Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 15:47
From: <BLACKWELLSAvms1.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 4.652 More Fun

As well as the Japanese car called the We've, there's the brand of audio cassette tapes called That's. Clearly, apostrophe's rule O.K.

But as inappropriate English goes, how about the driving school in Southall, Middlesex, called the Impact School of Motoring? There's another school in the same area with a more appropriate name but which advertises "crash courses available".

Sue Blackwell Birmingham

Message 2: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 15:54:32 BSTRe: 4.652 More Fun
From: Alex Monaghan <amcstr.edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.652 More Fun

re. shrimp scampi - this is, unfortunately, not as silly as it might seem: in britain, scampi is legally defined (i believe) as any white seafood!

(of course, the british would never use "shrimp" in this context: for us, anything bigger than a few cubic millimeters is a "prawn" for commercial purposes!) alex.

Message 3: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 10:51:11 CDRe: 4.652 More Fun
From: Evan S. Smith <smitheExt.Missouri.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.652 More Fun

How about CRE^PE SHOW, a Parisian shop I saw in 1972. SHOW is apparently an interlingual pun on CHAUD, but I wonder if they knew the meaning of creep show in English?

Evan Smith smitheext.missouri.edu

Message 4: More Fun

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 10:52:21 CDMore Fun
From: Michael M T Henderson <MMTHUKANVM.bitnet>
Subject: More Fun

In Tripoli, Libya twenty years ago I found a branch of an Italian chain of stores purveying goods for infants: Mr. Baby. Maybe 'Signor Bimbo' sounded too silly?

Message 5: fun

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 13:48:59 EDfun
From: Ian MacKay <IMACKAYacadvm1.uottawa.ca>
Subject: fun

A few contributions:

1. On the label of shirt sold in Canada: "Gentle cycle machine wash" followed by "Aimable bicyclette machine pour laver".

2. On the bilingual menu in a restaurant in Ste-Marie-de-Beauce, a small Quebec town across the US border from Jackman, Maine: French: "pate de foie gras". English? "Pasty of liver fat". It defies imagination.

3. Two from my father's collection of small-town US restaurant signs. On a highway service station-restaurant: "Eat here and get gas." On another hole-in-the-wall restaurant: "Eat here and you'll never eat anywhere else."

4. English-speaking Canada sometimes finds itself betwixt and between its British and American linguistic roots. In my teanage years the slang word "fag" had one and only one meaning, namely a cigarette. I only later became aware of it as a derogatory term for a gay. American visitors to Ottawa and locals in their 20's and younger are often taken aback by the largest magazine and smoke shop in town, which is called "Mags and Fags".

Message 6: More inapproriate English

Date: 01 Sep 1993 16:00:04 -0500More inapproriate English
From: "DICK VEIT, ENGLISH, UNCW, <VEITVXC.OCIS.UNCWIL.EDU>
Subject: More inapproriate English

Some years ago a colleague and I ate at a Western Steer restaurant where a sort of place card on the table announced, "Your Steerette's name is ____________." We had a great deal of fun asking the unsuspecting teenage "steerette" questions such as whether the initiation process to be a steerette was painful, etc. --Dick Veit English, U. of North Carolina at Wilmington

Message 7: Fractured English quickie

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 17:31:30 -Fractured English quickie
From: Paul T Kershaw <kershawpstudent.msu.edu>
Subject: Fractured English quickie

A quick example of fractured English: a friend was telling me of a Ukrainian female friend whose English was far from exemplery. When she was unable or unwilling to do something, she would try to say, "I can't", but screwed up the vowel. The ensuing confession was "I cunt" (a self-deprication especially in light of Ukrainian, which has no present-tense copula). He tried to teach her the right vowel, but gave up and told her to say something else instead. -- I'm still Paul Kershaw, Michigan State U, KershawPstudent.msu.edu

Message 8: Son of Fun

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 14:44:09 PDTSon of Fun
From: Johanna Rubba <rubbabend.UCSD.EDU>
Subject: Son of Fun

Speaking of infelicitous product names, a German friend tells me of a failed (no wonder) attempt to market Irish Mist (a liqueur?) in Germany under the title 'Irischer Mist'. 'Mist' meaning 'dung' in German, it didn't exactly sell well.

Jo Rubba UC San Diego

Message 9: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 10:34 PDT Re: 4.652 More Fun
From: <HSLAPOLLAccvax.sinica.edu.tw>
Subject: Re: 4.652 More Fun

For a Chinese example of interlingual inappropriateness similar to the Egyptian "Taki Furniture" mentioned by Dilworth B. Parkinson, on the highway from the airport to Taipei there is a large tacky Statue of Liberty advertizing (appropriately) "Kaka Art".

Message 10: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 23:15:04 EDRe: 4.653 Son of Fun
From: <AAHNYCUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Seen the piece in "Selling It" (Consumer Reports, August '93)? To wit: "From Japanese manufacturer Yamaha. While perusing the assembly instructions for his new Electric Grand keyboard, a reader found a diagram showing assorted pieces of hardware and labeled with a single Anglo-Saxon (sic) word of instruction. We can't repeat the instruction in this family magazine, but we believe the compa- ny meant 'screw'." The magazine has struck out on etymology, but apparently machine translation has scored another direct hit!

Message 11: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1993 23:19:12 -Re: 4.653 Son of Fun
From: Nancy Frishberg at home <nancyfseiden.com>
Subject: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

This fits the category of "looks like it *could* be English" and cross-references with "sweat":

A couple years ago, we picked up T-shirts in Singapore's Chinatown with the graphic of a flamingo, palm fronds, and a golden ring in which was inscribed the motto Save our Planet Gratic Sweat help you which I take to be two phrases, since the first 3 words fill the upper half of the circle, and the last 4 the lower half (there must be heraldry terminology for the layout, but I don't know it).

...but wait, there's more below the emblem!

Symbol Freedom to save The Planet

THE ATMOSPHERE PRIORITY

Now somebody tell me: is this a rock band? some manufacturer gearing up for the greening of everywhere? or what?

-- Nancy Frishberg (415) 592-8559

Message 12: inappropriate foreignisms

Date: Thu, 02 Sep 93 07:18:54 -0inappropriate foreignisms
From: <bnevinBBN.COM>
Subject: inappropriate foreignisms

The topic is of course not so anglocentric as all that. Most of my gaffes in various languages/cultures probably passed me by entirely, my hosts being too polite to point them out to me. I do recall filling out a form in Modern Greek and entering "anthropos" instead of "aner" for gender, the equivalent of entering "human" instead of "male" in English. I thought it was funny, but the person returning it to me didn't.

Which veers not quite smoothly to the topic of things that appear funny or peculiar to non-native speakers. Even avoiding the merely arbitrary (why do we say "savings and loan company" instead of "savings and loans" or "saving and loan") this could be a rich vein. Immediately there comes to mind Mary Haas' wonderful article on Thai-English cross-linguistic word tabus, reprinted in Dell Hymes' reader.

>From a broader perspective, this is an anecdotal approach to contrastive grammar/semantics and transfer grammar.

Bruce Nevin bnbbn.com

Message 13: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 93 09:14:24 BSTRe: 4.653 Son of Fun
From: Alex Monaghan <amcstr.edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

a rather more recent german gum product, which i bought quantities of in 1983 in bamberg, comes in a tasteful shade of pink and proudly proclaims itself to be "Super Soft Bum!".

presumably this is a contraction of "bubble-gum" which somebody thought was a good idea!

(WARNING: this message may fail to amuse non-british english speakers for lexical reasons!) alex.

Message 14: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 10:51:58 Re: 4.652 More Fun
From: <WDEREUSECCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 4.652 More Fun

And then there are the American perfumes with "French" Jontue and Enjolie. Sounds very French but these forms are totally meaningless and inexistent in French. Who invents such words? (3 lines above I meant "French" names) Willem J. de Reuse

Message 15: Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 11:57:38 Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English
From: "don l. f. nilsen" <ATDFNasuvm.inre.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

Here in Tempe, Arizona we used to have a restaurant named "Frank n' Steins." It served mainly hotdogs and beer. We also used to have a coffeehouse named "Myrtle's Nuts." It alludes to a particular kind of coffee bean.

Don L. F. Nilsen |\/\/\/|| <ATDFNASUACAD.BITNET>, (602) 965-7592 | | Executive Secretary | | International Society for Humor Studies | (o)(o) English Department | _) Arizona State University | ,____| Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 | / |_____\ | Anon \

Message 16: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 12:06:06 Re: 4.653 Son of Fun
From: "don l. f. nilsen" <ATDFNasuvm.inre.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.653 Son of Fun

Isn't there a German liquor named "Liebesfraumilch?" Also, I used to own a Chevrolet Nova car. In Spanish "Nova." means "It doesn't run."

{^_^} Don L. F. Nilsen |\/\/\/|| <ATDFNASUACAD.BITNET>, (602) 965-7592 | | Executive Secretary | | International Society for Humor Studies | (o)(o) English Department | _) Arizona State University | ,____| Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 | / |_____\ | Anon \

Message 17: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 2:08:28 EDT Re: 4.652 More Fun
From: EL ZAIM ADEL <r32500er.uqam.ca>
Subject: Re: 4.652 More Fun

Another menu coinage: X saute'd. with accent (e') and d.

.

Message 18: 4.653 Son of Fun

Date: 04 Sep 93 12:32:45 EDT
From: Paul Peranteau <70461.1236compuserve.com>
Subject: 4.653 Son of Fun

Not much positive comes out of going through a disaster, but one piece of fun is seeing how the media report what you have known firsthand. (Similar to reading histories of linguistics of periods you've gone though).I was in Buxton NC on the Outer Banks when Hurricane Emily hit on 31 August, and so had to endure water and winds all day the 31st and helicopters all day the 1st. At least, I thought, I'll get some enjoyment out of how the Washington Post handles the story. I was not disappointed. There are a host of small inaccuracies (e.g., the local flooded school is a K through 12, not an elementary school). But the nicest error was in the caption on the front page (2 Sep) which said that an auto parts store which had been destroyed also included a grocery and a taco shop. I couldn't remember any "taco" shop, the cuisine of the Outer Banks being limited to fish (fried) or fish (broiled). Then I realized that the story must have been phoned in to a non-fishing type at the Post who had never probably seen a "tackle" shop. --Paul Peranteau