The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu

by Dan Jurafsky

  the ideas of sociologists Georg Simmel and Thorstein Veblen: Veblen (1899), Simmel (1904). See also Laudan (2013), 55.

  trickle down to the masses: See also Goody (1982), Mintz (1985), and Anderson (2005).

  Eleven: Sherbet, Fireworks, and Mint Juleps

  Ice cream was invented: Two superb books on the history of ice cream and ices are David (1995) and Quinzio (2009).

  One day in the daily flavors: Image courtesy of Janet Yu and Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous.

  handwritten in Grace Countess Granville’s Receipt Book: David (1979), 27.

  Neige de Fleur D’orange: David (1979), 28. From Francois Pierre La Varenne, Nouveau Confiturier, later edition ca. 1696.

  by 1700 other ice cream flavors: Quinzio (2009), 15.

  medieval cookbooks give recipes for cooking quince: Lewicka (2011), 276, 461.

  appears in a thirteenth-century cookbook manuscript: Miranda (1966), 300: Pasta de Membrillo. English translation by Charles Perry available at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm#Heading521.

  To make Marmalade: Simmons (1796), 40.

  To Make Orange Marmalade: Wilson (2010), 145.

  Rhubarb syrup. Opens liver obstruction: Chipman and Lev (2006).

  In medieval Persia: Batmanglij (2011), 503.

  even mentioned in the Bible: David (1995), xi.

  Claudia Roden talks nostalgically of the sharbat: Roden (2000), 484.

  Lime Syrup (Sharbat-e ablimu): Recipe from Batmanglij (2011), 509. Courtesy Mage Publishers, www.mage.com.

  the French naturalist Pierre Belon in 1553: http://books.google.com/books?id=VYcsgAYyIZcC&q=cherbet. Mysteriously, Belon used two words, cherbet and sorbet, and French traveler Nicolay also used sorbet. It’s not clear why both were mentioned (perhaps different pronunciations by different ethnic groups in Istanbul?) or why the form “sorbet” caught on in Romance languages.

  Thirsty passersby would buy a glass of syrup: Belon (1553), 418.

  Jean Chardin, a seventeenth-century French traveler: Chardin (1673–1677).

  lohusa erbet served to new mothers: Isin (2003), 80.

  “sherbets made in Turkie of Lemons, Roses, and Violets perfumed”: David (1995), 156.

  the guild of limonadiers: Spary (2012), 103.

  The Arabs had earlier brought lemons: The word comes from Arabic laymun and Persian lmun. Sweetened lemon juice had been a common trade commodity in medieval Egypt.

  Pour faire de bonne Limonade: Audiger (1692), 291.

  To make good lemonade: Translation from Quinzio (2009), 20.

  potassium nitrate was called “Chinese snow”: Butler and Feelisch (2008).

  the physician Ibn Ab Uaybi’a: Partington (1960), 311. Also al-Hassan (2001), 113.

  An intimate character study: Image © The British Library Board. Add.r.1039.

  “Saltpetre, which in gunpowder produces the explosive heat”: The Ain-I-Akbari (Constitution of Akbar) is an administrative survey of the reign of Akbar. An English translation is available on the web: http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile=00702051%26ct=47.

  A goglet and bucket: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Signatur: 4 Oecon. 1550.

  “Wine may freeze in Glasses”: From Porta (1658), Book 14, Chapter 11.

  Robert Boyle said that “a Mixture of Snow and Salt”: Boyle (1665), 111.

  Raspberry Shrub (1834): Thomsonian Botanic Watchman, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1834), 63.

  the FDA requires that sherbet: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=135.140.

  what Mayhew called an “effervescing draught”: Mayhew (1851).

  “cola” comes from the kola nut: Kiple and Ornelas (2000), 684–92; Lovejoy (1980).

  Twelve: Does This Name Make Me Sound Fat? Why Ice Cream and Crackers Have Different Names

  Roman Jakobson: Jakobson and Waugh (2002).

  Richard Klink created pairs: Klink (2000).

  Eric Yorkston and Geeta Menon at New York University: Yorkston and Menon (2004).

  cracker brands from a dieting website: The URL is http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-crackers-crispbreads-rice-cakes_c-Y2lkPTk1.html?bid=-1&sid=37084.

  I found more back vowels: Experimental details: I counted only the stressed syllables, and I normalized each count by the expected count of that vowel, computed by counting all stressed syllables in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary of English. Since the vowel æ is the most low and back of the front vowels, I also ran the analysis again considering æ as a back vowel and got the same results. Finally, in addition to looking at all front vowels versus all back vowels, I also tried comparing the counts of just one front vowel and one back vowel α as Yorkston and Menon did. Once again, I found a tendency for ice creams to use back vowels and crackers to use front vowels.

  insights from linguists: Will Leben, the Chair of Linguistics at Lexicon Branding, has a nice blog on linguistic issues in branding: blog.lexiconbranding.com/tag/will-leben.

  the frequency code: Ohala (1994).

  Eugene Morton: Morton (1977).

  associated with babies or children: Eckert (2010), Geenberg (ms), Fernald et al. (1989), Jurafsky (1996).

  something about jagged shapes: For the pair bouba/kiki, psychologists Ramachandran and Hubbard found that 95 percent of people associated bouba with the rounder figure. Swedish: Ahlner and Zlatev (2010). Swahili: Davis (1961). Otjiherero in Namibia: Bremner et al. (2013). Tamil: Ramachandran and Hubbard (2001). In children: Maurer, Pathman, and Mondloch (2006).

  Recent work by a number of linguists: D’Onofrio (2013), Ahlner and Zlatev (2010), Westbury (2005), Nielsen and Rendall (2011).

  nomadic tribes in Namibia: Bremner et al. (2013).

  Thirteen: Why the Chinese Don’t Have Dessert

  first used in France: Le Grand Robert de la Langue Française, entry for dessert.

  dessert courses under various names: Names like “issue” or “voidee” or sometimes just as a numbered course.

  English feast, from around 1285: From the Treatise of Walter of Bibbesorth, cited and translated in Hieatt and Butler (1985), 3.

  Dragée comes from the Greek word tragemata: OED entry for dragée.

  A “second table” was set: Dalby (1996), 23. See also Athenaeus’s The Deipnosophists, Book 14, §§ 46–85 in the Yonge translation.

  Herodotus remarked in the fifth century BCE: Macaulay (1890), Book 1 (Clio), § 133.

  a culinary new wave developed: Waines (1989), 8.

  sweets were believed to help digest: Nasrallah (2007), 43.

  “roasted chicken, roast meat, rice with honey”: Lewicka (2011), 56; Perry (2001), 491.

  fritters flavored with musk and “dripping with syrup”: Haddawy and Mahdi (1995), 290.

  the man who was credited for bringing these things: Makki and Corriente (2001), 202–6.

  people even credited Ziryab with “inventing” many of the fabled desserts: Makki and Corriente (2001), 202–6.

  Ziryab seems to have personified in these legends: Reynolds (2008).

  meals be served in seven courses: Miranda (1966), 120. Available in English translation by Charles Perry at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian3.htm#Heading125.

  Roberto de Nola’s 1525 Libro de Cozina: Nola (1525), 37.

  mawmanee: Rodinson (2001).

  Chekyns upon soppes: A Propre Newe Booke of Cokerye. c. 1557. John Kynge and Thomas Marche, Crede Lane, London.

  Flandrin carefully annotated the presence of sugar: Flandrin (2007).

  In British English the word retained its meaning: We can see this from the definition first written in the 1895 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary:

  William Maclay put down the menu in his diary: Baker (1897), 192.

  “A hamburger with ketchup” Gopnik (2011), 269.

  historian Ken Albala calls “throwbacks”: Albala (2007), 57.

  “holidays often preserve what the everyday loses”: Mintz (1985), 87.
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  While Chinese meals don’t have the concept of a final sweet course: For more on the structure of Chinese cuisine, go straight to Anderson (1988) and Chang (1977). For more on the general idea of the structures of cuisines, see Anderson (2005).

  linguist Ken Stevens (in his Quantal Theory of Speech): Stevens (1972).

  generous visitors from Asia: For example, I’m still grateful to Robyn Eckhardt of the EatingAsia blog, who once brought me some just as I was running out.

  gold rush days: Natural leavening was used in the earliest San Francisco bakeries like Boudin, but the loaves were just called “French bread”; not until after 1900 did the term “sourdough” became associated with French and Italian bread in San Francisco, likely borrowed from the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska (Peters 2013, Carl Nolte, p.c.).

  San Franciscans instead used molasses for everything: Peters (2013), 6; Kamiya (2013), 175.

  Elisabeth Rozin called the “flavor principle”: Rozin (1973).

  Y. Y. Ahn at Indiana University and his colleagues: Ahn et al. (2011), Drahl (2012).

  In early China: Fiskesjö (1999).

  Claude Lévi-Strauss: Lévi-Strauss (1969).

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