Gas Price Outrage!

[Haggis@wk]

Phfsst. It's only fair, we've been knocking off superfluous syllables from the “mother tongue” since 1776; we won. It’s time to trot out my favorite quote about the English language.

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

Mainly attribute to James Nicoll

[dai bread]

Only too true. Try telling a Japanese about "karaoke". He'll look at you blankly. He has no idea what you're trying to say. Change the pronunciation to something approaching " carroty" and he'll understand.

I have heard some English speakers try to use French pronunciation of words like "garage", and (my favourite) "questionnaire", pronounced "kesteon air". I've never heard anyone try the same trick with German or, in fact, any other language except Maori.

[Haggis@wk]

Only too true. Try telling a Japanese about "karaoke". He'll look at you blankly. He has no idea what you're trying to say. Change the pronunciation to something approaching " carroty" and he'll understand.

I have heard some English speakers try to use French pronunciation of words like "garage", and (my favourite) "questionnaire", pronounced "kesteon air". I've never heard anyone try the same trick with German or, in fact, any other language except Maori.

Thai is equally as shameless as English. Since there's no word in Thai for "video" it's pronounced "Vee-dee-o." Computer is "Kom-put-er." I had a Thai ask me, in Thai, what the English word was for "neck tie" I told him "neck tie."

For years Germans tried to avoid the word "telephone" by using the tortured German phrase "Fernsprecher" for "far speaker." They finally gave up and went to "telefon"

[piqaboo]

WHen I was training sites in Germany on using our electronic data capture system, I asked someone the word for 'pop up' in German. Its 'pop up'.

[barfle]

If you think the old German word for telephone is strange (and virtually unpronouncable), try the word for "television."

Fernsehapparat - an apparatus for seeing far. No idea what a telescope might be any more.

And speedometer - Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger.

[jamiebk]

And speedometer - Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger.

Translated to english, this word actually means..."the little red needle in the center of the dial that has all the numbers on it that tells you how fast you are going"

[Shapley]

Well, we do have difficult words for auto parts in English, such as PRNDL.

[Haggis@wk]

If you think the old German word for telephone is strange (and virtually unpronouncable), try the word for "television."

Fernsehapparat - an apparatus for seeing far. No idea what a telescope might be any more.

And speedometer - Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger.

Thanks, I remember the TV kerfuffle but couldn't remember what the word was. Unlike the French, I think the Germans just recognized the inevitable. Careless speakers almost always choose to say words that are shorter than the proper phrase, and even then will truncate. I'm not saying it's right, just...inevitable.

The MRHYN (and my mother, Lord my 5th/6th/7th grade English teaching mother) has always been frustrated by bizarre military "speak." "Tango Yankee” radio speak is a perfect example. Why, she and my mother pondered reasonably, would you use four syllables to say "Thank you" which is two?

Falling back on the universal male excuse when said male is trapped in an argument he can't possibly win, I reply, "You wouldn't understand"

[Shapley]

Military speak is easy enough to understand to anyone that's spent time on those darned sound powered phones. "Thank you can easily sound like "stank poo" or "dank goo" or any other variation that you may think of. The military uses standard, difficult to confuse words for letters.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Well, we do have difficult words for auto parts in English, such as PRNDL.

Ethyl is a PRNDB model. And I used to have a PRND21.

[barfle]

Haggis, there's an interesting example of that military speak in the film 2001 - A Space Odyssey. The crew heading for Jupiter encounters a problem (Hal's "Just a moment. Just a moment"). The response to their trouble report starts off with a very terse, officialese response, and when that's done, the capcom (?) breaks out of the jargonese and says "Sorry about your problem" as though he were speaking to human beings instead of government employees.

[shostakovich]

And speedometer - Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger.

Translated to english, this word actually means..."the little red needle in the center of the dial that has all the numbers on it that tells you how fast you are going"

I'm guessing that it literally means "fastness-shower". Seriously. But not as good as the above definition.
Shos

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Have you noticed that in multilingual instruction pamphlets, the English paragraph is always the shortest one? Really. Even North American sewing patterns: there will be printed identifications and instructions on each sheet and often each individual piece, written in at least English, French, and Spanish. Often another language or three will be thrown in, gratis. The English paragraph will be about three lines long, the French one is longer, the Spanish longer yet, asian languages longer than Spanish, and the ones made of loopy characters and idiograms will be far longer.

And I don't want to talk about the German paragraphs, if there are any. It can take sixteen long words to convey the same information that English packs into a single six-letter word.

The principle even applies in the kitchen. If you're starting to make any number of things, you need to collect, peel, slice, dice, and cook a mixture of vegetables. In English, we've stolen words from here and there to indicate the precise mixture of vegetables and specific cooking technique: we have mirepoix, trinity, sofrito; sweat, saute, carmelize. All this flagrant vocabulary raiding has its advantages - in either French or Spanish you get whole paragraphs describing the technique not native to that language and in English you just use the stolen specific word. Saves ink and time.

[piqaboo]

geschwindig = speedy

-keit = -ness

an = at

zieger = pointer

speediness at-pointer, aka speed indicator.

I cant break geschwindig down to smaller parts, but I'd guess there's a root in there, related to the bicycle name (Schwinn),
because -ig is a suffix for adjectives

So, Jamie's was a very good translation.

[Shapley]

I think schwindig is German for 'shindig'. since zeiger is 'pointer', a Geschwindigkeitsanzeiger is a pointy party hat, to which the original speedometer pointer on Volkswagons bore a striking resemblance...

[Haggis@wk]

Back on subject.

And yet, strangely, it’s not getting as much press coverage as last year: Gas prices rise for 50th straight day.

True, it’s still about a buck fifty less than last year at this time, but the press was all over the increases, I wonder what’s different????

[OperaTenor]

It's been getting press here.

[jamiebk]

yup...we're up over $3.00 again and for no reason that I can see. Oil hasn't climed all that much. Just 6 months ago we are at $2.00.

[Trumpetmaster]

We are up over $3.00 a gallon for premium here.
Regular runs anywhere from $2.70 to $2.80...

I have always noticed traditionally the price goes up through Memorial Day weekend and then
drops down.

Not this year....

[Haggis@wk]

yup...we're up over $3.00 again and for no reason that I can see. Oil hasn't climed all that much. Just 6 months ago we are at $2.00.

Ya think this might have an affect??