Fun with German compound words

Even if you have no German language skills this video should still make perfect sense and amuse...

A common mistake but surely the BBC should know better

This BBC article about 10 common Christmas card dilemmas makes a rather stupid, albeit common, mistake. Number 2 dilemma runs thus:

2. Round robin revival?

The round robin letter - usually sent out with the Christmas cards - has become something of a seasonal joke. "Darling Theo is doing frightfully well in his eurhythmy lessons at Charterhouse - and little Imogen has gone back to advising Ban Ki-moon at the UN." Simon Hoggart, Guardian columnist and author of The Cat That Could Open the Fridge, a collection of round robin letters, is not a fan. "Round robins are hopeless because either you know the people so well, you're already familiar with their year, or else you don't know them well enough to care," he says. "The latter group find boasting particularly galling. Who wants to know about the exam successes of a teenager whose father you met in Derby 24 years ago?" But in an age where receiving a letter is a rarity, could the round robin be due for a renaissance? "It might now be a case of take what you can get," says Garfield. "Perhaps people should be grateful that they are being written to at all. It's time to bear the annual show of smugness."

The trouble is that the missive that they are describing is not a round robin but a newsletter. A round robin is  is a document signed by multiple parties in a circle to make it more difficult to determine the order in which it was signed, thus preventing a ringleader from being identified.

You'd have thought the Ed Ram or one of his editors would know this.

I have complained to the BBC:

Type of complaint: BBC Online

What is your complaint about: BBC News Online

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25230015

Complaint category: Factual error or inaccuracy

Contacted us before: No

Complaint title: Factual mistake

Complaint description:

This article about 10 common Christmas card dilemmas makes a rather stupid, albeit common, mistake. Number 2 dilemma starts thus: 2. Round robin revival? The round robin letter - usually sent out with the Christmas cards - has become something of a seasonal joke. The trouble is that the missive that they are describing is not a round robin but a newsletter. A round robin is is a document signed by multiple parties in a circle to make it more difficult to determine the order in which it was signed, thus preventing a ringleader from being identified. You'd have thought that Ed Ram or someone at the BBC would have known this, or are facts no longer important to the BBC?

The soft, lilting German language

Say what?!

I thought I was good at accents but now I'm not so sure.

Why can't Germans say squirrel?

What is the tattoo on Penny's right buttock?

Sheldon said he saw the Chinese character for 'soup' on Penny's right buttock, Penny said it was the character for 'courage', who's correct?

So which is on Penny's right buttock?

Remember Sheldon's made mistakes with Chinese languages before, he went into the Chinese restaurant to complain about the food. "Oxen are in my bed! Many, many oxen!"

Come on Penny/Kaley Cuoco put us out of our misery...


If you don't watch Big Bang Theory then this probably makes no sense.

'Ogooglebar' ... and 14 Other Swedish Words We Should Incorporate Into English Immediately - Atlantic Mobile

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/ogooglebar-and-14-other-swedish-words-we-should-incorporate-into-english-immediately/274383/

Kung hei fat choi

Kung hei fat choi or happy new year to all my Chinese speaking readers.



Yes I know Chinese isn't a langauge but I believe the above is Cantonese and pretty similar to the Mandarin which is Gong Xi Fa Cai.

No it won't (update)

Further to this post of yesterday I found some more information amongst the comments at Biased BBC:

'‘”Today there are about 6,000 languages in the world, and half of the world’s population speaks only 10 of them. English is the single most dominant of these 10. British colonialism initiated the spread of English across the globe; it has been spoken nearly everywhere and has become even more prevalent since World War II, with the global reach of American power.”
(Christine Kenneally, The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language. Viking, 2007)’

‘How many people in the world today speak English?
First-language speakers: 375 million
Second-language speakers: 375 million
Foreign-language speakers: 750 million
(David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997)’

As I thought...

No it won't

The BBC love to hate anything Western, especially English and long for the day when the West has been eclipsed by the East and Christianity by Islam. I found this comment on the BBC news website that I thought worth examining.

'There has certainly been language shift in Los Angeles, most notably a doubling of the number of Spanish speakers (those who speak the language at home) in the past 30 years from 1.5 million in 1980 to 3.6 million in 2010 (including Spanish Creole).
Internationally, Spanish is also significant and futuregazers have gone as far as predicting that one day Mandarin Chinese could become the default language of business worldwide.

Speaking to the New York Times in 2009, French linguist Claude Hagege, author of On the Death and Life of Languages, said that Hindi and Mandarin could replace English some day.'

The bloody obvious point being missed is that there are more speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Hindi than there are of English BUT (and it's a bloody big but) Hindi is not even spoken by all Indians, nor Mandarin by all Chinese. Indeed the common language of India is English, as it is the second language of so many people. But how many Chinese speak Hindi? How many Indians speak Mandarin? The reason English is the international language is not that it is the first language of the majority of people but that it is the first or second language of more people than any other language and the only chance of a common language.

Word of the day - Tawriya

Raymond Ibrahim makes me aware of a word and concept that is quite interesting - tawriya:

'Perhaps you have heard of taqiyya, the Muslim doctrine that allows lying in certain circumstances, primarily when Muslim minorities live under infidel authority. Now meet tawriya, a doctrine that allows lying in virtually all circumstances—including to fellow Muslims and by swearing to Allah—provided the liar is creative enough to articulate his deceit in a way that is true to him. (Though tawriya is technically not "new"—as shall be seen, it has been part of Islamic law and tradition for centuries—it is certainly new to most non-Muslims, hence the need for this exposition and the word "new" in the title.)

The authoritative Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary defines tawriya as, "hiding, concealment; dissemblance, dissimulation, hypocrisy; equivocation, ambiguity, double-entendre, allusion." Conjugates of the trilateral root of the word, w-r-y, appear in the Quran in the context of hiding or concealing something (e.g., 5:31, 7:26).

As a doctrine, "double-entendre" best describes tawriya's function. According to past and present Muslim scholars (several documented below), tawriya is when a speaker says something that means one thing to the listener, though the speaker means something else, and his words technically support this alternate meaning.

For example, if someone declares "I don't have a penny in my pocket," most listeners will assume the speaker has no money on him—though he might have dollar bills, just literally no pennies. Likewise, say a friend asks you, "Do you know where Mike is?" You do, but prefer not to divulge. So you say "No, I don't know"—but you keep in mind another Mike, whose whereabouts you really do not know.

All these are legitimate according to Sharia law and do not constitute "lying," which is otherwise forbidden in Islam, except in three cases: lying in war, lying to one's spouse, and lying in order to reconcile people. For these, Sharia permits Muslims to lie freely, without the strictures of tawriya, that is, without the need for creativity.

As for all other instances, in the words of Sheikh Muhammad Salih al-Munajid (based on scholarly consensus): "Tawriya is permissible under two conditions: 1) that the words used fit the hidden meaning; 2) that it does not lead to an injustice" ("injustice" as defined by Sharia, of course, not Western standards). Otherwise, it is permissible even for a Muslim to swear when lying through tawriya. Munajid, for example, cites a man who swears to Allah that he can only sleep under a roof (saqf); when the man is caught sleeping atop a roof, he exonerates himself by saying "by roof, I meant the open sky." This is legitimate. "After all," Munajid adds, "Quran 21:32 refers to the sky as a roof [saqf]."

Here is a recent example of tawriya in action: Because it is a "great sin" for Muslims to acknowledge Christmas, this sheikh counsels Muslims to tell Christians, "I wish you the best," whereby the latter might "understand it to mean you're wishing them best in terms of their [Christmas] celebration." But—here the wily sheikh giggles as he explains—"by saying I wish you the best, you mean in your heart I wish you become a Muslim."'

Fascinating...

Emotions for which I wish there was one word

Is there a word for the emotion you feel when having let someone out from a side road so they are in front of you, they get through the next set of lights whilst you do not and so fall even further behind schedule?

I think someone may have 'issues'.

My recent piece about buses and fare dodgers has attracted a negative comment:

'Anonymous said...

Well that is what I woud expect of whiny little englanders of your ilk, rather a fare dogder than a tory, rightwing, wine-swilling coporate eye-kisser, or equally as bad, a swill-eating cocaine snorting pig banker. Instead of whining about not wanting to do anything and then expect the moon on a stick like a 3year old, grow up, get involved in the Human Community, and make things better so that people can earn enough money (yes a decent wage)so we can properly pay for our fares. The can't do/won't do atitude you display is the reason why the world is in the shape it is. So for the the sake of all Human kind stop your Liberterian/reganite/thatcherite bleeting.'

Let's take another look at that well thought out comment:

'Well that is what I woud expect of whiny little englanders of your ilk, rather a fare dogder than a tory, rightwing, wine-swilling coporate eye-kisser, or equally as bad, a swill-eating cocaine snorting pig banker.'

Lovely use of the word 'ilk' but I would prefer Englander to start with a capital letter, probably something to do with being a little Englander I suppose. I could also comment on the punctuation problems being exhibited but that might take a long time, so I'll just restrict myself to suggesting 'anonymous' acquaints himself/herself with the semicolon. Now what is an 'eye-kisser'? I have heard of arse-kissing and that makes sense in that clause but 'eye-kisser'; how would that even work? It is interesting that anonymous calls me both a 'tory' (I think that should probably be 'Tory' but I suppose using the shift key is beyond 'anonymous') and 'rightwing' (or should that be 'right-wing'); I wonder which is worse? Interesting that my commenter manages to hyphenate 'wine-swilling', it's just a shame that that dig is so far from the mark. As for 'swill-eating', I take that personally as both I and Mrs NotaSheep would never eat (let alone cook) 'swill'. As for 'cocaine snorting', I am afraid I have never indulged. Calling me a 'pig' is offensive, especially as I am Jewish. Finally on this paragraph I am not, nor have I ever been, a banker. Moving on to the second line:

'Instead of whining about not wanting to do anything and then expect the moon on a stick like a 3year old, grow up, get involved in the Human Community, and make things better so that people can earn enough money (yes a decent wage)so we can properly pay for our fares.'

I don't know where I whine 'about not wanting to do anything'; odd ideas some people get. What is 'moon on a stick', why or how would I want that; maybe the problem is that I can't remember being three (one to ten should be spelt out, only numbers higher should be in numerals). I like the idea of getting involved in the 'Human Community', is that like the 'Big Society'? Is the line of argument here that people should be allowed to evade fares because the fares are too high in relation to their salaries? If so should everyone be given a car and a house from central funds because not everyone can afford these items. I drive a quite elderly car partly because I cannot afford a new one and partly because I choose not to spend the money, should I be given a new car because my neighbour has one? Nearing the end now:

'The can't do/won't do atitude you display is the reason why the world is in the shape it is.'

I am not sure what 'anonymous' is getting at here; when do I sat I can't or won't do? Mostly I think I complain that not enough of the right thongs are being done whilst too many of the wrong things are being done. Finally we reach the end line:

'So for the the sake of all Human kind stop your Liberterian/reganite/thatcherite bleeting.'

Some very odd usage of capital letters there, let's list them: 'So' - yes  'Human kind' - no - and humankind should be one word or hyphenated but not two words 'Libertarian' - I don't think so 'reganite' - now you could argue that 'Reaganite' should start with a capital letter being as Ronald Reagan was a person but 'anonymous' has written 'reganite'; maybe he/she is thinking of Donald Regan who was Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff, maybe not 'thatcherite' - see 'reagnite' but at least 'anonymous' managed to spell Thatcher correctly Finally for error-spotting, my 'anonymous' commenter can't even spell bleating correctly. Hold on that's unfair as he/she also can't spell would, dodger, corporate or attitude. Well there's 15 minutes I won't ever see again but then again I feel it was worthwhile!

Illustrating tricky language concepts

A Tweeter that I follow, jonworth, posted this Tweet late last night:

'Tired of the Blair/European President stuff. Can we pls analyse in terms of value to European democracy, rather than in terms of Blair's ego'

Jon is rather more pro-EU than I but an interesting read nonetheless. 

My reply Tweet I think will help people understand two of the lesser known concepts of the English langauge:

'@jonworth One oxymoron and one tautology there surely? 'European democracy' and 'Blair's ego'!'

Subtle language used on Wikipedia

Whilst researching my earlier piece about the Yes campaign's dropping of a black figure from leaflets sent to non-metropolitan areas I did a little light Wikipedia reading on Benjamin Zephaniah, whose poetry I do remember albeit not fondly and Tony Robinson who has done little of worth since Blackadder. In doing so I found this entry in Tony Robinson's entry:

'In March 2011, Robinson participated in the 'March for the Alternative' protests in Central London, which opposed the then Tory-led UK Government's spending cuts programme.'

'then Tory-led UK Government'? Somehow I think that entry may last have been edited by someone on the left of British politics. I have corrected the entry so it now reads:

'In March 2011, Robinson participated in the 'March for the Alternative' protests in Central London, which opposed the Conservative led Coalition UK Government's spending cuts programme'

For as I said in my Wikipedia edit:

'/* Politics and personal life */ replaced 'then Tory-led UK Government' with 'Conservative led Coalition UK Government' as government is current & so should not be reported in past tense, lead party in government is Conservative not Tory party'

Language is important and the Tory/Conservative difference is well known and explicable as is the use of the word 'then' to slant the entry.

A sign of the times in the USA?

Engadget reports that:

'The Athlon-powered M5030 from Dell... is being released with its keyboard and Windows 7 installation customized in Spanish, neither of which would be unusual were it not for the fact that it's going to be on sale in the US. It's not exactly a vast overhaul, as only a couple of physical keys are swapped out and switching Win 7 into and out of Spanish mode can be done in the time it takes to click a mouse, but still, it's significant in that it services the speakers of the States' second most commonly used language...'

Interesting?

Finally a good reason to move from Firefox to Chrome; grammar.

TechCrunch report the exciting news that:

'All is right with the world, as genius (and Googler!) Thomas Steiner has made this beautiful Chrome extension that corrects Twitter’s subject/object discrepancy on its “Who to Follow” feature. Grammar snobs (I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU COMMENT), rejoice!

In case anyone’s still confused about ”Who” vs. “Whom” usage, here’s a quick tip to differentiate courtesy of Shit You Should Know:

“To determine proper usage of who/whom, separate the who/whom clause and pose it as a question. If that question can be answered with “he”, use “who”; if it can be answered with “him”, use ‘whom’.”'

Grammatical query

Guido  has an interesting quote of the day:

 'George Osborne welcoming of Balls to his new job: “Now he knows too what it feels like to be the peoples’ second choice”.'

Is George Osborne correct? Well obviously he's correct in that Ed Balls was Ed Miliband's second choice as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer - incidentally has anyone asked Ed Miliband why Ed Balls was his second choice, what qualities he lacked that Alan Johnson had? - but is that correct English or should it have read: 

“Now he too knows what it feels like to be the peoples’ second choice”

Just wondering; maybe  Simon Heffer or Lynne Truss will let me know...

A list of penis euphemisms

Gregology has a list of penis euphemisms, prepare to be educated.



By the way is Gregology related to Guido Fawkes?

The difference between fellatio and inflation

French politician Rachida Dati has been forced to issue a public apology after confusing fellatio (oral sex on a man) with inflation. The 44-year-old former justice minister and MEP has been called ‘Rachida Barbie’ by her political opponents because of her supposed poor understanding of complicated political and economic issues.

On Sunday she was asked about overseas investment funds maybe profiteering during a period of economic uncertainty and said:

"I see some of them looking for returns of 20 or 25 per cent, at a time when fellatio is almost non-existent."

In French, fellatio is ‘fellation’, which sounds rather like inflation, which is the same in French as in English.

Miss Dati has apologised for her slip of the tongue (pun intended) saying on Facebook: ‘This kind of thing happens if you speak too quickly on this kind of programme.’


Of course fellatio is likely to bring about inflation but I suppose that after completion, deflation is likely to follow!



Thanks t The Mail for the spot.