While dining at a Mexican restaurant this eve, my request for some sliced lime was met with quizzical looks. My companion ascribed the waitstaff's uncertainty to her belief that Hispanics (at least those from México and Puerto Rico) make no distinction between lemons and limes, and presumably I hadn't provided them with sufficient information (like, what colour limes?)
I find this hard to believe but stranger words have happened. Can anyone squeeze some light on this ?
"Foreign" language anomalies
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- Grand Panjandrum
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"Foreign" language anomalies
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
Can't say a lot about lemons and limes, but i noticed similar 'confusion' with regards to fruit and veggies. Every year in class -- my students come from all overthe world --, we have a short Babelonic discussion about 'peper' - 'paprika' and sometipes even about 'onion' and 'garlic'. Some people don't make the distinctions we make in Dutch.I believe some cultures do not make the distinction. I noticed this in India as well, fwiw.
F
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Frank, I love that word! Can I borrow it?Can't say a lot about lemons and limes, but i noticed similar 'confusion' with regards to fruit and veggies. Every year in class -- my students come from all overthe world --, we have a short Babelonic discussion about 'peper' - 'paprika' and sometipes even about 'onion' and 'garlic'. Some people don't make the distinctions we make in Dutch.I believe some cultures do not make the distinction. I noticed this in India as well, fwiw.
F
Reminds me once again of New Orléans, where you can go into the grocery store and look at scallions, which are labeled "shallots".
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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(Stargzer, who don't speech none too good en español, clicks up his favorite online translating service.)
Systranet.com turned this:
Systranet.com turned this:
into this:lemon
sliced lemon
slices of lemon
lime
sliced lime
slices of lime
Stargzer could go for Tequila y cal con un cazador del Dos Equis but he'll gladly settle for a Fordham Copperhead Ale.limón
limón rebanado
rebanadas del limón
cal
cal rebanada
rebanadas de la cal
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
HAH! At least a small dose of cal might keep me from an upset stomach!
Hey, you get what you pay for! I guess I'll have to take this particular translation with enough grains of salt to go around the rim of my next Margarita.
Hey, you get what you pay for! I guess I'll have to take this particular translation with enough grains of salt to go around the rim of my next Margarita.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Yo geezer! 999 posts? That's a lot of fencing.HAH! At least a small dose of cal might keep me from an upset stomach!
Hey, you get what you pay for! I guess I'll have to take this particular translation with enough grains of salt to go around the rim of my next Margarita.
One more to Panjandemonium.
Don't let them do it! Quit while you're ahead!
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
Sorry, Sluggo, I wasn't really a Head back in the Sixties, and punchlines aside, I still have all my limbs and torso attached. In fact, I now have a rebuilt earlobe! But thanks for putting me over the line, as opposed to over the edge.. . .
Yo geezer! 999 posts? That's a lot of fencing.
One more to Panjandemonium.
Don't let them do it! Quit while you're ahead!
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
...we have a short Babelonic discussion about 'peper' - 'paprika'
Be my guest . I was very surprised that the word doesn't exist in English. In Dutch we use it in connection with the Tower of Babel story (Babelonische spraakverwarring, lit. the "babelonic" confusion/diffusion of languages/speech).Frank, I love that word! Can I borrow it?
The only instances of 'babelonic' I could find on line seem to be typos for Babylonic, related to Babylon.
F
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