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Author Topic: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad  (Read 23167 times)

Tergon

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #50 on: 03 Sep 2010, 01:31 »

We don't do that, actually.  Calling it "gasoline" is another Yank term.  We call it "petrol".  Or Diesel, if that's appropriate.  A car only runs on gas here if it actually runs on, y'know, GAS.  As in, petroleum vapour.

Everything else is totally accurate, though.  Say what you want about Aussies, but we make post-apocalyptic leatherwear look GOOD.
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Akima

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #51 on: 03 Sep 2010, 03:23 »

We call it "petrol".  Or Diesel, if that's appropriate.  A car only runs on gas here if it actually runs on, y'know, GAS.  As in, petroleum vapour.
Technically, vehicles that run on "gas" (also known as "autogas") run on LPG (Propane, Butane or some mixture of the two) or sometimes CNG (Compressed Natural Gas AKA Methane) mostly in buses. For some reason diesel fuel is sometimes known as "distillate" in Australia, especially in country areas. Which is peculiar, because all motor fuels are distillates. Yes, I did chemistry at high-school, why do you ask?

Quote
Everything else is totally accurate, though.  Say what you want about Aussies, but we make post-apocalyptic leatherwear look GOOD.
It's true! The original Mad Max movie is really a documentary...
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akronnick

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #52 on: 03 Sep 2010, 03:43 »

Actually, all heat engines run on gas, it's the expansion...

What?

Why are you looking at me like that?

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, goddammit! stop hitting me with the dick-broom!
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Tergon

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #53 on: 03 Sep 2010, 05:22 »

Technically, vehicles that run on "gas" (also known as "autogas") run on LPG (Propane, Butane or some mixture of the two) or sometimes CNG (Compressed Natural Gas AKA Methane) mostly in buses. For some reason diesel fuel is sometimes known as "distillate" in Australia, especially in country areas. Which is peculiar, because all motor fuels are distillates. Yes, I did chemistry at high-school, why do you ask?


You are more brain-having than me.  I bow.

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Also:  It's right about now that akronnick should be grateful that the Useless Broom Made Entirely Out Of Dicks is only being used to bludgeon him from the exterior.
Yeah.  Think about that for a second.  It gets worse the longer you contemplate it.
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Carl-E

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #54 on: 03 Sep 2010, 08:57 »

LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA.....

Sorry, what?
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raoullefere

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #55 on: 03 Sep 2010, 10:15 »

oh please, next you guys will be claiming that you don't have mohawks and ride around in dune buggies and muscle cars, clad in black leather under the desert sun, killing other drivers for the guzzoline in their vehicles while you scavenge what's left from the bones of the old world.
Don't be silly. Everybody knows not all Australians are like that. Some of the guys there running around under the desert sun use vans, not dune-buggies, and wear feather boas and heels. Oh, and others like to ride their plucky horses down near-vertical hillsides.

Now, if y'all 'scuse me, I got to go jump in my car, and I do mean jump, 'cause the doors're welded shut. It makes 'er a lil' safer when I'm running 'shine. See y'all.
« Last Edit: 03 Sep 2010, 10:17 by raoullefere »
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tomart

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #56 on: 03 Sep 2010, 17:39 »

 :-D

ok, no peeking:  what was the original topic of this thread? 

 :laugh:
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raoullefere

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #57 on: 03 Sep 2010, 17:54 »

Don't tell me that last post of mine wasn't at least a little sad.
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akronnick

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #58 on: 03 Sep 2010, 18:02 »

:-D

ok, no peeking:  what was the original topic of this thread? 

 :laugh:

Dick-brooms?
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jwhouk

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #59 on: 03 Sep 2010, 18:48 »

Okay, I cheated, but now 1739 looks even more like it was the lighting of the match to the fuse string.
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ink slinger

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #60 on: 03 Sep 2010, 23:39 »

...or the way that apparently nobody from outside Australia is aware that "Aussie" is pronounced "Ozzy".  As in Osbourne.
I have never heard anyone pronounce it any other way. And I'm from outside of Australia.
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Tergon

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #61 on: 04 Sep 2010, 02:57 »

I have never heard anyone pronounce it any other way. And I'm from outside of Australia.

Tell me where you are from, so that I can send presents to everyone from this place.  Seriously, that amazes me.  Like I said, I work in tourism, and I get people from all over the world coming to visit, and "Ohh-see" is a very common (mis)pronunciation.  To say nothing of how much you hear it on TV.
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Carl-E

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #62 on: 04 Sep 2010, 04:40 »

Well, for me it helps that the only person I know who uses the term is from just outside Sydney  :-D
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Akima

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #63 on: 04 Sep 2010, 08:15 »

"Ohh-see" is a very common (mis)pronunciation.  To say nothing of how much you hear it on TV.
So true, especially from sports-casters...

Oh, and while we're on the subject of common blunders, the capital of China is not Beige-ing! In Standard Mandarin, it is Bay-jing. Bay as in Baywatch, and Jing as in Jingle-Bells. Simple, yes? No fancy-schmancy French-style "J" sounds in Chinese!
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Carl-E

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #64 on: 04 Sep 2010, 08:57 »

Better than "Peking". 

I always wondered if the "old" western versions of Chinese place-names came from some other dialect than Cantonese, or just a general careless mangling by the British. 

Probably some of both...
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ndperfesser

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #65 on: 04 Sep 2010, 10:46 »

single and celibate

(vocabulary nerd alert)
This is one of my pet peeves. Celibate means not married. Chaste means no sex. That's why Catholic priests can remain in the clergy even if they are rapists but are bounced out if they decide to marry.

You may go back to your regularly scheduled forum thread.
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Carl-E

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #66 on: 04 Sep 2010, 11:12 »

You're oversimplifying. 

The root of the word celibate is caelibs, Latin for "unmarried", and that is certainly one of the remaining meanings.  However, by implication (by the church, in fact) of "no sex outside marriage", celibacy took on the meaning "going without sex (as a decision, not just 'cause you can't get any)". 

And the vow of a (catholic) priest is poverty, chastitiy and obedience, not celibacy.  Of course, the assumption is that you can't keep chaste if you're married, so the one follows from the other. 

But really, aside from the assumptions that celibacy is a decision and chastitiy stems from a lack of opportunity/desire, the words are really pretty much interchangeable. 

[/wordnerd]
« Last Edit: 04 Sep 2010, 11:14 by Carl-E »
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raoullefere

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #67 on: 04 Sep 2010, 16:15 »

"Ohh-see" is a very common (mis)pronunciation.  To say nothing of how much you hear it on TV.
So true, especially from sports-casters...

Oh, and while we're on the subject of common blunders, the capital of China is not Beige-ing! In Standard Mandarin, it is Bay-jing. Bay as in Baywatch, and Jing as in Jingle-Bells. Simple, yes? No fancy-schmancy French-style "J" sounds in Chinese!
I liked 'Peking' better. Bay-jing duck just doesn't have that same je ne sais quoi.  :-D (I know they've not changed that—yet.) Anyway, if I had a dime for every time I heard some yankee passing through talk about going to Bil-ox-i, I'd be a couple hundred bucks richer. It's Bil-ux-i. No oxen allowed. You can, I suppose, bring all the uxen you wish. (The casinos and Katrina, btw, seem to have managed to correct this. Maybe Bay-jing needs a Harrahs and to have the living shit beaten out of it by a gigantic cat 5 hurricane.)
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jwhouk

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #68 on: 04 Sep 2010, 18:32 »

...So, how 'bout does Packers, dere hey? Oh, fer Criminy cripes sake, Rogers is da best quarterback of dem all, aina? Hey, start wit' me last with those cheese curds, dere; I'm still finishin' up the last of my fish fries.
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Watched Pot

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #69 on: 04 Sep 2010, 18:41 »

single and celibate

(vocabulary nerd alert)
This is one of my pet peeves. Celibate means not married. Chaste means no sex. That's why Catholic priests can remain in the clergy even if they are rapists but are bounced out if they decide to marry.

You may go back to your regularly scheduled forum thread.
Carl-E has already defended my honor. Every dictionary I've checked (and I have a few ooooold dictionaries) lists "unmarried" and "not engaging in sexual activity" as two separate but equally acceptable definitions of celibate. If it makes you feel better, though, I'll only use celibate in reference to marriage from now on.
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Akima

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #70 on: 04 Sep 2010, 21:46 »

Better than "Peking". I always wondered if the "old" western versions of Chinese place-names came from some other dialect than Cantonese, or just a general careless mangling by the British. Probably some of both...
There are few avenues for misunderstanding that Chinese people and "Westerners" have left unexplored. Just to scratch the surface, there are:

Romanization problems. Imperfect and changing systems for writing down Chinese in the Roman alphabet. This is how Chou En-lai changed to Zhou Enlai, and Mao Tse-Tung became Mao Zedong. The habitual omission of tone-marks from English-language texts makes correct pronunciation, and therefore meaning, a matter of guesswork. Untutored readers will inevitably pronounce the letters of the romanization in the manner habitual in their own language, producing ear-bleeding solecisms like pronouncing Cáo Cāo (one of the central characters of The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, and many anime, comics, video-games etc.) as "Cow Cow" (it is "Tsao Tsao"). For English-speakers, correct reading of the old Wade-Giles romanization, or modern Pinyin, requires study. Only the Yale romanization (developed for the US Army) was created with the specific intent of making it relatively easy for native English-speakers to approximate correct Chinese pronunciation, and in many ways it's a pity it went out of style.

Geographic confusion problems. Applying the wrong name to places because the European asking "What is this place?" and the Chinese person answering didn't really understand each other. For example the city now known as Guangzhou (pron: Guang-jo) was called Canton based on the local pronunciation of the name of the province, Guangdong, in which the city is located.

Indirect adoption problems. Some English names for Chinese things are adopted from languages other than Chinese ones. One example is the word "China" itself, which comes from Sanskrit via Persian and Italian. Another is "Mandarin", a Sanskrit word adopted via Malay and Portuguese, meaning something like "counsellor" or "minister". Mandarin Chinese is so called in English, because it was the language spoken by officials, as opposed to the many other regional languages.

"Dialect" problems. The "official" language of China has been based on the North Chinese "Mandarin" family of languages for hundreds of years, but Europeans often entered China from Southern coastal regions where other languages like Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien etc. were, and still are, spoken. Even where the words are the same, and quite often they are not, the pronunciation can be very different.

Language change problems. Like any other languages, Chinese ones have changed over time. The first European scholars to study Chinese language seriously were Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century, and they created the first Romanization systems. We still use many of the names they invented, such as Confucius (Kǒng Fūzǐ), but in some cases Chinese has changed since their time, leaving their romanizations behind like fossils.

The case of Peking is a combination of the last two. The word Peking originated with French Jesuit missionaries and is based on an old pronunciation that altered in a subsequent sound change in Mandarin. The pronunciation "Peking" is also close to that used by speakers of the Fujian "dialect" around the port city of Xiamen, through which much of China's early contact with European traders, missionaries took place. "Beijing" is closer to the Northern Chinese pronunciation, and is now of course the officially correct one. Bear in mind however that "B" is less "explosive" in Mandarin than English, and can sound quite close to "P" to the untutored ear.
« Last Edit: 05 Sep 2010, 00:23 by Akima »
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akronnick

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #71 on: 04 Sep 2010, 22:01 »

Now that that's cleared up, any insights on Bombay/Mumbai, Burma/Myanmar, Ceylon/Sri Lanka or New Orleans/Nawlins?
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Tergon

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #72 on: 04 Sep 2010, 23:38 »

Hell, very few non-English-speaking countries will have their maps match up exactly to the maps of English-speaking countries.  Sometimes it's as small as a town or a river... sometimes it's an island in an archepelago... sometimes it's the name of the freaking country.  I think the solution is pretty straightforward:  the English-speaking fellows who wrote the maps were kind of arseholes.

None of which explains why people think I would barbeque shrimp.  That one just bewilders me.  Mispronouncing or misunderstanding something I would say is one thing, but making completely inventing a phrase that makes no sense and claiming it's a stereotype of the country?
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Akima

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #73 on: 05 Sep 2010, 00:16 »

None of which explains why people think I would barbeque shrimp.  That one just bewilders me.  Mispronouncing or misunderstanding something I would say is one thing, but making completely inventing a phrase that makes no sense and claiming it's a stereotype of the country?
Yeah, but we can't blame foreigners for it. The whole "shrimp on the barbie" thing dates back to Paul Hogan's appearance in Australian Tourist Commission TV ads in 1984.

I've always assumed that the use of "shrimp", when Aussies normally refer to the sort of crustacean that Hogan the Bogan is placing on the barbie as a "prawn", was intended to make the whole thing more accessible to USAnians.
« Last Edit: 06 Sep 2010, 15:26 by Akima »
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raoullefere

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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #74 on: 05 Sep 2010, 00:18 »

Ahah! It has to do with advertising, just as I suspected before I was ninja'd. Which means, of course, there's no reason for it, no sense in it, and no reality behind it. I sometimes think Shakespeare's suggestion 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers' needs to be updated. Douglas Adams had it right—the first asses against the wall when the revolution comes need to be anyone and everyone involved in advertising. They're our Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B, although I tend to doubt anyone with die without their services.

Except, maybe, the internets, o' course.  :-D
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Re: I found today's comic (#1739) quite sad
« Reply #75 on: 06 Sep 2010, 13:50 »

I've never heard anyone pronounce it Ooh-see.  I've always heard it pronounced Ah-see.
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