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Re: NATLANG: Chinese parts of speech (or lack thereof)

From:Adam Walker <carrajena@...>
Date:Sunday, August 15, 2004, 6:08
--- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...> wrote:
> But never mind. As the Chinese mystics probably > never > said (but could have said), "La bave du crapaud > n'atteint pas la blanche colombe." (1) > > (1) Toad's slaver doesn't reach the snow-white dove. >
So that's why we don't understand you. You just can't spit far enough to reach us on our branches. Oh, and "slaver" looks very much like you just had out your translating dictionary. As I told my students in Taiwan over and over -- never trust the things. English speakers (at least ones on this side of the pond) almost never use "slaver". Over here it's slabber, which is the stuff that runs down one's face and drips off one's chin when one is not careful to swallow often enough (or has just had work done at the dentist and is still waiting for the lidocane to wear off). The stuff which is expelled at high velocity and might be used in an attempt to hit a bird in the branches of a tree (but is more likely to end up falling back into one's own eye) is called spit. Adam ===== Idavi avins patorrechi djinerachunis djul Avramu ad ul Davidu ed avins patorrechi djinerachunis djil deporrachuni in al Baviluña ad ul Cristu. Machu 1:17

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Joe <joe@...>
Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>CHAT slavering drivel (was: NATLANG: Chinese parts of speech (or lack thereof))