Photo credit: www.theloop.com.au 

Happy new academic year!

Okay, so that doesn’t have as much festiveness as I hoped.

Instead, let’s wish Happy 100^th to Roald Dahl.

Yes, Roald Dahl’s centenary has just passed and I’m sure many of you, like me, loved reading his books and getting lost in his imaginative world. From Willy Wonka to James and the Giant Peach; but have you ever noticed all the weird and wonderful funny-sounding phrases that were a part of the Dahl world? Dahl’s special language even has its own name –  ‘Gobblefunk’! To celebrate the centenary I thought I would include some of my favourites here.

Filthsome        Frightsome      Oompa-Loompa          Snozzcumber              Gloriumptious

There is a linguistic method to these made up words however. Dahl tended to use rhymes, old words and ‘spoonerisms’ to conjure up terms. All 8000 coined Gobblefunk words can be found in the Roald Dahl Dictionary published by Oxford University Press.