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#141318 03/28/05 01:57 AM
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> the dialectic of the forum

:)

Now Dr Who is back on TV, I suppose we need to add Dalektical to the list...


#141319 03/28/05 03:12 AM
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>Now Dr Who is back on TV

and Who knows when we'll see it here!? <scowling>

(is the new Doc-tor anyone of note?)


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Can Canadians play, Miia?

Yep, since the publisher is Canadian, and thus it can be assumed that the novel is sold there too :)

Little aside of the topic, I have always wondered, why my education makes a huge difference between British and American English (we have specific lecture series for both cultures etc.) but ignores totally Australian, Canadian, and all other English speaking cultures. This could be explained by the lack of natives from those regions (the lecturers are always native, and we have one American and two Brits in our school), but in my opinion, it does not explain it totally. Translations are done from and to these cultures also, and the poor knowledge some Finnish translators have on these cultures may have an effect on them.


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re: appreciation of irony
Well, Canadians are known for self-deprecating humour, and, in fact, humour of all kinds. Gotta have a sense of humour when you live in a country where the unit of currency is the loonie.
I'll run and look up "dialectic" and "dialectal" right away. But I was quoting from a comparative linguistics course I took back at university - when the mountains were cooling, don'tcha know. The professor taught us about dialectic continua, where village A and village B could understand each other, and B and C, and maybe A and C a bit, but A and E were mutually incomprehensible.
I wonder if the passing-over of nationalities of English that are neither American nor British has to do with a) status as world powers (Britain ruled the world at one time, the US seems to rule it now, can't think of another English-speaking nation that ever did the same) or b) aggression. Neither Canada nor Australia made war in order to become independent of Mother England - we just kinda moved out and got our own apartments. Maybe we're not interesting enough?
Okay, here's proof Canadian English is different. All you Canadians out there, let the non-Canucks guess this one. What's a toque, and how do you say it?


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a tip of the hat to you, EC...



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Miia, your thesis topic reminds me of an experience I had the first time I visited England. I was staying in a hostel, and there was a young Japanese guy there who was collecting nicknames for different nationalities. He wanted them all, didn't care if they were offensive or not, he was just compiling a list. We all enthusiastically helped him with his list, carefully pointing out which nicknames were OK in polite company, and which others would get him a severe stomping. A few nights later he took EVERYONE who had helped him with the list out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant!!


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Only the tip? Nicely done, etaoin.


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well, I suppose as a Vermonter I should have put a cap on it, but...

anyway, here's a site I came across today:
http://home.ncia.com/~slarsson/USUK.html

I expect many of these are on Max's site, but it's a good compendium.



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Well, as a New Zealander I think that we appreciate the differences between the various versions of the language pretty well. We are constantly bombarded by media from both sides of the Atlantean Pond, plus we are frequently further polluted by what happens on the other side of the Local Ditch. Moreover, we are frequently subjected to South East Asian versions of our own language, some of which take a lot of assimilation.

Good luck with the thesis, Miia.


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some of which take a lot of assimilation Egad--the Borg have taken over New Zealand! Run for your lives!


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