Tuesday's gone by, and so has the sociolinguistics exam I was cramming for last night. It went well. Yay.
OK, here's something interesting. I read a linguistics paper about a historical controversy in Sweden over the use of "ni" vs. "du," which both mean "you" in English. Kinda similar to the tu/vous thing in French. Anyway, at one point, folks in Sweden were so polarized that they would post signs in hospitals and stores saying, "Here we say 'ni,'" to discourage people from using "du." Apparently, 'du' users would be very offended if someone said 'ni' to them.
Ni! Ni! Ni! Bring us....a shrubbery!
Animal of the Day
The Candiru fish of Brazil. You _don't_ want to go near this thing. It's attracted to urine and will actually swim up your urethra, where it will dock itself with a sharp spike, causing unbearable pain. It can only be removed by surgery, or by inserting a combination of two plants into the affected area.
OK, here's something interesting. I read a linguistics paper about a historical controversy in Sweden over the use of "ni" vs. "du," which both mean "you" in English. Kinda similar to the tu/vous thing in French. Anyway, at one point, folks in Sweden were so polarized that they would post signs in hospitals and stores saying, "Here we say 'ni,'" to discourage people from using "du." Apparently, 'du' users would be very offended if someone said 'ni' to them.
Ni! Ni! Ni! Bring us....a shrubbery!
Animal of the Day
The Candiru fish of Brazil. You _don't_ want to go near this thing. It's attracted to urine and will actually swim up your urethra, where it will dock itself with a sharp spike, causing unbearable pain. It can only be removed by surgery, or by inserting a combination of two plants into the affected area.
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the best thing about that film is what they are doing to the cats throughout the movie in the background...so subtle, so funny.
i took one sociolinguistics course... not for me. It was a Linguistics course about the socioeconomic affects of displaced poeples in urban centers (focusing on language isolation of course)... i think that was the most borring class i took through all my schooling...
you know... I can't remember the last time I had a reason to say it.
I'll go with... zee! Cause it keeps the rhyme going in the alphabet. We're supposed to say zed in Canada.. what's up with that, us backwards people..