– One for Omagh, please. – Eh? – One ticket for Omagh. It’s a film that’s showing here. – Ah, you mean Oma[x] [ie, the “j” in jabón]. Are you from England? – Er… – Well that explains it. I did philology and in Ireland they say Oma[x]. – Er, well actually… – What do…
Notes al marge is slomo jumping. Catch him, someone. (I think this is part of a general shakeout in the spheroblog, during which the good will go and wallies will continue to whinge and whine. Me stop? No way.)
Mark Liberman is being nasty to our beloved intellectuals, most of whom we manage to ignore most of the time. His frustration may arise from a misunderstanding of the role of the intellectual in European society, which is something like that of a Catholic bishop in the States. I think somewhere in Campo cerrado Max…
John Chappell’s latest commandment over at Libertad Digital comes in a piece that makes instructive comparisons between US and Spanish regional and national government finance systems. No prizes for guessing who gets rubbished.
Well, kind of, notes Technologies du Langage: you’ve got to call them “blocs” or “bloc-notes”. Jean goes on to note that “bloc” is already used in heaps of other meanings… If one had wanted to create “French” French at all costs, it seems to to me that carnet (“notebook”) would have been a better reflection…