Re: OT: Corpses, etc. (was: Re: Gender in conlangs (was: Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)))

--- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote:

> >do I in English say "Systembolaget", "the
> >Systembolag" or even "the Systembolaget"? I've
> >heard all three, and they all sound wrong.
>
> "The Systembolaget" definately sounds wrong to
> me (as a native English
> speaker who also speaks Danish), because I can
> hear both of the definite
> articles loud and clear and don't like the
> redundancy.  It doesn't seem
> right to duplicate the definate marking.
That makes sense. For me who doesn't speak Danish
and doesn't know what a systembolaget is, either
of the versions with "the" attached are OK. The
one without "the" may be OK for Danish, but not
English.

> My
> vote, if you are speaking in
> English is for "the Systembolag," bacause the
> vast majority of English
> speakers are not going to recognize
> "Systembolaget" as having a definite
> article attatched to it.
Unless we hear or see it enough times. Watch out
for the inevitable "Systembolagette", though!

> >"Elves of the Chamant" feels about as sensible
> >as "muslims of the
> >Al-Andalus" - I do hope no-one would say that!
>
> IMHO, the former is about as sensible as the
> latter, since they both
> duplicate a definate article.
But if you don't recognise that as a definite
article, then it doesn't matter. This is what
allows Spanish to say "el Alandalus"; and why
"the Chamant" and "the Camant" are equally OK in
English.

Padraic.


=====
fas peryn omen c' yng ach h-yst yn caleor peryn ndia;
enffoge yn omen ach h-yst yn caleor per la gouitha.
   [T. Pratchett]

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