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Isn't it ironic that you had to use a French -- or is it Latin? -- term to describe what English has become?Lingua Franca is Latin for the Frankish language, aka Sabir ( link), a kind of pidgin used in the Mediterranean and based on Italian.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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We don't have a national language.
Replacement: Spanish.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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The Lingua franca of the Mediterranean or Sabir ("know") was a pidgin language used as a Lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th century and is the original basis for the word lingua franca.
I know the comparison is slightly askew, but reading this makes me think of a doorbell used as a doorbell.
( unlike the other ones mentioned such as papiamento etc.)
Welcome back.
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We don't have a national language.
That is a very good thing of course. Canada does have two offical though languages though does it not? Spanish is replacing English in Canada? Is that serious, or just xenophobia talking?
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New Zealand has Three official languages. English, Maori, and NZ sign language. A gardening programme on TV featured all three simultaneously. Spoken Maori, English subtitles, and a person signing in an inset. Interesting to watch. The programme was about traditional maori planting techniques.
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I think bi-( let alone multi-) lingualism enriches Canada rather than ripping it. After all the English were just one of the immigrant groups, and not the first either. ( In my part of Canada there are more native speakers of Mandarin and Punjabi than of French but English is going strong. )
The USA does not have an official language either although there have been repeated attempts to make English such. In my locale, English and Spanish are predominant although there are some Asian languages as well. Many of the public schools have a bi-lingual approach using both English and Spanish. But the one that bemuses me the most is the Braile on drive-through ATMs. ?!
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But the one that bemuses me the most is the Braile on drive-through ATMs. ?!
You would rather they have to go to the expense of making separate keypads for drive-through ATMs and walk-up ATMs. Not to mention the simple fact that a blind person can sit in the back seat of a car on the driver's side and operate the ATM from there.
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But the one that bemuses me the most is the Braile on drive-through ATMs. ?!
You would rather they have to go to the expense of making separate keypads for drive-through ATMs and walk-up ATMs. Not to mention the simple fact that a blind person can sit in the back seat of a car on the driver's side and operate the ATM from there. No. Actually, I was not thinking of the keypads. I was picturing a blind person driving.
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But the one that bemuses me the most is the Braile on drive-through ATMs. ?!
You would rather they have to go to the expense of making separate keypads for drive-through ATMs and walk-up ATMs. Not to mention the simple fact that a blind person can sit in the back seat of a car on the driver's side and operate the ATM from there. No. Actually, I was not thinking of the keypads. I was picturing a blind person driving. Well, there you go. Then maybe you've never driven in Boston.
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Welcome back.
Thanks, Brannie. It was fun listening to the Flemish speakers in Belgium. I'd start off asking something in my halting French, they would answer in Flemish, I'd switch to German, and they'd finish in English. The beer and chocolate were great though in any language and on every tongue.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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I've really developed a taste for beer and chocolate - dark chocolate, but not dark beer.
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But the one that bemuses me the most is the Braile on drive-through ATMs. ?!
You would rather they have to go to the expense of making separate keypads for drive-through ATMs and walk-up ATMs. Not to mention the simple fact that a blind person can sit in the back seat of a car on the driver's side and operate the ATM from there. No. Actually, I was not thinking of the keypads. I was picturing a blind person driving. Well, there you go. Then maybe you've never driven in Boston. No, I have not. However, I have driven in the "City of Brotherly Shove" otherwise known as Philadelphia. And, now, I must drive in the city that claims to be the home of NASCAR.
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I've really developed a taste for beer and chocolate - dark chocolate, but not dark beer.
Not at the same time, Ron O., then but you knew that. I did try a nice Gueuze. I liked Leffe Brune. I bought one on the Thalys, and the conductor stopped me walking back from the dining wagon saying something in Flemish. He switched to French and told me he appreciated me buying him a Leffe but he was on duty and couldn't accept it. The Leffe Blonde was pretty good, too.
You can get Leffe and Duvel in France now. I found them more pleasing than Kronenbourg.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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zmjezhd: Where'd you get "ferengi"? I only know that word from Star Trek. It's an alien race introduced in TNG. :0)
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I've really developed a taste for beer and chocolate - dark chocolate, but not dark beer.
Not at the same time, Ron O., then but you knew that. no, really.  - ron o.
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Where'd you get "ferengi"?Same place the writers for ST:TNG got it: history ( link).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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So were you referring to the ST race? I am thinking so because of your "pesky" description... Interesting article, but I don't understand what the band Banco de Gaia has do with it... Thanks! :0)
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So were you referring to the ST race?
Yes and no. I used it in conjunction with the discussion about linguae francae, but the ST species, the Ferengi, also played into my choice.
Banco de Gaia has to do with it
Me neither. (Or, I also.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Where'd you get "ferengi"?Same place the writers for ST:TNG got it: history ( link). Is the consonantal similarity between firangi and foreign just coincidence?
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Where'd you get "ferengi"?Same place the writers for ST:TNG got it: history ( link). Is the consonantal similarity between firangi and foreign just coincidence? Yup. For one thing, the G in foreign wasn't added till after ME. The word is from Latin foranus. Feringhi is from Frank from Latin francus, ultimately of Germanic origin.
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Chocolate on my mind since it was mentioned by DZjeem. In the sixties-seventies my husband used to take home Godiva chocolates from chocodrome Brussels. Only just now I learn that Godiva is since quite a while no longer Belgian at all. Maybe that's what changed the taste. Now one of the favorites is a handmade Australian chocolate. Godiva Never knew what chocolate had to do with the Godiva legend.
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Only just now I learn that Godiva is since quite a while no longer Belgian at all. Maybe that's what changed the taste. The justification for profit is profit Ferengi rule of aquisition number 202
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Where'd you get "ferengi"?Same place the writers for ST:TNG got it: history ( link). Is the consonantal similarity between firangi and foreign just coincidence? Yup. For one thing, the G in foreign wasn't added till after ME. The word is from Latin foranus. Feringhi is from Frank from Latin francus, ultimately of Germanic origin. Thank you.
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Chocolate on my mind since it was mentioned by DZjeem. In the sixties-seventies my husband used to take home Godiva chocolates from chocodrome Brussels. Only just now I learn that Godiva is since quite a while no longer Belgian at all. Maybe that's what changed the taste. Now one of the favorites is a handmade Australian chocolate. Godiva Never knew what chocolate had to do with the Godiva legend. Neither did I! I love the big old clock in Coventry. Quite a legend, if legend it be.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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naked women and chocolate. what's to not understand?
;¬ )
formerly known as etaoin...
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Godiva is from OE godgifu, 'God's gift'. The active ingredient in chocolate is theobromine; close enough in my book.
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OE godgifu, 'God's gift'
German Gift 'poison' (cf. English dose).
theobromine
From Greek theos 'god' + broma 'food'.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quite a legend, if legend it be.
godgifu- interesting contradiction.
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Chocolate on my mind since it was mentioned by DZjeem. In the sixties-seventies my husband used to take home Godiva chocolates from chocodrome Brussels. Only just now I learn that Godiva is since quite a while no longer Belgian at all. Maybe that's what changed the taste. Now one of the favorites is a handmade Australian chocolate. During World War II, my sister and I were favorites on the block because our dad, who was stationed in the South Pacific, sent us Australian chocolate periodically. We were the only kids on the block who had chocolate throughout the war. We shared it out. It was rich and dark. Sometimes the surface was dusted with alkali powder that had leached out in transit. But we just brushed it off and ignored it. There is a scene in "Band of Brothers" that occurred during Operation Market-Garden. An American G.I. shares some of his chocolate candy ration with a young Dutch child, whose father says that his child had never had chocolate candy before. Isn't the Netherlands right next door to Belgium?
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Isn't the Netherlands right next door to Belgium?
You could call it a duplex.
Last edited by BranShea; 03/18/2009 9:16 AM.
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Isn't the Netherlands right next door to Belgium?
Probably the point of the scene.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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