English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-03-01 (page 4 of 7)

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RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:00 PM

@rumtscho that's because they are Slovaks.

@rumtscho They don't use them in Italian or French. Or English.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Chuchichäschtli

Das Wort Chuchichäschtli [] (kleiner Küchenschrank, Hängeschrank) ist das traditionelle hochalemannische Schibboleth. Dreimal kommt das ch in dichter Folge vor, das südlich der Kind/Chind-Grenze als stimmloser uvularer Frikativ gesprochen wird. Das Wort Chuchichäschtli ist bekannt dafür, dass es von Personen, die des Hochalemannischen nicht mächtig sind, nur schwer ausgesprochen werden kann. Es wird ihnen daher oft zur Belustigung zum Aussprechen empfohlen. Die Volkssage, dass es auch zur Erlangung der Schweizer Staatsbürgerschaft diene, hält sich zwar hartnäckig, ist jedoch nicht belegt. ...

Hmm ... maybe they do in Ënglïsh ...

@RegDwightѬſ道 Ah, see! I knew there was an umlaut there.

@RegDwightѬſ道 What is the Kind/Chind border?

4:01 PM

@Robusto I've had a chat conversation with Swiss people, and they didn't use umlauts. They transcribed them to ue, ae and oe, maybe they just use some keyboard layout which makes it hard for them to type the real thing.

@Robusto Noöne uses no umlauts in English.

@MattЭллен Oh, thanks. But what happened to the blue theme?

@rumtscho Hmm interesting.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@rumtscho that's what Germans do, too, if they don't have umlauts on their keyboards.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox oh, er... it faded in the wash

4:02 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 But they normally have them, don't they?

@rumtscho Ah, the typing issue. If they're using American keyboards, I can understand it. But umlaut describes the phonological change, not the dieresis, IIRC.

@MattЭллен Haha.

Diuresis? That's awkward.

@Robusto I believe dieresis ≠ the dots/specks that Germans use.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizerdeutsch

Look, they can't spell the name of the language without using an umlaut.

Dieresis = division, separation, as in noöne, while umlaut just ums the laut of the vowel.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:04 PM

@Robusto ding!

Matt Эллен

:D

Blarg. I wish people would stop finding problems with content right before deadline.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

See, that's why Rob gets all the royalties.

@aediaλ smooch

That was the whole point of having review and approval months ago, but what do they do, really read it then? Noooo, apparently not...

Matt Эллен

4:04 PM

@aediaλ yes. hiding bodies is such a problem

@Robusto yes, for some reason I had the typing issue confused with the no-esszet-part.

grumps around and sulks at coffee

@KitFox Aw thanks.

offers bite of crappy pizza

In Dutch, we write a dieresis (called trema) with two dots, white an umlaut is two very short diagonal lines.

@MattЭллен Huhwhat?

4:05 PM

BRB

@KitFox nibbles Yay!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus why would you write umlauts if your only word doesn't have them?

Matt Эллен

@aediaλ oh, I, uh. no of course, all the people who point out issues are still alive...

@RegDwightѬſ道 Our only word is German: Fingerspitzengefühl.

brightens

@MattЭллен Right, of course.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:06 PM

@Cerberus you have misspolen Ananas.

Haha misspolen.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus If you think that's funny, just wait until Mr. spolen arrives

You're a raving genius.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Ehh...nice try, I guess.

chuckles

@MrShinyandNew安宇 The sad truth is, he does think that's funny.

Well, this has been such fun. But now I really have to show results in my job, so ... I guess I'll go get coffee. And a bagel. And the room is warm. Maybe too warm. So much to think about.

Laters.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto cya

I too need a hot beverage...

4:13 PM

A hot beaver hedge?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Rob is a part-time stoker.

Hmm. sketches diagram

Matt Эллен

is it a good one?

I'm not sure yet.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hot beaver hedge fond manager. See, in German that'd be just one word.

4:15 PM

Damn Gimp. Damn tiny ass monitor. Damn work that needs to be done on a snow day.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Snow?

But sixty percent of this word will be Denglish.

Matt Эллен

Damn it all

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@rumtscho not if you do it right.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Can I have a demonstration of the right way?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:16 PM

Who forces you to go with Manager if there's the perfectly cromulent Verwalter.

And Hedge fond?

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yeah, it's a snow day. It has also finally started snowing.

Matt Эллен

it's a big adjective "hot beaver hedge"

Oh. BRB.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Deckungsgeschäftsfond?

Matt Эллен

4:17 PM

the statement describes a manager that is fond of hot beaver hedges

or is that an adverb?

I'm useless at determining which is which

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well German is easy in that pretty much any adjective is also an adverb.

Reminds me of a guy I knew - was forced to write a Ph.D. thesis about Anwendungen mit reichhaltigen Benutzeroberflächen. Because his supervisor didn't like the English word Rich Interface Applications.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Haha, reichhaltig.

Well, actually it does nicely demonstrate how stupid the term is in English as well.

Matt Эллен

yeah, it's a pretty rubbish word "rich interface applications". tupping marketing speak

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We are just used to it.

4:19 PM

@rumtscho That is really cool! I like it.

Have to go for no, later!

Matt Эллен

no!

Which meant that he practically couldn't get feedback from anybody - all specialists he met, at confereces and elsewhere, and even other members of his thesis committee, had no idea what he was talking about.

Matt Эллен

or was that too soon?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Don't go for no! Go for yes!

3

OBAMA!

Matt Эллен

cya @Cerberus :)

4:20 PM

@MattЭллен Oh! I have your permission after all?

That's great.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus You said you had to go for "no" so he gave you a no

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus if you have to ask, then obviously not :D

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@rumtscho well there's a plus side to that. He didn't end up guttenberging his thesis.

He actually had to write it from scratch.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh! I missed that...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

33 secs ago, by Matt Эллен

@Cerberus if you have to ask, then obviously not :D

4:21 PM

@MattЭллен Ehhh arg logic, thou foul beast! shakes fist Bye!

Matt Эллен

Byeee!

@RegDwightѬſ道 Let's say that you can't really guttenberg a thesis in software engineering, mostly because you are writing about something you had to create yourself.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus do you get a biscuit after shaking your paw?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@rumtscho You'd be surprised.

Just wait and see, now that Guttenberg is in the Internet business...

@RegDwightѬſ道 He is? I didn't follow the news closely enough to hear what happened to him.

Matt Эллен

4:23 PM

@rumtscho I heard he was somewhat depressed

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well he's an Advisor to Most Very Important Board in Parliament of Brussels or something.

Oh that Guttenberg.

I thought you meant Steve Guttenberg.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

He sez, dis is how internets wurk, and then they pass legislation. Step 3: profit. For him.

But hey, if he can google, then copy and paste the results, he probably knows more about computers and the Internet than the average government member. So it makes sense.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Fair to say.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg (full name: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg; born 5 December 1971) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU). In 2011 Guttenberg joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as a Distinguished Statesman. He also advises European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes on the promotion of internet freedom regarding questions of foreign affairs. A Member of Parliament from 2002 until March 2011, Guttenberg briefly held the post of Secretary Genera...

> He also advises European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes on the promotion of internet freedom regarding questions of foreign affairs.

Nice picture of him, BTW.

4:26 PM

He's so pretty!

@RegDwightѬſ道 I see he has learned to "reuse" other people's appearances too, not only their words.

Hello.

Matt Эллен

hi @Mahnax

@MattЭллен J'ai fini mes devoirs de français.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax so they let you in here!

bien

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:27 PM

New active war @Kit.

@MattЭллен I wouldn't say "let"...

Matt Эллен

too few syllables? how about "allowed"?

Well, they don't know I'm here.

Matt Эллен

well, you could go into the FL&U room too and then it's like you're earning extra credit or something

Oh, wow.

Sneaky.

Matt Эллен

4:29 PM

sometimes I am

Hey, did you start reading Le Petit Prince?

Oh, I forgot.

I shall do so now, I guess.

tch

:-P

Matt Эллен

I read it for the first time last year

@KitFox I'm sorry.

Matt Эллен

4:32 PM

I found it very moving.

Did you read it in French?

Matt Эллен

no

I can't really read French

C'est plus profond.

I would recommend learning French just so you can read it in French.

Matt Эллен

L'Anglais, eh, removes some of the profundity?

My new favourite word is wont.

4:33 PM

The translation that I read just doesn't seem to get it right.

Matt Эллен

it is your wont

Or forsook.

@Mahnax I had noticed.

@KitFox Heh.

My recent favorite is indelible.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:34 PM

@KitFox done, and done.

And I'm not even joking. So far that's the only use I was able to find for the French language: reading Le Petit Prince.

My son has his friend over to play.

I am distracted by their cuteness in the other room.

@KitFox Are they noisy?

They just came upstairs to his room, and they are talking about his new Spiderman bedsheets.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax hello? reading comprehension? It's their cuteness that's distracting.

Oh, and now his friend is asking for the names of all the characters on my son's Marvel poster.

And my son is explaining.

"I know Captain America, but who is that?"

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:37 PM

I should get my daughter a marvel poster. to go with her spiderman pajammas

"That's Falcon. I love Falcon. He can fly."

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I was simply asking if they are noisy, not if the noise is distracting. Maybe cuteness is noisy.

Hey @Cerberus I have a present for you when you get back... I stumbled across this amazing collection of euphemisms:

user image

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I happened upon this one by chance and it was on sale so I brought it home as a surprise.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax I'm just teasing.

4:38 PM

@aediaλ I have never heard someone say "I have my moon."

I find "the tomato soup overcooked" hard to believe though.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Je sais.

Nobody had posted in FL&U chat for 10 days, so I decided to break the silence.

Matt Эллен

yay!

@Mahnax Does it make sense in French, maybe?

@aediaλ I like it how it exposes the English lack of imagination

Matt Эллен

4:40 PM

j'ai ma lune

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mahnax Yeah, I was just going to say that, where they hanging around on a Native reserve, maybe?

everybody else has these elaborate metaphors

user image

@aediaλ I have my doubts...

@rumtscho Pardon?

4:41 PM

I've only ever heard "time of the month," and that may not even be a euphemism.

@KitFox Read the screenshot of euphemisms above

@rumtscho In the reddit thread another interesting one someone reported is in Spanish, Andres because of the rhyme San Andres, el que llega cada mes (San Andres the one who comes every month)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox I like how Spider-man is front-and-centre.

Matt Эллен

@rumtscho it's missing "got the painters in"

is that English or from one of our colonies?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

What about "period"? is that a euphemism?

4:42 PM

user image

@MattЭллен Maybe the book writer disliked English people and only included their most boring euphemisms

@rumtscho I know, but how is that lacking in imagination?

Matt Эллен

4

Q: What does (the expression) "to stir the paint" mean?

In today's Family Guy episode, called Seahorse Seashell Party, when Meg was complaining to her mother Lois, her father Peter came to her and whispered something in her ear. Then Meg said: Meg: (complaining) And you never let dad stir the paint anymore, whatever that means. Peter: I didn't k...

phrases expressions

I am horribly slow at reading French.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@aediaλ all three from Germany are completely made up.

Matt Эллен

4:44 PM

@KitFox 9 is my favourite

@KitFox It's just that "blowjob time" doesn't have the same poetic ring to it as, say, "cranberry woman"

Oh, I see.

@MattЭллен Except that it is not actually the vagina that bleeds, but I thought it was funny too.

Matt Эллен

quite

@RegDwightѬſ道 Aw that's disappointing. No cranberries at all?

I have a funny one about birth-control methods, but the cartoon is a bit over the top for this room.

Matt Эллен

4:47 PM

then I'll just take your word for it and laugh :D

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@KitFox post it in the Cooking room.

Matt Эллен

lol

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We'll briefly drop by, look at it, and log out again.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Of course. He's got a Spiderman poster as well.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwightѬſ道 no, the Christianity room. For best results

4:48 PM

Hahahahaha.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Don't, the conservatives are logged in right now

feels tempted

Haha...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Yeah I was going to say, really the other people on that poster are superfluous :)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@rumtscho so that's a yes.

4:48 PM

One of them removed a pic of a birthing doll I posted the other day

Really?

Was it gross?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@rumtscho what's a birthing doll?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah, post a picture. In the Cooking room.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 A mannequin used by obstericians in training, obviously

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Pics or it doesn't happen.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:49 PM

@rumtscho er, right, obviously...?

I went to Amazon, it showed me this thing, and I mentioned it in the cooking room: hey, weird, look what Amazon is showing me

And then the pic was removed.

tsks

Matt Эллен

tch

/Erler-Zimmer-Geburtshilfliche-Übungspuppe/dp/B006LRMWQ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330620649&sr=8-1

What a lovely one of those things.

4:51 PM

If you want to see it, you can prepend www.amazon.de to the above

I don't post the actual link because of the oneboxing.

Huh. Weird. I don't find that offensive.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Customers who looked at this have also looked at: No Scalpel Vasectomy.

Now I visited the actual product page, I see it contains other, more disturbing pics.

Matt Эллен

it's on the verge of the uncanny valley, but it's not offensive. it's clearly a segmented doll

Still.

It's not overtly offensive.

It's just weird.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:53 PM

The Prostatauntersuchungs-Simulator is nice. And it's filed under Küche und Haushalt!

The Statshot I was talking about has a cartoon picture of a penis, so I'm pretty sure it's inappropriate.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

How is Küche not on-topic for Cooking?

rofl

Really?

You're kidding, right?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

/Erler-Zimmer-Prostatauntersuchungs-Simulator/dp/B006LQ9JKO/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_4

I think the Zweigeschlechtiger Asiatischer Luxistorso proves again how weird Asians can get sometimes.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

4:55 PM

Damn, gotta run. Laters.

Bye!

I've got to go soon too.

Matt Эллен

me too

cya @RegDwight

@KitFox Why don't you post a non-oneboxed link with a NSFW warning

sigh

Everyone is leaving?

Then only people who know they are not offended by such things will follow.

Matt Эллен

4:56 PM

only until I get home hugs @KitFox

I'm not leaving yet I'm just busy!

2

Q: "A number of students" vs "The number of students"

From the grammatical view both are correct, but please explain the difference in meaning: 1 - The number of students in the class IS fifteen. 2 - A number of students WERE late for class.

meaning grammatical-number

Minors and people who would be offended by cartoon representations of penises in coke cups should DEFINITELY NOT click on this link

Gotta run, bye!

Bye!

Hey, I just got this email from a user:
B0aHz9savyOt8S
are these zeros or upper case o's?

I can't seem to log in.
Please advice,

Matt Эллен

5:00 PM

cya @Mahnax

From a forwarded "Password Recovery" email.

I am flattered that she thinks I can help like that.

Matt Эллен

can't she tell? even I can tell and I'm a man

I just did what any rational human being would do, and copypasted it into the password line.

Matt Эллен

quite

Then I changed it back to her original password.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:03 PM

@KitFox you're too helpful, I would have just told her to do that herself.

for when she runs into the exact same problem on just about any other website and can't run to you for help.

Matt Эллен

toodles!

I had a user the other day complain that she was having a hard time with such a difficult password. She had reset it and then never changed it to something easy to remember.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I could have, but I would have sounded snarky, and this is one of the muckety-mucks.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Hm, perhaps.

@KitFox just make the reset-password login flow force the user to change their password

@Cerberus is there anything wrong with grue or bleen? Open this picture of yours in different browsers, e.g. Opera and Chrome :P

user image

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Nope, nope, no. plugs ears lalalalalala

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

5:06 PM

@KitFox I know, just outsource the authentication to Google Apps

or facebook connect

Oh. My. God. We'll use OpenID and Gravatars!!!!

I can't believe I didn't think of it before now!

D'awwh. My husband is explaining "taunting" to my son, and how not to do it, because it is not nice.

5:22 PM

@aediaλ Ohh that is beautiful!

But some of those stretch the definition of "euphemism" a bit, like the Dutch one (which I have never heard)...

@Vitaly Wowie! That's magic! How did you do that? It detects the user agent somehow? mind = boggled

Or it exploits some strange difference between the way browsers display images?

@Cerberus Easy: I just filled the outline with grue.

@Vitaly Ohh is that it! Not bleen?

@Cerberus No philosophy in this chat.

@Vitaly You have perpetrated this sin too.

giggles

5:25 PM

And in a more gruesome manner, I might add.

@Vitaly Then we'll call it temporal logic, not philosophy.

Oh no! Children laughing! Must. Resist.

melts

@Vit: I know you're not going to tell me how you did it, so I will have to accept my ignorance.

Perhaps something with the way different browsers handle transparency?

"I can't see my eyeballs!" children rolling on the floor and laughing

Haha aww.

Are you at home?

5:32 PM

Yes, it's a snow day. I have been going on about this all morning. Where have you been?

:P

@KitFox Someplace where it is already spring on the first of March

Asleep? I remember you told me yesterday that there was going to be snow, and it seemed you had to stay at home today, but I'm not sure what the outcome was. shakes brains one more time

hullo people.

Holla.

Any thought on Reg just closing this one? english.stackexchange.com/questions/18862/…

5:37 PM

Hi.

I think Reg is getting just a little pre-emptive lately

hi cerb

Pre-emptive?

Did you see the date on that question?

i can't see why it's off-topic

Because it is dumb.

perhaps I meant peremptory

why is it dumb?

5:39 PM

Is the sentence "I am writing this sentence quickly" grammatically correct? The reason I think it might not be is that if I Google it, I just get my own sentence.

That is not a good question.

but you'll agree the OP in "little by little" had grounds for his misgivings?

Voted to reopen.

I think I might do the same!

Just vote, FF.

Jinx!

It's OK if not everyone agrees on every question.

I think he's at best asking for writing advice. The question is vague and he doesn't say what he thinks is actually wrong with it.

5:41 PM

well i though reg might be here, and might talk me out of it

I'm surprised it didn't get closed in the first place.

@KitFox i suppose it's the tautology he doesn't like - but he can't say that because he doesn't know exactyly what's wrong

@FumbleFingers He doesn't say that. It could be the phrasing, the subject matter, missing commas.

Too vague.

Too localized.

NARQ.

@KitFox The site used to be far more permissive in the past, right.

@FumbleFingers He might not know the word tautology, but he could've said "Can I say 'little by little' and 'increasing' in the same sentence like that?"

shrug

I gotta go for a bit. Back soon.

5:43 PM

Bye!

@Cerberus hardly - I think there's far to much trivial junk here lately, and that question doesn't come close to being one of the really tiresome ones

@KitFox I interpreted it like that. People often don't know how to ask even if they have valid doubts.

@FumbleFingers I don't get the impression that the kinds of questions have changed much.

@Cerberus as you know, I think you've written some great answers here. For all I know, there's a great answer to the little by little Q, even if OP didn't ask it to Kitfox's satisfaction

pokes @Fumble

I will have to consider whether I'm misleading myself by thinking Q quality has gone done

5:46 PM

@FumbleFingers Yeah...people are divided as to whether questions that are not well formulated and don't display a great deal of effort should be allowed.

@KitFox Ow! Cut your nails!

@FumbleFingers I haven't noticed any difference over the past year, but then I am inclined to stasis.

@FumbleFingers She'd rather chew off her foot!

@Cerberus one thing that does happen is we get more dups. I'd like to see more effort going into making more definitive versions of the few "archetypal originals" that keep getting re-asked

@Cerberus A declawed fox? That's animal cruelty, right.

@FumbleFingers That is statistically unavoidable; but most dupes are dupes of the same limited number of questions, say, 20, like the Oxford comma.

@rumtscho I know!

It's like a bird without wings.

5:49 PM

@rumtscho she deserves it - I'm an ole man, so my skin is thin and I'm easily damaged

Which reminds me of a feminist saying that you probably know: woman without man is like fish without bicycle.

@FumbleFingers Old men shouldn't taunt vixens.

in Sandbox, May 27 '11 at 21:35, by Vitaly

user image

@Cerberus again, 2 different browsers

@rumtscho I have faith - kitfox is a bit of a rapscallion, but underneath it all I know she's a little sweetie!

Can we please stop discussing me?

And I'm only a woman some of the time.

5:52 PM

@KitFox oops! thot you said you'd be away for a bit!

looks archly

I believe I was.

@KitFox I happen to know women have larger bladder capacity than men, so if you were off for a pee-break you should have been gone longer (but most men over 50 have some degree of prostate cancer, so it should all balance out)

Leans back with some popcorn and watches the drama unfold

@Vitaly Huh, IE won't let him walk!

@FumbleFingers Well, then you should easily draw the conclusion that I was not, in fact, micturating.

5:54 PM

@KitFox don't get me started! I refuse to ask if you were away breast-feeding!

Hey, hey. Just let the fox sleep in her hole.

It says DND.

@FumbleFingers My children are all weaned, silly.

@KitFox oh - thot you were banging on about babies t'other day

What other sorts of fantasies do you have about the things that women do?

@Cerberus DND? or DNR?

5:56 PM

@FumbleFingers Yes, I have one who is four and one who is a year and a half.

@KitFox awful ones, that I'm ashamed to make public without a drink inside me!

pours scotch

prepares to be amused

@KitFox s'ok for you - here in UK the sun hasn't gotten past the yard-arm yet!

swirls a circle with spiral pattern Tell me about it.

I live west of you.

And you are retired.

5:58 PM

don't laugh - one thing is I get turned on by middle-aged women wearing cardigans with the sleeves pushed back

stifles giggle

Better than teenage girls wearing cardigans I guess

I had a friend who liked the way women would prop their breasts on the table during meetings.

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