Okay, I play Scrabble too!

UNDisirregardless - gee how many points is that?

Anticontra-undisirregardless. So there!

What in the world is this thread about?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Michael's command of English besides his command of photography!

Undisirregardless? (LOL) It isn't worth any points, because you'd never sneak that one by anybody. All you'd do is lose a turn. Sounds like some of the "words" my wife tries to pawn off on me, except she's a lot more creative. (and usually successful)

I suspect this thread started because Michael used the word in another thread (in a tongue-in-cheek message, I might add, which is, of course, the only correct usage of "disirregardless".)

However, Michael actually misspelled "disirregardless" (oh, the shame!) so I'm pleased to see that dmcginlay spells it correctly.

I have corrected the spelling of my incorrectly spelled non-existent word.

36 points.

Michael

One of my former colleagues, whose wife's name is Barbara, was wont to say "irregardless, as Barbara says." I can't even think the non-word "irregardless" without mentally adding, "...as Barbara says." We even have more than a few mutual friends who now also say "irregardless, as Barbara says."

You have to be careful about picking up others' malaprops. Another colleague was famous for them, and we all tended to adopt them, first in jest and over time unconsciously. As a result I still have an unfortunate tendency to say things like "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it," and "I'm just shooting off the top of my head," and "sorry, I'm just not working on all fours today," and "I need that like a head in my hole." ;-)

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Next big download: The Official LL Scrabble game (available in 5280 one-byte zip files. Please download one at a time at one-week intervals.) The official dictionary only includes non-existent words that have appeared on the LL Forum.

Okay, since this has gotten far, FAR away from anything resembling photography, I'll add in a book suggestion of words that have pretty much disappeared from the English language. It's by Susan Kerz Sperling and it's called 'Poplollies and Bellibones'.

Mike.

P.S. A Poplolly comes from the French poupelet, meaning 'little darling' or 'special loved one' and shouldn't be confused with a poop-noddy. Bellibone also comes from the French, belle et bonne, meaning 'fair and good'.

Hopefully no one will think this is simply pumpkinification (pompous behaviour)!

There are undoubtedly myriads of us out here who could care less about this subject. Considering that this is a photography-orientated site, I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of MR stepping in and steering this discussion toward something more apropos.

I quite agree, and a propos of that, your ideas about this.

Yesterday, in Pollensa, was the famous Moors and Christians annual event when the Christians celebrate the eviction of the Moors from the Balearics and Spain. The local lads audition for parts as either Christians (what would Howie think!) or Moors, with the resulting battle through the narrow, defensively designed streets ending up in a football arena where the evening ends amid the consumption of much alcohol and the providing of even more vomit. A truly glorious event in anyone´s language.

Of course, in more northern communities this would never be allowed to happen on grounds of racial, religious and moral discrimination. The fact that the Moors are predestined for defeat is wonderful too, adding yet another layer to the possibilities for protest. Let´s face it: today´s folks rewrite history as they would like it. Such a reactionary stance as this illustrates is obviously ripe for complaint - must see if the UNO has a time-slot available...

Ciao - happy snapping, if you have to.

Rob C

"Good words to you" all, to quote John Ciardi.

And, oh, if I could only find a copy of the Modern Library edition of 'Paradiso' to complete my collection, John Ciardi's brilliant translation, all would be well in my world.

How about my darn world then? I´ve just been re-elected to be president of the community where I live, for the umpteenth time. Not that I´m that interested in the job - I have long felt that anyone who seeks any form of public office should automatically be banned from taking said position - but I happen to be a year-long resident...

Hope you have luck with Mr Ciardi and his translation.

That´s quite a powerful job, a translator´s - you can squeeze in all manner of personal bias and who, then and after the event, can do anything about it?

Ciao - Rob C

There are undoubtedly myriads of us out here who could care less about this subject. Considering that this is a photography-orientated site, I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of MR stepping in and steering this discussion toward something more apropos.

Perhaps we could discuss non-existent and 'lost' words related specifically to photography?

Or is having a little fun something to be banned here?

Mike.

"Film?" ;-)

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Are those people who could care less or couldn't care less?

Michael

That´s the trouble with language evolution, as I´ve been saying all along and at every opportunity that I could either create or use.

It comes largely, I think, from the Spanish influence. It´s about the double negative (non-photographic) thinggy: no pasa nada - nothing isn´t happening, which is obviously meant to mean nothing IS happening. It must be why so much trashy English comes out of California and the movies from there - the Hispanic influence which, whilst perfectly okay in Spanish, leaves something very much missing in the translation. I suppose the use of the word man, as in the greeting Hi man, comes from their use of hombre, meaning man but somehow improper in the greeting context in English.

Ciao - Rob C

High unlikely — use of the double negative goes way back in American English, and didn't the slang use of "man" originate in the Beat movement of the 50's, if not before? No Spanish influence there that I'm aware of, but a lot of African-American jazz influence.

Language roots tend to be deeper than we realize. I think I was watching The Maltese Falcon the other night with one of my teenagers when she heard one of the characters say something and exclaimed "I thought my generation invented that expression!" ;-)

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

I don´t think so, Nill; my mother passed away a couple of years ago aged 93 and she spent much of her early youth in northern Spain, resulting in her being bi-lingual. I can remember her using the expression hombre when I was a kid and that pre-dated Jack Kerouac´s influence, if not the cat himself, by some years.

Nonetheless, American jazz musicians were not immune to Hispanic influence either - don´t forget that the Spanish and Portuguese did just as much trawling of the world mixed in with a little rape and plunder as did the northern Europeans. Perhaps, if you like, we can reach common ground if we both accept that the real answer lies back with Latin!

Ciao- Rob C

I bet your mother never said "Hey, man..." ;-)

Going from the Spanish use of "hombre" to the American colloquial use of "man" is quite a stretch IMO.

What's Spanish for "dude?" ;-)

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

For some unknown reason, my original reply to you has just vanished and another thread appeared on the screen. I shall try to get back to where I was.

Nill, it was my mother who was bi-lingual. Though I´ve lived in Spain for ages it doesn´t mean that I have managed to enter the world of the truly young native! In fact, at my age it would be embarrassing to try and totally destined for failure.

Dude in Spanish. Well, I have heard several different forms of address but they seem to consist of only señor, chico, muchacho, hombre and that´s about all I can summon up. The term for smartass is sometimes listo, which normally means ready - not difficult to reason why. Gambero is sometimes used for young hooligan, and the word hombre occurs even in all-women situations when one will say to the other ´hombre!´as nothing more than an alternative to the other´s name. This doesn´t really surprise me: in a country where the most female of female parts is a masculine noun, all rules are out!

I am really convinced that the American use of hombre/man derives from the influence of the pervasive Hispanic language; that it is nothing more nor less than a result of the mixing of language, the migration of one into another different, neighbouring ghetto, where it becomes assimilated by association.

French has been formed like that - influenced by invaders from all parts of the European and even North African spectrum - why American any less so?

Ciao - Rob C

Nice work detecting the nonsensical phrase Michael, but I'm surprised you missed "adverse." (LOL)