Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: OT: What? the clean-shaven outnumber the bearded? "Yer Ugly Mug," etc.

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Monday, May 19, 2003, 11:39
 --- John Cowan skrzypszy:

> For the five years before Gale and I were married, I called her my partner.
I've never really known what to call Marina. "Mijn vriendin" (the Dutch equivalent of "my girl-friend") is a term I thoroughly dislike, because to my ears it implies a claim - do not come close to this lady, because she is mine mine mine! But what is the alternative? "Partner" sounds sterile, indeed. "Mijn geliefde" (my beloved one) sounds a bit too pathetic. So usually I avoid classifications of that kind at all. Sometimes, depending on the situation, I call here "wife". Not that we are married yet - we know each other more than nine years now, but only now we have to possibility to get married - but sometimes it is just easier to avoid trouble. On the other hand, a friend of mine, who has been married for many years, still calls her husband "my boy-friend". BTW Are boy-friend and girl-friend terms that you can use for every age, or are they supposed to be applied to younger people only - like boy and girl? Jan ===== "Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer

Replies

John Cowan <cowan@...>
Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...>
Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
taliesin the storyteller <taliesin@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>