English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

10:48 AM

avg kms off: 1468.0
I suck :'(

user19161

1

Q: Grammaticality of user interface of stackexchange sites

One of the possible roles that EL&U could fulfill is to provide a place where questions of language correctness for user interface on all stackexchange sites are addressed. I think it would be a useful way to give back to the community. For example, the following question could be asked. ...

user19161

I cannot understand why Unreason is making those comments, it seems weird. I'll try to figure him out in the days to come.

user19161

@brachomonacho Hi!

bracho monacho

Hi Jasper!

How's things?

user19161

@brachomonacho Bad, but nvm. Now read the comments to the meta post above, it's getting really funny.

user19161

11:02 AM

I like the symmetrical snowflake against a blue background, I think I will keep this for a while.

bracho monacho

nvm?

user19161

@brachomonacho nvm=Never mind, I thought it's a standard abbrev

user19161

Just like tmr=tomorrow. At least I think it's common in sms.

bracho monacho

@JasperLoy You should check out this site, if you like snowflakes... It's awesome.

@JasperLoy Oh, that's the first that I've seen that abbreviation... But then, I tend to be a bit behind the times when it comes to those sorts of things.

user19161

@brachomonacho I will confess my ignorance by saying that although I know they are symmetrical, I didn't know they can come in so many shapes.

bracho monacho

11:06 AM

Not as bad as my former workmate, though, who one asked me "what does equal P mean?" when I used the =P emoticon in an email to him.

user19161

@brachomonacho Same, just influence from the people around.

bracho monacho

@JasperLoy Me neither. I've never seen a snowflake before; I don't think Australia gets cold enough anywhere for big ones to form.

I read somewhere that a single snowflake can grow to the size of a child's palm, but I've never bothered to find out whether or not that was true. Would be cool if it was, though.

user19161

@brachomonacho Will you say that Australian Eng is sort of BrE? While Canadian Eng is sort of AmE? That's the impression I get.

bracho monacho

(Perhaps @Cerberus would know?)

user19161

By the way I get all my avatars from avatarsdb.com, check it out if you want to change.

Skullpatrol

11:18 AM

They closed my question!!!

bracho monacho

I would agree entirely. I find that most Australians still heavily favour BrE constructions and peculiarities in day to day speech, though the Americanisms are creeping in more and more, these days.
We certainly follow the British spelling conventions, like using 's' instead of 'z' in words like 'recognise' and 'organisation'.

Skullpatrol

And even the linguistics meta site closed it

I thought you people had a genuine interest in the English language?

bracho monacho

I haven't met very many Canadians, but the few that I have met I mistook for being American, because they didn't have the stereotypical accent (i.e., pronouncing 'about' as 'aboot')... and they didn't seem to speak any differently to the Americans I've seen on TV, and in movies.

@JasperLoy It would appear that he missed the tongue-in-cheek nature of your sagely remark.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…