Tweet, Tweet! Polly Wanna Cracker! - 6 July 2009

[This episode originally aired February 28, 2009.]<br/><br/>'Twittering,' 'tweeting,' 'twirting'--it's rare to see a whole new body of language appear right before your eyes. But that's what's happening with 'Twitter.' We discuss the snappy new shorthand of the 'twitterati.' Also, why do people feel compelled to say 'Polly wanna cracker'? whenever they see a parrot? And is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'?<br/><br/>For a closer look at the language of the 'twitterati,' check out Erin McKean's recent piece in the 'Boston Globe.'<br/><br/>http://boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/08/all_a_twitter/<br/><br/>Glossaries of Twitter-related terms can be found at Twittonary <http://twittonary.com/>, Twittionary <http://twittionary.wetpaint.com/>, and Twictionary <http://twictionary.pbwiki.com>. We didn't say all the coinages were clever!<br/><br/>By the way, you can now follow 'A Way with Words' on Twitter:<br/><br/>http://twitter.com/wayword/<br/><br/>A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his bird, they invariably ask the question 'Polly wanna cracker?' He wonders about the origin of that psittacine phrase. 'Psittacine'? It means parrot-like.<br/><br/>http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/P0632100.html<br/><br/>One of the earliest uses of the phrase so far found is this fake advertisement from the mock newspaper the 'Bunkum Flag-Staff and Independent Echo' published in 1849 in 'The Knickerbocker' magazine.<br/><br/>http://tinyurl.com/btaj2r<br/><br/>It starts, 'For sale, a Poll Parrot, cheap. He says a remarkable variety of words and phrases, cries, 'Fire! fire!; and 'You rascal!' and 'Polly want a cracker,' and would not be parted with, but having been brought up with a sea-captain he is profane and swears too much.'<br/><br/>Below, a cartoon from 'The John-Donkey,' July 29, 1848, p. 47, via Proquest American Periodical Series. 'The John-Donkey' was a short-lived humorous and satirical magazine edited by Thomas Dunn English.<br/><br/>http://www.waywordradio.org/polly-want-a-cracker-184