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

Manolan,

"Globish! ... would be the perfect language for a website aimed at making things easier to understand."

Ah but might that not detract from sales of the book?

>> ..should be using the word in full when writing, since the abbreviated form serves no purpose. <<

This left me wondering.
Logic, especially Darwinian logic, insists that if a thing exists and persists then it must be doing something right. But 'purpose' is a bit of a loaded word, implying as it does some grand schema at work in the world, even if only in the imagi-machinations of men. If by 'purpose' you mean 'justification for existence' then I have to insist that 'purpose' has really nought to do with survival, else there would be no jelly fish and the swearing of oaths would be superfluous to all purposes.

As for using abbrv.s in writing, I'm all forum.
They allow character, tone and colour. Their banning from formal applications of writ evidences the sterility of formal and organised thnking. Rules and regs are by definition made 2 be broken and rigidity in form is the weakest link in the mixed metaphorical path to beknightenment.


~jwf~

>> Maybe it's not "Rhythm 'n' Blues", it's certainly not "Rock 'n' Roll"; I suppose it's "Folk 'n' Clever". <<

Sometimes, like whenever I see displays of plaguesville's wit left hanging with no follow-up acknowledging his linguistic genius or his genteel humanity, I feel a great notion come upon me to overstate the obvious. The man really is folk'n'clever!


~jwf~

~jwf~

From the coiner of "beknightenment" that is praise indeed and, by comparison (like a ragged margin) unjustified.

>Darwinian logic



Logic is not logic, that attaches to a single persno's name.

What about Aristotelian logic? Precisely. Severely short of universality.

Sorry. (Speaking as a married persno mysefl)

There is no purpose to his post except to note that (with luck) it is number ten nine eight seven.

You're not bored, RM, are you?

Must wake up this evening, singing in a concert . . .

He's gone. Didn't tell us the programme and didn't leave any tickets.

F54784?thread=645229&skip=23

Sorry about the tickets, it's a charity gig.

marking

Well the gig was fun (what's this thread about? forgotten) specially because the second half was a Dublin Gospel Choir, with band . . . the Commitments sums it up nicely. They had us on our feet doing the moves and claps. Disinhibiting. A change from subtle modulations. Plus, I won the raffle. Love charity gigs.

Guys: join a choir. The Dublin Gospel choir was 26 women and 10 men, all teens to thirties.

Ah yes - but what would the ratio have been if there were not a match on last night?

Good point. The choirmaster said there were 40 members in all, so there must have been four absent. Still, if they were all fellas (as they probably were) it's almost two-to-one women to men

"Virtue is its own reward."
but that doesn't disqualify you from the raffle.

<<"Virtue is its own reward."
but that doesn't disqualify you from the raffle.>>

I like it!

Going back to globish (as interesting as all the bits in between have been) - I can confirm that globish is a real and living language. This French guy (although tongue in cheek about it) is simply writing down what actually happens in conference rooms when you have a mixture of nationalities speaking English and - preferably - there is no native speaker present.

I once worked for a German engineering firm who bought steel from Italians - they managed to get on perfectly well until an English engineer joined them.

It would take an English native speaker ages to work out what someone is talking about if it is described in a roundabout way. For example, a colleague of mine would often proudly recount his adventure in a restaurant in France where he wanted to order duck, but didn't know the word, so he thought he was very clever thinking up "poulet du lac". Quite honestly, I don't think a French waiter would conclude that he meant a duck. Knowing this guy, it was just an invented anecdote anyway, and was defintely only amusing for non-francophones.

Which raises the question - if globish were based on French, reducing it to 1500 words to accomodate the rest of the world - how would THEY feel about it?


Always assuming that the full version of the language (whether English or French or Cantonese) remains in existence to accommodate each one's wealth of poetry and literature for the enjoyment and study of those who would rather go to the effort of learning to communicate in that language properly, or who have done it all their lives anyway.

There is a phrase used as a tag to indicate that what follows it is an attempt to communicate a spcific idea without the vocabulary required.
It is, how you say? , a ....

Comment ça s'dit? Wie sagt man?