Language question

Another one: I was pondering today that the french words for hair and horse are similar (cheveux/cheval) and so are they in spanish (cabello/caballo). Why might that be, I wondered.

The Portuguese for aubergine - beringela - is remarkably similar to the word for aubergine in Indian restaurants (not sure which language) - brinjal.

I like connections like these.

also remember the spanish and the portuguese were some of the greatest explorers during the spice trades (trope alert: "pasta" coming to italy from chinese noodles courtesy of marco polo). in japanese, bread is the same as it is in portuguese/spanish: "pan".

Le poil. Means pubic, underarm or body hair. Also refers to animal hair.

I believe the Japanese say pan because the Portuguese introduced bread to Japan.

http://www.word-detective.com/back-k.html

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/393950.html

this question has been on my mind: why is the default abbreviation for air conditioning "a/c" instead of "AC"?

it's not like air/conditioning makes any sense

does it have to do with anal cunt?

AC = alternating current

huh I dunno about that being a big factor, but even if it was, why "a/c"?

what does n/a stand for?

You're one to ask, why n/a?

x/p!

that's a good question! why is "not applicable" abbreviated as "n/a"?

I am genuinely curious about these questions?

sorry, that should be a ! not a ?

idk perhaps two letter acronyms look silly or ambiguous without slash - ac, na, we, wo...

n/a otm, A/C seems stupid and wrong to me.

it's to do with typewriter keys getting stuck together when hit in certain sequences, carried on from that

i, uh- i cant back that up

It's less characters than 'a.c.' if you're reporting a fault to the managing agent via telegram

so hot stop fix a/c you fucks stop

it's to do with typewriter keys getting stuck together when hit in certain sequences, carried on from that

― Everytime I hit 'submit post' the internet gets dumber (darraghmac), Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:39 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's the explanation (perhaps apocryphal) for the QWERTY keyboard system

the real answer is that english is a fucking retarded language and that all these niggling points have been grandfathered in by centuries of people not giving a shit

centuries of people abbreviating "air conditioning"

aeons

w/e

aircon

^ why does this abbreviation even exist?

people mistyping zircon

i disbelieve so

you're unright

centuries of people abbreviating "air conditioning"

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:48 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

little known fact, "a midsummer's night dream" was originally titled "a midsummer night in need of a/c"

my mom uses the slashes a lot when abbreviating and i think she used to know shorthand (or something like it), i wonder if that has anything to do with it? like w/o instead of without (or possibly even ō as without, but I could be maknig that up, and a w with the line over the top as with). but yeah a/c differentiates it from AC, which is useful? n/a is differentiated from NA, which is to me at least north america!

We don't have air conditioning in the U/K, so no need for a/c abbrev.

anyway my gut reaction is that this probably happens when one of the words being abbreviated begins with a vowel so that we know to not try and treat it as a real word

Theory challenged by existence of 'b/w'

w is the consonant closest to a vowel that isn't sometimes a vowel, though. </weakexcuse>

black and white != air conditioning tho? easy to see where b/w came from from a shorthand context.

b/w is also "backed with" in re: old-school singles "side A" b/w "side B"

Is b/w is black and white, in this case? Or is the equivalent of c/w?

b/w and c/w tormented me for years because I couldn't work out what they stood for, and whenever I did work out what they stood for, promptly forgot almost immediately.

backed with or coupled with

Here's a question: in English, the word cancer relates to an illness, but as well to the zodiacal sign represented by a crab (which I guess is from Latin). Ho hum.

Now, in Russian, the word рак (rak) refers to both the illness and the animal. Despite no apparent etymological link between cancer and rak, there's obviously some profound semantic jiggery-pokery going on.

Any ideas?

I find the shorthand theory an interesting one, but googling makes it seem like most shorthand techniques completely replace all letters, so there wouldn't be "a/c" or "b/w" or anything like that.

http://blog.rivast.com/wp-content/uploads/Eclectic_shorthand_by_cross.png

Despite no apparent etymological link between cancer and rak

Wouldn't be so sure about that

is there any link between 'canker' and cancer?

Wouldn't be so sure about that

Well, I said nothing apparent; there's a good chance there's some deep seated proto-Indo-European link between the two, but that's a long time for that precise semantic link to endure, don't you think?

O.E. cancer "spreading sore, cancer" (also canceradl), from L. cancer "a crab," later, "malignant tumor," from Gk. karkinos, which, like the Mod.Eng. word, has three meanings: crab, tumor, and the zodiac constellation (late 14c. in English), from PIE base *qarq- "to be hard" (like the shell of a crab); cf. Skt. karkatah "crab," karkarah "hard;" and perhaps cognate with PIE base *qar-tu- "hard, strong," source of English hard. Greek physician Galen, among others, noted similarity of crabs to some tumors with swollen veins...

(oh x-post)

The OED might help:

L. cancer (cancrum) crab, also the malignant tumour so called. (So in Greek, καρκίνος, καρκίνωµα ‘crab’ and ‘cancer’; the tumour, according to Galen, was so called from the swollen veins surrounding the part affected bearing a resemblance to a crab's limbs.)

PIE = proto-Indo-European, I assume

v interesting

Yeah its is, and they always preface PIE words with a * because they're guesses.

xpost

googling makes it seem like most shorthand techniques completely replace all letters

the strokes all signify letters, but you try to skip as many vowels as possible, so if you transcribed it faithfully the result wd rsmbl a prml scrm rcrd.

So... the Russians pull in their animal-crab word for the medical condition, translating either Latin or Greek, whereas we have Cancer in technical, hence latinate vocabularies - as an astrological word (1394), and a medical one (1601, but various forms of 'canker' before that.). Would that be right?

b/w also means bloodwork. that's all I have to add here.

We don't have air conditioning in the U/K, so no need for a/c abbrev.

a/c means 'account' to me.

^ oh yeah, that was bothering me tbh.

So... the Russians pull in their animal-crab word for the medical condition, translating either Latin or Greek, whereas we have Cancer in technical, hence latinate vocabularies - as an astrological word (1394), and a medical one (1601, but various forms of 'canker' before that.). Would that be right?

Yes. "Crab" is Germanic but, just to confuse matters, not from the same PIE source as "Cancer"!

I wouldn't be surprised if canker was just misprounounced 'cancer' - i don't think OE had a soft 'c', did it?

Does Latin have a soft 'c'?

It looks... complicated. From what I can see, in the entry for canker, it does initially enter as 'cancer' (c1000), then changes to cauncre and kankir etc over the middle ages. I think they decide to put the 1601 medical 'cancer' spelling separately, under 'cancer', because it's Renaissance humanism at work, reviving/correcting spellings, medical knowledge. Not sure though.

internet says canker is from cancer.

shoulda said xp.

And then there's chancre

apparently taken from the French, 1605.

Is the US contain the largest country (population-wise) with the most homogenous language?

this is kind of random but I was wondering about this last night - I would think China would be the other big contender but I dunno how Mandarin dialects break down, really. Russia is obviously larger geographically but smaller in terms of population. Everywhere else in the world it seems like you have a way wider range of various dominant languages, and within smaller geographical areas.

But in the US - prominent immigrant communities notwithstanding - it seems kind of unique that anywhere you go American English is the lingua franca. We have accents, sure, but not dialects that are appreciably different from one another in terms of grammar, etc. This strikes me as particularly unusual. I was just thinking about this in terms of, say, Europe which is comparatively tiny but still riven with all these (to me, anyway) rather comical ethnic divisions, most obviously different languages, etc.

I think the answer to your question is yes. I don't have a good understanding of the differences among Chinese languages (interesting map here), but I think it's safe to say the US is a great deal more homogenous language-wise. I think Brazil is probably second.

I think

why is "not applicable" abbreviated as "n/a"?

avoids possible confusion with 'no', among other things

Why is it that humans can learn English (better to give and example of a language than to just say something vague like “language”)? Other animals can learn to communicate verbally or learn symbols. The difference with English is, it’s a lot more complex than the chirps of a chickadee. Then to say “language is innate” or “language is an instinct” could be said of any animal that communicates with other animals in it’s species. Communication may be instinctual but I think something like the English language is a grand elaboration on communication that humans are capable of due to our sizable cerebral cortex. So, like many human behaviors, it is both innate and learned.

norm chompsky meets his match

norm chompsky deserves it

gnome chompsky

chomp on that !!

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51o5e6VpvJL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

I can't stop laughing at the name Nim Chimpsky

― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 8 March 2011 02:51 (six years ago) Permalink

"When Terrace ended the experiment, Nim was transferred back to the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, where he struggled to adapt after being trained to live as a human child [clarification needed] for the first decade of his life. When Terrace made his one and only visit to see Nim after a year at the Institute of Primate Studies, Nim sprung to Terrace immediately after seeing him, visibly shaking with excitement. Nim also showed the progress he had made during Project Nim, as he immediately began conversing in sign language with Terrace. Nim retreated back to a depressed state after Terrace left, never to return to see Nim again. Nim developed friendships with several of the workers at the Institute of Primate Studies, and learned a few more signs, including a sign named "stone" which indicated that Nim wanted to smoke marijuana"

"When Terrace ended the experiment, Nim was transferred back to the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, where he struggled to adapt after being trained to live as a human child [clarification needed] for the first decade of his life. When Terrace made his one and only visit to see Nim after a year at the Institute of Primate Studies, Nim sprung to Terrace immediately after seeing him, visibly shaking with excitement. Nim also showed the progress he had made during Project Nim, as he immediately began conversing in sign language with Terrace. Nim retreated back to a depressed state after Terrace left, never to return to see Nim again. Nim developed friendships with several of the workers at the Institute of Primate Studies, and learned a few more signs, including a sign named "stone" which indicated that Nim wanted to smoke marijuana"

I found he could make the alarmingly human signs

Apple eats
Eat banana neem
Bananas eat
Drink with me with neem
Come eat nim
Eat with me eat
Eat me neem
Made neem ban neem
Bananas and me
Bananas and neem me
They have eaten bananas
Drink to enjoy neem
Drink drink to drink
Baby to eat me
I eat more
I'm eating
I am mechanical rubber
Eat neem to eat at
I play a nim
Free me for the NIM game