In the meanwhile

[bsftcs]

As you may have discovered no new chapter of Stackman's Adventures have been posted today. The reason for this is the fact that I have discovered that the maps at Xignal's Site are not sufficient when it comes to the issue of secret rooms, which is a problem since I put a lot of emphasis on this issue. Wyvern has kindly offered to help me post some maps. And until I can refer to those the adventurers rest for a day or so.

Reading through the adventures myself I have come upon some Danicisms and other linguistic mistakes that are almost inevitable when writing in something other than one's mother tongue.

Luckily, however, I have not encountered any mistakes that completely alter the sense of my story. But since I cannot offer you a new chapter tonight I thought I would regale you with a few stories that have caused some laughter.

Both Danish and English - being Indo-European languages - have been enormously affected by Latin and Greek and thus have very many words in common. Furthermore: In the Viking Ages the Norsemen controlled the most of present day England (the time of the Danelaw) while Scotland and Wales were not under Norse rule. In this period a lot of Norse words were integrated into the English language, but the meaning of many of those words later altered differently in England than in Scandinavia. This, along with many other events, has lead to some very amusing occurences.

Some years ago the municipal council of a Danish municipality on the peninsula of Jutland had a brohure made detailing the municipality’s features in order to attract tourists. The Danish word for jogger is “motionist”, and not knowing that the word motionist in English slang means an exhibitionist or “flasher”, the person composing the brohure simply stated that the many wonderful parks of the municipality attracted a lot of motionists. I wonder if that attracted many tourists (or anyway the kind they wanted to attract).

When English-speaking people visit Denmark they are often very amused by the the inscription on the flashing button on the panel next to elevators simply stating “I fart”, which in Danish means “in motion”.

And when a Danish cleaning service a couple of years ago entered the American market the company had to have reprinted all the visiting cards they had issued to their new American employees. It had stated as their title: "Ass", which is the common Danish abbreviation for assistent (assistant).

So getting the wrong impression of a word can really make a world of difference. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[ 07-21-2003, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: bsftcs ]

[whiteknight]

I have met a few ppl on the net from your country bsttcs ....a couple of weeks ago a reg on our channel named moet(nick) was going to a room which spoke danish(i think) but she changed her name to moetje and the person a person from your country laughed ......no body new why . she went the room any way ...and not many ppl came back to her..those who did commented on the nick .....short of it ..it had to do something with being married before she was born?????or having a child before she was born??? not sure but it certainly caused a cafuffle ....it's amazing what the language of others tranlated could mean the different between to date the fathers daughter and making a date to father the daughter .... [img]smile.gif[/img]

whiteknight

[moiraine sedai]

This happens a lot in French -> English/ English -> French translations.

They're called 'Faux Amis', meaning false friends.....

A good example is the verb 'assister', which, in English, you would automatically assume to mean 'to assist'. Instead, it means 'to be present at'.

I love languages.

(Someone correct me if I'm wrong.....WilliowIX??? [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Cheers,

Moiraine Sedai

[ 07-22-2003, 03:13 AM: Message edited by: moiraine sedai ]