Recently in Linguistics Category

If you've spent any length of time in Spain you cannot escape the Moorish influence. While the more obvious traces can be found in Andalucia, with Granada's Alhambra, the influences on both culture and language run a lot deeper.

Jason Webster's book Andalus attempts to explore the legacy of the Moorish conquest of Spain and its legacy hundreds of years later when the relations between East and West are strained once again.

It makes for an interesting read, as the author explores not just Andalucia, but many of the other Spanish regions in search of answers to questions about Spain's past, present and possible future.

I came across this earlier this evening.

I don't use certain types of language in my own writing and have mentioned this more than once in the past, but can a company offering a blog hosting service suspend a site for language use?

Where exactly do you draw the line?

What exactly is "offensive"?

Thoughts on a postcard ....

One of the things that annoys me with marketing is the abuse of language.

In some instances, however, I can understand why they have done it.

If you take a word that is normally associated with a particular type of situation and conditions and juxtapose it "correctly", you can achieve a very subtle goal - value where there is none.

The usage of the word "accreditation" is a good example. You can find a number of definitions of the word, however the meanings will all overlap to some degree:

accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented

So there is always an underlying current of competency which has been proven to some degree.

In the realm of online business a lot of companies lack competency and those that may be competent would have difficulty proving it through objective means.

You can't become "certified" or "accredited" in the same way that an accountant can pass certain exams or a solicitor / barrister / lawyer can.

You might be able to show yourself to be a "good citizen" by the company you keep, so joining some industry groups or getting your name associated with certain things can lend a certain "weight" to your presence.

However, when it comes to "accreditation" the lines really need to be drawn.

You can be an accredited registrar (be that with ICANN, Eurid, Nominet or one of the other registries).

Paying a membership to join RIPE or INEX does not give you accreditation.

Trying to put a spin on your membership is pointless and won't fool anyone.

Somebody on Facebook sent me a message with how to say "I love you" in a fairly impressive selection of languages. I've no idea who it was, but here's what the message was in case you're feeling inventive come Valentine's Day:

Afrikaans - Ek het jou lief
Albanian - Te dua
Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Armenian - Yes kez sirumen
Bambara - M'bi fe
Bangla - Aamee tuma ke bhalo baashi
Belarusian - Ya tabe kahayu
Bisaya - Nahigugma ako kanimo
Bulgarian - Obicham te
Cambodian - Bung Srorlagn Oun (to female)
Oun Srorlagn Bung (to male)
Cantonese/Chinese Ngo oiy ney a
Catalan - T'estimo
Cheyenne - Ne mohotatse
Chichewa - Ndimakukonda
Corsican - Ti tengu caru (to male)
Creol - Mi aime jou
Croatian - Volim te
Czech - Miluji te
Danish - Jeg Elsker Dig
Dutch - Ik hou van jou
English - I love you
Esperanto - Mi amas vin
Estonian - Ma armastan sind
Ethiopian - Ewedishalehu : male/female to female
Ewedihalehu: male/female to male.
Faroese - Eg elski teg
Farsi - Doset daram
Filipino - Mahal kita
Finnish - Mina rakastan sinua
French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore
Gaelic - Ta gra agam ort
Georgian - Mikvarhar
German - Ich liebe dich
Greek - S'agapo
Gujarati - Hu tumney prem karu chu
Hiligaynon - Palangga ko ikaw
Hawaiian - Aloha wau ia oi
Hebrew - Ani ohev otah (to female)
Hebrew - Ani ohev et otha (to male)
Hiligaynon - Guina higugma ko ikaw
Hindi - Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hai
Hmong - Kuv hlub koj
Hopi - Nu' umi unangwa'ta
Hungarian - Szeretlek
Icelandic - Eg elska tig
Ilonggo - Palangga ko ikaw
Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu
Inuit - Negligevapse
Irish - Taim i' ngra leat
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru
Kannada - Naa ninna preetisuve
Kapampangan - Kaluguran daka
Kiswahili - Nakupenda
Konkani - Tu magel moga cho
Korean - Sarang Heyo
Latin - Te amo
Latvian - Es tevi miilu
Lebanese - Bahibak
Lithuanian - Tave myliu
Macedonian Te Sakam
Malay - Saya cintakan mu / Aku cinta padamu
Malayalam - Njan Ninne Premikunnu
Maltese - Inhobbok
Mandarin Chinese - Wo ai ni
Marathi - Me tula prem karto
Mohawk - Kanbhik
Moroccan - Ana moajaba bik
Nahuatl - Ni mits neki
Navaho - Ayor anosh'ni
Nepali - Ma Timilai Maya Garchhu
Norwegian - Jeg Elsker Deg
Pandacan - Syota na kita!!
Pangasinan - Inaru Taka
Papiamento - Mi ta stimabo
Persian - Doo-set daaram
Pig Latin - Iay ovlay ouyay
Polish - Kocham Cie
Portuguese - Eu te amo
Romanian - Te ubesc
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Rwanda - Ndagukunda
Scot Gaelic - Tha gra\dh agam ort
Serbian - Volim te
Setswana - Ke a go rata
Sindhi - Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan
Sioux - Techihhila
Slovak - Lu`bim ta
Slovenian - Ljubim te
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo
Surinam- Mi lobi joe
Swahili - Ninapenda wewe
Swedish - Jag alskar dig
Swiss-German - Ich lieb Di
Tajik Man turo Dust Doram
Tagalog - Mahal kita
Taiwanese - Wa ga ei li
Tahitian - Ua Here Vau Ia Oe
Tamil - Naan unnai kathalikiraen
Telugu - Nenu ninnu premistunnanu
Thai - Chan rak khun (to male)
Thai - Phom rak khun (to female)
Turkish - Seni Seviyorum
Ukrainian - Ya tebe kahayu
Urdu - mai aap say pyaar karta hoo
Vietnamese - Anh ye^u em (to female)
Vietnamese - Em ye^u anh (to male)
Welsh - 'Rwy'n dy garu
Yiddish - Ikh hob dikh
Yoruba - Mo ni fe
Zimbabwe - Ndinokuda

Disclaimer - As I don't speak all the languages I've no way of knowing how accurate the phrases are

I've got a very long todo list this week - keep an eye on the company blog for updates!

I see Stephen McCarron from Hosting365 has finally started a blog. Will he keep it up??

It seems that LetsHost don't like anyone to mention the fact that they use slow servers in the US... Mention it and they cut you off! How charming! If we cut off every single person who said "nasty" things about us we'd be out of business!!

Seemingly you need to be a Postgrad to read this site!

In the last 24 hours I've come across at least 5 new (and redundant) bits of technospeak jargon that do nothing to improve understanding, but everything to confuse people.

Why can't people standardise terminology?

Why do people insist on using terms they don't fully understand and probably get semi-wrong, thus confusing their interlocutor even further?

Absolutely brilliant!


Xkcd is addictive!

I never use expletives when I write.

I can't see the point.

If you can't make your idea / opinion known / clear without having to resort to the use of expletives, then I would have to question your abilities as a writer.

Twenty Major's use of the expletive is interesting, as he does it in a particular manner. The first couple of times I read him I was offended on certain levels, but now I'm not.

However other bloggers make use of expletives when they don't need to.

Mulley, for example, has quite a good rant today about online advertising. Whether I agree with his opinion or not (I don't) I would have considered his piece to be well written except for the use of expletives. It's not as if he can't express himself without using them, so why does he?

Personally it makes no sense to me.

Don't people care about language any more?

One of my pet peeves is misleading advertising. In some cases it's a matter of reading the fine print. In other cases it's simply a matter of the advertiser "chancing their arm". At present this site, and several others I run, are displaying adds from a particular company that claim to offer "the best", "the cheapest" etc., etc. Of course they don't, but it does make you wonder about people's buying decisions. Are they really influenced by a company's own claims? Should companies sell themselves as being the "best" etc?