I can hear the rain...

With it no longer being 'odds on' for a barbecue summer in the UK this year, it's time for the British to get back to talking about their favourite subject: the rain.

Language expert Jeremy Butterfield has been examining our fascination with the weather using the Oxford English Corpus, Oxford University Press's database of over 2 billion words. His findings form part of a wealth of facts and figures about the English language included in his book Damp Squid: the English language laid bare. The paperback edition of Damp Squid will be published by Oxford University Press this week.

'The Eskimos are commonly supposed to have dozens of words for snow (they haven't, but it's one of the most enduring language myths around),' says Jeremy. 'But even supposing it were true, English speakers could play them at their own game when it comes to rain.'

Describing your average British Bank Holiday weather:

It's pouring
It's pelting down
It's raining cats and dogs
It's bucketing it down
It's raining pitchforks

'People have come up with several explanations for the cats and dogs image,' comments Jeremy. 'One suggestion is that it is a corruption of the obsolete French word catad(o)upe, meaning 'waterfall'; another peddles the idea that cats and dogs sheltering in the thatch of houses were washed out by heavy storms; another that because of poor drains dead cats and dogs could be seen floating down the streets during rainstorms, making it look as if they had fallen from the sky.'

'However, if it can pitchforks, why not cats and dogs? Many other languages use animal imagery too. And the Welsh language even goes one step further, by bringing in humans: Bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn ('It’s raining old women and sticks')!'

How to talk about the rain in other languages:

Spanish

Caen chuzos de punta
It's raining sticks tip downwards (literally, 'sticks are falling tip downwards')

French

Il pleut des crapauds et des chats
It's raining toads and cats

Il pleut des vaches
It’s raining cows

Il pleut des clous
It's raining nails

Brazilian Portuguese

Chove pra cachorro
It's raining 'for the dog'

German

Es regnet Bindfäden
It's raining pieces of string

Welsh

Bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc
It's raining knives and forks

Bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn
It's raining old women and sticks

Jeremy Butterfield appeared as a guest speaking about language usage on BBC Radio 4’s Fry’s English Delight on Tuesday 11 August at 9.00am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lv1ln/Frys_English_Delight_So_Wrong_Its_Right/

Notes for Editors

Damp Squid: the English language laid bare by Jeremy Butterfield.

Press date: Thursday 13 August. (The hardback edition was published in October 2008)

For more information or to interview Jeremy Butterfield, please contact Juliet Evans at Oxford University Press on 01865 353911 / 07881 935196 or email juliet.evans@oup.com

For further information about the Oxford English Corpus visit: www.askoxford.com/oec