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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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Those little grammar things can really gnaw at a person.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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newbie
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For some people the dictionary is a remedy for insomnia. For others...it's a page turner.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just a reference for me......or a door stop.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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old hand
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old hand
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For others...it's a page turner.
And for others its a click.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'll stick with page turner.......
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Carpal Tunnel
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Back when I was a kid, you put me down with a dictionary and I'd have forgotten the word I was looking up by the time I'd made it through the dozen byways I'd gotten off on before finding the word I was looking for.
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old hand
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old hand
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I have individual relationships with my various dictionaries. A Marathi to English - I hate - it never helps. So many words I have not found in it. A big urdu(nastaliq) to English I like but it is an effort since my nastaliq is not too good and the dictionary is huge. I have a teeny tiny Urdu (devanagri) to English which I love! It never fails me. It seems written for poetry. Any difficult urdu word in a poem I will find in this dictionary even though it is just 3"x 3". My English-sanksrit is like a wise old man. It is there for me when I need it, which is not that often.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I really envy you that many languages. It has to be so
refreshing.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Carpal Tunnel
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one problem I have with researching obscure words is that I have just too many dictionaries to search through in attempting to find them - and too often none of them are helpful. (this situation often leads directly to one of my "mystery word" posts.)
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Back when I was a kid, you put me down with a dictionary and I'd have forgotten the word I was looking up by the time I'd made it through the dozen byways I'd gotten off on before finding the word I was looking for. I still do this, but don't find it a problem, enjoy the diversions.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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makes me wonder..... 100 words for
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Avy, it must be nice to understand those old languages. Dictionaries to me are like cars, I just only care for the function. makes me wonder..... 100 words for  I'm reading Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Will get back on the subject when I'll have time. (Jackie !! THE book for hot summer days!)
Last edited by BranShea; 04/21/2011 8:25 AM.
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old hand
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old hand
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In India, to learn the local language everytime you shift states is a necessity. I know only 3 languages well. All the rest are functional.
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member
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I know only 3 languages well. Marathi, Urdu, and English?
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old hand
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Marathi, Hindi, and English. The functional languages I know are Kannada, Tamil and now Konkani (still learning). Urdu is the language I love. I am not very good at it. I am constantly looking up the Urdu dictionary because I read a lot of Urdu poetry. I know this line up sounds impressive, but all Indians are bi,tri,quadri lingual.
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Carpal Tunnel
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----please, draw me a sheep----
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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----please, draw me a sheep----
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Marathi, Hindi, and English. The functional languages I know are Kannada, Tamil and now Konkani (still learning). Urdu is the language I love. I am not very good at it. I am constantly looking up the Urdu dictionary because I read a lot of Urdu poetry. I know this line up sounds impressive, but all Indians are bi,tri,quadri lingual. My understanding is that on a basic conversational level, Urdu and Hindi are pretty much the same. When you get into specialized registers, the vocabulary is different. And of course the scripts are different. I know some Hindi, and a little amount of Sanskrit and Tamil.
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Pooh-Bah
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I'm reading Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Will get back on the subject when I'll have time.
Yeah, just the thing for 'Summer reading'.....does it have photos? (I have a friend who was 'ships doctor' on trip to Antarctica, and he took some amazing photos of that continent and wildlife). I would love to go to either pole, just to experience the same! To Avy, goofy, Bran and all you others who have knowledge of several languages 
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Pooh-Bah
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.....as this is the 'comic relief' thread  I'm posting this here (I was looking for thread were we were discussing knots but I cant find it now! R 18 (only look if you are broad minded) An old retired sailor, puts on his old uniform and heads for the docks once
more, for old times sake.
He engages a prostitute and takes her up to a room.
He's soon going at it as well as he can for a guy his age, but needing some
reassurance, he asks, 'How am I doing??
The prostitute replies, 'Well, Pops, you're doing about three knots.
Three knots? he asks. What's that supposed to mean?
She says, 'You're knot hard, you're knot in, and you're knot getting your
money back.
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Good for you Candy. Some should get a laugh, I did.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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you're going to love this wofa  schrodinger comic
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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oh, well then here it is...... 
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Carpal Tunnel
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I guess the link is dead or not dead. (not dead for me..)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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----please, draw me a sheep----
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member
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Thanks @Candy. What I liked to share is this: (from Arctic Dreams)
"We know more about the rings of Saturn than we know about the narwhal. The Chilean poet and essayist Pablo Neruda wonders in his memoirs how an animal this large can have remained so obscure and uncelebrated. It's name, he thought, was "the most beautiful of undersea names, the name of a sea chalice that sings, the name of a crystal spur." Why, he wondered, had no one taken Narwhal for a last name, or built "a beautiful Narwhal Building?"
Part of the answer lies with the regrettable connotation of death in the animal's name. The pallid color of the narwhal's skin has been likened to that of a drowned human corpse, and it is widely thought that it's name came from the Old Norse for "corps" and "whale, " nár + hvalr. But W.P. Lehman, a professor of Germanic languages, believes the association with death is a linguistic accident. The Old Norse nárhvalr ( whence the English narwhal, the French narval, the German Narwal, etc.), he says, was a vernacular play on the word--- the way high-bred corn is used in place of hybrid corn, or sparrowgrass is used for asparagus.---
According to Lehman, nahvalr is an earlier, West Norse term meaning a "whale distinguished by a long, narrow projection" ( the tusk). "
I'm no expert to confirm this, but I thought it interesting for sharing (quite a bit of typing work, so time needed) :^)
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old hand
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That quote from American Heritage Book of English Usage: "A usage such as If I was the only boy in the world may break the rules, but it sounds perfectly natural." is absolutely correct – for someone to whom it sounds perfectly natural. Damn, I always hate it when people generalize.
Peter
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So, you're saying that narwhal is an eggcorn?
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So, you're saying that narwhal is an eggcorn? It might be. It would explain the presence of the r in the modern forms when there is no r in the Old Norse word.
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That quote from American Heritage Book of English Usage: "A usage such as If I was the only boy in the world may break the rules, but it sounds perfectly natural." is absolutely correct – for someone to whom it sounds perfectly natural. Damn, I always hate it when people generalize. It's confusing advice. I think maybe what they mean is that "if I was" breaks the traditional rule, but it's part of standard written English.
Last edited by goofy; 04/25/2011 5:08 PM.
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old hand
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Which raises the question: What is standard English? Since it [If I was the only boy…] doesn't sound "perfectly natural" to me, does that mean I don't speak standard English? Is standard English something that nobody really speaks, but it's a sort of average? I won't say it's wrong, but I would never use it, and would mark it for correction if I were [sic] editing a written piece, then probably allow the writer to overrule me, after discussion.
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Standard English: what it isn't I think standard English is the variety of English normally used in writing by writers of English. This means it contains a lot of variety.
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Carpal Tunnel
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There is a lot of variety just on this site.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Pooh-Bah
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....If I was the only boy in the world ...... and I was the only girl!
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----please, draw me a sheep----
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