Messages

1

English & Linguistics / Linguistically Complete

« on: January 04, 2005, 01:28:23 PM »

My sister-in-law is really into sign language right now, so I was doing some reading about it over the holidays.  One web site I found (this one) says that American Sign Language "is a linguistically complete, natural language" and "should not be considered in any way to be a broken, mimed, or gestural form of English."  I get the second assertion, especially since considering it a broken form of English is probably pretty offensive to deaf people.  But I'm wondering what it takes to be a "linguistically complete" language.  One thing that I found odd about ASL is that it doesn't seem to use the verb "to be."  I've never heard of another language that doesn't have some form of "to be."

2

English & Linguistics / Learning new words

« on: December 15, 2004, 12:06:15 PM »

But we have a dickens of a time with Brett Favre's name, which I'm pretty sure his ancestors didn't pronounce farve.

Yes, but apparently he has a dickens of a time with it, too.

?

3

English & Linguistics / Learning new words

« on: December 15, 2004, 11:31:02 AM »

I've heard the word timbre spoken many times by many people and I have never heard it pronounced 'tam-b&r.

4

English & Linguistics / Accents

« on: December 09, 2004, 03:01:00 PM »

Your Texan comes out in your words more than your accent, Katie.  Like how you say "y'all."  But I think the other thing is that a lot of people expect all Texans to have a really thick twang, like Reba McEntire, for example (even though she's actually from Oklahoma).  Or at least like George Bush.  Actually, though nearly all of the Texans I know personally speak with a pretty nondescript accent (to my ears, anyway).  The people I know with thick Western accents are all from Kansas and Oklahoma.

5

English & Linguistics / Hors-d'œuvres

« on: December 07, 2004, 03:49:40 PM »

Um, no.  To me, sticky rice is just rice that sticks together (like Japanese rice) instead of the grains falling where they may (like basmati rice or Uncle Ben's).  Although, there's a Japanese dish that's called onigiri which is basically just a ball (although it's usually sort of triangle-shaped) of rice.  It may or may not have a seaweed wrapper or some kind of filling, like dried fish.  I usually eat onigiri with my hands, although I'm not sure if that's completely proper.

Which one were you talking about, Sarah?

6

English & Linguistics / Hors-d'œuvres

« on: December 07, 2004, 02:18:52 PM »

I grew up on Japanese rice, and for the longest time I didn't understand why Chinese rice was considered "sticky rice"--in comparison to Japanese rice, Chinese rice is quite loose.  I don't think I had any rice that wasn't Chinese or Japanese until I was a teenager.

Noemon's method for sticky rice is much more involved than my method.  My method:

1.) Dump some rice (I usually go with Calrose when I'm feeling cheap or lazy, or the more expensive stuff from the Japanese store when I've got the time to get over there) into the pot from the rice cooker.
1a.) If I feel like it, wash the rice by filling the pot with water and then dumping out the water (retaining the rice).  Repeat this step until the water is mostly clear or until I get tired of it, whichever comes first.
2.) Fill the pot with water until the water level is about an inch above the rice (I just measure it by putting my fingertip at the top of the rice and waiting until the water reaches my first knuckle).
3.) Put pot in rice cooker.
4.) Close rice cooker.
5.) Turn on rice cooker.
6.) Wait until rice cooker turns itself off.
6a.) Wait another 15 to 20 minutes, if I am willing to wait (makes cleanup easier as the rice won't stick to the bottom of the pot as much).
7.) Eat rice.