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During my stay in Switzerland, I discovered a number of things.
The region I was staying in (Nendaz) speaks French. Now, my knowledge of
French is minimal. I recall that what we refer to as a "gold fish", the
French call "le passion rougue" ("the red fish"), and that's about it.
I recall sitting down in the cafe at Siviez. Waitress wanders over and
mutters something in French. I look at her for a moment. "Well I hope
your English is way better than my French." She looks worried.
Well anyway, I eventually managed to figure out that if you mumble
"shokolah", they bring you a mug of hot chocolate. Which tastes ****ing
fantastic BTW.
Benny likes to drink some kind of coffee. I'm not sure exactly what it
is. The waitress comes over and he says "reversay". And she looks at him
like "dude, WTF?" Anyway, it turns out the correct way to pronounce this
word is actually a cross between saying "reversay" and trying to cough
up a gold watch: hhhhhhhhrrreversay. Otherwise they literally have no
idea what you're saying.
I still have no idea what this word actually means... Any guesses?
Also somewhat interesting: If you ask an English person how to say
"hello" in French, they'll tell you it's "bon-jor". Well, *I* didn't
hear anybody say that! What I heard was much more like "bor-shor".
Because, you know what? To speak French, you have to actually speak in a
French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes
sense, really...
Similarly, it's not "mer-see". It appears to involve a completely
different set of vowles, more closely approximating "meial-si". Danm, I
can't even *type* it, much less say it out loud.
For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering
complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't
surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be
speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time...
French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
person, it probably is.
Like I said, logically there's nothing unusual here. Rationally, you
know that. But even so, when you see small children casually doing
something that you yourself find impossibly difficult... it's always
surprising.
(But then, come to that, there were children there who could ski better
than they can *walk*! Really showed me up...)
You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say "you
have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would have
probably slapped me for it. Mind you, she says her boyfriend is always
teaching her new English words and phrases. (And damn, her English isn't
half bad...) Ho hum!
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible a écrit :
> I recall that what we refer to as a "gold fish", the French call "le
> passion rougue" ("the red fish"), and that's about it.
That's "le poisson rouge". Unless you mean red passion, but then it's
"*la* passion rouge" :-)
> Benny likes to drink some kind of coffee. I'm not sure exactly what
> it is. The waitress comes over and he says "reversay". And she looks
> at him like "dude, WTF?" Anyway, it turns out the correct way to
> pronounce this word is actually a cross between saying "reversay" and
> trying to cough up a gold watch: hhhhhhhhrrreversay. Otherwise they
> literally have no idea what you're saying.
>
> I still have no idea what this word actually means... Any guesses?
>
I have absolutely no idea of what this is... "Reversé" ? That would mean
"poured again" or something like that. I don't know much about coffee in
general, though... But yes, the "r" is certainly rougher in French, and
this is especially notable at the beginning of words.
> Because, you know what? To speak French, you have to actually speak
> in a French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which
> actually makes sense, really...
I would expect this to be true in many languages indeed. Try Chinese
some day, it's even worse :-)
> Similarly, it's not "mer-see". It appears to involve a completely
> different set of vowles, more closely approximating "meial-si". Danm,
> I can't even *type* it, much less say it out loud.
Perhaps if you say "mayor see" very quick in English it sounds a bit
like the French "merci" ? Except for the "r"...
> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
> person, it probably is.
As a matter of fact, I get the same feeling when I watch TV and find a
Polish station :-) I don't think the structure is more complicated, it's
just the chaining of the sounds that feels unusual.
> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
> have probably slapped me for it.
OK so I won't translate that :-D
--
Vincent
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>> I recall that what we refer to as a "gold fish", the French call "le
>> passion rougue" ("the red fish"), and that's about it.
>
> That's "le poisson rouge". Unless you mean red passion, but then it's
> "*la* passion rouge" :-)
Gah. Well, given that I can't spell English properly yet and I can't
speak French, the chances of spelling it right are... small? :-}
As I side note, it appears to me that the correct way to read French
writing is to more or less entirely disregard all consonnents and utter
a complex sequence of modulated vowels. Which, obviously, is quite hard...
[I remember sitting on the train last year and hearing the anouncer
telling us what station we're arriving at. The word on the board looks
like a random assortment of uncommon consonnents. But the word the
person actually said sounded... like something clearing their throat.]
>> I still have no idea what this word actually means... Any guesses?
>>
>
> I have absolutely no idea of what this is... "Reversé" ? That would mean
> "poured again" or something like that. I don't know much about coffee in
> general, though...
Double-filtered coffee or something perhaps? IDK.
> But yes, the "r" is certainly rougher in French, and
> this is especially notable at the beginning of words.
Apparently...
>> Because, you know what? To speak French, you have to actually speak
>> in a French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which
>> actually makes sense, really...
>
> I would expect this to be true in many languages indeed. Try Chinese
> some day, it's even worse :-)
I imagine you're right...
>> Similarly, it's not "mer-see". It appears to involve a completely
>> different set of vowles, more closely approximating "meial-si". Danm,
>> I can't even *type* it, much less say it out loud.
>
> Perhaps if you say "mayor see" very quick in English it sounds a bit
> like the French "merci" ? Except for the "r"...
Meh. I sound retarded when I speak English, and I know what I'm doing.
;-) What chance do I have with French? Heh.
>> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
>> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
>> person, it probably is.
>
> As a matter of fact, I get the same feeling when I watch TV and find a
> Polish station :-) I don't think the structure is more complicated, it's
> just the chaining of the sounds that feels unusual.
I have the 7-disk collector's boxed set of Jeff Wayne's War of the
Worlds. For some reason, the Italian and German versions of the famous
opening prolog sound utterly hilarious to my ears...
>> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
>> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
>> have probably slapped me for it.
>
> OK so I won't translate that :-D
OMG, I just had a very silly idea... Google Translate. 0;-)
(From the site that brought us "leave the impact price-increase your
body"...)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible escribió:
> For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering
> complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't
> surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be
> speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time...
> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
> person, it probably is.
That's completely normal. I used to think the same seeing little kids
speaking English.
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>> For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering
>> complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't
>> surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be
>> speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time...
>> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
>> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
>> person, it probably is.
>
> That's completely normal. I used to think the same seeing little kids
> speaking English.
I think the little kids speaking German amaze me more though...
[Not many of those where I was - but I saw one in the Science Museum in
London one time...]
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible wrote:
> I think the little kids speaking German amaze me more though...
>
> [Not many of those where I was - but I saw one in the Science Museum in
> London one time...]
You make it sound like he was an exhibit!
:)
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>> I think the little kids speaking German amaze me more though...
>>
>> [Not many of those where I was - but I saw one in the Science Museum
>> in London one time...]
>
> You make it sound like he was an exhibit!
>
> :)
._.
WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
No no, him and his dad were walking past the Cray II exhibit. As is
typical in England, dad was saying nothing and his son wouldn't shut the
hell up...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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"Invisible" <voi### [at] dev null> wrote in message
news:47a2f325$1@news.povray.org...
> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a
> French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes
> sense, really...
Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch, rising or
falling.
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Gail Shaw wrote:
> Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
> meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch, rising or
> falling.
...!!! o_O
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>>> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
>>> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
>>> have probably slapped me for it.
>>
>> OK so I won't translate that :-D
>
> OMG, I just had a very silly idea... Google Translate. 0;-)
>
> (From the site that brought us "leave the impact price-increase your
> body"...)
Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I
can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de news:
47a3338f$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
>> Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
>> meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch, rising
>> or
>> falling.
>
> ...!!! o_O
Or try vietnamese. Not only it's tonal (6 tones) but each vowel has several
variants ("accents"). Add to this that the language is pretty much
monosyllabic and the way it's pronounced varies wildly between regions.
One should better learn it as a kid: past a certain age it becomes difficult
to tell apart some of the sounds and only very gifted foreigners can
actually become fluent enough so that "Nice to meet you" doesn't sound like
"Your mother's nipples smell like rotten catfish" to vietnamese ears.
OTOH the language is pretty straightforward and the grammar itself is simple
compared to European languages.
G.
--
*****************************
http://www.oyonale.com
*****************************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray, Cinema 4D and Poser computer images
- Posters
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Gilles Tran wrote:
> Or try vietnamese. Not only it's tonal (6 tones) but each vowel has several
> variants ("accents"). Add to this that the language is pretty much
> monosyllabic and the way it's pronounced varies wildly between regions.
>
> One should better learn it as a kid: past a certain age it becomes difficult
> to tell apart some of the sounds and only very gifted foreigners can
> actually become fluent enough so that "Nice to meet you" doesn't sound like
> "Your mother's nipples smell like rotten catfish" to vietnamese ears.
Actually, I was just thinking... What if you had some brain disorder
that made all your words come out in the same flat tone? Everybody would
think you're insulting them of something... heh!
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de news:
47a33b36@news.povray.org...
> Actually, I was just thinking... What if you had some brain disorder that
> made all your words come out in the same flat tone? Everybody would think
> you're insulting them of something... heh!
I've been told that there's a village somewhere in the Center where people
do talk "like foreigners", i.e. without any tone. Other Vietnamese find this
comedy gold.
In any case, I guess that the tone differences are sometimes so subtle
anyway (particularly given the Vietnamese habit of shouting to match the
high ambient noise) that people are able to infer what others actually say
from the context alone.
G.
--
*****************************
http://www.oyonale.com
*****************************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray, Cinema 4D and Poser computer images
- Posters
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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47a3338f$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> > Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
> > meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch,
rising or
> > falling.
>
> ...!!! o_O
Apparently there's one combination of sounds that has meaning in all 5
tones, and you can use those 5 words to make a sentence. However, when the
tour guid sia that sentance, t sounded to me like the same word 5 times. I
could not hear any difference.
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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did
spake, saying:
>>>> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
>>>> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
>>>> have probably slapped me for it.
>>>
>>> OK so I won't translate that :-D
>> OMG, I just had a very silly idea... Google Translate. 0;-)
>> (From the site that brought us "leave the impact price-increase your
>> body"...)
>
> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I
> can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
>
> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
"What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:51:13 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:
>
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
> news:47a3338f$1@news.povray.org...
>> Gail Shaw wrote:
>>
>> > Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
>> > meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch,
> rising or
>> > falling.
>>
>> ...!!! o_O
>
> Apparently there's one combination of sounds that has meaning in all 5
> tones, and you can use those 5 words to make a sentence. However, when
> the
> tour guid sia that sentance, t sounded to me like the same word 5 times.
> I could not hear any difference.
[Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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Phil Cook wrote:
> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did
> spake, saying:
>
>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>
> "What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"
o_O
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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"Gail Shaw" <initialsurname@sentech sa dot com> wrote in message
news:47a33ff0@news.povray.org...
> Apparently there's one combination of sounds that has meaning in all 5
> tones, and you can use those 5 words to make a sentence. However, when the
> tour guid sia that sentance, t sounded to me like the same word 5 times. I
> could not hear any difference.
>
Let me rewrite that, seeing as I apparently completely lost the ability to
type for a few moments
However, when the tour guide said that sentence, it sounded to me like the
same word 5 times. I could not hear any difference.
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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
news:op.t5ur3jmwc3xi7v@news.povray.org...
> [Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]
>
It's friday and I'm slow. Which reference did you have in mind?
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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:08:39 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:
>
> "Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
> news:op.t5ur3jmwc3xi7v@news.povray.org...
>
>> [Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]
>>
>
> It's friday and I'm slow.
Weekend yay!
> Which reference did you have in mind?
Zathras, Zathras, Zathras
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:03:44 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did
spake, saying:
> Phil Cook wrote:
>> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull>
>> did spake, saying:
>>
>>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>> "What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"
>
> o_O
GIYF - add "Futurama" to the query.
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:23:34 +0000, Invisible wrote:
> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a French accent, or
> nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes sense, really...
Well, I've been told that the French (and in particular, Parisians) often
will pretend they don't understand if your French is bad. I had a
similar experience to this in Barcelona - the difference between Spanish
and Catalan is small enough that if you speak Spanish, they can
understand you.
For example, in Spanish, the city "Barcelona" is pronounced "bar-se-lone-
a". In Catalan, it's pronounced "Bar-theh-lone-a". But if you don't
pronounce it the second way, the locals will tend to pretend to not know
what you're saying. They damned well know what is meant, though.
Jim
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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
news:op.t5utu1ywc3xi7v@news.povray.org...
> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:08:39 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>
> <"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:
>
>
> > It's friday and I'm slow.
>
> Weekend yay!
>
> > Which reference did you have in mind?
>
> Zathras, Zathras, Zathras
Ah right. I almost forgot them. But then, no one ever listen to poor
Zanthras
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Invisible nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2008/02/01 05:23:
> During my stay in Switzerland, I discovered a number of things.
>
> The region I was staying in (Nendaz) speaks French. Now, my knowledge of
> French is minimal. I recall that what we refer to as a "gold fish", the
> French call "le passion rougue" ("the red fish"), and that's about it.
We say "le poasson rouge"
>
> I recall sitting down in the cafe at Siviez. Waitress wanders over and
> mutters something in French. I look at her for a moment. "Well I hope
> your English is way better than my French." She looks worried.
>
> Well anyway, I eventually managed to figure out that if you mumble
> "shokolah", they bring you a mug of hot chocolate. Which tastes ****ing
> fantastic BTW.
>
> Benny likes to drink some kind of coffee. I'm not sure exactly what it
> is. The waitress comes over and he says "reversay". And she looks at him
> like "dude, WTF?" Anyway, it turns out the correct way to pronounce this
> word is actually a cross between saying "reversay" and trying to cough
> up a gold watch: hhhhhhhhrrreversay. Otherwise they literally have no
> idea what you're saying.
Kind of sound like "poured again" or "turned over". Depend on the exact context.
>
> I still have no idea what this word actually means... Any guesses?
>
> Also somewhat interesting: If you ask an English person how to say
> "hello" in French, they'll tell you it's "bon-jor". Well, *I* didn't
> hear anybody say that! What I heard was much more like "bor-shor".
> Because, you know what? To speak French, you have to actually speak in a
> French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes
> sense, really...
Just *what* french accent are you talking about? There are 100's of them...
I live in Montréal, Québec, end there are times I have dificulties understanding
some other french speakers.
I can say the same about english eccents ;-)
>
> Similarly, it's not "mer-see". It appears to involve a completely
> different set of vowles, more closely approximating "meial-si". Danm, I
> can't even *type* it, much less say it out loud.
"mer-see" is closer to the way we say it where I live.
>
> For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering
> complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't
> surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be
> speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time...
> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
> person, it probably is.
I was wondering the same when I had to learn english...
>
> Like I said, logically there's nothing unusual here. Rationally, you
> know that. But even so, when you see small children casually doing
> something that you yourself find impossibly difficult... it's always
> surprising.
>
> (But then, come to that, there were children there who could ski better
> than they can *walk*! Really showed me up...)
>
> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say "you
> have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would have
> probably slapped me for it. Mind you, she says her boyfriend is always
> teaching her new English words and phrases. (And damn, her English isn't
> half bad...) Ho hum!
It's "Vous avez un beau derrière!" Or "Vous avez de belles fesses"
Pronounce (aproximataly):
"vou zavai un bo deriair" or "...de bell fess"
And, yes, it could result in a stiff slap in the face...
You may try to first learn Spanish or Italian, then learn French. Learning Latin
and classical Greek can also help. Anyway, learning a new language is never a waste.
--
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
Thomas Jefferson
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Invisible nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2008/02/01 10:09:
>> OMG, I just had a very silly idea... Google Translate. 0;-)
>>
>> (From the site that brought us "leave the impact price-increase your
>> body"...)
>
> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I
> can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
>
> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>
Absolument!
Can you post some of those?
--
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
The other day I came home and a guy was jogging, naked. I asked "Why?" He
said "Because you came home early."
Rodney Dangerfield
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Alain wrote:
> Just *what* french accent are you talking about? There are 100's of them...
> I live in Montréal, Québec, end there are times I have dificulties
> understanding some other french speakers.
> I can say the same about english eccents ;-)
As Benny pointed out, there are - or were - areas of England where the
dialect they speak is so strange as to be beyond comprehension to most
normal people. [I'm not even going to attempt to describe his impression
of Glasgow. But it involves saying "JIMMI!" a lot and speaking extremely
fast...]
>> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
>> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
>> have probably slapped me for it. Mind you, she says her boyfriend is
>> always teaching her new English words and phrases. (And damn, her
>> English isn't half bad...) Ho hum!
> It's "Vous avez un beau derrière!" Or "Vous avez de belles fesses"
> Pronounce (aproximataly):
> "vou zavai un bo deriair" or "...de bell fess"
> And, yes, it could result in a stiff slap in the face...
LOL! Especially when I've just watched her standing there snogging her
bf's face off in the middle of the cafe... ;-)
FWIW, Google claims "Vous avez un joli cul." I have no idea whether that
actually makes any sense at all though. Google translations are a
little... variable. ;-)
[Never the less, I just wasted a whole afternoon coming up with stuff
like "Je tiens à vous faire nu." Damn, I should grow up... :-S ]
> You may try to first learn Spanish or Italian, then learn French.
> Learning Latin and classical Greek can also help. Anyway, learning a new
> language is never a waste.
That's exactly the mind-set I had when I took up Haskell. Oh, wait...
[On a more serious note... I have attempted to learn Latin a few times.
And generally failed. Oh well!]
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Gail Shaw nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2008/02/01 09:52:
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
> news:47a2f325$1@news.povray.org...
>
>> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a
>> French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes
>> sense, really...
>
> Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
> meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch, rising or
> falling.
>
>
There are 4 pitches.
High pitch, medium high, medium low, low, flat, rising or falling. When you hear
cantonese or mandarin, it all sound like random noises and buzzings. At times,
it don't even sound like any king of language at all.
The various arabic languages are also prety strange sounding, when you don't
speak them.
--
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
You know you've been raytracing too long when someone shows you a photograph of
their new rough-slate kitchen floor and you say "nice normals".
-- Tom Melly
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On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:05:01 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> As Benny pointed out, there are - or were - areas of England where the
> dialect they speak is so strange as to be beyond comprehension to most
> normal people. [I'm not even going to attempt to describe his impression
> of Glasgow. But it involves saying "JIMMI!" a lot and speaking extremely
> fast...]
Glaswegian can be difficult to understand, yes. I've got a friend/
coworker who lives between Glasgow and Edinburgh who speaks a dying
dialect of Gaelic. A real shame, because it's a beautiful language to
listen to.
Jim
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"Orchid XP v7" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47a37b4d$1@news.povray.org...
> Alain wrote:
>
> > Just *what* french accent are you talking about? There are 100's of
them...
> > I live in Montréal, Québec, end there are times I have dificulties
> > understanding some other french speakers.
> > I can say the same about english eccents ;-)
>
> As Benny pointed out, there are - or were - areas of England where the
> dialect they speak is so strange as to be beyond comprehension to most
> normal people.
I've had problems understanding the accents/dialict of central London,
Glasgow, Liverpool, Aberdene.
I have no problems with the accents in Edinburgh, Inverness, most parts of
London or the Midlands. Those Cockneys though... (Including 2 cousins and an
aunt, none of whome I can understand)
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Orchid XP v7 a écrit :
> FWIW, Google claims "Vous avez un joli cul." I have no idea whether that
> actually makes any sense at all though. Google translations are a
> little... variable. ;-)
It is perfectly correct, in the grammatical sense or course :-)
No, the only problem with Google's translation, in this case, is that it
kind of mixes two tones. "You" is translated as "vous" for people you
respect or are unfamiliar with. "Cul" is a familiar term, so ordinarily
you don't put both in the same sentence.
So that you can adjust the level of the sentence like so:
"Vous avez un joli derrière"
Or if you really want to be more familiar: "Tu as un beau cul".
In effect, the first sentence would justify the stiff slap in the face,
and with the second, chances are you get a knee somewhere else as an
added bonus :-D
--
Vincent
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Invisible wrote:
>>> For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering
>>> complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't
>>> surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be
>>> speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time...
>>> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these
>>> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French
>>> person, it probably is.
>>
>> That's completely normal. I used to think the same seeing little kids
>> speaking English.
>
> I think the little kids speaking German amaze me more though...
>
> [Not many of those where I was - but I saw one in the Science Museum in
> London one time...]
In his essay _The Awful German Language_, Mark Twain mentions that a
museum curator he met in Germany was interested in making Twain's manner
of speaking German an exhibit in the museum.
Regards,
John
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Gail Shaw wrote:
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
> news:47a2f325$1@news.povray.org...
>
>> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a
>> French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes
>> sense, really...
>
> Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
> meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch, rising or
> falling.
Chinese is the same way.
In other languages, saying a vowel in a word quickly or slowly changes
the meaning of the word. This is originally where short and long vowels
came from in English, but over the course of centuries of slow
alteration the short and long versions of each vowel acquired different
tonal qualities and lost the difference in actual length.
Regards,
John
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Gail Shaw wrote:
> Try Thai. It's a tonal language.
Same with Mandarin. I learned to say "My aunt scolded my mother's
horse". It's "ma ma ma ma".
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
On what day did God create the body thetans?
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Darren New wrote:
> Same with Mandarin. I learned to say "My aunt scolded my mother's
> horse". It's "ma ma ma ma".
Is that why it's called "mandarin"? ;-)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Alain wrote:
>> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I
>> can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
>> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
>>
>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>>
> Absolument!
> Can you post some of those?
OK, you asked for it... ;-)
* Vous avez très gros seins.
* J'adore vos yeux.
* Je tiens à vous faire nu.
* Puis-je AVC votre vagin?
* Puis-je mettre cela en vous?
* Pouvez-vous enlever ma virginité pour moi s’il vous plaît?
* Puis-je prendre une photo?
* Vous sonore agréable.
* Vous goût agréable.
* Vous êtes très confortable.
* Nous devons le faire encore quelque temps!
I *said* it was childish, no? :-S
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Orchid XP v7 a écrit :
> Alain wrote:
>> Can you post some of those?
>
> OK, you asked for it... ;-)
>
Now you could try to do the reverse, make Google translate each of these
sentences and see if it still makes sense in English :-)
FYI, these do not make any sense in French:
> * Vous sonore agréable.
> * Vous goût agréable.
> * Je tiens à vous faire nu.
> * Puis-je AVC votre vagin?
I'm especially puzzled by the last one... AVC?
There are other sentences that are correct but not what you would say in
French. But at least they make sense.
--
Vincent
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Vincent Le Chevalier wrote:
> Now you could try to do the reverse, make Google translate each of these
> sentences and see if it still makes sense in English :-)
I do this anyway. ;-)
I discovered that various sentences subtly but significantly change
their meaning. For example, things like "I want to make you smile"
become "I want to smile", which is quite different. Seems Google has a
few glitches in there. (Apparently it's using statistics to decide what
to translate to. I did find a few sentences that Google was simply
unable to produce a decent translation for...)
> FYI, these do not make any sense in French:
>
>> * Vous sonore agréable.
>> * Vous goût agréable.
>> * Je tiens à vous faire nu.
>> * Puis-je AVC votre vagin?
>
> I'm especially puzzled by the last one... AVC?
Yeah, I was wondering about that...
> There are other sentences that are correct but not what you would say in
> French. But at least they make sense.
LOL! Sense enough to get a black eye anyway...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Vincent Le Chevalier <gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 a écrit :
> > * Puis-je AVC votre vagin?
>
> I'm especially puzzled by the last one... AVC?
I'm more puzzled by the mention of the female sexual organ... :)
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nemesis wrote:
> I'm more puzzled by the mention of the female sexual organ... :)
Erm... I think we kinda covered that one already? ;-) Scroll up:
Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase
> I can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>
>> Same with Mandarin. I learned to say "My aunt scolded my mother's
>> horse". It's "ma ma ma ma".
>
> Is that why it's called "mandarin"? ;-)
No. (Yes, I know it's a joke.) "Da" is big. "Ren" (or "rin") is man.
"Man" is an area of china. So "mandarin" is the "important (big) people
from the Man area".
I always amuse my wife when we go in a chinese restaurant and I write
"big man" (Da-ren) on the waiting list. Of course, it's the only version
of the characters pronounced that way that's simple enough for me to
remember how to "spell".
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
On what day did God create the body thetans?
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Darren New wrote:
> I always amuse my wife when we go in a chinese restaurant and I write
> "big man" (Da-ren) on the waiting list. Of course, it's the only version
> of the characters pronounced that way that's simple enough for me to
> remember how to "spell".
My last girlfriend [Jesus that was a long time ago...] had several
tattoes on various parts of her body. [I paid for one of them!] For
example, she had a couple of characters tattoed to the back of her leg
which evidently mean "hard and strong".
But that's the part that gets me thinking... how do *we* know that's
what it means? I mean, the *shop* says that's what it means. But for all
we know, maybe she's actually walking around with "I am a dork" tattoed
to her leg? [Which, actually, would be kinda appropriate in her case...]
Just a thought. ;-)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> But that's the part that gets me thinking... how do *we* know that's
> what it means?
I saw a picture of one that my police-man brother wanted translated,
found on someone they'd arrested or something. It said "Trust no money",
according to my wife.
It took us a while to figure out he's asked for "trust no-one" and got
"trust no yuan" instead.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
On what day did God create the body thetans?
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Darren New wrote:
> It took us a while to figure out he's asked for "trust no-one" and got
> "trust no yuan" instead.
Well he's gettin a tattoe,
Yeah, he's gettin ink done.
He asked for a thirteen,
But they drew a thirty one...
[Name it! >:-D ]
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible wrote:
>
> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I
> can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the
> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
>
> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>
My favorite Japanese phrase book is actually just that. It starts with
how to order a beer, progresses through how to pick up a date at the
bar, and ends with how to accept or turn down a marriage proposal. With
all the other good phrases in between.
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>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>
> My favorite Japanese phrase book is actually just that. It starts with
> how to order a beer, progresses through how to pick up a date at the
> bar, and ends with how to accept or turn down a marriage proposal. With
> all the other good phrases in between.
Wow... LOL!
Do they have such a book for English? ;-)
I do recall somebody made a website featuring translations of the phrase
"My God, there's an axe in my head!" into every concievable language.
(Including Tolkein Elvish, among others.)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
> >
> I do recall somebody made a website featuring translations of the phrase
> "My God, there's an axe in my head!" into every concievable language.
> (Including Tolkein Elvish, among others.)
Which would translate to:
"Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
in my tongue. ;-)
Hildur
>
> --
> http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
> http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Hildur K. wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>
>> I do recall somebody made a website featuring translations of the phrase
>> "My God, there's an axe in my head!" into every concievable language.
>> (Including Tolkein Elvish, among others.)
>
> Which would translate to:
>
> "Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
>
> in my tongue. ;-)
>
Iceland?
( http://www.yamara.com/axe/ )
> Hildur
>
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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Hildur K. wrote:
> > Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >>>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
> >
> >> I do recall somebody made a website featuring translations of the phrase
> >> "My God, there's an axe in my head!" into every concievable language.
> >> (Including Tolkein Elvish, among others.)
> >
> > Which would translate to:
> >
> > "Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
> >
> > in my tongue. ;-)
> >
> Iceland?
Yes, how did you guess?
>
> > Hildur
> >
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Hildur K. wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> Hildur K. wrote:
>>> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>>>>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>>>> I do recall somebody made a website featuring translations of the phrase
>>>> "My God, there's an axe in my head!" into every concievable language.
>>>> (Including Tolkein Elvish, among others.)
>>> Which would translate to:
>>>
>>> "Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
>>>
>>> in my tongue. ;-)
>>>
>> Iceland?
>
> Yes, how did you guess?
>
ehh, pattern matching?
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> >>>
> >>> "Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
> >>>
> >>> in my tongue. ;-)
> >>>
> >> Iceland?
> >
> > Yes, how did you guess?
> >
> ehh, pattern matching?
Oh, the link, I didn´t see it the first time. Sorry :-/
What I wrote is not a 100% match but means the same. Which only proves that
there are always several ways to say the same thing in any lanuage.
This only makes it even more difficult for the rest of us to figure things out
when we don´t know all possible nuances of a language. And which also makes
on-line translators necessary but usually not very helpful.
Like a simple news headline: "Bush and Sharon met in Washington" translates to
"A shrub and a piece of broken flower pot met in the laundry".
Makes you wonder... a lot.
So I stick to what I know, English or Scandinavian web pages and I´m not even
trying to read the German or French or Spanish or worse. Not even the
translated versions, even though I can make out some of the words on my own. (I
did learn some basic French and Spanish at high school years back and German
isn´t very far from the Scandinavian).
By the way, in my language we have a single word to describe "a piece of broken
flower pot", -pottbrot-, I just can´t think of a single word to describe that
in English. Is there one? Like "a piece of broken glass" translates -glerbrot-
the same way ;-)
???
Hildur
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