English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Good.

►

This kitten is actually not bad.

@Fx I came to this room to congratulate you

I don't know if you noticed, but you won our gluten-free contest

Wow, Fx is more free of gluten than anyone on SE!

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No, he wants to know more about cooking without gluten than anyone on SE

5:06 PM

Mahlzeit

Or maybe he just asked the right question at the right time

But the result is that he won, and can have a cookbook from SE

Hahaha. Excellent. "You ask so many questions, why don't you just go read this book and leave us in peace?"

2

A good book should inspire the reader to think of new questions. At least this is how it works for me.

That's how it works for Literature.SE.

It works for cooking, too.

The reader doesn't even have to analyse his book the way I do. Just cooking something and getting a result different from the expected one generates great questions.

5:14 PM

Yeah it kind of works for us, too. Except you have to replace "a good book" with "that email from a non-native speaker".

Hey there's an idea. Ask a good question on ELU to get a free email from a non-native speaker.

No, the contest mails get sent by CHAOSers, who are afaik all native speakers.

They will have to syndicate the mails. Maybe use Mechanical Turk.

Well I volunteer to be that non-native speaker. I promise at least one email detailing in the most purplest of proses how wonderful life is while you're in the world.

@rumtscho I assure you, this did not deter CHAOS in the least: they sent us t-shirts with "English.stackchange" printed on them.

No joke.

I could be wearing one right now.

5:33 PM

Right. I wonder where I left mine.

Good for us that ours was called "seasoned advice"

I still wear mine from time to time

Aww.

Picture!

I don't think I have one

sad

@Cerberus a week ago, you were in the frying pan arguing that t-shirts look bad in general.

Now you want a picture of a t-shirt.

5:43 PM

For laughs.

Is there some hidden motive behind it?

So not really hidden.

Hehe.

You want a picture of me so you can have something to laugh at?

Hola.

Well, to be perfectly honest, it was just an excuse to see a picture of you!

5:43 PM

hi @KitFox

Hi!

I'm sure Kit would agree.

I agree that Cerb wants to see a picture of rumtscho.

Spare Oom

Hi@KitFox

See?

Kit is always so obsequious.

It's in her nature.

Yes, indeed it is as you say.

5:47 PM

i actually don't have any tori on my zune. /me is sad

i have some at home. must remember to add it.

Why are my checkboxes refusing to stay selected?

@KitFox probably just trying to get your attention. Or maybe there is a postback happening when you don't expect it.

Stupid checkboxes.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Do many people know the word barratry? Is it common at all?

@KitFox you keep asking that throughout the day.

Well here's the deal. Why don't you just select them real hard? That'll show them.

5:55 PM

@rumtscho +1. Where do you want it?

F'x

@rumtscho no, I didn't notice…

I'm a on business trip to the US, so I cut down on the chatting :)

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Because I still couldn't fix it.

Well duh.

Mar 24 at 16:23, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

►

@KitFox Where do I want what? I wasn't the one trying to get your attention there, I said it is the annoying checkboxes who do that.

Or do you mean that it really was a rogue postback and you are happy with my answer?

@rumtscho That's it.

6:00 PM

@KitFox Glad that I could help :)

@Cerberus I don't know it!

Do I count as many people not knowing something?

@rumtscho So where should I apply my upvote?

@Cerberus Never heard of it.

So that's two incredibly educated and erudite ladies who must count for at least half of the American population.

@aediaλ Yes! You count a lot.

@KitFox Just keep some goodwill for me for the next time I post a stupid ESL question on your site.

@KitFox And you too!

6:03 PM

Ooh wikti sez see also champerty that I also ain't heard of.

I had never heard of it either.

Champerty?

@rumtscho OK. We've a deal.

clueless face

Barratry is harassing people with lawsuits that you can't win, just to vex them.

> (law) investing money into an individual’s law suit.

Iz champerty.

Huh?

How does that work?

6:04 PM

So don't get any fancy law suits now.

I guess dresses are ok.

Haha.

But I don't want a dress!

You could a dress the suit.

Or suitor.

@Cerberus I dunno. My eyes glazed over during the etymology. It's not time for household afternoon coffee yet, so...

@Cerberus not even a law cut one?

Haha.

@rumtscho Sounds hawt, but...

@aediaλ Understandable.

6:06 PM

And assess its suitability for addressing...pfah. Never mind.

I know! We'll have a committee to investigate!

Haha I knew it!

OMFG! Get the quotation! Get it! Get it!

It all sounds rather rash, though.

Aug 25 '11 at 16:56, by KitΘδς

@aediaλ Nonsense. What kind of place are you running there? You should have a standing committee for the assignment of action items that reports to the sitting chair of the committee for the approval of meeting minutes so that they can coordinate the joint approval of the inclusion of the approved, assigned action items in the approved meeting minutes. tch Duh.

I win!

6:07 PM

Wow.

Y so fast?

Y me no fast?

this is what I do @Cerb.

@KitFox That's not you. That's one KitΘδς.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I win because I fetched it firstest. I didn't say it was me.

Jan 19 at 13:39, by Kitḫ

Well, the coastal regions tend to be warmer, but we get a lot of wind off the arctic shield.

Jan 4 at 18:00, by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

my first act as chairperson of the stuff-things dichotomy, or STD, is to appoint Kit as secretary, treasurer, and janitor for all things STD. Also, I nominate Cerb as caterer.

6:09 PM

And I fetched that first. So now I win.

Yay! claps hands

Yay!

I will make a sauce.

So congrats, but we weren't racing for that one.

Here's the other one. I couldn't find it at first because gasp Mr. Shiny didn't say committee!

The horror!

faints

6:10 PM

@KitFox I was.

You guys have an STD caterer? Where did I land?

@Cerberus fans you with yellow post-it flags

We actually had a little family feud last week over such committee stuff.

@rumtscho seven. We have seven STD caterers.

@rumtscho Eggscuse me? I am no STD.

6:11 PM

You could be the eighttth.

@aediaλ comes to

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No, I am a neutral observer only.

That's how it starts.

@aediaλ I forgot. That was a funny conversation. We should bookmark it.

But then you get sucked into this room and BANG! you speak Romanian with a Maori accent.

6:12 PM

Like @JSB?

Me? No. I don't like him.

Or David aping JSB?

You don't like whom?

HIM.

Stuff-Things Dichotomy Committee

Jan 4 at 17:50, 12 minutes total – 41 messages, 4 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 13 secs ago by aedia λ

Join me!

6:13 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Scuză-mă, ce ai spus?

user19161

@rumtscho I thought STD=sexually transmitted disease.

@rumtscho You appear to have spilled your accents all over the ground. Shall I help you pick them up?

The Committee on Stuff and Things

Jan 4 at 17:46, 22 minutes total – 52 messages, 4 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked 49 secs ago by KitFox

Hahaha. Jinx!

Haha.

You girls...

6:15 PM

I deleted mine.

... we herd you liek cars...

Yours was better.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 NO! Don't post it!

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Join you in death? I thought you didn't like HIM

@rumtscho nu vorbi cu tâmpiţii ăştia

6:16 PM

@rumtscho see you already start getting references. Your assimilation continues. Resistance est futile!

Awww, rainbows.

Futile comme un outil!

@KitFox what i said is much more insulting than that

A: What is difference between "isolated" and "insulated"?

He called him a Moldovian!

user19161

1

"isolated" from everything; "insulated" from something When you are isolated, you are separated from everything -- you are alone. When you are insulated, you are separated from one or more things. Things, external to you, in both cases. (editing in more here ...)

Hey! I'm not stupid!

6:18 PM

Thank you for the information.

Wait. If I were stupid, I wouldn't know it.

what a predicament

user19161

I downvoted the above answer.

Well, yours didn't rhyme, @JSB.

@KitFox actually stupid people are convinced they are not stupid.

6:19 PM

rhyme is for decadent gallic wine-swillers

@KitFox are you sure? The stupid people who are too stupid to know that they are stupid are only a subset of all stupid people.

@KitFox You might. I mean I know I'm short, and bad at sports, and invisible

@rumtscho I think it's a very large subset.

Woohoo! I'm a decadent gallic wine-swiller!

@aediaλ You're pink too.

Mmmhmm!

6:21 PM

many stupid people are painfully aware of how stupid they are. that's what school is for, after all.

Ohh you're invisible! I thought you looked odd.

@JSBᾶngs No. Ignorant people may be aware of their ignorance, but stupidity just seems normal to stupid people.

@JSBᾶngs I'm painfully aware of how smart I am. I thought that was what school was for.

Being aware of it is the first step towards unstupidness.

It's also the first step towards ignoring it.

6:22 PM

It can also be a first step towards the fridge to get beer.

Hmm...

yesterday, by Robusto

@MattЭллен On the other hand, I wish more people who are inadequate would feel that way.

user19161

@aediaλ Are you sure you are invisible? Those who believe can see you everywhere, it's true.

Q: Why don't other pronouns get to albe-themselves, á la albeit's "it"?

Jesus felt inadequate enough for all of us.

1

"Oh, isn't it cute?" "I want all of them." "Gimme those." YES: "Euthanizing this particular kitten was a traumatic, albeit humane necessity." NO: "The geese, having pooped everywhere, made for hideous pets, albethem delicious as an entree." NO: "Most of the pigs were oblivious, albethose clo...

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 let it be known that I starred that.

also, that the message would be twice as funny if this were christianity.se chat

@JSBᾶngs let it be known that I find that question stupid.

Isn't it the dummy it?

6:25 PM

I have seen albethey.

@JSBᾶngs They have a chat?

There is no dummy those or dummy they.

i find albethem a hilarious addition to my lexicon

Using the accusative like that guy doesn't work of course.

@KitFox every site gets a chat

6:26 PM

Do people frequent it?

which reminds me, i had a question that i actually wanted to ask over there...

It seems like there would be a lot of fighting.

user19161

@JSBᾶngs The sentence works with "adequate" as well, fascinating.

@JasperLoy Jesus being God Almighty, it is no wonder that everything works for him.

I'm on it, JFYI.

Will elaborate later.

6:30 PM

Excellent.

Enjoy it.

smooch

user19161

@Gigili What is "it"?

Just realized that we have the same word with the same meaning and the same usage but without the 's'.

1 min ago, by Gigili

Will elaborate later.

@Gigili Smooch?

It sounds Yiddish.

user19161

@Cerberus Isn't that what Kit always uses?

6:33 PM

So perhaps you got a cognate word from Arabic? Just speculating.

@JasperLoy Eh I don't know, but what if she does?

I don't think so, there's no such a word in Arabic.

@JasperLoy It is, what's wrong?

user19161

@Gigili Nothing.

user19161

@Cerberus Nothing.

> When the going gets tough, the tough get going in the opposite direction.

Spare Oom

@Robusto Ouch. I think we do.

user19161

6:36 PM

@Gigili From where?

Gigili is so awesome, page 143.

@Gigili Hmm so what does it feel like: does it sounds like an autochthonous word?

A wholly Persian word.

user19161

@Gigili 143 is 13 times 11.

Perhaps you took it from Hebrew?

I don't know, I just read it somewhere on the internet.

@Cerberus Very much so. Or someone made it up sometime in the past or something.

6:40 PM

@Gigili Hmm. It is possible that English got it from Persian (it doesn't sound Germanic or Romance to me). I know of no equivalent in Dutch or German.

a love kiss = mooch.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Then maybe all of us are stupid too. QED.

@Gigili Is it pronounced similarly?

@Cerberus It might be, you know better.

Meysam رها در بند

@Gigili interesting

6:41 PM

/smutʃ/?

I have no idea.

@Meysamرهادربند Didn't you know?

@Cerberus Yes, without the 's'.

user19161

@Cerberus Not the long vowel?

> 1932 (v.); 1942 (n.), alteration of dialectal verb smouch (1570s), possibly imitative of the sound of kissing (cf. German dialectal schmutzen "to kiss").

Meysam رها در بند

@Gigili I thought Much means a kiss

So perhaps it is an onomatopoeia.

6:43 PM

@Cerberus Exactly, "the sound of kissing".

That's how we use it.

@JasperLoy I don't know.

@Gigili Right, then there is no connection but the sound.

People put their hand on their mouth and make the kissing sound and send it to the other one.

Ah.

An air kiss.

@Gigili there is a similar word in Bulgarian.

Mutzki.

There's also the word smack.

6:46 PM

I think it is indeed onomatopoetic.

@Cerberus not so fast.

What about Geschmack?

And it Dutch the sound of a kiss would be written down as mwaaa.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Probably based on the sound one makes with the lips when tasting.

user19161

@Cerberus Sounds like mwahaha.

My point is that they are from the same stem.

That stem can very well be onomatopoeic itself, but that's another story.

Dutch smakken = 1. making any of the typical sounds with the lips; 2. making gross sounds while earing.

6:47 PM

Like with raven.

@Cerberus It's muah which I invented and is under my copyright.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Are you sure?

@Cerberus so, schmatzen?

@Cerberus interesting. That would be schmatzen in German.

@Gigili My apologies.

user19161

6:48 PM

@Gigili checks and finds no copyright under gigili

@Cerberus I am but let me look it up.

@rumtscho Yes!

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 raven is onomatopoeic?

@rumtscho yes. Much like the Russian vorona and the German Krähe.

Funny how different people imitate the same sound so differently.

@JasperLoy No?

6:49 PM

@Cerberus lo and behold, the noun and the verb are not from the same source!

So smakken can be schmatzen, but it can also be a broad range of sounds.

etymonline.com/…

Like English smack.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 you don't mean that raven is onomatopoeic in English, do you?

@Robusto no. In PIE.

user19161

6:50 PM

@Gigili I am thinking of whether to reply yes or no to mean what I originally said.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That means Pan Island Expressway to me.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Ah, interesting.

It's not onomatopoeic in Russian, either, if you insist.

But it's from an onomatopoeic source.

You know the PIE word for raven?

@Rob Read a bit further up.

6:51 PM

So Geschmack, smaak, smaken are related.

And smakken, smack (bang against something & make sound with lips) are related.

@Rob I was making precisely the point that smack is not necessarily onomatopoeic itself, but could be from an onomatopoeic source. I then said "Just like raven" to illustrate what I mean.

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a PIE.

user19161

It's spooky that after Kit changed out of the kitty there is another kitty in chat now.

@rumtscho *qer-, *qor-.

@KitFox it always comes back to PIE with you, doesn't it?

6:53 PM

Yes.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 What source do you use to look that up?

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I mean, did you really know the word before you looked it up?

And what does the q stand for? Labiovelar?

@Cerberus Wiktionary, etymonline, Fasmer, whatever I happen to have open.

@Cerberus caw, caw.

6:55 PM

@rumtscho I don't speak PIE. I knew the fact. Just like I know that "insufficient" is from a Latin word, without having to know what that word actually is.

Also, it looks like ворона is a word for Corvidae, and грач is the name for the raven itself (Corvus corax)

I wonder if the PIE speaking people made the distinction at all.

@rumtscho raven is ворон. That's not the same as ворона. Грач is a different thing entirely.

Ворона.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 OK, you are probably right. I probably won't be able to tell a ворон from a грач if I see them both, much less tell you the correct Russian names for them.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Your distant cousin.