English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

New Saxony

12:16 AM

@Cerberus "neologism". Cool. Thx for the new word.

Cerberus

@NewSaxony That's circular!

Xanne

1:08 AM

Latered is obsolete, unless slang, in which it means drunk.

New Saxony

@Xanne coolio

Robusto

BTW, I'll add that knackered is such a terrific term I wish America would adopt it wholesale. — Robusto Oct 28 '14 at 18:11

New Saxony

1:55 AM

@Robusto I think that I've heard someone use it here.... Or maybe not.

But hammered, wasted, and loaded are all so good on their own.

Locally, I've heard "drunk as a skunk".

Cerberus

4:16 AM

@KannE This is as good as a picture!

New Saxony

5:43 AM

'Night, y'all. Hope ya sleep well.

CowperKettle

8:05 AM

Three days in a row above 2 million jabs

CowperKettle

8:18 AM

Word of the day: Butcher-on-the-bus phenomenon

CowperKettle

9:24 AM

62% of Russians said they don't want to get the Sputik V vaccine, up from 58% in December 2020. novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/03/01/…

4% said that they have already been vaccinated. Not much, but still good.

Xanne

10:03 AM

@CowperKettle Well, the big risk is that if we don’t get close enough to herd immunity that we can trace & quarantine, we’ll have a new version(s) that we won’t be immune to, and start the whole thing over again. Plus immunity may not be good for more than eight months or so. Sort of like a fire with embers that keep igniting new areas.

Cheers :)

CowperKettle

10:22 AM

Hi there! ))

> Apart from BH4Ds, the differential diagnosis of HPA includes phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) deficiency, DNAJC12 deficiency, high natural protein intake, prematurity, and liver disease.

I wonder what the meaning of natural here is.

Natural as opposed to synthetic (protein)?

Or natural intake as opposed to unnatural intake?

I don't know what may count as "unnatural intake". Maybe forced feeding or elevated intake of protein in preparation for a bodybuilding contest.

Xanne

@CowperKettle Is HPA like PKA, phynylkeyptonuria.p? Anyway my guess is that a high natural protein diet means a pattern of meat consumption with a high portion of in the daily diety

CowperKettle

@Xanne Thank you! Yes, HPA is hyperphenylalaninemia

Xanne

10:45 AM

Eggs for breakfast (or sardines, meat & cheese for lunch, steaks or chops for dinner, just natural for the community. s

Not that they don't eat salads with strawberries, but that the protein is central.

And pasta too. But with meat sause.

Sorry for all the misspellings.

Xanne

11:13 AM

Phenylketenonuria.

Difficult to manage, but possible. No-fun diet without respite.

Faheem Mitha

@Xanne ?

Did you mean to reply to something/someone else?

Xanne

@FaheemMitha What?

Faheem Mitha

@Xanne That photo is a reply to a message I wrote. In Nov 13 2020, I think.

Xanne

Mean

Faheem Mitha

Though I forget where SE shows the year of the transcript. I'm not seeing it right now.

Xanne

11:24 AM

It was a follow-up to Cowperkettle’s posts, mostly.

Faheem Mitha

I think you replied to the wrong message, then.

Xanne

Well maybe the topic came up before.

Faheem Mitha

That earlier message was regarding a Garmin vivoactive which you have/had.

Xanne

11:41 AM

I still have the garmine, but that exchange had nothing to do with PKU.

Conrado

11:51 AM

Hi)

Did you know?

The Mormons made their own phonetic alphabet.

atlasobscura.com/articles/deseret-alphabet-mormon

> The Board have had frequent sittings this winter, with the sanguine hope of simplifying the English language, and especially its orthography. After many fruitless attempts to render the common alphabet of the day subservient to their purpose, they found it expedient to invent an entirely new and original set of characters.

"sanguine hope" :)

> Critics (both today and formerly) have protested that the Deseret Alphabet was created as a means of control—keeping the Mormon population from reading outside material and keeping non-Mormon settlers and officials from easily understanding church documents.

Xanne

Orson Scott Card is a Mormon and a sci-fi writer.

Conrado

> [Card] is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young (Wikipedia)

Does he write using the Deseret Alphabet?

Xanne

No, he writes with standard Roman alphabet.

Conrado

12:07 PM

Apparently Brigham Young was the champion of the Deseret Alphabet.

Xanne

Mitt Romney’s father, George, was born in Mexico because his parents went there to avoid the objections to polygamy in Utah. George Romney ran ab

Conrado

Perhaps Young hoped that the DA would help any future translators of tablets inscribed in Reformed Egyptian.

Xanne

n automobile company and ran for president.

I think I need sleep, I keep hitting wrong keys.

Conrado

Smith seemed to have passed on his turn for outlandish and/or invented languages, anyhow.

@Xanne OK, I won't bother you any more. Sweet dreams, if you dream at all!

Xanne

‘Night.

CowperKettle

1:03 PM

Grocery store in Shagonar, Tuva, Russia

Due to the high level of crime, store owners install metal bars to protect their stores.

Tuva has the highest murder rate in Russia, with approx. 45 per 100 thousand in Kyzyl, the capital.

In Mexico, the estimated rate is 30 per 100 thousand. So Kyzyl is a 1.5 times more dangerous.

Faheem Mitha

1:26 PM

It's strange that apparently sinister is Latin for left. As in left hand.

How it come to have a meaning so far from left?

CowperKettle

2:27 PM

23% of Russians said in a poll that covid emerged naturally, via mutations in animals.

64% said that it was created artificially.

Can I use the results of this poll as grounds for requesting asylum in the West?

Robusto

2:50 PM

@CowperKettle I'd endorse your application. But people are crazy here too.

Conrado

3:02 PM

What did the other 13% of Russians say? Did they abstain?

> The Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky, unfavorable" (omens, especially bird flights, seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune), and thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, unfavorable, adverse." This was from Greek influence, [...] In genuine Roman auspices, the augurs faced south and left was favorable. Thus sinister also retained a secondary sense in Latin of "favorable, auspicious, fortunate, lucky."

etymonline.com/word/sinister

So it was because of those silly astrologers.

Some faced North, and some faced South, but both thought that the East was favorable.

They might have been right. After all, that's where the sun comes up!

CowperKettle

3:22 PM

@Conrado Probably "unsure"

Tram route 33, carriage no. 333

Conrado

@CowperKettle Did you ride 3 kms?

CowperKettle

@Conrado No, I ran 7 km

Cerberus

@Conrado This is not what Latin dictionaries tell me, though.

CowperKettle

Starting last year, the number of bicycled deliverers has really ballooned in Yekaterinburg.

Cerberus

@FaheemMitha So I think this would be a perfect question for latin.stackexchange.com !

Conrado

3:25 PM

@Cerberus Shucks, I though etymonline was supposed to be well-sourced!

Cerberus

The problem is that it is more complicated, at least that is the impression one gets when consulting a Latin dictionary!

Conrado

@FaheemMitha be sure to post a link if you ask, so that I can follow the question on Latin SE.

Cerberus

But you should ask on latin.stackexchange.com !

Doesn't have to be Faheem.

CowperKettle

We have the word dexterous, so there must be sinisterous

> I am sinisterous at playing chess

Cerberus

Sinistrous.

Conrado

3:28 PM

"His sinisterity caused him to drop his teacup."

Cerberus

Indeed.

Latin also has laevus and scaevus for "left".

Mitch

"After my sneezing fit, I went to the ER and found I had deviated my sinistrous"

Mitch

3:43 PM

In the Romance languages at least, the cognate for 'right(correct)' and 'right(direction)' is consistently 'right', but for false and/or left handed, they go all over the place:
right left
Sp derecha izquierda
Fr droit gauche
It giusto sinistra
Ro dreapta stanga
Po direita deixou

Germanic it's rechts/ret and links/venster (some change but not chaotic for left). Slavic I can't tell when some things are cognate.

Robusto

3:55 PM

8

A: Are the Japanese and Korean spoken languages somehow related?

I'm a native Japanese speaker, and I have experienced this, too. Depending on the weather condition, it's possible to listen to Korean AM radio in Japan. When the noise is very strong, I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish whether it's in Japanese or in Korean. I guess this is mainly becau...

Haha, I'm not crazy after all!

CowperKettle

4:23 PM

Research from the University of Kent has led to the development of the MeshCODE theory, a revolutionary new theory for understanding brain and memory function

CowperKettle

5:32 PM

> The prevalence of keratoconus varies between ethnic groups, with figures as high as 1.2% reported in some predominantly European populations8, to 2.3–3.3% in Maori or Iranian populations.

@M.A.R. - do you know any Iranians with keratoconus? An article says that it is somewhy very widespread in Iran.

In Russia, when I say I have keratoconus, people make big eyes because they have not heard the word ever before.

Mitch

5:51 PM

@Robusto Not for that at least

@CowperKettle I have not heard the word ever before. Is it like some kind of fingernail thing?

oh...

mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/keratoconus/symptoms-causes/….

Keratoconus

Keratoconus (KC) is a disorder of the eye that results in progressive thinning of the cornea. This may result in blurry vision, double vision, nearsightedness, irregular astigmatism, and light sensitivity leading to poor quality-of-life. Usually both eyes are affected. In more severe cases a scarring or a circle may be seen within the cornea.While the cause is unknown, it is believed to occur due to a combination of genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors. About seven percent of those affected have a family history of the condition. Proposed environmental factors include rubbing the eyes and...

CowperKettle

6:31 PM

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle I don't know anyone, but it's probably a bit hard to notice in strangers

CowperKettle

7:32 PM

The two genius things done by the Austrians: 1) They persuaded the world that Mozart was Austrian; 2) They persuaded the world that Hitler was not Austrian.

Cerberus

8:18 PM

Robusto

Thank you. At least now I have some evidence I'm not crazy. Well, at least not for this. ^_^ — Robusto 6 hours ago

Nothing new under the sun.

Gigili

8:36 PM

TIL that Basque is a country, my house is bigger than that country!

I'm not sure if I am supposed to be happy or sad

Robusto

8:51 PM

@Gigili If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that it is possible to be both at the same time.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus even Hungarians say Hungarian

Cerberus

@M.A.R. And the Finns.

So that proves it.

CowperKettle

> "This pipeline of data flow, i.e., collected by an input source, processed and stored transiently in the hippocampus before being written to long-term storage, would suggest that the hippocampus might contain the equivalent of a file system that maps out the data locations in the cortex and assigns information to specific cortical columns for long-term storage."

M.A.R.

And Italians think French is weird, hehe

Cerberus

And Swedes think Danish is weird.

M.A.R.

9:04 PM

But yeah, I would definitely either say Polish or Hungarian

CowperKettle

Hungarian is usually considered the most complex.

Cerberus

Oh, really? Why Polish?

Finnish, Basque, and Hungarian are not Indo-European, so those make the most sense.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus it's an odd amalgam of Russian with western European languages and it manages to be weirder than them both

Johan Larsson

dutch is weird to me, why is one vowel not enough?

2

M.A.R.

At least my naive impression

CowperKettle

9:05 PM

Bulgarian is weird in that it has articles. The only Slavic language to have articles.

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Hmm but who would appreciate that? Not I, who speak Germanic. I can understand the Yugoslavians. But the Turks, the Austrians, the Norse?

Johan Larsson

what does the russian word that sounds like davai mean?

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Cool, perhaps taken from Greek?

M.A.R.

Hungary and Bulgaria are weird in that they're Hungary and Bulgaria

@Cerberus Hey, I'm a Turk, and our language makes perfect sense!

Except when it doesn't

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson How else do you distinguish between short and long vowels! We used to have many more double vowels in our spelling, until a century ago.

Johan Larsson

9:07 PM

:)

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Yes. But why do you find Polish so weird? That is what doesn't make sense to me.

I mean, I wouldn't expect you people to know anything about Polish and the nuances of Germanic influences on Slavic (just as I don't know anything about that).

CowperKettle

@JohanLarsson As a standalone word, it means something like "Let's" or "Come on"

Johan Larsson

thanks

CowperKettle

давай (davai), the commanding case of "to give", thus "give!"

Давай проваливай (Davai provalivai) = "Go away!"

Cerberus

Too bad we don't know what language the Basques find the weirdest.

CowperKettle

9:10 PM

Давай поженимся (Davai pozhenimsya) = "Let's get married!"

Cerberus

Perhaps another time.

CowperKettle

Давай сюда (Davai syuda) = "Give it here!" or "Climb aboard!" or "Go sit with us!" (suyda means "(to) here")

Johan Larsson

@CowperKettle but we don't know eachother

CowperKettle

Haha

Мистер Твистер - "Давай!" со словами

►

The song titled Davai! by a rockabilly band

I had the LP disk with this song

Back in 1993

Here it means something like "Hit it!"

M.A.R.

@Cerberus Oh. I guess simply because I've met Poles online and not many Basque people or . . .

Cerberus

9:16 PM

Nor any Hungarians, Finns?

M.A.R.

And I've failed at every trial to pronounce Polish words and names

Cerberus

So I can imagine.

But it's still Slavic.

And you've probably heard other Slavic languages.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus I remember I met a teenager Finn a couple of years ago who was so riled up about the Iranian nuclear program, haha

Other than that, no notable Finns

What I've heard about Finnish is that it initially seems pretty difficult to learn, and there are so many inflections and stuff, but that it's structured pretty well and the exceptions to grammatical rules are few, unlike, say, German

And that even Wikipedia entries for the verb conjugations are computer-generated

Cerberus

Hah.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected, offensive title detected (97): (potentially offensive title -- see MS for details) by Tsunshu on english.SE

Johan Larsson

9:23 PM

@CowperKettle do you understand finnish?

M.A.R.

@JohanLarsson probably not or he would have bombarded us with Finnish poets alongside Russian and Ukrainian ones

CowperKettle

@JohanLarsson No

I never heard Finnish even.

Finland is 2622 km away from Yekaterinburg