The 13th of October was International Plain Language Day.

Although plain language and easy-to-read language have many common features, they are different things. Plain language is clear English for everyone, whereas easy-to-read language is for groups with special reading and writing difficulties. Such groups may be elderly people, immigrants, or people with various physical conditions.

In everyday speech, plain language and easy-to-read language are often used as synonyms. The translation of these terms also causes problems. In Finnish, plain language is selkeä kieli and easy-to-read is selkokieli, in Swedish the terms are klarspråk and lättläst språk.

Both formats, plain and easy-to-read, advise you to write in a concrete way (Matti fixes the dishwasher) and avoid abstract expressions (Kitchen equipment is repaired by maintenance personnel). Common short words and light sentences are hallmarks of easy language.

It has been estimated that about 10 percent of readers need easy-to-read language; 100 percent benefit from plain language.

At the end of September, Jukka Relander claimed in his column that the Internet was destroying social debate. As a satisfied, active Internet user, I would like some clarifications; even in an opinion column, you should go easy on the exaggeration. Here are eight quotations from the column and eight questions.

Quote 1: “The Net destroys social debate.”

Question: What exactly does “Net” mean here? The technical platform? Online newspapers? Databases? Search engines? Facebook? Twitter? Wikipedia?

Quote 2: “Social media is a handy tool if you need advice, or things, or want to show off your travel photos.”

Question: Is the term “social media” used here as a synonym for Facebook?

Quote 3: “The EU is maintaining digital boundaries… I received many different tips about bypassing these barriers. Thanks, but I was trying to spark a conversation about something else. “

Question: If your conversational opening flops, is it a failure of your friends or of the channel?

Quote 4: “Last week Riikka Moilanen was destroyed online, because she used the expression human carbage.”

Question: Who  “destroyed” her? Everyone on the Internet?

Quote 5: “Netizens ranted for a full day, until Moilanen got fired from her post.”

Question: What does the stodgy term “Netizens” mean? According to Statistics Finland, 88% of the country’s population uses the Internet. Did all those people work on getting Moilanen fired?

Quote 6: “The victory of the True Finn party, or Trump, or Brexit would not happen without the Net.”

Question: Were election results all socially favorable before the Internet? No unpleasant victories?

Quote 7: “Go to get-togethers and talk about politics in bars.”

Question: Is there a specific bar we should use for worthwhile social debate?

Quote 8: “I use the Net a lot.”

Question: Is this column therefore only the prattle of a Netizen?

Legal linguistics has not been a transient interest for me. Along with examining the larger principles, I find myself deep in addictive details.

I particularly like the term legal pronoun, which gave a new name to a familiar issue. Legal pronoun refers to expressions like abovementioned and aforesaid, which could easily be omitted. According to Mattila‘s search, the Finlex data base can retrieve heaps of legal pronouns – for example, the abovementioned abovementioned is mentioned 1180 times. Legal pronouns are even more common in English.

Periodic sentences, on the other hand, include every detail of the topic in the same long sentence. Decisions from a court will summarize facts, exceptions, conditions and conclusions in a single sentence in hopes of avoiding misunderstandings. A two-page decision can consist of as few as two intricate sentences. In the past, these endless sentences were a measure of a judge’s professional skill, but today the periodic style is fortunately history.

The meaning of many words opened up in a new way for me thanks to Mattila’s Comparative Legal Linguistics. For example, emancipation was originally a Roman legal term which meant “the act by which one who was unfree or under the power and control of another, is set at liberty and made his own master”.

I’ve been reading Heikki Mattila’s book Comparative Legal Linguistics (in Finnish). This thorough work reveals the close relationship between contemporary legal texts and Roman law. During the Middle Ages, lawyers in Europe used only Latin, which was also the language of law and adminstration.

In addition to its practical duties, legal language also aims to uphold the authority of the law. For this reason, legal documents stick to formal and even archaic expressions. At the turn of the millennium, Finnish-language legal texts contained more than 600 Latin phrases, such as ex ante (from before), in casu (in the case), expressis verbis (expressly). In English these are even more common; every year the U.S. Supreme Court receives hundreds of petitions for a writ of certiorari (to be informed).

Lawyers will often use foreign words and abbreviations bona fide (in good faith), both out of practicality and out of habit. But in some cases, they may act mala fide (in bad faith), using specialized terminology to increase their own stature or to keep ordinary mortals from engaging in legal business.

Have you come across folk linguistics? The term itself isn’t necessarily well known, but the concept will be familiar.  Folk linguistics is examining ideas that laymen have about language. These emerge in descriptions: Southerners speak with “a drawl,” Manhattanites are “rapid-fire,” and Texans go droppin’ final Gs.

In folk linguistics, regional accents and local variations are often judged as incorrect, sloppy, or uneducated. Valleyspeak, a pattern from the San Fernando Valley, is often labeled and mocked as “Valley Girl.” Likewise the persistent American notion that Canadians pronounce “about” to rhyme with “boot,” or laughter at accents associated with Boston or Brooklyn.

Recently, linguists have taken an interest in researching the terms that ordinary people use when talking about features of language. Do amateurs pay attention to the same features that linguists do? How specific and consistent are their descriptions? Do they use equivalent concepts and terms?

This research began with the study of dialects, but has lately widened to general language awareness. I like this new linguistic approach, which looks more user-centered than the traditional, academic one.

Midsummers Night is a time for magic spells. If you put seven flowers under your pillow, in your dreams you will see your future spouse. And if you select the following seven flowers, whose names all come from Greek, that spouse will resemble a Greek god.

Peony comes from the Greek word “paionia”, referring to Paion, the physician to the gods. The peony has been used as a medicine.

Iris was a messenger of the gods; the rainbow marked the path of her descent to earth.

Aster is from the word ”aster” meaning ’star’.

Chrysanthemum comes from the word ”khrysanthemon”: khrysos ‘gold’ and anthmos ‘flower’.

Rhododendron is a combination of the words ”rhodon” meaning ‘rose’ and dendron ‘tree’.

Hyacinth is rooted in Greek ”hyakinthos”. The word refers to Apollo’s beloved hero, whose blood Apollo used to create the flower.

Narcissus is based on ”narcissus”, which, like its ”narc” relatives, refers to sleep or numbness. Narcissus, according to the story, was a handsome lad who stared at his reflection until he died and turned into a yellow-white flower.

I wish you good midsummer spells and a nice summer vacation. The word of the week is going on a summer break and will be back in August.

This year, the annual Top 10 List from the Language Police contained something new and something old. The simplest errors were related to traditional grammar such as hyphens, initials, and pronouns. However, the top five items all contained the sorts of errors that thrive in official documents, such as wordiness and specialized terms.

Heading the list is the current abbreviation GDPR. According to this regulation, companies should explain their privacy policy in plain language. Instead we get complicated multi-page contracts to sign. Even the acronym itself is a problem.

After being presented with the list, the audience at the FCG Forum voted for the Jargon 2018 winner from among three finalists. Once again, the winner was the Finnish government’s document related to ongoing health care reform. In close pursuit was the Data Protection Guide from the Ministry of Education and Culture. These two documents represent the abstract jargon that shatters any connection to practical action.

I would have put an English version of a portion of the data protection guide, but in order to translate it into another language, I’d have to be able to understand it in Finnish.

In Canada, as elsewhere, place names can carry a fascinating history. Surprisingly, many names come from native American languages: the country’s own name originates in the Iroquoian kanata, meaning ’village’ or ’settlement.’ Originally, Canada referred to what is now Quebec City, but over time came to refer to a larger area.

Indigenous languages appear in the background of many cities. Quebec comes from kepék ’narrow passage,’ Ottawa from adawe ’to trade,’ and Winnipeg from win-nip ’muddy water.’ As for Toronto, the name likely comes from tkaranto, which refers to trees in the water.

Settlements often take their names from nearby rivers or bodies of water. Into the 17th century, the French name for the St. Lawrence River was Rivière du Canada. Ottawa and Winnipeg are the names of rivers as well, and Lake Ontario gave its name to an entire province. The name Ontario may come from from a Huron word onitariio, ‘beautiful lake,’ or the Iroquoian kanadario, ’sparkling water’ or ‘beautiful water.’ The name of Niagara, the most famous place in Ontario, is also Iroquois-based; onguiaahra stands for ’strait’ or ’neck.’

On Tuesday, I talked to experts in the city of Oulu about how to use social media at work. In my opinion, it is worthwhile to set different goals and to use different methods depending on the channel. At the same time, it’s wise not to make the rules too tight.

I think the number one channel for an expert is Twitter. The online bio will show the title and position, but it’s best to share information based on one’s specialized field, rather than mainly as a representative of one’s employer. It’s important that the expert can speak freely.

The city of Oulu has harnessed LinkedIn for recruiting. That’s a fine approach — though nothing would prevent them from also sharing blog posts from city officials as well as the job announcements.

Blogs tend to keep the city’s site alive. To function as desired, blogs need to have a personal tone, distinct from the voice in official documents. Successful blogs in public sector are rare.

Instagram seems to be primarily a channel for tourism marketing, but Oulu’s use is surprisingly versatile. Their updates include relevant information about services and citizen participation, not photos of lovely scenery. But I’m unsure about the value of Instagram for the public sector when the message is more complex.

Like Instagram, YouTube is often a channel for tourism marketing. However, it’s also a natural choice for recordings of council meetings, presentations about urban planning, and other information relevant to citizen participation.Cities should develop standard formats for this kind of detailed content so as to provide citizens with easy-to-use information that encourages participation.

Cities also maintain many different Facebook sites. These rarely have much conversation, even though the threshold is low. While the content is diverse and professionally developed, often it’s not very interactive. One encouraging trend is that urban planning, with its large and detailed content, has arrived on Facebook. We hope to see it on Twitter soon as well.

In their policies, cities emphasize the importance of social media as a channel for interaction and participation. In my opinion, it’s important to evaluate the content from this point of view and not settle for images of flowers and wishes for a happy weekend.  In social media cities should talk about serious issues with a light approach.

The Association of Finnish Non-fiction Writers is 35 years old. I’ve been active in the association for over 15 years and have held several positions of trust. In the festive atmosphere of this year’s annual meeting, I was elected as a kunniajäsen, which literally means “honor member.”

Why have I been so committed to this association?

First of all, its 3,000 members share a love for books – or, more accurately, a love for the written word, in whatever format.

Second, I share the passion for fact-checking that nonfiction writers possess. Careless speech flees when there’s always an expert in the group. I myself have experienced this myself at parties when I’ve criticized the accuracy of weather reports. Geographers among the guests pointed out that statistics did not support my claims, and that weather forecasts have actually become more accurate every year.

The third factor which has made participation so valuable to me is the talented membership, an incomparable community of expertise. In 1995, when I participated in my first event with the nonfiction writers, it was a match made in heaven, as Americans would say. The conversations were exceptionally interesting, and that wonderful effect has continued.

I am truly grateful that this association has made me an honored member.