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

I think 'invigilation/invigilating' is called proctoring by Americans and Scottish folk too.

We really should have a 'Rambling Sid Rumpo Helpdesk' for obscure English English words. Cordwaining sounds like vocabulary he would have used.

A genuine post 21 - I hoped we'd get one. I've left a note on his/her personal space

so much less fun nbow they don't involve intimate canine anatomy

That list of "false friends" in one of Edward's links indicates that the Polish have taken some of the words from German.

aktualny - topical (English word: actual)
- in German "aktuell" means "topical"

ewentualny - possible (English word: Eventual)
- In German "eventuell" means "possibly"/"under
certain circumstances"

genialny - brilliant (English word: genial) In German (and in French) "Genial" means
"Brilliant", as in "Brilliant!",
"Great!" - i.e. really positive

hazard - gambling (English word: hazard) - the French
meaning fits better.

ordynarny - vulgar, foul-mouthed (English word: ordinary)
- in German, "ordinär" means "vulgar", and NOT ordinary!

sympatyczny - nice (English word: sympathetic) - in French and German
the meaning is the same as the Polish way of understanding it.
It has nothing to do with sympathy. Empathy perhaps.

szef - boss, chief (English word: chef) - The German
for "Boss" is "Chef"

Ah - these false friends! Knowing German sometimes makes learning Polish easier! But knowing English helps get the pronunciation right.

A498675

And Edward's other link made me wonder how the English meaning of the word "hazard" has ended up to be almost synonymous with "danger". As hazard means "chance" it seems rather misleading to deem something like dangerous rocks just under the water or an icy road as a "hazard" - the English interpretation is "certain danger" - any foreigners would construe that there is a "chance of danger".

Perhaps it is a plot to get rid of foreigners.

"sympatyczny - nice (English word: sympathetic) - in French and German the meaning is the same as the Polish way of understanding it. It has nothing to do with sympathy. Empathy perhaps."

This is one of the meanings of the word 'sympathetic' in English, too, of course. If I was to say that Barney Rubble isn't a very sympathetic character, it could mean that he never shows sympathy for anyone or that he's very hard to empathise with - that is, not 'nice'.

Hello Wanderin,

I will look in from time to time as I do find etymology fascinating and I am English and sometimes despair* at what happens to the language I was brought up with.

*not really despair, more disdain especially to some of the inputs or massacre from our cousins across the Atlantic

lapis, you might want to consider that sometimes our 'cousins across the Atlantic' do things right while we get them wrong. They say "don't have", we say "haven't got". "Don't have" is correct, "haven't got" is a colloquialism that has gained acceptance through continued use. That doesn't make it 'right', though, just different.

My attitude to any language is that it's a living thing. Language grows, changes, evolves. A language that doesn't evolve, dies - Latin is a prime example. So our 'cousins across the Atlantic' may 'massacre' the English language, but it shows the language is alive.

I agree with all you mentioned and some American changes to English are practical and economic (spellings especially), but some things do grate and that's all I meant.
I'll always remember Magenta De Vine on an old Lonely Planet episode reporting from Alaska and opening with something like "With the continuation of the the Americans trying to massacre English I just have to show you this". and proceeded to show a sign which proclaimed, "Alaska, the flyingest state in the union."

Yes language should be a living flexible thing hence Indian and African English etc, while being very different to that which may be taught in England, is accepted and taught in their respective locations and is therefore correct for them.

Also dear old French which is trying to be as unaffected by any outside influence as to be set in granite.

There are occasions though when things do grate, that's all.

...........and remember, dead things don't grate.

Good kinks, weren't they? I'm still reeling over the discovery that penguins are Welsh.

kinks? Links!

>>So our 'cousins across the Atlantic' may 'massacre' the English language

Saul Bellow Tom Wolfe James Baldwin Langsto Hughes Thenessee Williams JD Sallinger Ernest Hemingway Edith Warton F Scott Fitzgerald Maya Angelou Toni Morrison Philip Roth Edward Albee Eugene O'Neill Arthur Miller Cormack McCarthy T Coraghshen Boyle Susan Sarandon...etc.

So that list constitutes all Americans?

So British people never massacre the language?

Hi Cheerful Dragon

Please explain to me why 'don't have' is any more correct than 'haven't got'. (PS it's late and I may be a little ).

t.

Good question. I'd say that by the "rules", "don't have" is ridiculous. But there aren't any rules in English.

"Please explain to me why 'don't have' is any more correct than 'haven't got'."

For a complete explanation, I'll refer you to Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge (pub. by Penguin). It quotes from an article dated 1789 about the misuse/overuse of get/got. Basically, "don't have" means that somebody isn't in possesion of a thing; "haven't got" (strictly speaking) means they haven't acquired it, which usually isn't what the speaker means.

I'd say that "don't" with a verb indicates a continuous negative. I eat my dinner every day, I don't eat my breakfast every day. This is different from saying I am eating my dinner at the moment, I am not eating my breakfast.

To say "don't have" indicates that at regular intervals I am not in possession of something, which doesn't really make any sense.

But people know what you mean.

'I don't have a pencil.'

'I haven't got a pencil.'

Some regional differences, maybe? The first sounds more Scots to my ear - although the second would be heard too.