English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KannE

21:01

@Færd I'm sorry, I meant--'if you just scroll past the first few results [not comments] (two out of three are english.stackexchange.com...)'--I was referring to results found while googling, not comments on this site. Sorry, again, it's hard for me to edit the text in these little boxes...not little-old-lady friendly at all.

Færd

@Mitch morn is more toward the front, I think. With rounder lips.

@KannE Oh don't worry. Got what you meant.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

What the . . . I blame @Mitch

@Mitch that's how it should be done

Mitch

I feel guilty now

Færd

@KannE So there's a time limit for editing messages and comments (a few minutes).

Withing those limits, you could access your previous message in chat by pressing the up arrow key.

(In case you want to know)

On the main site, hmm, I don't remember. There should be an edit button somewhere.

Mitch

@Færd yes, totally, when rhotic. But take away the r (not in spelling but the shift towards not pronouncing r's), and the 'o' becomes unrounded and pretty much the same as the 'o' in 'dawn' (as long as you don't have the cot-caught merger)

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:07

You should trust @Færd. He knows a lot.

Mitch

@KannE chat is a little more difficult on a phone.

Færd

@Mitch Oh darn.

You may be on to something.

Mitch

@Færd everything is complicated

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

I got caught cutting a coat on a cot.

Pretty safe though, no one pressed charges

Færd

@Mitch Spare me those simple facts of life.

Mitch

21:09

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ A cat caught a coat cutting a cot

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

English is totally a knockoff of Azeri Turkish

Mitch

Totally

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch now that's a blatant offense

Mitch

@Færd Oh, you know that song?

How does it go?

Færd

No.

Mitch

21:10

Dum ditty dum de dum, du de dum

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Færd I thought facts of life were a bit different

Mitch

Wait... that's off.

Færd

Go on. You got me on my feet.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch Mickey mouse?

Færd

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ like what?

Mitch

21:12

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Ugh... no. Beethoven. Obviously. 17th string quartet, #5, D-minor. it comes right before the final coda.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Færd en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/facts_of_life .

I guess I evaded using "the"

Mitch

Show your spirit, raise your hands in the air
Show your spirit and shake your derriere.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch wow, Beethoven wrote Mickey mouse's song?

That's awesome even for Disney

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ It's not a well know fact.

Wagner wrote Here Comes the Bride.

KannE

@Færd Thanks, that's good to know. I still don't know how to edit yet. But, I referred to one of my messages as a comment (and to an online result as a comment, but that was an error; see apology); I guess you're supposed to refer to what I'm typing now as either a message or a reply (to a message); I don't know the chat jargon yet. Sorry for any confusion; thanks for helping. Have a nice evening.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:14

You wonder how Walt Disney got 28 Oscars

Mitch

SO the Nutella thing is over now. How did y'all like that?

I've got another one teed up for same time tomorrow afternoon.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

He totally stole dead musicians' unknown stuff

Faheem Mitha

I just got a notification regarding this room.

I'm not sure why.

Færd

@KannE No need to apologize! Have a nice evening yourself. :)

Faheem Mitha

This is the ELU room?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:15

Your presence was deemed necessary by the system

Faheem Mitha

Did it change its name again?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Probably

13 mins ago, by M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

What the . . . I blame @Mitch

Mitch

@FaheemMitha Yeah. It changed. You sorta missed the activity.

There'll be another one tomorrow at the same time.

Faheem Mitha

Ok. Well, still wondering why I was notified. But whatever.

I think I was logged in here on the previous browser I was running. But not in this one.

Mitch

It was a test to see who was logged in.

You passed

Faheem Mitha

21:18

So Mitch gets to change the name of the room? That's a tad... alarming.

I wonder what it will be called tomorrow.

Mitch

I know!

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@FaheemMitha IKR

Mitch

jinx

Faheem Mitha

@Mitch That was you, then?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

What was tchrist thinking

This is how the world ends

Mitch

21:19

@FaheemMitha Yeah

Faheem Mitha

ok

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Oh, there's more.

There's the afterparty

Færd

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ He wanted to rejuvenate the atmosphere, I'm sure.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

This was patient zero

@Færd fix the ozone layer?

Mitch

You use rejuvenate like it means to make things new again

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:20

I guess this room being incomprehensible released CFC

Færd

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Umm, that's on a whole nother level.

@Mitch Or young again.

Mitch

I heard a great pun the other day: "People love spirals. We love spirals. It's in our DNA"

Færd

Damn right.

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Oh. Sorry. That was me.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch 8/10

Færd

21:21

We're all going down all sorts of them, as a community of spiral lovers.

Faheem Mitha

I see the gang is all here.

Mitch

spiral coral lovers?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch humans only produce H2S

And bad puns

Faheem Mitha

Well, not @Cerberus.

tchrist

@Mitch There is no spiral in our DNA.

Mitch

21:22

a corral of spiral coral lovers?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

I'm not a snake

Færd

@tchrist A helix, rather?

tchrist

@Færd Correct.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Double helix

Mitch

a carrel to study chorales of spiral coral corral lovers?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:23

Double the fun

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Good because if you were that would change the atmosphere here entirely

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Toxic atmosphere

Faheem Mitha

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Full of serotonin gas

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Again, I'm sorry.

Ender Look

21:24

Mitch

Or rather, I'm sorry, it happened again.

Ender Look

What is that?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch do your duty as RO then

Færd

@Mitch Lay off all that Nutella for the atmosphere's sake.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

ROs are supposed to absorb toxicity like a sponge

Mitch

21:25

@EnderLook It's a message that tells you the obvious, that Nutella is good on toast.

tchrist

A spiral has an ever-increasing X- and Y-coodinate but stays in one plane. A helix is a progression around a constant circle if you're Z-ignorant but which gets slinkied up into the Z-axis.

Mitch

I don't mean to brag

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Lethal job, really

Mitch

I don't mean to boast

tchrist

"Every increasing" is wrong.

Mitch

21:25

but I like hot butter

Færd

@tchrist So what would a spiral fit on a cone called?

tchrist

You figure out the math. Hint: it's easier with polar coordinates.

Mitch

on my breakfast toast

tchrist

@Færd I don't know!

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ What's an RO?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:26

@Mitch squashed name in chat

Mitch

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ resident overseer?

rude organizer

tchrist

@Mitch A place that it's hard to navigate through.

Færd

> spi·ral
ˈspīrəl/Submit
adjective
1.
winding in a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve, either around a central point on a flat plane or about an axis so as to form a cone.

Mitch

raucous oligarch?

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch ayep

@Mitch darn right

@Mitch this one just the mods

Mitch

21:28

I thought it was some weird chemical thing

tchrist

Oleoruss.

Mitch

@tchrist Not as good on toast as you might think

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Now that's a weird chemical thing

Mitch

> "When the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars". Astrologer Neil Spencer denounced the lyrics as "astrological gibberish", noting that Jupiter aligns with Mars several times a year and the moon is in the 7th House for two hours every day

tchrist

Do you know about the secret superpower yet?

Mitch

21:32

What a jerk. How else are you going to get the rhythm to work out _and have 'Mars' and 'stars' rhyme?

@tchrist Locked and loaded dude. Just tell me when and I'll set it off.

If you're referring to the superpower of being able to write your name in the snow when you pee, then yes.

Oh...that one is nice. So ... refreshing.

tchrist

Choose 1: mirabile visu or a blind man looking for a black cat in a black room that isn't really there

Mitch

@tchrist That's from something right?

tchrist

The surest way to draw attention to something is to delete it.

It makes everyone who is able look and see what you've deleted.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch and the sound is like "blood urea, you're someone else's problem now"

Mitch

That delete thing is nice

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:36

I prefer it to relaxing music

tchrist

You're welcome. Don't do anything bad with it. And it only works if you have the link.

Mitch

I always heard it as "a blind man looking for a black hat in a black room that isn't really there"

tchrist

All cats are the same color after midnight.

Mitch

He's going to be a little upset either way

tchrist

Hats, too.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

21:37

@tchrist it's unfair. I don't have the powers in this room and you just deleted something 😭😭😭😭😭

@Mitch goddamnit

Mitch

@tchrist It's not like...it's not like it's any more actionable than if every body could see it.

like if I delete a profane ethnic slur about the Norwegians (you know how they are), like for example:

(removed)

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Is there another room you can read them in?

I could say them there

@JohanLarsson knows what I'm talking about.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Mitch wherever I'm a squashed name

Mitch

about norwegians that is

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ You just used emojis and I don't have the powers to tell the difference between them and plain old smily emojis

Which brings me to my polemical act of the day:

So (bear with me for a moment) Chinese is an awful writing system. Awful. Of course there is a lot of cultural baggage that goes a long with it, but it is a hindrance to literacy. Children and adults there are starting to use pinyin naturally whenever they can't remember a character. Just by usage, they'll slowly switch over to an alphabet (Roman just out of the cultural hegemony of Europe).

That's not the polemic.

Because it gets worse.

tchrist

@Mitch True that; look again. :)

Mitch

@tchrist Uno momentito, while I'm in the middle of my polemic

So English...

and I think you can already see where this is going

tchrist

21:47

There's nothing to see there anyway.

Mitch

IS AN AWFUL WRITING SYSTEM

the same logic or practice should apply to English as it does to Chinese.

Keep the alphabet (really, who cares) (IPA is only marginally better than roman, it has its own problems with ambiguity

tchrist

Tell that to the Vietnamese

Mitch

have things spelled phonetically

tchrist

Not possible.

You mean phonemically.

Mitch

Look man, that's exactly the problem, since t and m are often written for each other!

Also, who said it, PHONEMES DON'T EXIST

so that's it.

tchrist

21:51

English has a billion speakers.

Mitch

Your objections are all meaningless, but since you're probably curious I'll address them out of the magnanimity of all that is Nutella.

@tchrist Pfft

tchrist

Even among native speakers, there are hundreds of accents.

Mitch

That was objection and retort #1

tchrist

And each of those pronounces things a little differently.

Mitch

Chinese has more

tchrist

21:51

So, whose phonetics wins?

How can you read something written the wrong way?

Mitch

@tchrist No big deal, the weirdos will have to deal with it.

tchrist

Roit den mite.

You see where this is going: nowhere good.

Mitch

You'll know wou're reading australian when 'nice' is printed 'neeyois'

@tchrist It's better than the crap we have now.

tchrist

Or suvvern where 'yes' is 'yee-ass'.

Mitch

So you're avoiding the, understandably, worrying loss of ability to understand anything your parents could read.

I think that it is practically axiomatic that that is no loss.

At all

@tchrist I was thinking about that the other day. What can the pin-pen merger possibly be when the Southerners who might have it say 'pee-yen'

Are there any other objections?

None that any sane person could think

So now, how will this all play out?

First China will fall, and then, as deterministically as the SKI -combinator logic is a cartesian-closed category model for the denotational semantics of lambda calculus, English will fall.

I mean once we have self-driving cars, we probably won't feel like reading either anyway, so there's that.

tchrist

21:59

Yur rayt ðæt “sɪks” ən “sɪt” hæv ɛvər so slaytli dɪfrɪnt fənɛtɪks, bət ðoz ɔl tæli tə ðə sem əndərlayiŋ fonim /ɪ/ ɪn ðə maynz əv əs netəv spɪkərz. Yor tʃælənʒ ɪz tə lərn tə θiŋk ðæt sem we æz wi du.

ɪŋlɪʃ raytiŋ wəz orɪdʃənəli ɪntɛndəd tə bi fənimɪk: ælfəbɛts ar nɛvər fənɛtɪk rɛprɪzɛnteʃənz, onli fənimɪk wənz. ɪt wɪl nɛvər bi pasəbl tə rayt ɪŋlɪʃ fənɛtɪkli ɪn ə we θæt pipl awtsayd θæt dayəlɛkt wɪl bi ebl tə mek ɛni sɛns awt əv, sɪns fənɛtɪks veriz so gretli.

ɪts also ə hyudʃ baðər gɛdɪŋ ɔl ðə lɪdl sɪmbəlz rayt. bət raytiŋ ɪŋlɪʃ fənimɪkli ɪz rili kwayt izi, rili, wəns yu gɛt yustə ɪt, æz bay naw yu kən si hir ɪn θɪs ʃort ɛgzæmpl.

KannE

Would it be considered un-PC (or stereotyping perhaps) if I said--Puerto Ricans were all about Nutella (vs. peanut butter) when Nutella wasn't cool? Because...I think I can substantiate that...

tchrist

You'll have to ask the nut lord.

Mitch

@tchrist Look man, Finnish does it, Vietnamese does it, Korean does it. Why can't we?

tchrist

tometo tamatu

Mitch

@KannE I'd like to see you try

@KannE Oh!

OH!

Great idea!

Thank you

So much

KannE

22:04

@Mitch I have receipts...little old ladies keep their receipts...don't try me...

Mitch

Nutella flavored Plumpy'nut

You're all very welcome

That idea is my gift to humanity

No statues please

At least not til I'm gone

It's really too vain

maybe a building named after me

I mean, you gotta name it something

@KannE Do you have a receipt for cornbread? Little old ladies spell 'recipe' sure funny.

> Plumpy'Nut is said to be "surprisingly tasty"

tchrist

Si es española, son la mismísima palabra.

Xanne

@Mitch Mitch, it sounded as though it was a site-wide action memo--people hired, projects undertaken, etc.

KannE

@Mitch Well, sure, every Boston Market receipt (with a twofer coupon on the bottom) is a receipt for cornbread...based on how some ppl like to willy-nilly their noun phrases and predicate nouns whenever possible. Little old ladies use willy-nilly as a verb? I had no idea.

tchrist

22:32

Will she or nill she, the verb marches on.

KannE

23:06

@tchrist Sorry, was that for me? I was referring to my extended family (family by marriage, etc.). Oftentimes, in military families at least, the customs remain but the languages pass away...with the grandparents usually, sad but true. For example, I'm a CODA; I never really taught my kids SEE/ASL, just enough signs to communicate somewhat with their grandparents...it was a mistake I regret. But the Nutella on white bread remains! Ha-ha-ha.

KannE

23:30

@Mitch We do, we do...on white bread, fried tortillas, ice cream, cobbler, baklava, croissants, and those sad little breadsticks...but never on cornbread...let's not get crazy here.

Mitch

@KannE Yeah Nutella on cornbread would be ... wait... delicious!

room topic changed to English Language and Usage: ðiː ˌɪŋkɒmpɹɨˈhɛnsɨbəɫ ˈɻʷuːm (EL&U main chatroom) meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/chat-faq [phrase-requests] [pronunciation] [single-word-requests] [synonyms]

KannE

23:46

@Mitch I'll take your word for it...we prefer our cornbread with jalapenos. Oh, I almost forgot--fried plantains!--man, I miss Carmen. I'm just hungry now. It's been fun; have a pleasant evening.

RegDwigнt

Oh noes I is in ur sexexchange upvoting Mitch. What has this world come to.
Also, what's with the GUI changes, I can't find anything for shit.
Where's the chat now, for starters.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…