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Post by Verbivore on Jun 1, 2019 8:53:54 GMT
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 1, 2019 10:03:03 GMT
Manx didn't become a written language until relatively recently, so, unlike other Gaelic languages, its written form was based on (northern) English phonetic pronunciations. For example, one wouldn't guess that the Scottish Gaelic, "Ciamar a tha sibh?", meaning, "How are you?", is pronounced, "Kimmar ah ha sheev?", but the Manx version of "Kanys ta shiu?" sounds just like it's written.
Did I overdo the commas again?
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 1, 2019 11:30:10 GMT
[...] Did I overdo the commas again? Just a tad, Twod. LOL |
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 1, 2019 12:27:48 GMT
Why do we refer to ships as female?Note at 4:02 the directive from shipping registries and museums to refer to all vessels by the genderless it. (Though there was reference to vandals being blamed, one wonders whether the influence of political correctness played a part.) Most men and women I know refer to cars (and motorcycles, tractors, and other boytoys …) in the feminine, but most of mine are / have been anthropomorphised into the masculine. (A few were feminine prior to my acquiring them, so most of those stayed that way.) On a quick memory scan I can think of only seven of my 70 cars that have been feminine. And one other had a female-to-male gender reassignment: dubbed Bitch (!) by the original owner, the car could act like one – temperamental, fickle, loud, fussy, electrically unreliable, but nonetheless pretty (you’d never guess I was talking of an Italian car, now would you! LOL). A red Lancia Beta. I stripped off much of the glitzy bling, upgraded the wiring to something thicker than a human hair, fitted a better carburettor and exhaust, repainted it, and renamed it Butch. A black Lancia Beta. It performed accordingly: like a reliable, strong, stealthy sprinter of a "real" man. Is gender-assigning cars / ships any sillier – or more harmless – than anthropomorphising them? I don’t know; you’ll need to consult a car nut. ;-) I really don't care if the Queen Elizabeth is a bloke or the Prince of Wales is a sheila. After all, in this 21st century, anything goes.
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 2, 2019 3:03:42 GMT
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 2, 2019 9:34:05 GMT
I hadn't heard of malaphors until your post, Vv. It just goes to show that you should never cross your bridges until they've hatched. |
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 2, 2019 10:19:25 GMT
Yes, Twod; malaphor was new to me, too. To settle a dispute over the pronunciation of Brasenose (as in College, Oxford) I found this site where I read: “ […] because of the migration of a large amount of its students to Stamford […]”. Students are countable, are they not, so ought not the statement be: “ […] because of the migration of a large number of its students to Stamford […]”? And on the website of such a (supposedly) esteemed English institution! D(r)eary me. Along with that distraction, I became even less sure of that which drove me to look up Brasenose in the first place. There are numerous contradictory pronunciation guides to the name and I don’t know whether there be two (bray’s nose) or three (bray zə nose) syllables in it. I had hoped the college's website might declare the accepted pronunciation, but no. Perhaps someone closer to the institution can put me right? |
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jun 2, 2019 11:54:00 GMT
I am glad to say I had never heard of malaphor either. It is an ugly word for an ugly ‘thing’, and I notice that the software with this forum has never heard of it either.
I think a malaphor doesn’t describe an ugly ‘thing’. What is it? Idea? Thought? Concept? Entity? I don’t think phrase, term or utterance capture the meaning. Also thing is, itself, ugly. Any suggestions?
Best discoveries from this collection of articles were the Italian word dai and the origin of the phrase to curry favour.
Thank you, Vv.
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 4, 2019 21:56:24 GMT
Mr Trump is visiting our shores.
"And then I heard that there were protests, I said where are the protests, I don't see any protests. I did see a small protest today when I came, very small. So a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. ... I didn't see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people put in for political reasons, so it was fake news."
President Donald J Trump, 4th June 2019, London.
"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
Simon and Garfunkel, 1970. ("The Boxer")
It'd be of major benefit to our planet if he were to drop dead, except that Pence would take over. Frying pan/Fire.
Praise be, he leaves tomorrow. Can't come too soon.
My apologies. I know I shouldn't rant about politics here, but I had to bellyache to someone or I'd have burst a blood vessel.
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 4, 2019 23:35:03 GMT
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 5, 2019 9:15:52 GMT
You're quite right of course, Vv, but the UK TV and radio news during the past few days have been almost exclusively concerned with Trump, Brexit, The Conservative Party's leadership contest, Trump telling us what we should do about Brexit and the Conservative Party's leadership contest, and more Trump.
I shouldn't complain. His visit has at least given me the opportunity to practise my English by pondering a whole range of adjectives: odious, obnoxious, divisive, patronising, homophobic, narcissistic, mendacious, arrogant, sexist, misogynistic, racist, loathsome, overbearing, self-obsessed, self-aggrandising, and orange, to name but a few.
(I enjoyed the Basque/Armenian article, by the way. I know a joke about the Basques.)
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 5, 2019 10:54:53 GMT
[…] I know a joke about the Basques. And … ? (Perhaps it's not forum-friendly. LOL) |
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Post by Dave Miller on Jun 5, 2019 11:07:15 GMT
Twod: you missed “heightist”. (Moaning that our mayor is only half the height of New York’s mayor.)
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 5, 2019 11:47:28 GMT
In most of the current photos I've seen of HMQEII with Trump, the latter towers over Mrs Windsor by almost double her height. I know that Betty's short (and getting shorter with her stoop), but were the photographers trying to make a point with such juxtapositions? The robust bully and the delicate old lady? The new king of the world being superior to the queen of diminished dominion?
Twod: You have a joke about the Basques; I have one (a funny tale, rather) about the Queen.
At a royal garden party a guest is introduced to HM, who asked the fellow what he "did". The chappy responded that he was a photographer.
[Now read this with the proper royal accent / intonation]:
"Oh!" ejaculated HM. "How interesting. I have a brother-in-law who is a photographer."
Her guest replied: "Oh! How interesting. I have a brother-in-law who is a queen."
HM was reported to be less than amused.
As you were.
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 5, 2019 17:21:09 GMT
Twod: you missed “heightist”. (Moaning that our mayor is only half the height of New York’s mayor.) Oh yes, so I did! One should always look for the good in people - after all, even Hitler built the autobahns - and, in respect of Mr Trump, let me say here and now, unequivocally, that he's almost probably a better person than his father was (which wouldn't be difficult to achieve). |
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