The language thread

There's also a marxiste revolution happening in Red Dead 1 (in Mexico).

Americanbookreview has create a list of the 100 Best First Lines from Novels. Of course, a list like that may be even more meaningless than the 100 best RPGS, but I find that some of those mentioned are quite good.

Since it's definitely tl;dr I'll give you number one, and the two I like best:

• 1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
  
• 4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
  
• 33. Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. "Stop!" cried the groaning old man at last, "Stop! I did not drag my father beyond this tree." —Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans (1925)

And I'll add one, not on the list, "Sult" (Hunger), by Knut Hamsun:

• "Det var i den tid jeg gikk omkring og sultet i Kristiania, denne forunderlige by som ingen forlater før han har fått merker av den".
  
  Translated (GeorgeEgerton): "It was during the time I wandered about and starved in Christiania: Christiania, this singular city, from which no man departs without carrying away the traces of his sojourn there."

pibbur who has decided to read those books.

PS: Christiania was the name of the Norwegian capital Oslo between 1624and 1925. DS.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
And I'll add one, not on the list, "Sult" (Hunger), by Knut Hamsun:

• "Det var i den tid jeg gikk omkring og sultet i Kristiania, denne forunderlige by som ingen forlater før han har fått merker av den".
  
  Translated (GeorgeEgerton): "It was during the time I wandered about and starved in Christiania: Christiania, this singular city, from which no man departs without carrying away the traces of his sojourn there."

(…)

PS: Christiania was the name of the Norwegian capital Oslo between 1624and 1925. DS.

That book is superb.
If you've ever lived through hunger and isolation in your life, it will speak to you like no other story did.
It's hand down one of the best read I had, make me fall in love with Scandinavian authors (Laxness being my favourite).

"Once upon a time, there lived a Hobbit."

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Sometimes, things are named after Â… who invented it, or the firm which sold it first. Like the Â… vaccum cleaner Â… what was that name again ?

On nthe other hand, sometimes things are named after the region where they come from. Like Cheddar, for example. Or Worcester Sauce. Or Cologne.

There are many examples of this.
I think the vacuum name you are looking for is Hoover. UK had a bunch of these names that really threw me when people starting asking for brands (especially if I've never heard of the brand).

A couple others where the brand name has overtaken the product (country of orgins are all blurry now so not sure which countries they apply to any more). Travelling between UK and US has blurred many of these names, sometimes I just wait for the blank look before I realize I have to use the other word.


Jacuzzi or Whirlpool- soaker tub with jets
Bandaid - sticky bandage or plaster
Scotch tape (US) - stickytape
Sellotape (UK) - stickytape
Qtip (US) - cotton swab
Sharpie - felt or marker
Hoover (UK) - vacuum
Kleenex (US) - tissue
Jetski or Sea-Doo - watercraft
Bobcat (US) - skidsteer
JCB (UK) - excavator
Chapstick - lipbalm
Xerox - photocopy
Biro or Bic (UK/US) - classic ballpoint pen
Cashpoint - ATM

I have a stupid question I ask every time I'm in Germany (sadly Germans generally don't have time to respond to stupid questions that stoned Frenchmen ask them) :

So: Does hamburgers comes from Hamburg?

Originally Posted by Winterfart
I have a stupid question I ask every time I'm in Germany (sadly Germans generally don't have time to respond to stupid questions that stoned Frenchmen ask them) :
So: Does hamburgers comes from Hamburg?

Apparently they do, although I had to cheat and ask Wikipedia. Didn't know that. Well, when I was a kid I thought it did come from Hamburg, similar to other foodstuffs that were named after places, like Berliner (a pastry). Then I erroneously thought the name was derived simply from it being a burger with ham (meat) on it. But it seems the term does indeed have German roots and was named after Hamburg, with other burgers being back-formations of the term "hamburger". Huh.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg,[1] Germany's second-largest city. In German, Burg means "castle", "fortified settlement" or "fortified refuge" and is a widespread component of place names. The first element of the name is perhaps from Old High German hamma, referring to a bend in a river, or Middle High German hamme, referring to an enclosed area of pastureland.[2] Hamburger in German is the demonym of Hamburg, similar to frankfurter and wiener, names for other meat-based foods and demonyms of the cities of Frankfurt and Vienna (Wien), respectively.

[ Source ]

If I were to generalize based on my own false logic, I'd say most Germans don't actually know that either and you can proceed to tell them this fun fact the next time you are stoned in Germany.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
"Once upon a time, there lived a Hobbit."

If you're referring to the book, that one starts with "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"

pibbur

Originally Posted by Arhu
If I were to generalize based on my own false logic, I'd say most Germans don't actually know that either and you can proceed to tell them this fun fact the next time you are stoned in Germany.

Thanks, will do.

To us Germans, the Hamburger is ann american thing, since it came from America - I think that's what most people think. And I also think that most people might believe that the word "Hamburger" was once used as a brand name, for marketing purposes, similar to "McDonald's". An originally Scottish name, it just doesn't create any image of Scotland anymore.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
If you're referring to the book, that one starts with "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"

pibbur

Yes but at one point I noticed that it very much fits into "Once upon a time in the West" and similar beginnings.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
for marketing purposes, similar to "McDonald's". An originally Scottish name, it just doesn't create any image of Scotland anymore.

Well, from time to time, I still mention to colleagues that we should go dine at the golden scotsman

When I was a teenager I amused my friends with the statement, if McDonald's was Irish it it would be O'Donalds and we'd all be eating Big O's

Then years later I discovered Mc was Irish and Mac was Scottish. I still know a lot of people that call it MacDonalds.

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Those three are definitely of the most famous first lines - but most people put #9 there just behind #1.

30. The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. —William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

This great Canadian quote has been dropping because its such an anachronism now.

"What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask."

Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion

Originally Posted by Ripper
"What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask."

Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion

I've noticed in Shakespeare's plays there's always one character that is the catalyst for causing trouble and that's their sole purpose: Don John in Much Ado about Nothing; Lady MacBeth in MacBeth; Cassius in Julius Caesar; etc.

There are other villains in these plays but Bill likes to have a stock character whose purpose is to stir it up and make the trouble happen.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
I've noticed in Shakespeare's plays there's always one character that is the catalyst for causing trouble and that's their sole purpose: Don John in Much Ado about Nothing; Lady MacBeth in MacBeth; Cassius in Julius Caesar; etc.

There are other villains in these plays but Bill likes to have a stock character whose purpose is to stir it up and make the trouble happen.

Not sure I'd go along with that. I think a character like Lady MacBeth has a lot more complexity and significance to the play than being simple catalyst to inject trouble. If Shakespeare did anything, I think it was to dig into what might seem simple, and find the complications and questions within it.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Not sure I'd go along with that. I think a character like Lady MacBeth has a lot more complexity and significance to the play than being simple catalyst to inject trouble. If Shakespeare did anything, I think it was to dig into what might seem simple, and find the complications and questions within it.

Sole purpose was the wrong choice of words, for sure. My main point is the use of a catalyst character. And yes, this was a method to create complications and trouble.

Brutus didn't need Cassius to kill Caesar, but he was a useful device for speeding things along. Lady MacBeth was not the one who put the idea of MacBeth being king in his head but she's the one that gave him the plan to make it happen. MacBeth might have let it happen on its own.

Don John admits that's his purpose in life. And I think this goes the same from Iago. Hamlet is as brilliant as he is mad as he is Danish and he's latched on a single purpose to deal with the death of his father - although Hamlet isn't really Bill's character; he just expounded on him.

On Amazons : https://news.nationalgeographic.com/…tions-science/

Originally Posted by booboo
…using a Zimmer frame?

If I understood this correctly, this term "zimmer frame" comes from the German word for the carpenter : the Zimmermann.
With "Mann" meaning "man". There has never been an "official" female version of that "profession man" so far.

Originally Posted by eva89
I study abroad and English is my second language. At first it wasn't easy to cope with exams and paper works in the foreign language. I even bought cheap essays from time to time. But my English is getting better over time. I think the best way to learn foreign language is is to go to a foreign country and practice it with native speakers.

Makes sense. But given I can't even tell when a band is in tune (maybe that's why I like shoegaze :-) attempting to learn to hear and speak a foreign language is a touch doomed from the start for me.

Even living the USA for two years did little to improve my American. (And yes, it is very different to Australian ).

A newish look on Sappho, through the language eyes, interpreting her fragments :
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2…rl-interrupted
Quite interesting read, I didn't know that about ancient Greek culture …