The Four Ages Of Sand

Larger Welsh lager?

This from Alan:

English town council wants to abolish apostrophes in street-names to end "confusion"

 Ive recently completed a risk assessment and its been decided not to use apostrophes on 4AoS anymore on the grounds that theyre too confusing. Imagine my surprise when I received emails from three 4AoSers (David, Alan and Tom) on the same day, informing me that Mid Devon District Council has come to the same decision. And I think we can all agree the councils decision is a very sensible one. 

A statement from the council said: "Our proposed policy on street naming and numbering covers a whole host of practical issues, many of which are aimed at reducing potential confusion over street names."

However, it declined to comment further and did not elaborate on who might be confused by the use of correct punctuation.

More here

Question of the week: Can you translate Japanese symbols into English words? Part 4

I'm finally ready to answer the question "Can you translate Japanese symbols into English words?" and the answer is: No.

I've discovered (the hard way) that there is so much more to translating Japanese than simply looking up symbols on a chart. As well as the basic symbols, kanji, there are sub-elements called radicals (bushu) and that's where it all starts to get complicated. 

Here's the symbol for water from this site, along with its radicals (I think)

http://nuthatch.com/kanji/demo/radicals.html

 

1. 水 みず water
   水 氾 汀 汁 汐 池 汎 江 汲 汗 汚 沌 汰 沁 沐 沓 沃 沢 沙 沖 没 汽 沈 決 沫 況 沮 泳 沼 泌 泡 沸 沿 泰 泊 治 波 河 注 泣 泥 油 法 洲 洩 洛 洪 洒 洞 派 浄 浅 洋 洗 活 海 涎 浩 浚 浜 浴 涙 浪 浦 浸 酒 消 浮 流 涵 渓 淆 涯 淘 淳 渉 淑 涸 淋 渇 済 涼 液 渋 添 淡 淫 混 清 深 湧 渣 渥 游 湮 渾 滋 湾 湖 渦 港 湿 測 湯 温 渡 満 減 滓 漠 溢 溺 滝 源 溝 溜 溶 滅 滞 漢 滑 滸 滌 滾 滴 漉 漬 滲 漂 漆 漸 漕 漏 漫 漁 演 漑 潭 潔 澄 潤 潰 潮 潜 澹 澱 濁 濃 激 潛 濘 濯 濠 濶 濡 濫 瀑 瀧 瀚 瀕 瀝 瀬 灌

 

Stick it into Google translate and you get:

 water
Hong Nak-dong faction 洒 oil law model Zhou crying Note mud along the river wave,

 Osamu Yasushi night bubbling swamp swimming 沮 secretion determined 況 splash 

off the coast of Sha Shen 汽 death 沃 swamp sweat pumping dirty shoe 沐 沁 汰 沌 

Jiang Pan pond water's edge juice Shiodome Wed 氾 Bay Lake vortex Shigeru 

渾 湮 Yu Qing 渥 residue was mixed 淫 pale spring depth hydrogenated liquid astringent

 Ryo Sook Wataru 涸 淋 already dry Jun 淘 lifelong alcohol consumption floating 淆

 River flow recharge Ura Sina tears immersion bath beach Joon-ho drool Hiroshi

 shallow sea wash cleaning activities I dive deep discount lees suspension 澹 

tide latent ulcer Jun Kiyoshi Kiyoshi Lake fishing 演 pride irrigation tank

 leak recurrence lacquer dipped 漉 droplet drift 滲 滌 滸 strips off flashing 

soluble lubricant reservoir groove Han stay Drown source overflowing

 waterfall desert dregs full pass down the temperature of the hot water 

harbor moisture measurement 瀚 Taki waterfall rapids verge irrigation 瀝 濫 wet moat 濯 濘 Color

 

Clear as er water, yes?

So, what does this mean?

And what are these?

 

The solution turned out to be very simple: Ask a Japanese person!  I joined the Japanese forum at about.com and within 24 hours got this reply from Kurisuto:

The sign reads 日本一米粒こけし (nippon-ichi kometsubu kokeshi), which literally means "the best rice grain kokeshi in Japan". It isn't clear to me whether it's some kind of brand or something. Kokeshi are armless/legless dolls, and from a quick googling (as well as reading the wiki article); they are usually much bigger in size, and made of wood, not of grains of rice. As a matter of fact, this blog entry says it's an imitation of rice, so I'm gonna guess it's wood too? Worthy of note is that his/her "rice grain" kokeshi have the same sign as yours.

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ab-japanese&nav=messages&msg=12179.2

Many thanks, Kurisuto. 

 

 

 

Shame on you BBC

A BBC punctuation error flashed across the TV screen last week. Luckily I always sit with the camera on my lap set on Stand By for exactly such an eventuality. It's one of the many quirky habits UniM loves about me (probably) 

Wait for it, wait for it....

Full text: "David Cammeron said the Government would stick to its deficit reduction plan..." 

Question of the week: How old is the word 'fag-end'?

I would have thought 'fag end' was a relatively modern word. However, I've just seen it in my wonderful book from 1688, "Epistolae Ho Elianae Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren" (previous post)

 

A quick search reveals:

n.	1.	An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a rope, etc.
	2.	The refuse or meaner part of anything. The fag-end of business. - Collier.

 

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.

 

And it turns out to have been in use for around 400 years:

 Origin: 
1605–15

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fag+end

And fag is a corruption of flag:

(If that's too small to read, here's the link)

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsf.htm

Thank goodness...

...it's only 3 hours to go to the end of the working week. I've just found myself pandiculating in front of the students

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pandiculation#English

I'm wanting the rest of my "Epistolae Ho Elianae Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren"!

I've been 'found wanting' many times in my life, and I always assumed it meant 'not very good' so when I bought the book "Epistolae Ho Elianae Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren," published 1688, with the description 'Front board wanting' I thought it meant that the front cover was in a dodgy condition, but no, it means it's missing altogether.

Still, it's wonderful to hold and read a book that's well over 300 years old. This would be prohibitively expensive (hundreds of pounds) in good condition, but I got this for a snip at £35. And anyway, the plan is to renovate it.

Epistolae Ho-Elianae (or Familiar Letters) is a literary work by the 17th-century Anglo-Welsh historian and writer, James Howell (wiki) and it's a fascinating insight into life and language in the 1600s.

Here he is, thanking his father for supporting him in his early life and for:

What a great line!

They do go on a bit though, these 17th Century types. Here's the introduction. He takes 16 lines to say that good writing should always be succinct...

More from James soon!

Touché!

I was comlimenting Tom on his correct use of accents in his emails, and just to show off, I dropped in the word soufflé. In his reply, he had to go one better of course. Well about 50 better actually:

Mon garçon,

You better start working on your résumé or think about moving to Québec where you’d be a émigré and might have a tête-à-tête with a smörgåsbord über-chef who makes sautés, canapés, and his pièce de résistance: a crème brûlée pâté … or, better yet, you could get your papier-mâché degree in some useful régime like zoölogy

And, once you're there, ask the maître d'hôtel (in Québécois, mais oui?) where to find the discothèque that has all those hot débutantes and the fantastic décor. Because if you make your entrée there with a bit of élan, some divorcé may invite you to her room to share some hors d’œuvre. Of course it all ends in her dénouement of you, and her kicking you in the derrière.

And, if after that you have one of those déjà vu experiences, where you see a doppelgänger of the Führer, above all, do not invite him into a ménage à trois matinée with some ingénue and you. It will only end up in a mêlée.

In fact, forget it. The whole trip will end up being a débâcle. Go back to your ångströms and measuring a continuüm in RSpec.

Adiós, Señor José.

 

Perhaps it complements another guide?

Hi Iain

I am going to buy a tropical fish aquarium for our reception hall and went down to our local shop for a look round. I had decided on a Juwel aquarium and was therefore quite excited when I picked up my glossy Juwel Aquarium COMPLIMENTARY buyers' guide.

I only hope their aquariums are better than their spell-checker!!

Alan R

 

I just got this off of The Fat Capri