The English Language

NEW WORD ALERT!

SOMAHAFTOO

def: so I am going to have to....

used in a sentence:

"Somahaftoo write The American pronunciation dictionary and guide to regional idioms"
Kinda like "ebonics"......



another variation for a similar website name is:

sowahmunna
(so I'm going to)


It reminds me of Mad Max the kids in the canyon......Mrs Walker!!!
anyway - language is a living thing.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

SOMAHAFTOO
sowahmunna

Those work quite well for dialogs since people really talk like that.

a reply to: pthena

Right??!!! Yes. When I was teaching SSL (Spanish as a Second Language), I pointed out that new pupils of English would not have the skill to determine what "soahmunna"......

but, at the same time, they have contractions too that don't "translate" directly to English...

Like "porfa".

I got another one:

wordsaladry

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Is that a noun?
"He was slinging the wordsaladry and sounding quite profound."

Adverb: "Well that sounds wordsaladry."

a reply to: pthena

"He was slinging the wordsaladry and sounding quite profound."

Not quite....

It would be a noun as "he was slinging the [his] wordsalad into the atmosphere"

Your example would be more: "Well, that sounds LIKE wordsaladry."

(sort of like wizardry)

a reply to: pthena

He was slinging the wordsalad around quite proficiently.... his wordsaladry enchanted millions! What a wordsaladster!!!





WORDSALADSTER

a reply to: pthena

Adverb: "Well that sounds wordsaladry."

I'd say it thusly:

"Well that sounds wordsaladrious! What excellent wordsaladry! He is quite the wordsaladmeister!"

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

(sort of like wizardry)

Or as Granny Weatherwax would say Headology.

"Well that sounds wordsaladrious! What excellent wordsaladry! He is quite the wordsaladmeister!"

While I was in the shower it hit me "dumb, dumb, dumb, wordsalad is already the noun!" Please excuse my sloppy examples, long hard day of thinking and posting about other things. I'm ready for a nap or something.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
Contractions like "porfa".

I think I can guess that one.
On the subject of contractions, I was re-reading the Victorian writer Surtees and kept coming across "doncha". It might not be easy to translate that one into Spanish. It's a contraction of the aristocratic verbal tic "don't-you-know?"

New word alert!!!


POSIVIBING

verb: POSIVIBE

to send positive vibes [vibrations] outward to a target

noun: POSIVIBE
a vibe with positive energy

a reply to: DISRAELI

In spanish it would be literally "no" followed by the verb in the second person

"no sabes" is don'tcha know

a reply to: BuzzyWigs
So "doncha" would be literally "No?", which would only work if "No sabes?" had become the same kind of automatic interjection.

a reply to: DISRAELI

doncha translates literally to "do you not"

"you know that, doncha?" In spanish it is simply 'sabes, no?'

S0 - it's a bit tricky to explain. Just like I taught my SSL students:

we say "ahmunna" We know what it means.

Likewise we say "doncha". We know what it means.

There are various translations that can be employed.

Anyone listening carefully to the local reports on the 19th may have noticed that the Electoral College has been turned into the "Electorial" college.
I suppose this is partly because people are more used to hearing the "-rial" suffix than the "-ral" suffix. Senatorial, arborial.
It's also intriguing because it involves (or it's the consequence of) shifting the emphasis back from the second to the third syllable- Electorial instead of Electoral.
My impression has been that Americans are more inclined to shift the emphasis forward- to say defense, and princess, and Robinhood and Caribbean, instead of the more English defence, and princess, and Robin Hood and Caribbean.

a reply to: DISRAELI

oh goodness someone please help us....

it's bad enough with the "graduated college" or "graduated high school" ---- I can scarcely refrain from rudely correcting it.....
my spouse (a military veteran) discusses those things which light fires as "incinDINARY". It drives me nuts.

When I say, ever so playfully, "it's incendiary" - he just rolls his eyes and says "explodes" or whatever. I really hate it when people don't even try. I am mortified every time I realize I have misused, misspelled, or misunderstood something because I had not looked it up.

There are still terms that when I see written, I sort of hear "bluh" in my head......I can say and spell them, but don't truly know what they are.

Recently I've been reviewing some of those trickier and more misleading terms.....

(I used to read "misled" - the past tense of having been deceived by someone's directions - as "MIZLED." Like, a miser who misles others - a swindler.

Another one is "miniseries".....

I always read "minIZerees"


anyway - thanks!

a reply to: DISRAELI

Yes, I was taught to say "inSURance" instead of "INsurance."

My parents were very pedantic and relentless. So I learned how to be precise.

I had a colleague whose native language was Spanish, and she said "AmmurICKanized" - and John Oliver says "conTRIBution"....



anyway - thanks. Yes, I pay attention, and just know that every time it grates on your nerves, it also grates on mine, my brother in linguistics!

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
my spouse (a military veteran) discusses those things which light fires as "incinDINARY". It drives me nuts.
When I say, ever so playfully, "it's incendiary" - he just rolls his eyes and says "explodes" or whatever.

He reminds me of my mother, who consistently misused the word "hiatus" even after, or especially after, Dad reminded her that it meant something different. She always used it to describe a moment of crisis or contretemps- there may have been a subconscious association with "high drama".

Village pronunciations noticed by my father;
"Sustificate", as in "school sustificate".
"Destructions", as in "You need to read the destructions for that".

Deliberate pronunciations for comic effect by TV personalities;
"Perzactly!"- Charlie Drake.
As for Tony Hancock (see my signature), one of his character's catchphrases was "They can't do that to me, a man of my cal-i-bre".

a reply to: DISRAELI

"Destructions", as in "You need to read the destructions for that".

LOL!! Yeah, my dad, too. But "If all else fails," always preceded "You need to..."


He also used to repeat mispronunciations like when they started calling a set of matching furniture (a suite - pronounced correctly as "sweet") a "bedroom suit." And the color of appliances was "avakadoo."