Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 217146 times)

Brinestone · « **Reply #100 on:** September 14, 2010, 11:46:16 AM »

How many letters are in that word? And if a column was narrow enough, would you have to hyphenate it twice?

Jonathon · « **Reply #101 on:** September 14, 2010, 11:50:36 AM »

That's sixty-five characters, and it was almost a line and a half long. And that was in a slightly narrow column, so you'd have to add quite a bit to have to hyphenate it twice.

The Genuine · « **Reply #102 on:** September 14, 2010, 12:28:05 PM »

(Well that didn't work.) What's the trick to getting Google Translate to handle verbally-expressed numbers properly?

Jonathon · « **Reply #103 on:** September 14, 2010, 01:00:09 PM »

I'm not sure what you mean by "verbally", but to get Google Translate to translate it, you have to break it up into its constituents: zwei milliarden zwei hundert sieben millionen fünf hundert zwanzig tausend.

The Genuine · « **Reply #104 on:** September 14, 2010, 01:07:40 PM »

That's word for word, but is that proper German grammar too?

Jonathon · « **Reply #105 on:** September 14, 2010, 01:48:12 PM »

It's not an issue of grammar, but of orthography. It's proper German orthography to write numbers as one word.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #106 on:** September 15, 2010, 02:15:55 AM »

My husband's caregiver is Jamaican and speaks "proper English" with us and in public, but to her friends and family, speaks patois. And sometimes when we're talking together, she'll use a patois word here and there, especially if she can't think of the "proper English" word. Apparently it is a hot riot when I pick up some of these words and use them. There is nothing that will crack her the heck up as much as hearing me go on in my lovely New York-accented English and slip in a bit of patois right in the middle of it.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #107 on:** September 15, 2010, 02:41:32 AM »

I thought it odd that you'd call it a patois instead of a creole until I looked it up and found that Jamaican Patois is a pretty respectable term for Jamaican Creole.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #108 on:** September 15, 2010, 02:51:36 AM »

That's what she calls it. And that's what it's called. I meant to imply no disparagement.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #109 on:** September 15, 2010, 04:43:52 AM »

Which I've learned! I knew the term first from French, where it's used disparagingly, and second from Linguistics, where it's kind of inofficial.

pooka · « **Reply #110 on:** September 15, 2010, 07:44:02 AM »

I take it they don't use numerals for numbers over a hundred.

Jonathon · « **Reply #111 on:** September 15, 2010, 09:37:31 AM »

I don't know whether they do or not; I assumed the author was doing it for effect, because someone was adding up all the wasted seconds in someone else's life and coming up with some rather astonishing figures.

Jonathon · « **Reply #112 on:** September 23, 2010, 06:53:10 PM »

pooka · « **Reply #113 on:** September 23, 2010, 08:03:44 PM »

The man used to look a bit like that guy when he was in full beard, needed a haircut, and wore glasses.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #114 on:** September 23, 2010, 08:28:00 PM »

Holy cow, I've been saying "Warshinton" for at least 5 years now and never had any reason other than I liked the sound of it better. Who knew I was self correcting as well? I've always said or a gun as well.

Scott R · « **Reply #115 on:** September 28, 2010, 06:06:27 AM »

No. There is no R in 'Washington.'

There's a guy I work with from Baltimore. He says 'Warshington.' And 'Bal'mer' for Baltimore. And 'Eye-talian' for Italian. And 'ball' for 'boil.'

It's enormously irritating.

The Genuine · « **Reply #116 on:** September 28, 2010, 06:18:29 AM »

Just imagine for a second that someone might mispronounce "remote control" as "clicker."

Brinestone · « **Reply #117 on:** September 28, 2010, 06:18:53 AM »

Yup, that's the Maryland accent. Try getting him to say "wolf."

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #118 on:** September 28, 2010, 07:04:11 AM »

I have the always mellifluous New York accent, where "sword" rhymes with "broad", but "dog" does not rhyme with "hog". "Sword" and "sawed" are homophones, and "dog" has two syllables, while "hog" has only one. And contrary to popular mockery, "Thirty-third and Third" is not pronounced "toity-toid and toid". It's properly pronounced as "thuddy thud and thud". And if the chief executive of the city just walked through your front door, then duh Mayuh would be in your foyuh. And if you are lucky enough to have one of those smart phones that allows you to access the internet so that you can amuse yourself while waiting in the grocery check out aisle, then you can go online while you're waiting on line.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #119 on:** September 28, 2010, 07:05:09 AM »

Quote from: The Genuine on September 28, 2010, 06:18:29 AM

Just imagine for a second that someone might mispronounce "remote control" as "clicker."

In our house, it's pronounced "hoobee-doobee". "Clicker" just sounds ignorant.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #120 on:** September 28, 2010, 07:21:05 AM »

Quote from: The Genuine on September 28, 2010, 06:18:29 AM

Just imagine for a second that someone might mispronounce "remote control" as "clicker."

It's the flapper.

Brinestone · « **Reply #121 on:** September 28, 2010, 08:39:27 AM »

My dad says "clicker."

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #122 on:** September 28, 2010, 11:31:06 AM »

Well, sometimes instead of "hoobee-doobee", we say "moat troll", but that's just when we're being a little silly.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #123 on:** October 12, 2010, 08:36:45 AM »

I heard about this story on the radio last night. Reuters ran a story, and per style policy, changed all instances or "the queen" in the text of the story to "Queen Elizabeth". The problem, though, was that it was a story about honeybees. The story was published with this gem:

Quote

Queen Elizabeth has 10 times the lifespan of workers and lays up to 2,000 eggs a day.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #124 on:** October 12, 2010, 08:45:14 AM »

Totally brill.