Professional Grade ... D

You have words - now what do you do with them?
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:06 pm

Did you ask for a "half dozen" and she said they only have 3,6,9,or 12 of anything, like the story that
floats everywhere today??
On a cultural note, the first time I tried to buy eggs in Russia was interesting. I asked the lady behind the counter for a dozen eggs and she looked at me as if I were nuts. Turns out they sell them by the 10.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

saparris
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Postby saparris » Tue Feb 02, 2010 10:14 pm

I have heard of Tangier Island but haven't been there. I did a little searching on the web and watched a video clip on the dialect.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=263000

The article I read says that the settlers came from England in the 1680's, but I also hear a bit of an Irish Kennedy lilt.

It's definitely a coastal accent more similar to that of the SC low country (about becomes almost aboot), whereas here in the Piedmont, about is closer to abow-oot).
Ars longa, vita brevis

beck123
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Postby beck123 » Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:50 pm

I went to graduate school with a fellow from the Eastern Shore. He worked a few summers on the bay with the Pruitts (one of three or four principal families on Tangier.) My friend had the typical Eastern Shore accent that you describe, with everyone walking "aboot the hoose," but he said that when the Islanders in the boat with him wanted to talk privately, they would use an old form of English that was incomprehensible to him. They told him it was preserved (however poorly, is my guess) from the colonial era.
Beck

"I don't know whether ignorance or apathy is worse, and, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous

beck123
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Postby beck123 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:03 am

... the first time I tried to buy eggs in Russia was interesting. I asked the lady behind the counter for a dozen eggs and she looked at me as if I were nuts. Turns out they sell them by the 10.
Does Russian have a specific word (like "dozen") for a retail unit of eggs, or do people use the Russian equivalent of "ten eggs?"

Years ago I stopped at a thatched "store" in the interior of the Dominican Republic and asked, "Se vende aqui cigarillos?" The man asked how many I wanted, and I asked for one. He handed me a single cigarette, carefully wrapped in a brown paper towel, and I was too chagrined to tell him I meant one pack.[/i]
Beck

"I don't know whether ignorance or apathy is worse, and, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous

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Slava
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Postby Slava » Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:14 am

Does Russian have a specific word (like "dozen") for a retail unit of eggs, or do people use the Russian equivalent of "ten eggs?"
"Desyatok." It's not egg-specific. Just as a dozen isn't specific to anything.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

saparris
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Postby saparris » Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:55 am

I went to graduate school with a fellow from the Eastern Shore.
I worked my way through school at a hotel restaurant. The owner and his wife were from the Eastern shore of Maryland. Both said "zinc" for "sink." I have run across that several other times since, but the speakers didn't seem to be from a specific locale.

Anyone else heard that?
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:06 am

I think the traditional meaning of "shibboleth" went beyond word or phrase, to include such things as images and objects, as well. The fish symbol, for example, was used as a shibboleth for early Christians and has been, er, resurrected as a shibbolethic bumper sticker in the last few decades.

I have always had the sense that it was a bit secretive, as well. A frat boy displays his Greek letters, which to my thinking are not a shibboleth. There are shibboleths for the fraternity, as well, and they are not made public.

I heard somewhere that the FISH WAS SECRETIVE
of sorts, a kind of "password". In Greek it has some
spelling like ICHTHYS (I am not sure: don't speak Greek).
And it spelled a sort of 'anagram" : one letter for each
word "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" - each letter
of ICHTHYS being one word. I know the early
Christians did not use a cross or crucifix as we do, any
more than we would use a small 'electric chair' or
hangman's noose, or syringe : and hang it on our walls
or put it above an altar in a church.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:11 am

I have heard of Tangier Island but haven't been there. I did a little searching on the web and watched a video clip on the dialect.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=263000

The article I read says that the settlers came from England in the 1680's, but I also hear a bit of an Irish Kennedy lilt.

It's definitely a coastal accent more similar to that of the SC low country (about becomes almost aboot), whereas here in the Piedmont, about is closer to abow-oot).


That Tangier Island video was absolutely fascinating:
watched it 3 times. Love it. Thanks
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:13 am

Did you ask for a "half dozen" and she said they only have 3,6,9,or 12 of anything, like the story that
floats everywhere today??
On a cultural note, the first time I tried to buy eggs in Russia was interesting. I asked the lady behind the counter for a dozen eggs and she looked at me as if I were nuts. Turns out they sell them by the 10.

I had a friend who went into a fast food joint. Asked
for a halfdozen chicken nuggets. The kid at the counter
said: "we only have six and ten sizes of nuggets, sir".
Today's schools: wow. I can appreciate the
ten eggs however. That makes a lot of sense.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:18 pm

I had a friend who went into a fast food joint. Asked
for a halfdozen chicken nuggets. The kid at the counter
said: "we only have six and ten sizes of nuggets, sir".

I ordered 18 Pizzas for a child's birthday party once and told the person who answered the phone that my name was Parris, like the capital of France (I didn't bother with the extra r explanation, since that part wasn't important).

When I went to get the Pizzas, I was told that they didn't have an order for Parris, although there was a large stack of Pizzas on the counter with no name attached to the boxes.

I told the clerk that I had given the person who had taken my order my name--Parris--and had then said "like the capital of France."

The clerk laughed, turned around to a person in the back, and yelled, "Joe, what's the capital of France?"

And Joe yelled back, "I have no idea! Why?"

I got my pizzas, but I realized that I would have to start spelling my name on future phone orders.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:25 pm

You French are just impossible to live with !
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Wed Feb 03, 2010 4:21 pm

Sorry for the delay. I was dressing.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:51 pm

You are no more sorry about these puns than ever!
(green sickie here).
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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