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The Off Topic Topic

Started by Korea, March 10, 2009, 06:24:26 AM

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Syt

Ireland, Wales and Scotland used to have no words for this predicament. :(
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Brain

In Swedish it's sticka. :)
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

garbon

Quote from: Josquius on August 09, 2022, 05:54:09 AM

Fascinating and depressing.

Depressing? I feel like there is a much higher bar to be categorized as such.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Josquius on August 09, 2022, 05:54:09 AMFascinating and depressing.

Indeed, for centuries Scots, Welsh and Irish managed to avoid small pieces of wood under their skin; now they suffer just as the English.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

HVC

It's getting easier for people in the uk to communicate. The horror!
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Sheilbh

We just need the North-East to assimilate now  :ph34r:
Let's bomb Russia!

Valmy

We call it "splinter" in the United States as well so I feel like we had a role to play in that unfolding splinter tragedy.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Richard Hakluyt

The death of dialects.

I've always used both "splinter" and "spelk", but the second term only in NE England. Not sure folk like my grandparents even knew it was dialect.

HVC

Hmm, just had a random thought, did the other names only mean a splinter in your finger, or did the meaning extend to wood itself? Did "that wooden post splintered" turn into " that wooden post spelked" ?
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Josquius

Quote from: Valmy on August 09, 2022, 09:13:45 AMWe call it "splinter" in the United States as well so I feel like we had a role to play in that unfolding splinter tragedy.

Honestly I always just thought this was an Americanism.

It's always been a spelk for me - it being a word that only really ever comes up around my dad.
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mongers

Quote from: Josquius on August 09, 2022, 09:36:56 AM
Quote from: Valmy on August 09, 2022, 09:13:45 AMWe call it "splinter" in the United States as well so I feel like we had a role to play in that unfolding splinter tragedy.

Honestly I always just thought this was an Americanism.

It's always been a spelk for me - it being a word that only really ever comes up around my dad.

My copy of the 'Chambers dictionary of etymology' has it's borrowed from the middle Dutch 'splinter'

Your dialect word could be derived from the middle German 'spelte' for splinter?
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Richard Hakluyt

A "spelt" would be a thin piece of wood about 8" long; one would light it on the fire and use the brning spelt to light a candle, lamp or cigarette etc

Heven't used that one since open fires went out of use  :cool:

Tamas

Considering how a lot of conflicts in life are from a failure to communicate, the sooner dialects and different languages die out the better. :contract:

Syt

Quote from: Tamas on August 09, 2022, 10:32:42 AMConsidering how a lot of conflicts in life are from a failure to communicate, the sooner dialects and different languages die out the better. :contract:


The humble Babelfish disagrees. -_-


Quote"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Jacob

#85829
Quote from: Tamas on August 09, 2022, 10:32:42 AMConsidering how a lot of conflicts in life are from a failure to communicate, the sooner dialects and different languages die out the better. :contract:

I suspect that more conflicts, cruelty, and straight up killing has been done in the name of eradicating dialects and different languages compared to those caused by "failures to communicate" because people had different mother tongues. Especially when you consider language is often used as an identifier by people perpetrating genocide.