Seen as everyone else is enjoying their pedantry tonight, I would like to point out that Bromochlorodifluoromethane is actually BrClF2. Therefore the four hydrogen atoms have all been substituted by halogens and it should look like this (although the bond angles and lengths are still only representations!): ......CL... .......|...... Br - C - F .......|.... .......F....
Hungarian is incredibly tricky. Apparently it is a cross of a Finnish dialect and also has elements of Arabic in it. However, European languages are a doddle compared to Japanese and their two alphabets!
I once knew someone fluent in spoken Chinese (I think it was Mandarin, can't be sure) but couldn't make head nor tail of the alphabet, couldn't read or write it. I've tried and failed to learn languages (though, only at GCSE level) so have full respect for anybody fluent in more than one - the person I know who speaks 6 amazes me! I'd not know where to get started
I know what you mean, although some footballers seem to speak a load of languages, I knew this Chinese guy at Uni and I asked him how a Chinese dictionary worked (as most of their characters have different associations such as fire or feather or what have you) as I could not see a logical progression. Anyway, it turns out that it is divided up into about 15 different character associations but there is also a miscellaneous kind and because all characters are different you may understand the theme of the character but you may not know what it represents. Baffling (or maybe I misunderstood!).
Footballers, I assume, take basic classes - they say Cappello only knew 150 words of English because that was all he needed. Sounds ridiculous though! I suppose it makes more sense if you're brought up having it filtered into you, for example without the dictionary definition of "up" used earlier I doubt any of us realised how many different uses it had! Though there's no way of arguing that system could be simpler than ours - ordered by alphabet, beautiful. I suppose we're very lucky that English is the world's unofficial "second language"!
Apparently written Chinese is so complicated that it can take many decades to learn how to do it, hence the use of scribes. A simplified version is being used to help children, but many disapprove because writing is regarded as an art. Can you imagine their typewriters?
I thought you might appreciate this: The English Plural according to.... George Carlin 1937 -2008 We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth? Then one may be that, and three would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, And the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim! Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; Neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England. We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, What do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speakingEnglish Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? We ship by truck but send cargo by ship... We have noses that run and feet that smell. We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway. And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language In which your house can burn up as it burns down, In which you fill in a form by filling it out, And in which an alarm goes off by going on. And in closing.......... If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.????
Sorry about the Americanisms in this it came from a friend from over the pond as they say: LEXOPHILES: WHOEVER PUT THIS TOGETHER LOVES LANGUAGE: To write with a broken pencil is pointless. When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months. When the smog lifts in Los Angeles , U.C.L.A. The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground. The batteries were given out free of charge. A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail. A will is a dead giveaway. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat miner. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under. A boiled egg is hard to beat. When you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall. Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest. Did you hear about the fellow whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered. He had a photographic memory which was never developed. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
It's an interrobang. Joe said I should have chosen a more interesting punctuation mark than the dash, so I did!
I might type ‽ on special occasions, Dan‽ [as now], but for the most part I think it's going to have to be a simple question mark.
There is a Victorian expression for a mistress, which is Dolly-Mop. Quite illustrative bit of verse that.
Or the asterism (a cross between asterisk and orgasm, apparently)? ⁂ I was also surprised to find there's an ASCII symbol for the swastika... Shan't post it here at risk of offending, but hey, the more you know.
