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