Re: R: Re: Correction, I hope, of M/C URL

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>A thing I hate of English is that he randomly takes foreign words and uses
>them without thinking about their original meaning:
>Italian 'bravo' can be used only for men!!! It wouldn't be a nice thing
>say
>'bravo' to a girl, even worse than 'brava' to a boy (the latter means that
>you are speaking to a gay boy, but to a *boy*; the former could mean only
>one thing: the girl is so rude that she resembles a man!)
>
>For women, we have 'brava':)
>
>Luca Mangiat
Well as has been said before, English has no gender so it would be
meaningless to try and make it manditory you use bravo for men, and brava
for women. Also bravo is an interjection like "congrats!".

Many many languages borrow foreign words without thinking of their
meaning. In Japan my friend said she saw bags with english cusswords on
them.  Tagalog also readily abosorbs foreign words. I think there is
something like 5,000 spanish words abosorbed into the lexicon from the
colonization era. Sometimes they have a different meaning from the
original:

Spanish: barcada - boat load of passengers or cargo
Tagalog: barkada - Gang

Spanish: seguro - sure, certain
Tagalog: siguro - probably

Spanish: esquina - corner
Tagalog: eskina - an alley

Also, some borrowed words from spanish are plural, even in the singular:
mansanas - apple (mga mansanas - apples), sapatos - shoe

A really funny example of this borrowing without realizing the meaning
(and disregarding gender) is in Tagalog, "puta" means whore, yet, puto is
a type of sweet steamed cake. I often get giggles from Spanish speakers
when i tell them i'm eating puto.



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