Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Phoneme winnowing continues

From:Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...>
Date:Saturday, June 7, 2003, 2:17
Joe wrote:

>Biro means a ballpoint pen. Particularly ones made of clear plastic. I >think someone called Biro was the inventor of the ballpoint pen. > >
Seeing as fountain pens are always fountain pens and felt-tip pens are always textas (or texters because they sound the same here) unless you're talking to a NZer when they may be felt-tip pens, one starts running out of things to call pens. The cheaper the pen the more likely it is to be called a biro, but I wouldn't've excluded ones made out of non-clear plastic simply because they're made of non-clear plastic. Indeed, my (~3.50 AUD, which is expensive for a pen) pen would be described as a biro if 'pen' was presently being ambiguous. -- Tristan <kesuari@...>

Replies

Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Sally Caves <scaves@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>