Zompist Bboard Again

keenir wrote: ↑Tue May 13, 2025 11:33 pm

very cool, both of them; its also more proof that Kelly Hu would have been an awesome Doctor Who.

I suspect that most of those Chinese and Chinese-descended people who live in the West and have the surname "Hu" have heard the predictable "So you're the one who let the dogs out!" joke a bit too often to still find it funny by now.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 8:01 am

keenir wrote: ↑Tue May 13, 2025 11:33 pmvery cool, both of them; its also more proof that Kelly Hu would have been an awesome Doctor Who.

I suspect that most of those Chinese and Chinese-descended people who live in the West and have the surname "Hu" have heard the predictable "So you're the one who let the dogs out!" joke a bit too often to still find it funny by now.

true. but she is a great actress.

EDIT: in truth, I was going by the Romanization, not the pronounciation.

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 8:32 amIn Hebrew too. (Where, for good measure, ‘he’ is hu, cf. ‘who’.)

...though I misread the line above that, thus thinking erroniously that hu was also Welsh.

There is also a Mongolian folk metal band named The Hu.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 11:31 am There is also a Mongolian folk metal band named The Hu.

The Hu to me sounds like a The Who cover/tribute band.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 1:55 pm

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 11:31 am There is also a Mongolian folk metal band named The Hu.

The Hu to me sounds like a The Who cover/tribute band.

The Dr. Seuss cover band would be Horton Hears the Who.

i seem to remember the czech (or was it the hungarians?) said something like [no] to mean yes.

Torco wrote: ↑Tue May 20, 2025 12:32 pm i seem to remember the czech (or was it the hungarians?) said something like [no] to mean yes.

Poles do this. "no" is a filler word in Polish. When my great Aunt visited Australia, she kept on slipping up and using "no, no" in place of like "yeah" or "mhm" in conversations, and of course hilarity would ensue.

Brits will no doubt remember the character in The Vicar of Dibley who goes "no no no no no no no… yes" in response to questions.

Darren wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 1:03 am

Torco wrote: ↑Tue May 20, 2025 12:32 pm i seem to remember the czech (or was it the hungarians?) said something like [no] to mean yes.

Poles do this. "no" is a filler word in Polish. When my great Aunt visited Australia, she kept on slipping up and using "no, no" in place of like "yeah" or "mhm" in conversations, and of course hilarity would ensue.

Reminds me of how the same interjection ([ʔŋʔŋ] or something similar) meant 'no' with my mother, but 'yes' with my grandmother. Also, they had opposite ideas of what is 'up' and what is 'down' in the nearest town.

Ketsuban wrote: ↑Sat May 31, 2025 5:56 am Brits will no doubt remember the character in The Vicar of Dibley who goes "no no no no no no no… yes" in response to questions.

So Rabbit’s line in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a reference?

It may be just an urban legend, but it is said that on a joint meeting of the British and U.S. general staffs during WWII, there was a misunderstanding when a British officer demanded that an important issue was "tabled", meaning 'put on the table for immediate discussion', while for the U.S. side, "to table" meant 'to put aside for the moment and discuss it later'.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 5:10 am while for the U.S. side, "to table" meant 'to put aside for the moment and discuss it later'.

And in practice, "later", in this context, usually seems to mean "never".

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 5:32 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 5:10 am while for the U.S. side, "to table" meant 'to put aside for the moment and discuss it later'.

And in practice, "later", in this context, usually seems to mean "never".

This is one of the few US/UK differences that still trips me up: the US verb isn't common enough for me to get used to it, and they are similar enough in context that I can usually assume the UK meaning until I think about it.

A long time ago, long before JK Rowling's transphobia became well-known, when I was still a lot into Harry Potter, I once saw a short HP fanfic titled something like "Minutes of a Hogwarts Staff Meeting", which had apparently been written by an American. How could I tell? Because the text used the phrase "Motion tabled" fairly often.

Just noticed another opposite in Sumerian.

-ed forms a participle in Sumerian. However, instead of being a past participle as in English, it's a future or imperative participle: e.g. sug-ed-a 'to be paid back'.

There's the slang use of the word "bad" in English to mean that something is good.

Space60 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 1:30 am There's the slang use of the word "bad" in English to mean that something is good.

That is cross-linguistically reasonable (negative descriptor > emphatic is common, emphatic > good can be reasonable).

See also the evolution of ‘wicked’.

We also see this in contemporary English with 'sick'.

‘Filthy’ too (filthy rich, filthy bassline).