A week ago, my 11-year old son embarrassed me with this question: “Which is the longest word in English?” I replied, “Sorry, I don’t know.” “Shame! You are a professor of English, and you don’t know the answer to this simple question,” he said. He bombarded me with a few more questions: “Aren’t you supposed to know the answer?” “Hasn’t any of your students asked you this question?” I reacted stating that I never tried to know the longest word in English as I am not going to use the word in my day –to-day communication. “Dad, it is an excuse,” he said with a sarcastic smile.
Then, he proudly answered his own question. “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in English. It is a 45-letter word.” He pronounced it correctly but couldn’t explain the meaning of the word. I asked my son to ask my dentist wife. Even she didn’t know the meaning of the word. “Even a doctor doesn’t know the meaning of the word,” he said with another sarcastic smile. How is the word pronounced? As I was struggling to get the correct pronunciation, he took his tablet out and played the audio pronunciation of the word a few times. It is easy to pronounce the word by splitting the long word into six parts: pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coniosis. What does it mean? The word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means “a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust, causing inflammation in the lungs”.
“Let me teach you another long word,” he said and pronounced this word: floccinaucinihilipilification. It sounded Latin to me. This 27-letter word refers to an act or habit of regarding something as unimportant or worthless or of having little value.
After listening to him patiently for some time, I explained to him that there are many words in English which are not used in day-to-day communication. Some learners of English may learn them out of curiosity but knowing the meanings of such words does not help them in any way to develop their proficiency in the language.
Why is it not required? The language we use to communicate with others should be simple, clear and straightforward. It should be free from needless jargon. Plain English is a term used for communication. It emphasizes clarity, brevity and the avoidance of wordiness and technical language.
Very recently, I came across the following two sentences:
• I deeply regret having left your email so long unanswered.
• As my grandmother was indisposed with a cold I couldn’t make myself available for the meeting.
What is wrong with these two sentences? They are verbose. They are not in plain English. The sentences can be rewritten to make them short and simple:
• Sorry for my late reply.
• As my grandmother was unwell I couldn’t attend the meeting.
Language is for communication. Here are some simple rules:
• Know your audience.
• Use simple language
• Use words that have less number of syllables.
• Avoid long sentences.
• Don’t use passive voice unnecessarily.
• Don’t use superfluous words.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk