Conference vaxcat::friends

    BTW, I forgot to tell you, I'm the specialist for German and Italian
    *<80)
    
    Tina

    
    
    I'm the specialist form english to east anglo gibberish
    
    Chris
    :)

    
     My french is pretty good....its just the language I have trouble with
    :-)))))
    
    TJ_back_again

    Hi TJ!
    Playing Heintje Davids are we?
    ;-)
    Charles

     
     what do you mean "playing Heintje Davids" ?????
    
     I *AM* Heintje Davids!!! :-)))
     
     Hoi Charles!
    
    TJ

    Figured you were ;-)
    How's it going out there?
    
    Charles

    
    
    
    o.k I'll bite...what is Heintje Davids?? :)
    
    Chris
    :)

    Heintje Davids was a singer who for years on end announced her
    retirement, gave a last concert and made a come-back within months.
    
    Charles

    foreign tongues huh? hmmmm ok hows this for diversity?
    
    Am Dutch, spent my childhood in Belgium and Iran, lived
    in Paris in my early 20ies, moved to Germany approx. 4 years
    ago, am getting married to a murrican....
    
    At the age of 7 I spoke dutch, french and english fluently (also
    serbo-croatian in several dialects but wont get into that)
    
    TJ
    

	yeowza...I have trouble speaking english.....;*)

    
    
    zo..juste adopt ze french accent zen M. Chico.
    
    Christophee ( le Internationale guy )
    :<)

Just enough french to get slapped in both Montreal and Paris and enough German
to confuse the natives. 7 years of Latin and I can decline a few verbs still.
Most people don't understand my english! Now if you need something translated
into C, assembler or Lisp... 8^)

My wife got this on one of her writing lists and I thought people would enjoy
it. This seems a perfect topic for it. Enjoy! 

CM

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor
ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins
weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are
candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that
quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is
neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce
and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't  
the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One
index 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you
comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have  
a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call
it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats
vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps
you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to  
an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a
play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses
that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and
wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while
quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell
one day and cold as hell another.

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are
absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a
sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into  
someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all
those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house
can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out
and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the
creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That
is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are
out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start  
it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

 Kevin Daniels, PhD   -   Procept, Inc.   -   Cambridge,MA

    re -1
    
    Thats good!
    
    Jackie

    
    
    nothing quite like a foreign tongue! :))))

I thought I understood why Jackie liked it...

    because of the humour....why else?
    
    Jackie

8^)

The advantages of a distracted Mod 8^)

  Kevin Daniels didn't write this from scratch. It came from Richard Lederer's
book "Crazy English". Since Richard is a Granite Stater, we'd better give him
credit.
  Re "the human race": I disagree with Richard on this one. A "race" can be
either one of 5 or so subgroups of humanity, or humanity itself. This is 
especially important when non-human races are considered, such as on Star Trek.

Well, I couldn't think which topic would be the most
appropriate to put this one in, but after much deliberation, I
put it here!

It could have gone in the "cries for help topic" or perhaps
one of the music topics...

I bought a CD at the weekend by a group called Adiemus.  I'm
sure this must mean something in another language, but what
language, and what does it mean or translate to in English?

I'm sure it must mean something as it's sung as a lyric in
more than one of the songs on the album...

BTW, the CD is really great...  It seems to have elements of
Enya (celtic style female vocal lead), African tribal song,
western classical string orchestra and ethnic instrumentation
in it...  Difficult to categorise really... 

Thanks in adavance...

Henry...  :o)

I have one as well. I've asked a few people but this might be the best way.
Please email me the answer since it'll probably be too rude to post.

I was reading some mail from some people and they were going on about how the
Yanks "root" for their favorite team. They then went on and made fun of the
usage of "flaps". Could someone tell me the Aussie slang meaning of "flaps"?

>I was reading some mail from some people and they were going on about how the
>Yanks "root" for their favorite team. They then went on and made fun of the
>usage of "flaps". Could someone tell me the Aussie slang meaning of "flaps"?

I can't, but when you find out I'd like to know as well!!!

Lola

    
    
    
    CM ..what context did you use the word flaps in?
    
    Chris
    :)

>    CM ..what context did you use the word flaps in?

I didn't. It was on one of the mailing lists I subscribe to and people were
talking about rooting for the home team and the Aussies got laughing and said
that they found our use of "flaps" funny as well. I only can think of using
them as the parts of a box that fold and get taped shut or the controls on a
plane. Henry gave me a rude definition but I can't think of a usage we have
that the Aussies would find humorous.