What does it mean when . . .

Page 2 of 2 [ 27 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2

Zen
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,868

21 Mar 2011, 8:12 pm

I dislike colloquial speech. Which is silly, I know. If it weren't for colloquial speech, France, Spain, Italy, all of South America would be speaking Latin.

jmnixon95
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 20,931
Location: 미국

21 Mar 2011, 8:13 pm

Zen wrote:

I dislike colloquial speech. Which is silly, I know. If it weren't for colloquial speech, France, Spain, Italy, all of South America would be speaking Latin.

You're being colloquial right now.

jmnixon95
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 20,931
Location: 미국

21 Mar 2011, 8:14 pm

Descartes wrote:

jmnixon95 wrote:

Descartes wrote:

Poppycocteau wrote:

. . . people write a different version of a word that is almost the same, but not quite? For instance, I have seen people write 'sammich', which presumably means 'sandwich' . . . but what does it imply? It's not short for sandwich, because both words have two syllables, and if the original term - sandwich - can be used to the same effect, what is the point of it?

I think the variation "sammich" is simply a regional dialect, the same way people in Boston would say "cah" instead of car.

No, most people say it because of its sexist background.
A "sammich eater" would be someone who consumes "sammiches" made by women (aka "sammich makers"... "Get back in that damn kitchen and make me a sammich!")

It actually does seem to be a dialect, specifically a southern one.

According to Urban Dictionary:

Quote:

The term simply means sandwich. Originating in the southeastern states of the U.S. the term is representative of a pervasively localized regional dialect. Other cross-over examples from this dialect include: fifty-leven, ho, and stank.

That's spoken; I thought we were talking about over the internet.

Poppycocteau
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 261
Location: Come, come, come, nuclear bomb . . .

21 Mar 2011, 8:15 pm

I think what I mean to say, overall, is that writing 'sammich', especially in a context where one doesn't mean to sound sexist, seems inexplicable. People just seem to use it for the sake of changing the word as far as I can tell.

The same goes for people writing 'teh' instead of 'the' - it doesn't seem to serve any real function other than satisfying the person who writes it because they like to substitute letters or change them around.

_________________
"I'd go further - I'd say 'Life is wasted on . . . people.'"

.

jmnixon95
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 20,931
Location: 미국

21 Mar 2011, 8:16 pm

Poppycocteau wrote:

Do you understand how irritating this is?

Poppycocteau
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 261
Location: Come, come, come, nuclear bomb . . .

21 Mar 2011, 8:18 pm

. . . how irritating what is?

_________________
"I'd go further - I'd say 'Life is wasted on . . . people.'"

.

dunbots
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Jan 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,721
Location: Washington, USA

21 Mar 2011, 8:20 pm

Poppycocteau wrote:

Because I find such things set off odd trains of thought like this, I hate the writing that comes with those photos of cats doing 'amusing' things, like wearing a cap. It reads in my head as lots of unpleasant noises, and I have no understanding of what inference I'm supposed to take from the fact that everything is spelled incorrectly. Is it supposed to represent how good the cat might be at spelling if it was really gifted as far as cats go? Or does it somehow represent the imaginary voice of the cat? Or am I just reading far too much into everything as usual?

It's diminution, to make the cats seem "cute". Same with "teh" and countless other intentional misspellings, also, the current use of "sammich". I agree with you though, it's extremely annoying.

Zen wrote:

I dislike colloquial speech. Which is silly, I know. If it weren't for colloquial speech, France, Spain, Italy, all of South America would be speaking Latin.

Except that there are many languages native to South America, like Quechua, Pirahã, Guaraní, Aymara, and dozens more...

And don't forget about Breton in France, and Basque in Spain and France. I'd much rather have had Etruscan survive than Latin in Italy, but can't change the past.

Poppycocteau
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 261
Location: Come, come, come, nuclear bomb . . .

21 Mar 2011, 8:24 pm

Quote:

It's diminution, to make the cats seem "cute". Same with "teh" and countless other intentional misspellings. I agree with you though, it's extremely annoying.

Aah . . . okay. To make them seem cute. I think perhaps that doesn't work on me because when I'm reading it I imagine what it would be like if someone actually came up to me and started speaking like that in reality . . . in which case I'd be a bit scared and concerned. Hurrah for taking things literally!

_________________
"I'd go further - I'd say 'Life is wasted on . . . people.'"

.

Zen
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,868

21 Mar 2011, 8:52 pm

dunbots wrote:

Zen wrote:

I dislike colloquial speech. Which is silly, I know. If it weren't for colloquial speech, France, Spain, Italy, all of South America would be speaking Latin.

Except that there are many languages native to South America, like Quechua, Pirahã, Guaraní, Aymara, and dozens more...

And don't forget about Breton in France, and Basque in Spain and France. I'd much rather have had Etruscan survive than Latin in Italy, but can't change the past.

Oh yes, and I agree that those are more interesting. I was making a generalization. :-)

I should say, I love that someone is interested enough in Basque to bother to learn it. They offer several interesting languages at one of the local universities, and I would love to learn some of them. But of course I never manage to actually put an effort into it.
I want to learn Hungarian. My parents spoke it but only spoke to us in English after moving to the U.S. :-(

dunbots
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Jan 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,721
Location: Washington, USA

21 Mar 2011, 9:01 pm

Zen wrote:

Oh yes, and I agree that those are more interesting. I was making a generalization. :-)

Thanks, I absolutely love Basque; I'm obsessed with it.

You should learn Hungarian, it's a cool language. You could learn lots about your culture and people's history if you learned it.

From my experience, the most intimidating thing about Hungarian is it's completely different lexicon, while it's grammar is pretty simple and easy to learn. So if you're good at learning words, then I doubt you'd have a problem. You're at a great advantage if you can ask your parents how to say things, since they (hopefully still) have a native speaker's intuition with what's correct in the language. You could also ask native speakers for help online.

Szia!

Sorry for going off-topic OP. :oops:

Fudo
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 May 2009
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,696

22 Mar 2011, 3:34 am

fudo's kinda hungry.. could definitely eat a sammich or two.
i like some internet-speak, like in arby n the chief, but it is pretty annoying to see it all the time.

Page 2 of 2 [ 27 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2

Jump to:

What does it mean when . . . Post Reply New Topic

What does it mean when . . .