`Faux Pas' offers foreign words for the wise; `Pretentiousness Index' a clever innovation.(Travel-Books)

Byline: MICHAEL JANAIRO

A linguist once told me that the ugliest, laziest sound in the English language is also one of its most common, the schwa (often symbolized by an upside down e in dictionaries), which sounds like "uh." The sound (it's the a in ago , or u in focus ) doesn't require any work from the mouth. The lips hang open and the tongue just sits there as breath is aspirated.

The point, the linguist said, is that because the sound doesn't exist in other languages, such as Japanese, a non-English speaker has trouble hearing - and making - the sound. Likewise, English-speakers often have a hard time hearing foreign words because of foreign sounds. …