English Language

Our "pub" where you can post about things completely Off Topic or about non-silent PC issues.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

peteamer
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1740
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:24 am
Location: 'Sunny' Cornwall U.K.

Post by peteamer » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:45 am

For andyb:

Image

:mrgreen:


From http://xkcd.com

floffe
Posts: 497
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 4:36 am
Location: Linköping, Sweden

Post by floffe » Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:30 pm

peteamer wrote:From http://xkcd.com
xkcd is most excellent :D

andyb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:48 pm

Good joke peteamer, but that specific one is better suited to the Yanks than us Brits/Angles/Saxons/Taffs/Jocks/Paddys/Cornish/Normans/Roman/Viking.

Just remember we are a pure breed :wink:


Andy

Elixer
Posts: 520
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 10:31 am
Location: Las Cruces, NM
Contact:

Post by Elixer » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:18 pm

Mescalero wrote: Are you one of the students from Rhode Island? Or the guy with the Wisconsin sweater who sits next to me in the jet engines lecture?
No, actually I'm from New Mexico, though I naturally know all of the rhodies. I don't own any Wisconsin sweaters either. We may have been in the same Russian class though. I noticed your comment about how you're just starting to learn Russian. Were you taking Russisch Anfänger 1 on Tuesday evenings?
Mescalero wrote: Funny you say this. There are enough people in Germany who complain about all the foreign (mostly English) words which are used nowadays by Germans.
True, I of course like it because I can understand it. I do find it weird though when a English word is used when a German word would work just as well. I read some paper the other day that had observieren written when beobachten would have worked just fine. Stuff like that I find strange because then it's like I have to learn two new words instead of one. In English there only ever was one word for something because we just took the word. With English words coming into German it's like there's suddenly two words with exactly the same meaning for the same thing and that I can understand why it would be annoying.

andyb
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:00 pm
Location: Essex, England

Post by andyb » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:48 pm

Stuff like that I find strange because then it's like I have to learn two new words instead of one. In English there only ever was one word for something because we just took the word.
Thats just not true, we have our own words, and just like the "BORG" we "assimilate" words because they ADD something to our language.

Take "ghost" for example, we also think "Spirit", "Soul", and of course the german "Poltergeist".

You also mention ONLY one word for something, I honestly expect that what you actually meant was within your own dialogue/repesentation through your native tounge, and the wrong words were used. Please forgive me if you think I am being rude, you are not Amerecan so dont think I am punishing you for your lack of the language, I am here to help the English Language become more widespread, and not close in on itself like the frogs do.

Talking about a lack of words to express something, please suggest a word that I cant express using a sentence.??? There is none, this is the power the English language has over all others, it doesnt have to be correct to make sense, but it will make sense. Or to put this into perspective, i know very little of any language (other than English) but I do know a little German, and it similar enough to english to translate the rest through guesses and re-guesses - unlike French which is just nonsensical and illogical.


Andy

Mescalero
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:02 am
Location: TU-BS, Germany

Post by Mescalero » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:22 am

Elixer wrote: We may have been in the same Russian class though. I noticed your comment about how you're just starting to learn Russian. Were you taking Russisch Anfänger 1 on Tuesday evenings?
Yes, but I started a year ago in the winterterm 05/06. I am now in Russisch 3.

I don't mind the integration of English words either, although sometimes it's a little strange to see an English word with a German pre- or suffix.
I never had the experience that paraphrasing something was easier in English that in other languages. You just need to know a lot of vocabulary to describe something instead of just saying one word.

English and German are both Germanic languages (or so I was told). French is a Romanic language so naturally it's easier if you stay within one king of languages. For frenchmen it's most likely a lot easier to read spanish than German. When I try to read something French and I oftenly deduct from English to understand the vocabulary.

floffe
Posts: 497
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 4:36 am
Location: Linköping, Sweden

Post by floffe » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:04 am

Yes, english is of germanic origin, but a whole lot of words come from the french (origin, for example ;)). It's still kept most of the germanic tructure though, which is why andyb thinks french is illogical even if he might recognize the words.

Post Reply