Zompist Bboard Again

Ryusenshi wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 8:09 am What do you call this?

USB-Stick.

(Oddly enough, in this case, the letters "USB" are always pronounced the German way in German, although it is an English acronym. The same goes for the letters in "CD" and "DVD". But in some other English acronyms, such as "CIA" and "FBI", the letters are always pronounced the English way in German.)

Flash drive or thumb drive (but it's been years since I've regularly used one, thanks to improvements in the speed and convenience of sending files over the internet)

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 8:29 am
USB-Stick.

(Oddly enough, in this case, the letters "USB" are always pronounced the German way in German, although it is an English acronym. The same goes for the letters in "CD" and "DVD". But in some other English acronyms, such as "CIA" and "FBI", the letters are always pronounced the English way in German.)

In French, we say /se.i.a/ for the CIA, but /ef.bi.aj/ for the FBI. Weird, uh? My personal theory is that the CIA entered public consciousness here through pulp spy novels while we mostly heard of the FBI from TV.

zyxw59 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:19 am Flash drive or thumb drive (but it's been years since I've regularly used one, thanks to improvements in the speed and convenience of sending files over the internet)

Same.

I think "thumb drive" was preferred at work while my husband tended to use "flash drive". I can't really think what would drive that variation. (Both of us worked in PC environments, for instance.)

I would say thumb drive for that sort of drive, whereas flash drive makes me think of larger SSDs.

I also call it a USB stick

Data stick or USB stick

Pen drive or USB stick.

Thank you guys. I was asking because I heard several non-native speakers call it a pen drive in English, a phrase I had never heard from native speakers before (and it confused me the first time I heard it). I would probably call it a USB key, as a calque of the French clé USB.

Ars Lande wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:07 amIn French, we say /se.i.a/ for the CIA, but /ef.bi.aj/ for the FBI.

Yeah, most initialisms are pronounced as French letters even if they come from English: CD /se.de/, DVD /de.ve.de/, USA /y.ɛs.a/, K.O. /ka.o/, USB /y.ɛs.be/, IP /i.pe/, URL /y.ɛr.ɛl/... As a rock music fan, I get annoyed when people say ZZ Top as /zɛd.zɛd.tɔp/ or JJ Cale as /dʒi.dʒi.kɛl/ (a weird hybrid).

There are few exceptions which are pronounced as in English: FBI as mentioned, BBC as /bi.bi.si/, O.K. as /o.kɛ/. There's also E.T. (as in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) who's usually pronounced /i.ti/, although in the French dub of the film itself, the character is called /ø.te/.

Ryusenshi wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 12:07 pm As a rock music fan, I get annoyed when people say ZZ Top as /zɛd.zɛd.tɔp/

I would be annoyed too if someone said that, as it's obviously /ˌziˌziˈtɑp/.

Even better with a Texas drawl: [ˌzɪiˌzɪiˈtʰɑɒp]. But French people speaking English consistently use [ɔ] for LOT, and it's close enough to the SSBE vowel anyway. I'd be happy with [zi.ziˈtɔp].

(Maybe people don't like this pronunciation because of zizi, a childish word for penis...)

Ryusenshi wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 12:07 pm

Ars Lande wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:07 amIn French, we say /se.i.a/ for the CIA, but /ef.bi.aj/ for the FBI.

Yeah, most initialisms are pronounced as French letters even if they come from English: CD /se.de/, DVD /de.ve.de/, USA /y.ɛs.a/, K.O. /ka.o/, USB /y.ɛs.be/, IP /i.pe/, URL /y.ɛr.ɛl/... As a rock music fan, I get annoyed when people say ZZ Top as /zɛd.zɛd.tɔp/ or JJ Cale as /dʒi.dʒi.kɛl/ (a weird hybrid).

There are few exceptions which are pronounced as in English: FBI as mentioned, BBC as /bi.bi.si/, O.K. as /o.kɛ/. There's also E.T. (as in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) who's usually pronounced /i.ti/, although in the French dub of the film itself, the character is called /ø.te/.

Calls to mind TGV, pronounced in English with (roughly) the French letter names.

sasasha wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 6:34 pmCalls to mind TGV, pronounced in English with (roughly) the French letter names.

Is this common? I say it that way, but I was taught this word by a code-switching bilingual and it's not the only French acronym I do that with,

I've never heard it pronounced the English way. And it gets banded around in conversation a fair bit, including on the news, what with everyone trying to fly less and our own government's botched HS2 fiasco.

TGV is about the only French acronym occasionally used in German, and there, it is usually pronounced (kind of) the French way.

This part of a glass or mug or cup?

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:44 pm This part of a glass or mug or cup?

Do you mean the base of it? The part that actually rests on the surface?

The wall? The bottom? Bottoms up!

The side, I suppose! I don't think I have a dedicated term for it.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 1:00 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:44 pm This part of a glass or mug or cup?

Do you mean the base of it? The part that actually rests on the surface?

I mean the "inside bottom"; sorrow, I see now that the arrow is not clear at all.

I was mainly wondering about what to say in a drink recipe if it contains an instruction like "Pour in just enough of Ingredient A that the [. . . floor? bottom?] is just barely covered".