English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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CowperKettle

6:16 PM

@tchrist Haha, welcome to the club. 60% of Russians support Putin while he shows contempt for them.

Sometimes people are illogical. A lot of Germans supported Hitler.

> Anne Goursaud

Is the final d pronounced in Goursaud?

How do we pronounce Florence Hublet? ab le?

I think that in French we omit the first consonant, so it must be "ab".

I'm not sure about "t", but I'll omit it too.

So, Абле in Russian

CowperKettle

6:37 PM

Cerberus

6:54 PM

@CowperKettle That should be something like /'an gur'so:/.

CowperKettle

@Cerberus Thank you!

> In 1997, actor Morgan Freeman offered to fund a racially integrated prom in Charleston, Mississippi, where he lives. The offer was turned down. In 2007, he made the offer again and it was accepted, and the school held its first integrated prom in 2008, profiled in the documentary Prom Night in Mississippi.

Wow, segregation persisted into the 1990s

Cerberus

@CowperKettle /flo'rɑ̃ːs y'blɛ/

CowperKettle

Thank you!

Cerberus

(Some of those vowels might not be exactly right.)

D, t, p, and s at the end of a word are generally not pronounced in French.

Au is pronounced like a long o, a bit like American English rose

Whereas ou is pronounced like English oo, as in book or lose.

U is (usually?) pronounced like German ü.

CowperKettle

7:18 PM

For the purposes of Russian transliteration, this is superflous information! ))

yawns

Cerberus

@CowperKettle What do you mean?

1 hour later…

Cerberus

8:26 PM

@Færd That is true. The semantics are only one factor, though an important one, I think.

@M.A.R. So who made this t-shirt? It is a mistake?

Cerberus

9:05 PM

> IS has moved into narcotics-smuggling and distribution in a major way. It has been expanding its role in the Afghan heroin trade, and has also become active in the distribution of cocaine from South America. In both cases, those activities bring it into conflict with al-Qaida which, along with the Taliban, has been involved with the worldwide distribution of Afghan heroin, as well as with the European distribution of Colombian cocaine.

IS has also emerged as a major player in the distribution of hashish in Europe, and in the last year has also emerged as a significant producer and distri…

> At its peak, the Islamic State was believed to have income of between $1 billion and $2 billion.

> It's hard to get a concrete number for the revenues being generated by the Islamic State's illicit activities, but several U.S. and European intelligence analysts believe it is probably somewhere between $200 million and $500 million [currently].

> [Since the defeat of IS,] U.S. intelligence agencies believe that IS was able to launder approximately $400 million via various Turkish entities. In addition, it's estimated that another $250 million was laundered in Iraq through investments in legitimate Iraqi businesses.

military.com/daily-news/opinions/2020/11/06/…

Interesting stuff.

RegDwigнt

9:46 PM

@tchrist it's because everything is a corona outbreak now.

@Cerberus well here's another datapoint for you.

There was that bubble tea craze here a decade ago. Every other shop in every street was selling bubble tea. Then every last one of them was gone overnight. The next wave that came was burgers. All those empty stores were making burgers all of a sudden. Then that also stopped.

Guess what the current wave is.

Shisha pipe sellers and barbershops. Three of each on every street corner.

Not one person here has ever bought a shisha pipe. And you have to wonder where on earth Turkey would suddenly get ten thousand all-new barbers from, just for this tiny town alone.

It's just money laundering, and everyone knows it.

But it's a fun game to guess what wave will come next.

> > Flutinetist posted discussion "Learning Piano" in group "Piano Beginners"

So I got a piano about a week ago. I can already play all major (and some minor) scales, many chords, and I can read music notes in treble and bass clef. But I am having a hard time with [yada yada please give tips]

To borrow a phrase from @Robusto, "uh-huh".

If you can read both clefs and play all scales after about a week, you don't need to be asking for no tips from no one, buster.

I can't even name half the scales after thirty years. And I'm a piano teacher.

user 6232128

10:01 PM

@RegDwigнt why are they laundering their money?

RegDwigнt

It's very dirty where they come from. Lots of sand. Very little water.

RegDwigнt

10:51 PM

The second phrase that I shall borrow tonight will be John Oliver's "And now, this":

Q: What is the female equivalent phrase to the slang phrase, "big dick energy"?

"Big dick energy" is usually a positive phrase about someone that they have a lot of confidence or energy. According to Urban Dictionary by user neptuneestate (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=big%20dick%20energy), the definition is the following: confidence without cockiness. it ...

RegDwigнt

11:27 PM

Trump-Fan: „Sie zählen Stimmen von Haustieren“

►

I have so many question about the US election system.

She says,

"I wanted to make sure that the votes are counted properly."

"I've had many friends who told me that they got votes for their dogs or cats or dead people living in their appartments."

The fuck does that even mean.

How do her friends know about those votes?

If someone casts a vote on behalf of your dog in the US, do they have to inform you?

Or does she mean that her friends got sent ballots for their dogs? Then who the fuck put a cross next to Biden on these ballots and mailed them off? The dogs? Or the friends themselves? And if the latter, the fuck she even complaining about?

Also, an off-topic question, the fuck does "dead people living in their appartments" mean. Is that customary in the US?

Also also, how does one ensure that the votes are counted properly by standing outside the building and shouting "U! S! A!"?

I have so many questions about the US election system.