Djoga'Ro
moonstruck
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Ain't that covered by "I don't know" or, if you need it to be more absolute, "It can't be known"?
Latest update: Keymats are here, how strong will the logo plate be - and pretty cases.
- Thread starter EvilDragon
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Grench
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Or a word for I don't care enough to want to bother to find out if it is or isn't.
Meh.
It is, in fact, a translation of the Iliad into Icelandic made in 1855 (which can be found here: https://rafbokavefur.is/rafbaekur/ilionskvida-homer/ ), so the language in it is rather old-fashioned, and includes direct translations of Greek epithets; though not so much in that paragraph: elsewhere Achilles is often called "hinn goðumlíki Akkiles", meaning "Achilles like the gods" or "godlike Achilles", while I have not seen the word "goðumlíkur" anywhere else. The English translation is my own.
JDTAY
Half Pepperoni, All Cheese
I feel like English is a great second language for everybody, but nobody should actually learn it as a first language.
Unfortunately, it is already too late for me. I'm stuck with English brain.
Unfortunately, it is already too late for me. I'm stuck with English brain.
Confuzzled
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It is very easy to learn to communicate in bad, but understandable English. There are various types of simplified English used in teaching English as a foreign language which have a basic vocabulary of roughly 750 - 1,500 words, and a rationalised grammar - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter..._a_lingua_franca_in_foreign_language_teaching . In addition, there are plenty of English pidgins and creoles ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English-based_pidgins , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-based_creole_language )
λ the β-Redex Reducer
β-Redex Reducing Member
The biggest flaw of English is conflating "free" as in freedom with "free" as in free of charge.
Speaking of free, what do you think is better: free software or free software? Personally I think it's a great advantage when software is free, but it's even more important that it's free. Though most software that is free also happens to be free.
Speaking of free, what do you think is better: free software or free software? Personally I think it's a great advantage when software is free, but it's even more important that it's free. Though most software that is free also happens to be free.
Confuzzled
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Well to be fair, many GoFundMe/Kickstarter efforts describe the issues they have in dealing with obtaining their technology from China. Many make a point of having a native Mandarin speakers 'on board' to make dealing with Chinese suppliers easier.
That said, English as a global business and trade language has some life left in it, and that is partly helped by English contract law often being used. It is good to have contracts written in a language that all parties understand, and a legal system regarded as workably fair. Many people come away from the Chinese legal system feeling somewhat bruised and with suspicions of discrimination in favour of Chinese parties to contracts. This may be due to a lack of understanding of Chinese (legal) culture.
The Chinese name for 'China' is Zhōngguó, which is usually translated as 'Middle Kingdom', but should, perhaps, be more accurately rendered as 'Central Kingdom'. The Chinese, not unsurprisingly, regard their position as central in the world/universe, and presumably feel their language is, or should be, universal. Given the long and impressive history of Chinese culture, they have a point. The dominance of Engllish as a language and English trade culture/law may well be fleeting as measured against Chinese history, and the current situation anomolous.
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English just mugs French and uses libre for free as in freedom, and if pushed, appropriates the Latin term gratis for free as in beer.
Speaking of free, what do you think is better: gratis software or libre software? Personally I think it's a great advantage when software is gratis, but it's even more important that it's libre. Though most software that is libre also happens to be gratis.
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Stainy
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Djoga'Ro
moonstruck
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If it makes you feel any better, in German there's the word "umsonst" which means gratis, but can also mean in vain.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Another one I noticed recently was people saying that an error in code was fixed, meaning that the bad behaviour remained intact and was unaltered, as opposed to the more common usage in bug tracking at least, in that the code had been fixed, as in altered to improve its behaviour. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the case used, but it caused me a double take at least.
ClockworkCoder
Chaotic Neutral
I think that's the case for most countries, regarding how world maps are drawn (and especially for any resident "flat earthers").
It's healthy in my opinion to attempt to learn about (an) other culture(s) and language(s). I find language and derivation fascinating, and how much language can reflect the (ancient) culture in many ways.
Confuzzled
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Well, that's down to Americans 'simplifying' the language. Fixed meaning unmoveable has a long history starting at the late 14 century in English. Fixed meaning repaired probably came into use in the USA in the 1700s
Etymology of "fixing to"
As a Southerner, I completely understand the meaning of fixing to. It means I'm getting ready to do something. But what I don't understand is where this rather unusual usage of fix comes from. Noth...
The confusion puts readers in a fix, which can be fixed-up by using context to fix the correct meaning in the reader's mind. We need someone clever to fix the fix we find ourselves in.
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I agree: there is much to learn/copy/appropriate/steal from other cultures and languages.
On a personal level, it is quite odd: I have a noticeably different character when I speak French compared to when I speak English.
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λ the β-Redex Reducer
β-Redex Reducing Member
You got everything right. Though I think that people who are less aware of the issues of software freedom would likely be confused by the sentence.
Reminds me of the Dutch "omvaren". It can either mean avoiding something by sailing around it or mean knocking something over by sailing against it. Or how about:
- "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse."
- "I helped my uncle jack off a horse."
- "I helped my uncle Jack jack off a horse."
- "I helped my uncle jack Jack off a horse."
I'm not sure what the last sentence would mean but the first two are pretty ambiguous when spoken out.
theredbaron
Very Active Member
The last sentence would mean you used a jack (such as what holds up a car when you change the tire) to lift Jack off a horse. Which means A: Jack is bloody heavy, and 2: that horse is damn strong.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
Well, in actuality it was your uncle doing the jacking; you were only helping him.
ClockworkCoder
Chaotic Neutral
Not that I know jack about it, but this thread has well and truly hijacked. Quit the horsing around you guys.
mrpalmtop
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It's not a flaw of English but rather that of the choice of "free" to describe the software. All languages have different meanings for the same words. Oftentimes, the multiple denotations make language richer, especially when used in prose or poetry.
Stallman, or whoever it was, could have used liberated, liberating, emancipated, or unbound to describe the software. Any of them would have been unambiguous.
levi
Still fresh, damnit!
I just dug out a copy of the version 2 license and was surprised to find it didn't contain the phrase 'not free as in beer'. That must be on the gpl website somewhere, but it's not actually part of the license, and I can't find a description of the sense that 'free' is meant as in the document short of the whole license document itself.
I'd argue that calling it emancipated software outside of the US would either raise the spectre of Karl Marx or that of the slavery of the african folk, either of which could be considered slightly hyperbolic when discussing the permissions of software developers and their code. Inside the US it would I suspect raise the ghoul of the civil war, but that's only my guess. Unbound software I have less of an issue with, but it's two syllables whereas free is just one, and 'free' does seem to have won the war in the main. We all know what free software is, and those with other intentions have had to call their software PD, or open source or something else to distinguish it.
Oh. Ich dachte, dass "frei" "libre" bedeutet, und "kostenlos" "gratis" bedeutet. Aber jetz bekomme ich Zwiefeln... Bedeutet "frei" beide "gratis" und "libre" auf Deutsch? Egal, ich habe ein Wörterbuch irgendwo...
