Universal Translator

[RedFred]

I am all for this Universal Translator. If nothing else, just think of those two free techs.

[Provost Harrison]

Ah, a system that could correct awful Americanisms (I could care less? Harbor?) would be more than welcome

[JohnT]

"Harbor" Because you don't pronounce the "U".

Not that we could care less what you think.

[Dauphin]

Some of us don't pronounce the h eiver.

[JohnT]

Well, that's just ****ed up.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Illur
But Adagio i would love to have you as sister-in-law

[Pyrodrew]

Harbour? Is that like Errour and Arboureal?

I'm just glad no one will call the translator a computer programme.

[Dauphin]

The u's and various other superfluous spellings (in terms of phonetics) are there to remind the French that it took the English to make their vocabulary international and the Americans to truly mangle it.

[JohnT]

I can get behind that. (he mangles)

[DanS]

I'm surprised at the number of people whose native tongue is not English, but who would prefer to post in English.

Does anybody have a sense of whether this is a general phenomenon or a specific phenomenon of Polytubbies choosing Poly in part specifically because it is in English?

[JohnT]

I wouldn't be surprised if English is easier than the home-tongue. Mess up your syntax in English and you've got a reputation for being creative. Mess up your syntax in Spanish and you've got a hundred-year blood feud. Mess it up in some other tongues and you have unintelligible gibberish.

[Dauphin]

And then you have ottok.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by DanS
I'm surprised at the number of people whose native tongue is not English, but who would prefer to post in English.

Does anybody have a sense of whether this is a general phenomenon or a specific phenomenon of Polytubbies choosing Poly in part specifically because it is in English?

Believe it or not, I feel posting on Apolyton has improved my English. I don't know any native English speakers here so discussing things online is the only practice I get. It has helped my vocabulary and my general understanding of the language a lot. That's why I would prefer to post in English even if other possibilites were available.

[Dauphin]

Your accent pro'lly suxors if ain't able to talk the language.

[Last Conformist]

I'm sorta with VetLegion - 'Poly has certainly improved my knowledge of English insults, slang, and jargon.

(Let's not talk about my accent - an American resident of East Berlin identified it as Russian. )

At CFC, my (written) English was characterized as "like a native, only more scholarly". I don't know if that's supposed to be a good thing.

Anyway, in the highly hypothetical case of a such universal translator, I'd probably post in Swedish.