Dear reader, beware the misplaced vowel. Verily, I say unto you, it can land one in deepest doo-doo. There I was early last month – up with the owl following the United States presidential election results well into another morning – when Joe and Kamala at last took their places among the leaders of the Earth, even as "the Incredible Sulk" continued at the White House. And I resorted to Twitter.
Never resort to Twitter in the wee small hours!
I tweeted how US vice-president-elect "Kemala" Harris had been elected on the same day as marked the 30th anniversary of Ireland choosing its first woman president Mary Robinson in 1990.
I also pointed out that Tánaiste and former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, like her, has an Indian father. And I added, provocatively, that: "The US really has so much catching up to do." Oh dear!
And, lo, I was savaged, as can only happen on Twitter. You see, she is Kamala not Kemala. And her mother is Indian. Ahem! I blame the hour, myself, and the statement that America is 30 years behind Ireland.
But I’ll always remember how to spell Kamala!
‘Driven erotically’
Then there was that recent newspaper report about a car being “driven erotically”. How is that done? Does it warrant description in mainstream media? Is it a solitary activity or, er, a social one? Does it require certain levels of fitness?
And that Government official quoted recently as describing the same Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s leaking of a confidential document last year, when he was taoiseach, as “a venal sin”. What this person actually said was: “I don’t think it’s a mortal sin but it is certainly a venal sin.”
Clearly either that official or the reporter concerned are untutored in sin. It wouldn’t have happened in an Ireland of not-so-long ago where you needed a degree in accountancy to keep track of venial sins clogging up young lives as preparations were made for another ancient practice: confession.
Not alone had you to keep an accurate account of these lesser sins but also the number of times you committed them. In reality, venial sins were like two cent coins now, a complete nuisance and hard to be rid of.
Vowel, from Latin vocalis, as in littera vocalis for "vocal letter". Vocis being Latin for "voice".
inaword@irishtimes.com
