I am a lover of the English language. I do not claim that it is a language superior to all others, and do not deny its deficiencies. They are manifold. Indeed, I would say that its #1 weakness, outside of its maddeningly unpredictable spelling, is its lack of precision. For example, in some languages, you can say any of the following in one or two words:
Thank you (I, the individual, thank you the individual)...and so on. In some languages, I can express such subtleties in one or two simple words. In English, we have to exhaust ourselves with several extra words to make our meaning explicit, or, we just accept the ambiguity and allow the listerner to infer whatever he wants.
Thank you (I, the individual, thank you the group)
Thank you (We, the group, thank you, the individual)
Thank you (We, the group, thank you, the group)
Thank you (I, a man, thank you, a woman)
Thank you (I, a woman, thank you, a man)
Thank you (I, an adult, thank you, a child)
Nevertheless, the great strength of English is that we'll accept all kinds of new words, phrases, and ways of speaking. We'll also accept many different words that effectively mean the same thing. Just look at an English thesaurus entry for "child," for example, and you'll probably find all of the following:
adolescent, ankle biter, babe, baby, bairn, bambino, brat, cherub, chick, cub, descendant, dickens, grommet, grub, imp, infant, innocent, issue, juvenile, kid, kiddie, lamb, larva, little angel, little darling, little doll, little one, minor, mite, moppet, neonate, nestling, newborn, nipper, nursling, offspring, pickaninnie, preteen, progeny, pubescent, punk, rug rat, shaver, small fry, sprout, squirt, stripling, suckling, tadpole, teenager, teenybopper, toddler, tot, tyke, urchin, whippersnapper, young, youthHard to beat, ain't it?
The beauty of this is that you can go decades as a native speaker of the language and still come across words you've never heard. I recently came across just such a word, and it astonished me. Because I'd seen it several times in print, including in comments left to articles here on Dean's World. Yet every time I'd seen it, I assumed it was a mis-spelling. I thought the writers meant to say "whining," but had just produced a typo. But no, the word is:
WHINGING: To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.What a fabulous word. Thank you for those who've introduced me to it!
For some reason, this post reminds me of that classic Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin openly muses in the classroom on the absence of noun genders in English, concludes he has been cheated, and then demands sex education (leading his teacher to further substance abuse...) :)
"Yard ape." You forgot "yard ape."
The ambiguity can even be an advantage. You can speak politely to someone whose sex you can't discern, or whose age/social status you don't know; or say thank you when you're not sure if it's one person doing you the favor, or the group. And you can deliberately mislead: 'Mom, I'm at a friend's house.' (Male or female friend?)
'Carpet shark,' too. :)
Here's one for you:
In English we can describe the internal dialog that comes from listening to your head versus listening to your heart. But the really interesting one is when you listen to your gut.
You know what I mean.
Do any other languages have words to describe that ... ?
Your multiple meanings of "thank you" were impressive, but German can be better/worse. Taking mild liberties with capitaliation rules and noting that some languages distinguish dual from plural and mixed sex groups from strictly male or strictly female ones, but notdistinguishing children from adults, I can come up with 146 possible meanings of the question "Kennen [S/s]ie S/s]ie?"
1. "Kennen Sie sie?" -- "Do you (formal) know them?" (48 combinations)
Eight potential meanings of "you," as it may be either masculine, feminine, or mixed (if dual or plural), and may be singular, dual or plural. Six potential meanings of "they/them," which may be masculine, feminine or mixed, and can either be dual or plural.
2. "Kennen Sie sie?" -- "Do you (form.) know her?" (8 combinations)
Same eight possibilities for "you;" "her" can only be singular feminine.
3. "Kennen sie Sie?" -- "Do they know you (form.)?" (48 combinations)
Same possible meanings for "you" and "they" as in #1, but grammatical roles reversed.
4. "Kennen sie sie?" -- "Do they know them?" (36 combinations)
Same six potential definitions for each of the two "they/them" parties, as described in #1.
5. "Kennen sie sie?" -- "Do they know her?" (6 combinations)
Same six potential definitions of "they/them" as described in #1, but only one meaning for "her."
Christopher Hitchens had a great put down in a May 26 article in Slate magazine, where he called Haliburton conspiracy theorists "oleaginous" which means 1) of or about oil; and 2) self righteous. Gotta love the English language and anyone who knows it as well as Hitchens does.
Gee, you mean there actually is such a word as whinging?!
I never saw the word whinging (or whingeing) before I got on the Internet, and I don't believe I've ever seen it except on the Internet. I guess I always just assumed that whinging was a Common Internet Misspelling for whining.
Just as loosing is a Common Internet Misspelling (CIM) for losing. (That's another one I'd never seen before I got on the Net.)
Just as definately is a CIM for definitely.
Just as formally known as is a CIM for formerly known as.
Just as midas well is a CIM for might as well.
Just as doggy-dog world is a CIM for dog-eat-dog world.
And just as choldren, childern, and even choldern are CIMs for children. (Though I do sometimes hear people pronounce children as "chohldren.")
Time was, when nobody saw as many dead bodies as a reporter on the crime beat, and nobody saw as many misspelled words as an English teacher. But nowadays, thanks to the Internet, anyone can get to read just as many misspellings as any English teacher.
...Still, you mean there actually is such a word as whinging??!
"...pickaninnie...?"
I always understood that to refer to something, or someone, else.
English is an open source language.
http://phrontistery.50megs.com/clw.html
Paul: "Whinging" is a Britishism. There are a lot of British expressions Americans never heard before the Internet. One of the oddest to American ears is probably "to take the piss" or its noun variation, the "piss-take." Origin here. I get the impression that it is considered only mildly vulgar, but Americans consider "piss" to be a fairly uncouth word.
Jerry:
One of the funniest contrasts between British and American English I've seen is the Brits' tendency to use "about" when we use "around."
The first time I heard my friend David, who was hanging around with no particular purpose, say he was "just f*cking about" I nearly busted a gut.
Britishisms are fun - I noticed them worming their way into my everyday usage ever since I started subscribing to 'The Economist'. Unfortunately, I also started to adopt British spellings. This would not be so bad if I did it consistently, but my spelling of 'favourable' or 'rancour' seems to be completely random these days. I even referred to governor Grey Davis recently. I must be stopped.
Wait a minute... 'rancor' isn't spelled with a 'u' even in Britain, is it? Dammit, now I'm throwing in letters randomly and wrongly! Damn you maniacs, and your superfluous vowels! Damn you all to hell!!!
Surfing around just now, I discovered a good one: "Maybe he's just having a lend of us."
It seems this one's Australian. Definition: Lend of, to have a: To take advantage of somebody's gullibility, to have someone on. ("He's having a lend of you.")
Well, I guess that takes care of that. Although... "To have someone on"? Say what??!
I have a good friend, British, who was constantly teasing american posters about their LACK of use of 'u' in certain words. I think he got a big kick out of the differences too.
But despite what the British or Americans will consider proper, NOTHING will convince me that archaeology should be spelled with anything BUT the PROPER Greek spelling. I want to slap the wrists of those in the field who insist on using 'archeology' as the spelling. Lazy buggers...
"But despite what the British or Americans will consider proper, NOTHING will convince me that archaeology should be spelled with anything BUT the PROPER Greek spelling."
Yes, ma'am! Can I still use the Roman alphabet? Pretty please?
Yes, you can still use the Phoenician alphabet.