Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 204025 times)

Jonathon · « **Reply #325 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:10:56 AM »

An unintentionally funny attempt to tell a Dalai Lama joke to the Dalai Lama.

Porter · « **Reply #326 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:16:19 AM »

Translated jokes almost never work.

Jonathon · « **Reply #327 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:30:41 AM »

And even assuming that translation isn't a barrier, culture still is.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #328 on:** June 15, 2011, 01:43:15 PM »

I've managed to translate quite a few English jokes into Chinese to great effect. There are definitely some though that will not ever translate. I can't view the video at work so I don't know what joke was being attempted, but I seem to recall reading about a person telling the Dalai Lhama a joke in a similar situation and he found it quite funny.

Porter · « **Reply #329 on:** June 15, 2011, 02:06:56 PM »

I had a missionary companion who was famous throughout the mission for having horrendous language skills. He once tried to translate a joke that a) was one of those jokes that needlessly goes on and on and on and on and b) has a pun for the punchline. He spent half an hour trying to tell it, to predictable results.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #330 on:** June 15, 2011, 03:30:37 PM »

Quote from: Porter on June 15, 2011, 02:06:56 PM

I had a missionary companion who was famous throughout the mission for having horrendous language skills. He once tried to translate a joke that a) was one of those jokes that needlessly goes on and on and on and on and b) has a pun for the punchline. He spent half an hour trying to tell it, to predictable results.

Early on in my mission I tried to tell the story of Helaman's stripling warriors to a Chinese audience. I completely blew it.

rivka · « **Reply #331 on:** June 15, 2011, 07:24:13 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on June 15, 2011, 11:10:56 AM

An unintentionally funny attempt to tell a Dalai Lama joke to the Dalai Lama.

That was less funny than painful.

Marianne Dashwood · « **Reply #332 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:13:21 PM »

I learned all the Japanese puns as soon as I could. They are so dang easy. It's like an entire language designed for punning. Chinese even more so.

Porter · « **Reply #333 on:** June 16, 2011, 08:16:59 AM »

:shudders:

Nighthawk · « **Reply #334 on:** June 16, 2011, 01:01:25 PM »

From a job offer email I just received:

Quote

Additional Description:

.../...

Key Responsibilities:
• Keep up to date with the industry'''''''''''''''''''''''''''s trends and standards, latest tools and preferred practices.

One apostrophe? Peanuts... Two? Child's play... Twenty-seven? Now we're talkin'! Sign me up!

BlackBlade · « **Reply #335 on:** June 24, 2011, 01:19:32 PM »

Is there any sort of link between Intelligent/Intelligentsia and Gentlemen/Gentry?

edited to make my post a bit more clear.

Jonathon · « **Reply #336 on:** June 24, 2011, 01:58:15 PM »

Ah. Thanks for the clarification. At first I didn't realize you were asking about all of those together.

There isn't a link between the first two and the latter two. The root in intelligent is apparently legere, meaning "to bring together" or "to take up". The gen- root in the other two is found in a whole host of words like gentle, genesis, genus, gender, general, generous, genius. The English form is kin, and is found in kin, kind, kindred, and king. They all trace back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "beget" or "produce".

pooka · « **Reply #337 on:** June 26, 2011, 06:51:03 PM »

Huh. Wind and window are related, at least the wind part.

Jonathon · « **Reply #338 on:** June 26, 2011, 10:01:58 PM »

Yup. It's from the Old Norse for "wind-eye". And the cognate for wind in Latin is vent, with ventana, the Spanish for "window", being derived therefrom.

Jonathon · « **Reply #339 on:** June 28, 2011, 02:01:32 PM »

I find the Latin term for scapegoat, caper emissarius, irrationally hilarious. I just love the mental image of a dancing goat ambassador.

Porter · « **Reply #340 on:** June 28, 2011, 02:44:12 PM »

pooka · « **Reply #341 on:** June 28, 2011, 03:49:17 PM »

What's the other one? I was wondering what anesthesia might have to do with ducks.

Jonathon · « **Reply #342 on:** June 28, 2011, 03:54:16 PM »

The other what?

Jonathon · « **Reply #343 on:** June 29, 2011, 01:55:35 PM »

I just learned that prone meaning "lying flat on one's front surface" and prone meaning "tending or inclining" are the same word. They come from the Latin pronus, originally meaning "bent forward". This became metaphorically extended to the "tending or inclining" meaning (much like the word inclining itself, as well as leaning). In retrospect, it's pretty obvious; I'd just never thought about it before.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #344 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:28:13 PM »

Makes sense.

rivka · « **Reply #345 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:36:20 PM »

Interesting.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #346 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:38:17 PM »

Is Cicero really pronounced with a K sound not an S?

Porter · « **Reply #347 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:40:37 PM »

I had to read Jonathon's post three times before I properly parsed it.

Jonathon · « **Reply #348 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:43:31 PM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on June 29, 2011, 02:38:17 PM

Is Cicero really pronounced with a K sound not an S?

In Classical Latin, yes. C and g always represented "hard" consonants. In Vulgar Latin (the immediate ancestor of the Romance languages) these palatalized before front vowels to produce the "soft" c and g that we're familiar with.

Jonathon · « **Reply #349 on:** June 29, 2011, 02:43:57 PM »

Quote from: Porter on June 29, 2011, 02:40:37 PM

I had to read Jonathon's post three times before I properly parsed it.

What was confusing about it?