h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now look here, Vestie! Stop stirring things up with your mindless dribbeling! The matter has already been settled. Find another thing to invent a word for.
(Pretend-angry words from Duke, said to hide the fact that he has absolutely no idea what is going on and what he's actually talking about.)

Let me explain a phenomenon and see if we can find a word for it. Take a small child and ask them to put their hands above their head. (you can try with an amicable adult if a child is not handy). Then say with as much conviction as possible that you are _not_ going to tickle them.
Then place your wiggling fingers about 30 cm from their armpits (but do not touch them) and observe what happens. Some children laugh more at this than they do when you actually tickle them. What should it be called?

Oh... There is a medical term for this. Psychiatric medicine, that is. I'll logout and go look it up, then I'll get back to you.
BTW - It is VERY fun too!

I'm waiting! I wanna know. I think it's fun too. and it doesn't work with your eyes shut - much.

I'm going to have to try this. Seems great fun. Thing is though, that my girl isn't very ticklish. I have to wait until my son gets old enough to grasp when I tell him to do stuff. He is showing signs of becoming VERY ticklish. By the way, when I was a child my mom told me that if you tickel someone too much, they could develop a stutter. Is this so, ya think?

Why do we stick to the same headlines time after time after time? I used ‘The light is bright’ because I saw the light as particularly bright as we, his Lordship and I, had just invented another word. Times like that deserve awe, pompous music and bright light shed by fat, smiling angels.

As for the above mentioned condition of children and other humans, I did look it up, but I admit that at present, I fail to translate it all.
It is, however, a fascinating human (dis-)order and an interesting psychological reaction. Primarily it has something to do with nervous anticipation and is related to the anxiety experienced by people who can hear the mosquito but not see it. You know what you (think you) are in for, but you cannot be sure when (or in deed if) it will occur.

Regarding the stutter – no, there’s no distinct experience, neither psychological nor otherwise, that verifies any relation between over-tickledness and a stutter.
In fact, a stutter can be based both on mental and physical disorders and the individual cause is rarely easily determined.
Bu- bu- bu- but it was not until the latest two decades that certain musical factions actually succeeded in making money, playing stu- stu- stu- stuttering music, only they called it ‘rap’ or worse.

Back to the subject of causing hysterics in (young) people expecting a tickle: I can only recommend either to invent a perfectly fresh, unused and new word for it or – if we prefer the scientific approach – to cast a glance at medical terms. The condition is obviously hysteric, deriving from anticipation, so perhaps we should add up something here…
Anybody who knows the Latin word for hysteric anticipation?
Or should we just call it ‘anticiperia’?

The Who when they sang My Generation put a slight stutter in My G-generation. This was, to the cognoscenti an indiaction that they knoew that taking drugs (like speed) made you stutter.

That goes without saying, d-doesn't it?

Anyway, there's bound to be somebody who speaks Latin out there.

As for language: How about when English words are entered into other languages only to be abused by people who don't know what they are saying. In Denmark, many people order *one* hotdog by asking for *one hotdogs*, just as they ask for *one* drink by asking to be served *one drinks*.
Why, you may (or may, in deed, not) ask?
Because they are stupid and narrowminded, that's why.
And this really pisses me off!

Remember the headlines, buddies!

Are you concerned about language use and accuracy? I am - a bit - but I don't like to be too pedantic if it causes offence or stops conversation.

English people misuse language too in a very similar sense. Our coins are pennies. One is a penny and the plural is either pennies or pence. People almost always say "one pence" and it drives me up the wall - but I generally don't comment.

We changed currency in 1971 and we had "old money" and "new money." The old system was a real test of mathematical knowledge. 12 pennies made a shilling and 20 shillings made a pound. Multiplication of money meant having a grasp of base 12 and base 20.

This was sometimes useful for things like buying in dozens (a dozen buns at 3 pence each was three shillings - easy!) But when we changed and we called the new money "New Pence" everyone thought you had to use the "pence" bit all of the time!

Wee me, who thought that all about Britain was good.
This was in deed confusing.

No, I do not comment on word abuse, I just curl up my toes and present my teeth in a grimace as if... well, it's actually hard to describe. But people sometimes think it's a smile.

I think that one of the problems of being English/British is that many foreigners know our literature and like it (or are impressed by it). We don't stand a chance of matching up to Shakespeare - who in fact made up many of the words he used because there wasn't a word in the language to meet his needs.

To whom do you teach English?

Shakespeare is just another proof that words can be invented when the need arise!
But you are right; the English language is both challenging and welcoming. Few languages are as verbose and few can hide as many unspoken details in the same few spoken words.
It's definitely not always an easy task to translate it, much less pretend to teach it.
It takes quite a few eblats to remotely understand English and just when you think you are on the brink of comprehending it, you have to decide *which* English language it is, you wish to understand and speak. There are British, American, Australian, South African and Hong Kong, just to mention some of the more common. I am making petty attempts at attaining British English, but who can tell if it works.
Mind you all; it is even worse when you are almost there. I once went into Harrods in London to buy sweets, when I came across a word which – at the time – I was unfamiliar with. But when I had talked to the nice lady behind the counter for a while and then suddenly asked her: “Excuse me, Miss, but what IS fudge?” She looked at me as if I had asked her what a wheel, a car or a book was. People come to expect that you are a native if you speak well, which allows for dreadful mistakes when suddenly misunderstanding something or using improper or even imprudent words.
But then, British English is in deed better than Valby-English, which is a small-vocabulary English spoken with a heavy Copenhagen-Danish accent by people who are trying to avoid learning a second language all together.
It is just not easy NOT to abuse somebody…

Do not get the header wrong, this is not child abuse. I am just replying to the posted question: Who do I teach?
I teach school-children in Denmark, an on-going quest to make them realise what a great language, English can be and that it is not all about the Internet and / or musical lyrics, such as Spice (XXXXXX) Girls or Backstreet (More XXXXXX) Boys.

The soap opera "Dallas" has made people in Sweden pronounce "JR" wrong, and this have really bugged me since the mid 80:s. They pronounce it "GR". Even journalists and announcers on TV does that. Also, on the reverse side, there is a radiostation here called "NRJ", and which the pronounce as "Energy". Annoying, but what can you do?

Wince.

There is so little reading done nowadays by many people that I think good language is becoming more of a snob thing than ever! With song lyrics and the like many words are changing their meaning overnight and synonyms grow daily. People are looking for more an d more words to describe extremes that they use totally inappropriate words and then those words are lost for their proper use.
Aggravation was one I remember from my youth. It came to mean aggression and violence. Skinheads used it a lot and shortened it to aggro.
Does this happen in other languages?

I think most countries are being subject to a language revolution. Immigrants, rap, culture, TV, all these influences are being submerged into the hearts of todays youngsters. We see a lot of it here. If you're on the subway and happen to listen in on a bunch of 16 year olds having a conversation, you're lost! I'm 31 now, perhaps that has something to do with it. People my age said the same when I was 16...

I think you're right and I like foreign words coming in, expecially when that gives you a wider vocabulary to describe the world. What I don't like is people causing us to have fewer words. And I'm older than you!

How much older? I mean, are you severely middle aged, or are you just 35 something?

ICQ is a wonderful thing - nobody else knows I'm 43!