Re: Rio de Janeiro (was: Re: Hello)

Santiago scripsit:

> Once I read that what they speak is sometimes far distant from what
> people like me, living far away from the States, would normally say.
> I give you an example: they say "vacunar la carpeta" meaning "to vacuum the
> carpet", but this phrase can only cause laughter to a speaker of REAL
> Spanish... because "vacunar" means "to vaccinate" and "carpeta" means
> "looseleaf notebook". So, "vacunar la carpeta" means "to vaccinate the
> looseleaf notebook". Whereas "to vacuum the carpet" is "aspirar la
> alfombra"...
I can't validate this specific example, but certainly non-English languages
as spoken in this country are often full of English words, sometimes
adopted as-is, sometimes modified.  The 4th edition of H.L. Mencken's
_The American Language_ has extensive sections on this sort of thing.
One example that has stuck in my mind is _fitta_, which in American
Swedish means to fit, but in standard Swedish to give birth to pigs!
("Farrow" in rather old-fashioned English.)

--
John Cowan
        jcowan@reutershealth.com
                I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin

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