Search found 137 matches

by Garzo
Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:22 pm
Forum: Grammar
Topic: Saints and their possessions
Replies: 3
Views: 17797

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 ...
by Garzo
Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:50 am
Forum: Grammar
Topic: Saints and their possessions
Replies: 3
Views: 17797

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...
by Garzo
Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:08 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Need Translation from Latin
Replies: 2
Views: 11730

All I can think of is the five-year lustrum. That would make it mean "For sixty years gloriously accomplished". It might put it sixty years from the foundation of the Austrian Empire in 1804. That would be 1864, the time of Franz Joseph I.

— Gareth.
by Garzo
Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:17 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Pronunciation of Tintin
Replies: 2
Views: 11775

Nasal vowels and silent 'n's — [tɑ̃tɑ̃] in IPA.

— Garzo.
by Garzo
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: 23015

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...
by Garzo
Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:42 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: No Joke: Microsoft Seeks To Patent Verbs
Replies: 25
Views: 58536

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 ...
by Garzo
Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:24 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Patronising male nurses & Do you find undergrounds mater
Replies: 30
Views: 55393

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...
by Garzo
Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:42 am
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: -stani
Replies: 9
Views: 51596

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...
by Garzo
Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:37 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Is there a collective noun for Barbie dolls?
Replies: 16
Views: 37545

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.
by Garzo
Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:10 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Post haste
Replies: 37
Views: 64298

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...
by Garzo
Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:21 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Post haste
Replies: 37
Views: 64298

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 ...
by Garzo
Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:32 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Die Übermodel
Replies: 8
Views: 25162

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. ...
by Garzo
Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:22 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Forms of address -- formal
Replies: 36
Views: 69840

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...
by Garzo
Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:14 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Post haste
Replies: 37
Views: 64298

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...
by Garzo
Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:57 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Die Übermodel
Replies: 8
Views: 25162

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...

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