Search found 137 matches
- Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:22 pm
- Forum: Grammar
- Topic: Saints and their possessions
- Replies: 3
- Views: 18310
What I'm trying to work out is whether All Hallows should be treated like Holy Trinity (without apostrophe when applied to the name of a church) or like St Mary (with the apostrophe). Concerning abbreviations, it is now fairly standard in Britain to use a full stop after an abbreviation if the last ...
- Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:50 am
- Forum: Grammar
- Topic: Saints and their possessions
- Replies: 3
- Views: 18310
Saints and their possessions
I've been wondering about traditional church names in English and how the possessive is used. For example, the Church of St Mary is usually known as St Mary's Church , and abbreviated to St Mary's . For dedications ending in 's' we tend to use the clipped clitic: St James' Church (although it is oft...
- Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:08 pm
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: Need Translation from Latin
- Replies: 2
- Views: 12101
- Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:17 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Pronunciation of Tintin
- Replies: 2
- Views: 12076
- Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:41 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: Are Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew the Same Language?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 26286
Can any one lect be the same as another? No, not entirely. Is Old English the same language as Modern English? Lack of comprehension of one from the other suggests not, yet the former is surely the ancestor of the latter. The matter is more complex, however, in the case of Hebrew. Classical and Mode...
- Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:42 pm
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: No Joke: Microsoft Seeks To Patent Verbs
- Replies: 25
- Views: 60292
Actually teaching grammar and spelling is redundant. The Word, being the light of humanity and all that, automates these menial secretarial tasks. You can often see the marks of the New Grammar and New Spelling on letters from company temps — who's to quibble when the red worms and green snakes are ...
- Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:24 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Patronising male nurses & Do you find undergrounds mater
- Replies: 30
- Views: 57256
Patronising male nurses & Do you find undergrounds mater
Tonight on the local telly news, a senior male nurse was interviewed about measures to ensure infirm patients were assisted at meal times to prevent malnutrition. Anyway, his whizzy-graphic caption called him Matron . I rather balked at the idea of a male nurse holding such a title. Shouldn't the ma...
- Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:42 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: -stani
- Replies: 9
- Views: 54994
It's all a little bit Persian. The Old Persian word root stā- implied 'to set down, place', and with nouns 'the place for something'. Thus, it was used with ethnonyms to form names for a nations' homelands. The Afghan live in Afghanistan , and things to do with them or their country are Afghani . Th...
- Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:37 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Is there a collective noun for Barbie dolls?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 38801
Is there a collective noun for Barbie dolls?
Considering this news item about 4,000 Barbie dolls up for auction, is there a collective noun for Barbie dolls?
— Garzo can dress himself, thank you.
— Garzo can dress himself, thank you.
- Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:10 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Post haste
- Replies: 37
- Views: 66386
BTW, Garzo, on rural British postal routes, do the trucks or cars have the steering wheel on the left, like an American car? In the US, the postal vehicles used for delivery have the steering wheel on the right so the mail carrier can drive up to the mailbox and leave the mail without leaving the v...
- Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:21 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Post haste
- Replies: 37
- Views: 66386
I've never thought of from pillar to post in that way before — wonderful! I obviously seem to be labo(u)ring under the misapprehension that US Postal Service trucks are blue, when the evidence shows them to be white. I simply remember a very old, slightly rusty and seemingly blue mail truck helping ...
- Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:32 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Die Übermodel
- Replies: 8
- Views: 31448
Unicode not showing up here is a bit of a worry. Try changing the character encoding (most browsers will put it under the 'view' menu) to 'UTF-8'. You might need a good Unicode font like Code2000 . That should help. I'm still not sure what would be the more correct pronunciation of Bündchen's name. ...
- Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:22 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Forms of address -- formal
- Replies: 36
- Views: 74285
I find this most difficult with Japanese names, as so many Japanese writing in English will call themselves personal-name family-name , but just a few will not. I've got a bit of an idea what names sound like in Japanese, which helps, but it's still awkward. I find that Chinese names are never rever...
- Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:14 am
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Post haste
- Replies: 37
- Views: 66386
I think pillar box is a little old fashioned now, although many post recepticles are still pillar-shaped (including my local one). I find postbox to be more colloquial. I failed to mention that e-mail is always that, and never 'e-post' (although I'm sure someone's tried that). However, the film/movi...
- Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:57 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: Die Übermodel
- Replies: 8
- Views: 31448
Die Übermodel
I'm not normally a follower of fur-clad supermodels, but a linguistic conundrum clings provocatively to Gisele Bündchen. She is of German descent, but is Brazilian born. As a German, her name is [ˈɡiːzələ ˈbʏntçən]. However, that's very un-Portuguese. Listening to the presenter on this video , her n...