Language deconstruction of the day (vol. 1) | 38 comments (38 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

And while we're at it... (4.00 / 3)

Unfortunately the referendums coincided with the surfacing of a huge sense of insecurity on the part of the electors of France and Holland - an insecurity resulting from the high unemployment and associated fears of the threat to jobs brought by 'globalisation', and immigration from eastern Europe - the latter epitomised by the supposed threat to jobs from 'the Polish plumber'.

*sucks in breath * IT IS THE NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I forgive Jerome for correctly quoting that geographical blunder. Now where's this idiot's E-mail address....

Sorry. Had to get it off my chest. Carry on, carry on.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 09:07:43 AM EST

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 0)

Nomad, the name of my country in every Western European language comes from a Middle Age confusing of Huns and Magyars...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 10:26:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

You should start a crusdae, DoDo...

Magyarország?

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:04:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 0)

That's crusade, not crusdae...

You're welcome to start a crusdae too, although I am not sure what it is...

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:13:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

Crusade? You surely meant pillage :-)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 06:53:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

Attila is a comon name in Hungary. What is the connection with the Huns?

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:13:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

Well noticed.

The fun fact is that some three centuries later, the historian (e.g. false history writer) of one king thought it would be good to turn this around and make Attila kind of a positive hero (first uniter of Europe, you see), and his brother Buda (whom Attila murdered) the ancestor of the royal family: combine some old legend about a deer with an invented odyssey across the steppes, throw in some long lost tribes mentioned in the Bible. This version got the dissing after Enlightement scientists started tracing language (to Finno-Ugrians) and culture. (That is, got the dissing except for the far-right - but the far-right also believes that Sumerians were Hungarians...)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 07:01:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

*Dangerous squint* (none / 1)

So... should I give it up? A lost cause? A hopeless goal?

Never, I tell you, not until my dying breath!!!! You'll have to pry my prone dead corpse off this issue with a crow bar and a sledge hammer. This is not a pet peeve, it's... Camarasaurus tooth ache.

I've pinned all my hope on today's mass communication.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:21:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: *Dangerous squint* (4.00 / 3)

Offer: you give up bashing poor, innocent percentages (Breakfast thread), and I promise to stop calling your country Holland, the Low Countries, the United Provinces, West Frisia, Dutchland, or Batavia, and always say the Netherlands!

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 12:18:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You do these things? (none / 1)

Why, I never recalled e-mailing you before... *dangerous squint becomes even more dangeresque *

But if you opt for blackmail.... Two can play this game.

So... Care to get that chocolate pie in its entirety without me getting the half of it?

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 07:28:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

*Worst joke of the month warning*

Maybe we should rename your country Boulimia.

by Alex in Toulouse on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:55:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 1)

Alex, the month just started, you are making too ambitious a claim here.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 11:57:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: And while we're at it... (none / 0)

hehe you're right, so let me promptly deconstruct my own claim by arguing out that the Huns must have been adorable people, given their name.

by Alex in Toulouse on Mon Mar 6th, 2006 at 12:10:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Language deconstruction of the day (vol. 1) | 38 comments (38 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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