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Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...  (Read 215136 times)

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Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #450 on: January 30, 2012, 09:22:23 AM »
 ;D

I was just coming here to post that.

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Offline pooka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #451 on: January 31, 2012, 08:10:54 AM »
"Tsunami" just means harbor wave...
:head asplode:
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Offline Porter

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #452 on: January 31, 2012, 01:16:40 PM »
I think I have saudades for saudade.
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Sooner or later, this forum is going to max out on hyperliteralness.

Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #453 on: February 02, 2012, 01:33:29 PM »
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline pooka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #454 on: February 02, 2012, 09:05:20 PM »
 :D

Though if you think about it, Dinosaur comics is itself a form of elaborate pronunciation which makes every conversation AWESOME. 
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #455 on: February 03, 2012, 10:37:12 AM »
The return of Etymology Man!

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Offline rivka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #456 on: February 03, 2012, 11:06:47 AM »
And the one alluded to in the alt-text would be?
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #457 on: February 03, 2012, 11:08:30 AM »
Etiology Man, apparently. I thought it only referred to the origin of diseases, but apparently "etiology" is also used to refer to origin or creation myths.
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Offline rivka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #458 on: February 03, 2012, 02:14:49 PM »
* rivka checks "learned something new" off daily list
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Offline BlackBlade

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #459 on: February 06, 2012, 04:58:52 PM »
So.

Amoral (A-moral)
Asymetrical (A-symetrical)
Amateur (Am-mature)

Why not (A-mature)?
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Offline rivka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #460 on: February 06, 2012, 05:36:17 PM »
Probably because in the first two, the "a" is a negating prefix, while in the third, the source word is amator (I did not know that).
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Offline pooka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #461 on: February 06, 2012, 09:03:33 PM »
Yeah, in the first two the a is a prefix meaning "without, lacking".  The third is from the word for love. 
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."  Comte de Saint-Simon

Offline BlackBlade

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #462 on: February 07, 2012, 04:32:06 PM »
Well blow me down. That's good to know.
Kyrgyzstan, is the homeland of the Kyrgyzs, a people best known for cheating at Scrabble. -Tante Shvester

What, you expected us to be badly injured or dead, and flying blind to boot? You're the one who told us all to be Awesome. -Brinestone

Offline The Genuine

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #463 on: February 07, 2012, 04:43:54 PM »
 :santa:
I think Jesse's right.

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Offline Marianne Dashwood

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #464 on: February 07, 2012, 04:44:13 PM »
I'm guessing your confusion might have come from the common pronunciation \ˈa-mə-chər\; it's originally \ˈa-mə-tər\.
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Offline Nighthawk

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #465 on: February 15, 2012, 04:34:35 PM »
Just got this in a spam email:

Quote
This is DROPPING JAWS and taking peoples berths away.

Gosh... That sounds painful.

(If you're wondering, it's advertising an affiliate system of some sort. I didn't click the link.)
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Offline rivka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #466 on: February 16, 2012, 08:22:28 PM »
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin

Offline spacepook

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #467 on: February 16, 2012, 08:24:49 PM »
How does that even- I can't-

Can someone explain to me how the kerning could get that messed up?
"As Margaret watched the proceedings, she was struck by a deep, primal desire.  A desire for brains.  Juicy, juicy brains . . ." ~Tante

If you can't move your vowels, maybe you should get more fiver. ~AFR

Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #468 on: February 16, 2012, 08:26:10 PM »
If the sign was made by hand, I guess.

It's not a very realistic representation of kerning problems, but I still laughed.
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Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #469 on: February 16, 2012, 09:04:24 PM »
I've told you all about that time Barbara Flick ran for school board, right?

Kerning gone horribly, tragically wrong.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
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Offline Nighthawk

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #470 on: February 17, 2012, 05:31:41 PM »
I've told you all about that time Barbara Flick ran for school board, right?

Kerning gone horribly, tragically wrong.

Like here? ... You aren't kidding; the space between the "K" and the "S" is horrible!
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #471 on: April 25, 2012, 06:33:13 PM »


Be sure to read the mouseover text.
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Offline rivka

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #472 on: April 25, 2012, 07:03:22 PM »
I almost bought it.
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #473 on: April 27, 2012, 12:45:32 PM »
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« Reply #474 on: May 01, 2012, 03:56:12 PM »
Quote from: Bryan Garner
This blogger is well worth reading.

I have to agree.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous