|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Government out of control? Or just protecting our national heritage?
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
Alfie? ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Nominative determinism suggests that the streets are going to be full of charming little gangsters in about 20 years.
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
Alfie has been incredibly popular for years, as has Charlie. Not to my taste and a bit twee, but not offensive.
--------------------
Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Net Spinster
Shipmate
# 16058
|
Posted
Names do go in cycles and also vary country to country (even amongst English speaking countries). It can be quite fun looking at the US Social Security baby name page and tracing names back in time.
Vicky for instance was the 142nd most popular girl's name in 1957 in the US and Vicki was number 50 in 1954 (Victoria peaked at 74 in the same time frame). It is entirely possible that a new baby girl to be called Vicki may be named after a grandmother or favorite great aunt. Harry btw was number 9 in 1892 (Henry was equally popular at number 10, Hal was in the 300s at the same time). Madison was number 2 in 2001/2002 but only broke the top 1000 in 1985.
--------------------
spinner of webs
Posts: 1093 | From: San Francisco Bay area | Registered: Dec 2010
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
In fact, the people of Iceland are constantly poked and prodded for genetic studies by the world's scientists because of their unusual nature as an ethnic group that developed largely in isolation for centuries.
The lie that they all have twelve fingers is just that.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The top five boys' names in 2011 were Harry, Oliver, Jack, Alfie and Charlie. The top five girls' names in the same year were Amelia, Olivia, Lily, Jessica and Emily. Not ridiculous at all.
Four out of those five boys' names are the diminutives of real names. So that is ridiculous.
How can an adult go through life explaining 'No, I'm not Alfred'?
--------------------
Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
|
Posted
Originally posted by Ondegard:
quote:
all these shallow vapid in-the-moment frothy names were banned.
The uber-chav names of the late 1850s/ early 1860s, were Florence and Alma - the former after the celeb of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale, the latter after the Battle of Alma. Neither sounds "chavvy" now; indeed our own dear Prime Minister has a daughter named Florence. But at the time there was much sneering over the sort of person who named their child after something they saw in the papers.
[ 06. January 2013, 08:42: Message edited by: North East Quine ]
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Alfie?
Nominative determinism suggests that the streets are going to be full of charming little gangsters in about 20 years.
Friends and relations in the teaching profession suggest that "Kyle" is the name to beware of.
--------------------
"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Meg the Red
Shipmate
# 11838
|
Posted
When my mother was teaching, she told beginning educators to beware of any child named Jason or Tiffany. More recently, Mr. Red has identifed boys named Kane/Kain/Cain as The Ones To Watch.
A couple of months ago, I saw a registration for a young boy whose middle name is Lucifer. Yup, there oughta be a law.
--------------------
Chocoholic Canuckistani Cyclopath
Posts: 1126 | From: Rat Creek | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
anne
Shipmate
# 73
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Meg the Red:
When my mother was teaching, she told beginning educators to beware of any child named Jason or Tiffany. More recently, Mr. Red has identifed boys named Kane/Kain/Cain as The Ones To Watch.
A couple of months ago, I saw a registration for a young boy whose middle name is Lucifer. Yup, there oughta be a law.
I've never known a "Christian*" who wasn't, um, a delightful little bundle of challenges.
anne
*as a name rather than a vocation
--------------------
‘I would have given the Church my head, my hand, my heart. She would not have them. She did not know what to do with them. She told me to go back and do crochet' Florence Nightingale
Posts: 338 | From: Devon | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
|
Posted
Didn't the names of months for girls, at least for the spring season, enjoy vogue at one time: April, May, June? I've also known a March and a Winter.
And there have been men named August, although I imagine in honor of the Roman emperor, not of the month.
--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
|
Posted
Although I have been known to raise an eyebrow at a Jack who is not John, I have better cause than most to know that sometimes, being given a diminutive rather than the full name as you given name can be a kindness. I was named after my Aunt Gertie, beloved by all the family, but not even she herself liked either Gertrude or Gertie. Gertrude is also one of those old-fashioned names, like Bertha and Hilda, that are probably never going to make a trendy comeback as Olivia, Lydia or Emily have done.
--------------------
Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Metapelagius
Shipmate
# 9453
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Alfie?
Nominative determinism suggests that the streets are going to be full of charming little gangsters in about 20 years.
Friends and relations in the teaching profession suggest that "Kyle" is the name to beware of.
Hmm. As in the Revd Dr Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, aka Baron Bannside? ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
--------------------
Rec a archaw e nim naccer.
y rof a duv. dagnouet.
Am bo forth. y porth riet.
Crist ny buv e trist yth orsset.
Posts: 1032 | From: Hereabouts | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
QLib
Bad Example
# 43
|
Posted
My father was Russian Orthodox (Agnostic branch) and always said that properly speaking one should only call one's children after saints. He (I hope) jokingly objected to the name I chose for one of my daughters - Ruth - and when I pointed out that the name was biblical, he said the Old Testament didn't count.
Recently I told a Russian friend that I'd come to think that one of my great-grandmothers was from a family of baptised Jews, and her response was: Well, I always assumed you had Jewish connections because of the name you chose for your daughter.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The top five boys' names in 2011 were Harry, Oliver, Jack, Alfie and Charlie. The top five girls' names in the same year were Amelia, Olivia, Lily, Jessica and Emily. Not ridiculous at all.
Four out of those five boys' names are the diminutives of real names. So that is ridiculous.
How can an adult go through life explaining 'No, I'm not Alfred'?
I've never known an adult Alfie who did have to explain such a thing. Those names ARE real names, because they are the full first names of people - that's what makes them real, not one's opinion. Harry, Alfie and Charlie sound nicer to most people than Harold/Henry, Alfred and Charles which is why they're used. Daisy is a diminutive of Margaret (because Marguerite is a kind of daisy) but nobody seems to object to that also being popular.
--------------------
Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by QLib:
My father was Russian Orthodox (Agnostic branch) and always said that properly speaking one should only call one's children after saints. He (I hope) jokingly objected to the name I chose for one of my daughters - Ruth - and when I pointed out that the name was biblical, he said the Old Testament didn't count.
Recently I told a Russian friend that I'd come to think that one of my great-grandmothers was from a family of baptised Jews, and her response was: Well, I always assumed you had Jewish connections because of the name you chose for your daughter.
The RO(A)s are evidently a deviant lot, as many Orthodox children are named after OT figures -- Elias (aka Elija) David, and Daniel are pretty common around Ottawa and, of course, there is Isaaky, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's father. And who can forget Melchisidek of Pittsburgh, who surely bears the name of a certain OT eminent?
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
|
Posted
My friend has just had a baby and called him 'Alfred' - she will not hear of him being called 'Alfie'!
--------------------
Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
The top five boys' names in 2011 were Harry, Oliver, Jack, Alfie and Charlie. The top five girls' names in the same year were Amelia, Olivia, Lily, Jessica and Emily. Not ridiculous at all.
Four out of those five boys' names are the diminutives of real names. So that is ridiculous.
How can an adult go through life explaining 'No, I'm not Alfred'?
I've never known an adult Alfie who did have to explain such a thing. Those names ARE real names, because they are the full first names of people - that's what makes them real, not one's opinion. Harry, Alfie and Charlie sound nicer to most people than Harold/Henry, Alfred and Charles which is why they're used. Daisy is a diminutive of Margaret (because Marguerite is a kind of daisy) but nobody seems to object to that also being popular.
The problem comes when names have to be written down definitively. There is a widespread assumption that while one is known as Alfie (or Alf), Charlie, Harry or Eddie your given name is Alfred, Charles, Harold/Henry or Edwin/Edward.
--------------------
"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
|
Posted
Quick, quick, someone call Double-Think ... Mousethief has posted something potentially offensive to Icelandic people ...
Nur-nur-na-nur-nur ... I'm-telling-on-hi-i-i-m ...
![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif) ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
--------------------
Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
I knew someone whose birth name was Kate. Her mother said she was only going to be called that anyway.
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
There was a registrar being interviewed on R4 yesterday who said that she does have a limited power to decline to register a name that is offensive, and also that UK Christian/First names can't have apostrophes in them, something I'd never heard of or even thought of before (why would anyone want to put an apostrophe in a name?). So presumably that allows 'de Ath', but rules out 'Death' or 'd'Ath'.
I saw a mention of someone called Ell'e in the paper recently, and I've seen something like D'Shawn as well. Legal or not, apostrophized names do happen.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
|
Posted
When we were growing up, there was a boy who lived across the street who was named Keefe. My mother always said that he was doomed to go through life having to explain, "No, my name isn't Keith" and "No, I don't have a speech impediment."
--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
roybart
Shipmate
# 17357
|
Posted
And then there are the names that are both unfamiliar and bizarrely pronounced. I'm thinking of a girl named "Sharvon" but whose family pronounced it as "Sha - VOHN." (No 'r'.) No one who didn't know her EVER got it right.
--------------------
"The consolations of the imaginary are not imaginary consolations."
-- Roger Scruton
Posts: 547 | From: here | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Daisy is a diminutive of Margaret (because Marguerite is a kind of daisy) but nobody seems to object to that also being popular.
No it is not. Maggie, Meg and Peggy are. Daisy is a separate name.
Even if a marguerite is a variety of daisy or vice versa, I think the name Margaret, as distinct from Marguerite, actually derives from a word that means pearl. Pearl, of course, is itself a name, and a different one at that, though a bit old fashioned at the moment.
--------------------
Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Even if a marguerite is a variety of daisy or vice versa, I think the name Margaret, as distinct from Marguerite, actually derives from a word that means pearl. Pearl, of course, is itself a name, and a different one at that, though a bit old fashioned at the moment.
It'll return, as will Margaret (my given name but I've been Mags since I was four - Dad's fault)
My friend's new grandchild is called Elsie - a name I never thought would return!
--------------------
Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Daisy is a diminutive of Margaret (because Marguerite is a kind of daisy) but nobody seems to object to that also being popular.
No it is not. Maggie, Meg and Peggy are. Daisy is a separate name.
Even if a marguerite is a variety of daisy or vice versa, I think the name Margaret, as distinct from Marguerite, actually derives from a word that means pearl. Pearl, of course, is itself a name, and a different one at that, though a bit old fashioned at the moment.
No, Daisy is commonly listed as a diminutive for Margaret, see here and all the baby name books I've ever seen. And Marguerite and Margaret are the same name...? Just in different languages, like Mary and Maria.
--------------------
Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leaf
Shipmate
# 14169
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
There is the case (in the US, I have to mention as a point of accuracy) of a child being christened Ne-a (pronounced "Nedasha)
If you could provide documentation for this, that'd be great :-)
This is a new, misspelled version of an old story (Le-a supposedly "Ledasha") that Snopes regards as fictitious racist bullshit.
Posts: 2786 | From: the electrical field | Registered: Oct 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
|
Posted
It can be an issue.
--------------------
All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
And besides: Elvis is okay but not Blær?! ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Elvis is an ancient Celtic saint's name. An Irish missionary to Britain. There are a number of St Elvis's churches in Wales.
So what's so not ok about it?
--------------------
Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by roybart:
And then there are the names that are both unfamiliar and bizarrely pronounced. I'm thinking of a girl named "Sharvon" but whose family pronounced it as "Sha - VOHN." (No 'r'.) No one who didn't know her EVER got it right.
Might this be some distant rendering of Siobhan, by a family which had heard the name but never seen it written down?
--------------------
My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
And besides: Elvis is okay but not Blær?!
Elvis is an ancient Celtic saint's name. An Irish missionary to Britain. There are a number of St Elvis's churches in Wales.
So what's so not ok about it?
Maybe because Celts aren't Icelanders? Or even close?
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ToujoursDan:
Icelanders are partially descendents of Celts though.
Indeed, so. The genetic researchers were delighted to be able to prove this-- the Vikings were great harvesters of slaves from Irish villages, taking off the fourth and fifth forms from the local Loretto College with regularity. There is also a study of Celtic vocabulary in Old Icelandic, much of it centring on care of dairy cattle.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ToujoursDan:
Icelanders are partially descendents of Celts though.
Their language, however, is not, and judging by the crap about masculine and feminine articles, it is the language, not the bloodline, that is the issue.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
|
Posted
Quoth Mousethief: "Crap about masculine and feminine articles"
Spoken like a true unilingual anglophone. The ghosts of the British Empire applaud you! (and look what happened to that empire)
--------------------
It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
jbohn
Shipmate
# 8753
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leaf:
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
There is the case (in the US, I have to mention as a point of accuracy) of a child being christened Ne-a (pronounced "Nedasha)
If you could provide documentation for this, that'd be great :-)
This is a new, misspelled version of an old story (Le-a supposedly "Ledasha") that Snopes regards as fictitious racist bullshit.
I don't know about that one, but we had a student at my work some years ago who's name was D'rra. Pronounced "Diarra".
--------------------
We are punished by our sins, not for them.
--Elbert Hubbard
Posts: 989 | From: East of Eden, west of St. Paul | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
the giant cheeseburger
Shipmate
# 10942
|
Posted
If this were an Italian community and the name was in fact D'Arra with the first A there, then Di Arra would be how you would pronounce that. But in the USA that kind of thing usually gets rendered as DiArra or Di Arra, primarily due to the way that immigration authorities transcribed names according to how they sounded rather than the actual spelling.
--------------------
If I give a homeopathy advocate a really huge punch in the face, can the injury be cured by giving them another really small punch in the face?
Posts: 4834 | From: Adelaide, South Australia. | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
Quoth Mousethief: "Crap about masculine and feminine articles"
Spoken like a true unilingual anglophone. The ghosts of the British Empire applaud you! (and look what happened to that empire)
Take it to hell or walk it back.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
jbohn
Shipmate
# 8753
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
That one doesn't sound like an error or a confusion about punctuation though. That just sounds like a case where names without vowels get vowels naturally stuck in. She'd have to be Durra or something if she weren't Diarra.
True. I was merely citing it as a case of oddly-spelled naming- not necessarily entirely analogous to the "Le-a" case, but interesting nonetheless. (Incidentally, her mother was quite incensed when staff, not knowing any better, mispronounced it as "Durra".)
In another building, we had a student named Chezrounda. (Pronounced "Sharonda".) Interesting spellings are a fact of life around here.
quote:
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
If this were an Italian community and the name was in fact D'Arra with the first A there, then Di Arra would be how you would pronounce that.
The student in question wasn't Italian, to my knowledge- the school I worked in at that time was better than 90% African American. (Those aren't mutually exclusive, of course.)
--------------------
We are punished by our sins, not for them.
--Elbert Hubbard
Posts: 989 | From: East of Eden, west of St. Paul | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
roybart
Shipmate
# 17357
|
Posted
Re: D'rra and D'Shawn:
I wonder whether the parents were possibly thinking of certain well-known African names like Nkrumah (pr. en-KROO-mah).
I realize that this is s surname, but the pronunciation issue is the same.
--------------------
"The consolations of the imaginary are not imaginary consolations."
-- Roger Scruton
Posts: 547 | From: here | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sober Preacher's Kid
Presbymethegationalist
# 12699
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by ToujoursDan:
Icelanders are partially descendents of Celts though.
Their language, however, is not, and judging by the crap about masculine and feminine articles, it is the language, not the bloodline, that is the issue.
Grammatical genders, not articles, MT. The grammatical gender of the noun affects the form of the adjective. Truly, I am surprised that an adherent of Orthodoxy of the Russian persuasion would not know how central this is to many languages. Russian, like Icelandic, has three genders, Masculine, Feminine and Neuter.
Of course this all leads to the ancient blessing: "May your nouns and adjectives always agree, both in gender and in number."
--------------------
NDP Federal Convention Ottawa 2018: A random assortment of Prots and Trots.
Posts: 7646 | From: Peterborough, Upper Canada | Registered: Jun 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
I'm sorry, I'm used to languages (French, German, and Spanish) in which the grammatical gender is directly reflected in the article. Thus I spoke loosely. Perhaps this is not the case in Icelandic, and the adjectives reflect grammatical gender but the articles do not. Except a quick Google shows that they do.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
I'm sorry, I'm used to languages (French, German, and Spanish) in which the grammatical gender is directly reflected in the article. Thus I spoke loosely. Perhaps this is not the case in Icelandic, and the adjectives reflect grammatical gender but the articles do not. Except a quick Google shows that they do.
Google is not entirely correct. There are nouns in Icelandic where the article (which is a suffix to the noun) is declined in a different gender than the noun to which it is attached. And, moreover, there are instances (many years ago a cheerful speech therapist from Akureyri sang me a mnemonic ditty to illustrate this, but in circumstances which I will spare shipmates) where the adjective can be declined in gender other than the noun it describes. And we will pass over the whole situation of middle, strong, and weak nouns, where internal vowels can shift when a suffix of another gender is affixed. Is it a wonder that they have a high suicide rate?
There were many joys of my visits to Iceland in the late 1970s, but Icelandic grammar was not among them.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
There are nouns in Icelandic where the article (which is a suffix to the noun) is declined in a different gender than the noun to which it is attached.
Then little Blær isn't asking for anything the language isn't capable of doing? Then the government's argument about problems with noun gender is a bunch of hooey.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
But it's possible to construct sentences in English that are grammatically perfect while making no sense whatsoever.
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
But it's possible to construct sentences in English that are grammatically perfect while making no sense whatsoever.
What does that have to do with it? The question is whether a sentence with "Blær" in it can be constructed in Icelandic so that it does make sense. And it would appear that it can. What does the (undeniable) existence of well-formed sentences in English (or Icelandic) that are meaningless have to do with it at all?
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
sandushinka
Shipmate
# 13021
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo: And as for Russians expecting people to write in Cyrillic...
I once worked on a project where we had a need to type in Russian. We had the phonetic keyboard layouts installed because we weren't native speakers and it was much easier to remember A=A B=Б S=С and only learn the letters that don't map than to learn a whole new layout. Then we had someone start who was a native speaker and the phonetic keyboard drove her crazy. So we had to have the normal Russian keyboard installed on her machine. She was quite happy after that. It's all in what you learned on.
--------------------
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
Posts: 131 | From: Maryland (DC burbs), USA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
sandushinka
Shipmate
# 13021
|
Posted
A Russian friend of mine has an older aunt named Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Communist Party). They call her Aunt Koma (sort of like Aunt Commie) for short.
--------------------
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
Posts: 131 | From: Maryland (DC burbs), USA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
There are nouns in Icelandic where the article (which is a suffix to the noun) is declined in a different gender than the noun to which it is attached.
Then little Blær isn't asking for anything the language isn't capable of doing? Then the government's argument about problems with noun gender is a bunch of hooey.
I think, Mousethief, that if Blær isn't already among those nouns, then it can't be. They have an Académie française sort of body which keeps the exceptions table in order. They have an approach to the language which quite mystifies anglophones, who are not used to verbal regulation.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
Sigh. No doubt you're right there.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
jbohn
Shipmate
# 8753
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
But it's possible to construct sentences in English that are grammatically perfect while making no sense whatsoever.
Certainly. Shipmates do it all the time. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
--------------------
We are punished by our sins, not for them.
--Elbert Hubbard
Posts: 989 | From: East of Eden, west of St. Paul | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Printer-friendly view
