 language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3
Old Hand
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OP
Old Hand
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3 |
For example, in English, tampon means what it does. (Won't go any farther so this post won't get moved.) In French, it is a pointer, the kind teachers use to point at stough (Yes, that is how it was spelt when I was in school) or in programming to hold an address. Another one is blessing, very nice in English and quite painful in French. Saw this in an instruction sheet and that made me wonder if those in Canada and parts of Belgium who must speak both languages in the course of daily business ever have problems with words like this that are the same but have very different meanings. 
Let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere in space 'cause it's buggar all down here. -- Monte Python
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 5,720
Check Pants
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Check Pants
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 5,720 |
I hear they are a great field expedient bullet hole patch. Just poke one of them in the hole and get to the hospital.
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,170 Likes: 14
Learned Hand
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Learned Hand
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,170 Likes: 14 |
great for nose bleeds too
05 speedmaster - 1100cc, 11:1 racing pistons, Carillo rods, thunderbike cams, ported and polished head, 2mm over intake and exhaust valves, Barnett kevlar clutch, scepter pipes, oversize manifolds, 45mm HSR's, TTP stage 4 firestarter
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,096 Likes: 2
Fe Butt
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Fe Butt
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,096 Likes: 2 |
Quote:
For example, in English, tampon means what it does. (Won't go any farther so this post won't get moved.) In French, it is a pointer, the kind teachers use to point at stough (Yes, that is how it was spelt when I was in school) or in programming to hold an address.
Another one is blessing, very nice in English and quite painful in French. Saw this in an instruction sheet and that made me wonder if those in Canada and parts of Belgium who must speak both languages in the course of daily business ever have problems with words like this that are the same but have very different meanings.
"Spelt"?! What school taught you to spell a word like THAT?!
'Cause it probably wasn't here in the good ol' U.S. of A., dude!
(...though now that I think about this, this probably explains why I've seen you ALSO add that superfluous letter 'u' to certain words in so many of your posting all these many years, huh!) 
Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 7,629 Likes: 7
Monkey Butt
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Monkey Butt
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 7,629 Likes: 7 |
Quote:
great for nose bleeds too
Now THAT'S a sight picture I don't need to retain. 
We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,193 Likes: 22
Learned Hand
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Learned Hand
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,193 Likes: 22 |
A blessing is good for a nose bleed?
Al
I took the Road Less Travelled.
Now where the ****** am I?
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 3,464 Likes: 1
Loquacious
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Loquacious
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 3,464 Likes: 1 |
Quote:
"Spelt"?! What school taught you to spell a word like THAT?!
'Cause it probably wasn't here in the good ol' U.S. of A., dude!
I've been getting my spelt from Bob's Red Mill. All this time I could have got it from school?
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 23,186 Likes: 55
Fe Butt
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Fe Butt
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 23,186 Likes: 55 |
Tampons are good to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound too.
I learned all I need to know about life by killing smart people and eating their brains.
Eat right ,Exercise ,Stay fit, Die Anyway!
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1
Saddle Sore
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Saddle Sore
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1 |
Quote:
Quote:
great for nose bleeds too
Now THAT'S a sight picture I don't need to retain.
Yeah, that string hangin' outta tha nose would be a sight .
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,402 Likes: 7
Loquacious
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Loquacious
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,402 Likes: 7 |
Quote:
Quote:
For example, in English, tampon means what it does. (Won't go any farther so this post won't get moved.) In French, it is a pointer, the kind teachers use to point at stough (Yes, that is how it was spelt when I was in school) or in programming to hold an address.
Another one is blessing, very nice in English and quite painful in French. Saw this in an instruction sheet and that made me wonder if those in Canada and parts of Belgium who must speak both languages in the course of daily business ever have problems with words like this that are the same but have very different meanings.
"Spelt"?! What school taught you to spell a word like THAT?!
'Cause it probably wasn't here in the good ol' U.S. of A., dude!
(...though now that I think about this, this probably explains why I've seen you ALSO add that superfluous letter 'u' to certain words in so many of your posting all these many years, huh!)
Hey Dwight, don't forget 'y' and 'i'
Your lot spell tyre incorrectly too
"You can't believe everything you read on the internet" : William Shakespeare
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 763
3/4 Throttle
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3/4 Throttle
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 763 |
Dear oh dear ...it is something when an American comments on language. If ever a nation has bastardized a language we now have kids in the UK who seem to think that bro, cuz, and the offensive mah n*gger are to be considered affectionate terms of endearment. My old English teacher will be spinning in her grave I can still hear her, "the lips the teeth the tip of tongue" as well her ever famous "enunciate don't hold back". Let us not even consider the abomination that has been dealt to the world, it is, was, and always be Aluminium for those who are unsure it is pronounced al you min ae um. Colour.... aaaargh a whole can of worms exists in that one word. I suppose I can forgive some of these as you did give us the name for a bike Triumph America ...sounds good as well as looks good. It is not the same to say I own a yamahonsukisaki xyz 12345. Have fun me bredrin ...... 
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 499 Likes: 5
Adjunct
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Adjunct
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 499 Likes: 5 |
words that are the same in different languages but have completely different meanings are called "false cognates"
I was a german linguist in the military, and feel I have *some* facility with English. you take those two languages, which both happen to have a bunch of false cognates in Dutch and it makes it nearly impossible (at least for me) to add learning Dutch to the mix....
...you're gonna feel a little pressure....
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,170 Likes: 14
Learned Hand
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Learned Hand
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,170 Likes: 14 |
I grew up in a household where several widely dissimilar languages were spoken, all at the same time. In order of most spoken: Ukrainian Russian, Yiddish, NY English and the Peruvian version of Spanish. My great grand mother refused to learn English because 'there was no one she wanted to talk to that spoke it'! My grandfather spoke several other languages as well, but always mixed them all together in an apparent random fashion. It was chaos, and any friends that came over were completely baffled as to how we all got by.
Holidays, crazy.
I went last year to a family reunion and (with all the older folks long gone) it is down to just English and Spanish. a bit easier.
To this day (some 40 plus years later) I catch myself in a mental translation mode, uncertain as to what to say because 3 versions just ran thru my head at once.
05 speedmaster - 1100cc, 11:1 racing pistons, Carillo rods, thunderbike cams, ported and polished head, 2mm over intake and exhaust valves, Barnett kevlar clutch, scepter pipes, oversize manifolds, 45mm HSR's, TTP stage 4 firestarter
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,402 Likes: 7
Loquacious
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Loquacious
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,402 Likes: 7 |
Quote:
Let us not even consider the abomination that has been dealt to the world, it is, was, and always be Aluminium ...
"You can't believe everything you read on the internet" : William Shakespeare
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3
Old Hand
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OP
Old Hand
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3 |
Quote:
A blessing is good for a nose bleed?
Al
Almost, a nosebleed is what happens when you are blessed.
Let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere in space 'cause it's buggar all down here. -- Monte Python
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3
Old Hand
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OP
Old Hand
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3 |
I was the first one born in the US. Grew up learning Irish and Scotts Gaelic and Welsh. First song I knew was 'Wee Doech an Dorus'. (A little drink at the door or one for the road in 'Murrican'.) At the time I was in grammer school, not all word endings had yet been converted to D's and, often as not, 'been' and 'bean' were pronounced the same. I still seldom hear people say 'sleeped' instead of 'slept'. Even now, my dogs refuse to go to bed 'till I tell them, "Nighty night, sleepie tight, dinna let the beasties bite. An' if they bight, squeese 'em tight so they canna bight tomorrow night." And, I usually make sure I'm hame whist I can still say, "Tis a bra bricht moonlicht nicht tonicht"!  Oh yeah, I am one of the few today who knows what a cutty sark is.
Let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere in space 'cause it's buggar all down here. -- Monte Python
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 8,393 Likes: 1
Second Wind
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Second Wind
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 8,393 Likes: 1 |
Language is man's piss poor attempt at communication.
I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 8,393 Likes: 1
Second Wind
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Second Wind
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 8,393 Likes: 1 |
That's why I have invented........the empathy chip. You can now feel the full emotions of every person with in 50' of you or dial it into a specific persons frequency and empathize with them totally and completely.
Now there is no need to guess why she is giving you the silent treatment, or why your boss refuses to hear your revolutionary idea.
Some insanity may occur. But most symptoms were mild to moderate.
Last edited by Locopony; 09/10/2015 5:15 PM.
I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,096 Likes: 2
Fe Butt
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Fe Butt
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,096 Likes: 2 |
Quote:
Dear oh dear ...it is something when an American comments on language.
...Colour.... aaaargh a whole can of worms exists in that one word.
Yep, that's RIGHT, Eric. Lets remember here that is was that great American lexicographer, Noah Webster, who in the early 19th Century had the cojones to RID the language(okay okay, the great AMERICAN version of this language anyway) of all those French (SPIT!) influences that YOU guys never had the cojones to DO, and such as that superfluous letter "u" in the word "COLOR" among many other similarly SPELLED words!
And NOT to mention the word "CENTER"! I mean C'MON now, dude! Do even YOU GUYS over there on that little island ever say "CENT-re"(and how freakin' French AGAIN..SPIT..is THAT I ask ya?), OR do ya pronounce it "CENT-er", HUH?!
(...and even WITH the letter "R" you guys continue to refuse to pronounce...I mean c'mon AGAIN here, dude..."Would I care for a glass of 'WHOA-tah'?"..."OH, you mean 'WA-ter'? Why, SURE, I wouldn't say no to a glass of 'WA-ter', thank you very much!") 
Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 763
3/4 Throttle
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3/4 Throttle
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 763 |
By the way guys all joking and kidding aside about our language differences. Can I jus say, and please believe me on this one. Many people today in the UK will be sparing a thought for our American friends who lost friends and relations on 11/09/2001. God bless each and every one of the poor souls and keep those who gave of themselves in service police, fire and medics and those ordinary people who stepped up and became unrecognized hero's.
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3
Old Hand
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OP
Old Hand
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3 |
Quote:
(...and even WITH the letter "R" you guys continue to refuse to pronounce...I mean c'mon AGAIN here, dude..."Would I care for a glass of 'WHOA-tah'?"..."OH, you mean 'WA-ter'? Why, SURE, I wouldn't say no to a glass of 'WA-ter', thank you very much!")
Reminds me of an old friend who lived in Noo Yawk. He had to explain to his kid who couldn't understand a red mark on a spelling test. "When writing, the ah in idear is silent".
Let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere in space 'cause it's buggar all down here. -- Monte Python
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1
Saddle Sore
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Saddle Sore
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1 |
Down here in the South we just sorta phonetically prune words down to abbreviated remnants of the original word, sorta mumblyspeech, letting the soft molten reformed fo'neems ooze out like drool on our lips and chins, wiping with the back of the hand. We contrive ad hoc contractions, because we don't need all those extra vowels and consticants. Like if you axe somebody "did you eat ?" it becomes "jeet?"
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 5,720
Check Pants
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Check Pants
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 5,720 |
Quote:
Like if you axe somebody "did you eat ?" it becomes "jeet?"
So the response could be "Naw, I ain't et yet. Wa ja habin? Appears to be a very efficient form of communication.
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1
Saddle Sore
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Saddle Sore
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 5,068 Likes: 1 |
Well, perhaps. It probly wud go lykiss : "Na. Whuya got ?"
And often when we axe somebody, they call nyne wunwun.
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Re: language is funny
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3
Old Hand
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OP
Old Hand
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,639 Likes: 3 |
Quote:
Well, perhaps. It probly wud go lykiss : "Na. Whuya got ?"
And often when we axe somebody, they call nyne wunwun.
But, only if they know their number... 
Let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere in space 'cause it's buggar all down here. -- Monte Python
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