Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 216950 times)

Kate Boots · « **Reply #1225 on:** September 20, 2017, 10:10:40 AM »

Is there a link for that? I would love to be able to pass that along to The Professor.

Nighthawk · « **Reply #1226 on:** September 20, 2017, 11:25:45 AM »

Quote from: Kate Boots on September 20, 2017, 10:10:40 AM

Is there a link for that? I would love to be able to pass that along to The Professor.

I'm not entirely sure where it originated from.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1227 on:** September 20, 2017, 12:19:47 PM »

Accurate.

Ela · « **Reply #1228 on:** November 05, 2017, 04:38:14 PM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on September 13, 2017, 09:44:18 PM

By me, "orientate" is the most annoying.

If I understand correctly, "orientate" is the more common usage in the UK.

And I suspect they don't care if you find it annoying.

Kate Boots · « **Reply #1229 on:** November 06, 2017, 11:05:51 AM »

Quote from: Ela on November 05, 2017, 04:38:14 PM

Quote from: Tante Shvester on September 13, 2017, 09:44:18 PM
By me, "orientate" is the most annoying.

If I understand correctly, "orientate" is the more common usage in the UK.

And I suspect they don't care if you find it annoying.

True. I found "orientate" quite annoying until I started watching a lot of British TV.

rivka · « **Reply #1230 on:** November 06, 2017, 02:00:30 PM »

It indeed the UK (and Oz/Kiwi/etc.) usage. I find it mildly irritating in UK books and media. (And also consider it my problem, not the author's, in such instances.)

I find it incredibly annoying in fanfic for US shows written by non-US writers, which is my primary exposure to "orientate" and "disorientate" (also "orientated" and "disorientated").

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1231 on:** November 07, 2017, 02:59:56 PM »

We hire new employees, and before they can work independently, they have to go through a period of orientation. It kind of grates on my ears when people talk about that as "orientating" the employee, and asking if they've been "orientated" yet.

Ela · « **Reply #1232 on:** November 08, 2017, 10:11:05 PM »

That's only cause you're not British.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1233 on:** November 09, 2017, 10:37:37 AM »

I'm more Yiddish than British.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1234 on:** November 09, 2017, 10:46:31 AM »

Ela · « **Reply #1235 on:** February 08, 2018, 05:59:22 PM »

So I don't know if this fits in "funny" or elsewhere, but a thing that's been driving me nuts is misspelling of words on the internet. Specifically, people who type a word that sounds like the one they want but the one they really want is spelled differently. (Homophones, right? It's not a word I use much myself, so I had to look it up to remember it.)

For example, a friend of mine wrote "site" when he meant "cite" in a blog post recently. (He corrected it after I told him.)

But the most recent that stopped me short was somebody posting that her baby was born by c-section because of "D-cells". Even though I don't want to laugh at her situation, the spelling she used made me laugh out loud. D-cell sounds like a battery to me.

The spelling shortcut she was looking for here was "decels", as in deceleration of the baby's heart rate.

I've seen lots of other examples of this sort of thing, but those are the ones I can remember right now.

rivka · « **Reply #1236 on:** February 08, 2018, 10:34:30 PM »

Yeah, I saw a couple along the same lines recently that horrified me, as they were in what was meant to be a professional email.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1237 on:** February 10, 2018, 05:12:55 PM »

I read a charming book where the narrator called the device that clicks at a set rate a "metro gnome".

Ela · « **Reply #1238 on:** February 10, 2018, 10:15:51 PM »

Nighthawk · « **Reply #1239 on:** March 08, 2018, 05:31:29 AM »

Good timing... Merriam Webster adds "dumpster fire" to dictionary

rivka · « **Reply #1240 on:** March 08, 2018, 05:38:50 PM »

Most of those make sense, but I'm surprised "self-care" wasn't in long before now.

Noemon · « **Reply #1241 on:** March 20, 2018, 01:37:33 PM »

The admin in our department sent out an email the other day detailing when we would be receiving our new Voight phones.

Kate Boots · « **Reply #1242 on:** March 20, 2018, 02:09:57 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1243 on:** March 20, 2018, 02:18:57 PM »

So he misheard VOIP as Voight?

Noemon · « **Reply #1244 on:** March 22, 2018, 09:03:51 AM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1245 on:** March 26, 2018, 08:41:51 AM »

The Welsh spelling of Uruguay is pretty fantastic:

rivka · « **Reply #1246 on:** March 26, 2018, 09:11:27 AM »

And you thought Polish and Czech names were short on vowels . . . .

Jonathon · « **Reply #1247 on:** March 26, 2018, 09:31:28 AM »

Welsh actually has BONUS vowels—seven vowel letters instead of the usual five.

rivka · « **Reply #1248 on:** March 26, 2018, 11:55:47 AM »

Ah, but to Americans W (and??) are still consonants.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1249 on:** March 26, 2018, 12:08:20 PM »

The letter y also represents a vowel in Welsh.

But I was just trying to distinguish between languages which are actually short on vowel sounds, like Polish and Czech, and those which use some letters that normally represent consonants to represent vowels instead.

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