zompist bboard

I may often look at things too much from the sociolinguistic position of the French state (see below with the Toubon law), but what surprises me about this embrace of English in major Norwegian (or Danish, or even France with Renault as someone earlier said, etc.) businesses is that people would ev...

Among racial slurs there was un paki for un nightshop ie. a liquor store on the corner often owned by Pakistanis. I guess you call these tabac in France? Arabe du coin is the closest equivalent I think. They do sell liquor (but not cigarettes) but they're a bit more like mom and pop grocery stores....

That's a great thread, thanks.

One thing that's unclear is why May called for an election at all (Commenters over here mentioned she wanted a stronger majority; but if party discipline is good, why should it be an issue?)

mèþru wrote:

Sharad9 wrote:Humanity is united under one confederacy

Not possible if humanity is larger than 200,000 people.

Citation needed

(Though I'd worry about what I'd call narrative issues; no conflict, no stories, in other words)

A few IT-related one in French: commit(er), merge(r), push(er)

(Funnily enough, I hadn't realized until today that those qualified even though I use them almost daily)

It's not about vested interested groups whining to the government because the world is changing. Apparently it is when those interest groups stand to lose their profit margins because their industry is obsolete. That could be what annoys me the most about some conservatives: they're all for the fre...

(or purposeful disinformation for climate change agenda) Yeah but how do we know it's anthropogenic? It's so early to tell whether it is humans or something that happens cyclically on Earth such as the wobbling or reorientation of the planet's tilt, a change in orbit eccentricity, and things like t...

vampireshark wrote:Happy thing: my second publication just went online. Took some time, but feels pretty good.

Congratulations!

Okay, this just in: There are certain varieties of Franco-Provençal that preserve a nominative-oblique case distinction in the singular , marked on the article, rather like in German. This means these varieties are: The only modern Western Romance languages to preserve a case distinction. The only ...

alice wrote:

Ars Lande wrote:Le Pen lost. That's a happy thing.

The number of commenters on the appropriate page of the BBC website who aren't happy is slightly less happy, however.

I've checked BBC news out of curiosity, did they really call him the Big Mac?

Le Pen lost. That's a happy thing.

Pole, the wrote:
I feel genuinely concerned. Is there anything I could do?

Ditto everyone else, have him see a doctor, and the sooner the better. I've seen this happen to elderly relatives - it turned out to be from organic causes (and fortunately, the symptoms were easily treated);

Because, you know, a vaguely centrist candidate is just as evil as a right-wing extremist. What is even the point of being a Centrist? Nothing ever gets done. I'd rather have a Pinochet-esque despot throw insurgents out of a helicopter than an apolitical wimp who puts his head in the sand while we ...

It's not even kind of like, as far as I can see it's the same or worse.
Also, judging from the demographics of the Mélenchon vote, it's probably the same people that'd get shafted the most by a Le Pen victory. Way to piss your own bed.

Mélenchon voters not voting against Le Pen. Because, you know, a vaguely centrist candidate is just as evil as a right-wing extremist.

So that's why I could never stand the far left.

If space colonization happens, I think it'd be O'Neill space habitats, or asteroids turned into habitats. Solar power is cheap; there are plenty of resources in asteroids and cometary bodies; why bother with planets at all?

Sounds good to me. Much would rest on the balance between physical strength (men) and magic (women), but I think you're aware of that already. I have an idea for a setting with a magic theocracy that i would like feedback on. This nation operates as a matriarchy with women in most of the top leaders...

In the context of a conworld set on another planet some hundreds of years after colonization, I'm currently working out a form of koinéized international English as a proto-language. But could I have anything to work with besides some future form of English? More relevantly to this forum, if space ...

(1) is "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever (EDIT or any of the variants: world without end, ages of ages)" ða rikji, ða mayt ay ða glǫyr is easy. Vor á ði lieg was a bit harder, but makes more sense rereading the section on predication. I have no idea about atrách a...

I'm voting Macron, personally. I don't particularly like the guy, but I don't have much of a choice. It's obvious that Le Pen will win the first round, the only question is who is going to be second. I dread to see Fillon vs Le Pen on the second round: I'd be forced to vote for Fillon, and I really...

Actually, I think it also relates to class and education. I think it's more of a middle-class thing and that kind of demographic is over represented in Paris (though it's definitely more common here). I think women do it more than men too; I wish I could find a serious resource on the subject.

Interesting. The stereotype that I think I remember about Parisian speakers is that they pronounce word-final e muets in situations where other speakers would not. So "garage" would come out as "garageuh." Is my impression accurate? Maybe I'm misremembering and this is only supposed to apply to wor...

My dissertation needs to be finished, like FINISHED finished, in less than three weeks, and I still have a major chapter that's mostly unwritten and still needs research. I really, really don't want to take another semester, especially since I'm not guaranteed funding, but if I can't pull myself to...

Though I'd love to visit Poland; but I don't see myself leaving France. I guess I'm not the expat type.

jal wrote:

Ars Lande wrote:Also, I still have no idea who to vote for.

Well, not Le Pen, obviously.


JAL

Heh, no. Not Le Pen.

It's probably going to be one of the two left-wing candidates. (Not counting Macron as left-wing).