the works of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Thesee-books were free of cost. They are not under the protection of acopyright. A copyright makes it illegal to sell or copy a bookwithout the permission of the writer or publisher.
Many e-books do have copyright protection. These includeelectronic versions of newly published books. Steven King, thepopular American writer of horror stories, even wrote a book thatsold only as an e-book.
One company says it offers more than two-hundred-thousand e-booksonline. Readers pay by credit card.
As we said, it is easy to find e-books on the Internet. Justenter the word “e-books” into a search engine like Google. Or youmight want to go to the Web site of an organization called ProjectGutenburg. It offers thousands of books that can be read for free.The address is w-w-w dot g-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. Again, that’sg-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. (www.gutenberg.net)
In the coming years, the number of e-books is expected tocontinue to increase. Many now include music and images. And manycome with links to other e-books on the same subject.
Some people are happy to sit at their computer when they read ane-book. But others like to be able to carry a book with them. Thesepeople may want to buy an e-book reader. This is a small device thatcan link with a computer to load the contents of a book. Some willhold as many as ten large books. That way, you can go anywhere andnever be without something to read.
John Mayer
HOST:
John Mayer is preparing to release a new album next month. He isalready performing some of the songs in his live shows. Here’s FaithLapidus with more about this popular singer and songwriter.
ANNCR:
John Mayer was born in nineteen-seventy-seven in Connecticut, inthe American Northeast. By the age of fifteen, he was playing hisguitar and performing in local blues clubs. After high school hewent to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But he left afterone year.
John Mayer says he recognizedearly that he was more interested in making music than he was instudying it. He released his first album in nineteen-ninety-nine. Itwas called “Inside Wants Out.” Here is one of the songs, “My StupidMouth.”
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Critics like the sound of John Mayer’s music. Some fans say hisvoice makes their hearts smile. He won a Grammy Award this year fora song on his second album, “Room For Squares.” Here it is — “YourBody Is A Wonderland.”
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John Mayer likes to perform all over the country. He is said tohave done one-hundred-eighty-eight live shows in one year.
Last September he recorded a live performance in the southerncity of Birmingham, Alabama. We leave you now with one of the songsfrom that show. It’s called “Covered in Rain.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jill Moss, NancySteinbach and Paul Thompson — who was also our producer. The studioengineer was Vosco Volaric.
I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week forAMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.