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#134011 10/13/04 01:55 PM
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I just read a blog entry about riffing, (i.e., reduction in forces, being downsized, pink-slipped, fired, etc.), except the term was a South African English one: retrenching. The AHD gives: "vi. 1. To cut down; reduce. 2. To remove, delete, or omit. / vt. To curtail expenses; economize." Makes sense. Have any of you run across this meaning?

http://oreneta.com/baldie/blog/archives/2004/10/a_south_african.asp



#134012 10/13/04 02:19 PM
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Good heavens, I thought riffing was a spontaneous solo on a musical instrument!

Couldn't find any other mention of retrenching, but I did find something fascinating:
The most noticeable difference in pronunciation is probably the flat "i", so that "six" is pronounced in a way sounding like "sucks", and "today" like "to die". This is a part of the vowel shift that has occurred in South Africa as well as New Zealand. Below, the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-South African: Rewrite in IPA
pan --> pen
pen --> pin
pin --> pun
pun --> pan One difference between (white) South African English and New Zealand English is in the pronunication of 'ar' and 'ow', as in the pronunciation of the sentence 'park the car downtown'.
New Zealand: pahk the kah dehwn tehwn
South Africa: pawk the kaw dahwn tahwn


From
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/South-African-English


#134013 10/13/04 03:22 PM
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Retrenchment was the word used in Jane Austen’s time to describe the act of cutting back financially. For example:

In “Persuasion”:

She consulted, and in a degree was influenced by her in marking out the scheme of retrenchment which was at last submitted to Sir Walter.

In “Mansfield Park”:

"Lady Bertram, I do not complain. I know I cannot live as I have done, but I must retrench where I can, and learn to be a better manager. I have been a liberal housekeeper enough, but I shall not be ashamed to practise economy now.”



#134014 10/13/04 04:23 PM
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Yes, the cutting back of expenses I was familiar with, but not with the cutting back of the workforce itself. Makes sense, of course.


#134015 10/13/04 06:12 PM
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Retrenchment used that way is not only a Seth Effrican English word, it's in fairly common use here in Zild too.


#134016 10/13/04 10:24 PM
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Retrenchment was the word used in Jane Austen’s time to describe the act of cutting back financially.

All references to Jane Austen earn the referer a bit of time off from Purgatory, which matters, of course, only to those who believe in Purgatory.




#134017 10/14/04 11:33 AM
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So do I get double time off for mentioning two books?

I seem to keep bumping into Jane - like at her museum in Bath and then there's a house she lived in somewhere just off the Hog's Back that I stumbled across one time.




#134018 10/14/04 11:50 AM
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You goin' for a quadruple, dxb?


#134019 10/14/04 12:19 PM
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Don't tell my sweet bride but, for Christmas, she is getting a six-DVD set of the BBC productions of Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. These just became available in August of this year. Maybe that means I get sextuple time off from Purgatory!




#134020 10/14/04 01:35 PM
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Maybe that means I get sextuple time off from Purgatory!
...or maybe just sex!



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