Regret the error includes an item from the Denver Post: Because of an editor’s error, a sentence on page 8D on Tuesday in a story about Rockies prospect Hector Gomez buying a bus was changed from “On the back he put ‘Los Peloteros’ which in Spanish means ‘The Ballplayers'” to “he put ‘Los Plotters’ which…
“Eñe rrepresenta balore ma elebao de tradision ispanika y primero kaeremo mueto ante ke asetar bejasione a simbolo ke a sio korason bibifikante de istoria epañola unibersa,” and so forth, via JPQ, and without apologies to whoever wrote what may be the original.
Account of a murder trial at the Old Bailey on January 17 1676: There were two men drinking, and there arose a dispute between them concerning a Spanish word, one affirmed that it was not properly exprest, the other gave him provoking language for saying so, he reply’d, Sir I know not how to bear…
Account of a murder trial at the Old Bailey on January 17 1676: There were two men drinking, and there arose a dispute between them concerning a Spanish word, one affirmed that it was not properly exprest, the other gave him provoking language for saying so, he reply’d, Sir I know not how to bear…
In German. I know about various definitions of doublet in English, many of which also work in languages, but in German it also seems to be used by book collectors in a way I don’t understand. I’d be particularly interested if it referred to sharp practices analogous to those in the jewellery trade: “A form…
Q: How do you form a Spanish barbarism from an English word beginning with “s”? A: Easy, you add a preliminary “e”, so that, for example, smoking (ie a dinner jacket, a tuxedo) becomes esmoquin. Q: How do you correct a Spanish barbarism beginning with “es”, thus demonstrating to your Spanish public your intimate knowledge…
I know a little bit about the subject but not enough to figure why Blake uses the definite article in the hellish proverb “Expect poison from the standing water.” (Neither can others, which is why “Expect poison from standing water” gits almost as many ghits (currently 400:382 in favour of literal accuracy).
Old man in coffee bar: “All this stuff from Ciutadans about encouraging bilingualism is a load of bollocks. I speak five languages, yeah, honest: Spanish, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Argentinian and Mexican.” (This uses the same basic material as the one about the prostitute advertising her knowledge of modern languages: Cuban, Greek, French etc)
Pleasingly, Bable is used as a synonym for Astur-Leonese, aka Leonese etc. The name was apparently popularised by someone called Xovellanos in the C18th and taken from someone else I’ve never heard of called González Posada. Its origin is (still apparently) unknown but its use is widespread and it appears in the inevitable references to…