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Post by idonotlikepeas on Aug 14, 2009 16:18:07 GMT
Hey, if I had to choose between owning a cow and a laser cow, I know which one /I'd/ pick, and efficiency be damned.
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kefka
Junior Member
Posts: 97
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Post by kefka on Aug 14, 2009 16:41:27 GMT
I do believe that is a construction that Galician hicks use, though I've never heard it used in person (well, I've never spoken with one). The correct form would be "A ver si son lindas", meaning "Let's see if they're pretty".
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Post by Azeltir on Aug 14, 2009 17:29:58 GMT
I'm imagining the Laser Cows speaking in the voices of the Firewalls from Deus Ex's "The Nameless Mod".
Ben
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rageboy
Junior Member
just like real cows! only with lasers.
Posts: 91
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Post by rageboy on Aug 14, 2009 18:51:36 GMT
Isn't having a massive, legged, cow-shaped, laser equipped robot capable of vocalising to trim grass a little inefficient? What's wrong with a discrete little robotic lawnmower... Discrete little robotic lawnmowers don't use lasers, and as we know, everything's cooler with lasers
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Post by xanbcoo on Aug 14, 2009 19:52:05 GMT
I do believe that is a construction that Galician hicks use, though I've never heard it used in person (well, I've never spoken with one). The correct form would be "A ver si son lindas", meaning "Let's see if they're pretty". I'm confused. The wiki link says Galician is a dialect of Portuguese. Why does Paz speak Spanish, then? Edit: I guess that means she's trilingual?
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Post by Casey on Aug 14, 2009 20:18:24 GMT
Well how do you say "But where is the door?" in Galician? Maybe it's the same... I have no clue.
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Post by Per on Aug 14, 2009 21:14:48 GMT
Maybe this thing is similar to the use of Swedish in Finland? A minority of people in Finland speak a dialect of Swedish called Finland Swedish. When people use this dialect in Sweden, listeners sometimes mistakenly believe that they are speaking Swedish with an accent. In reality they're not speaking "bad Swedish", they're speaking native Finland Swedish. So this is just a guess, but maybe Paz, being Galician, speaks both Galician and Spanish, but she speaks the Spanish dialect you might expect in Galicia, not "bad Spanish".
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kefka
Junior Member
Posts: 97
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Post by kefka on Aug 14, 2009 21:16:55 GMT
Galicia is a region of Spain. She's speaking in Spanish, not in Galician.
Some regions of Spain have a regional language in addition to Spanish, so they are all bilingual. Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, for instance.
Her incorrect use of Spanish is kind of a dialectal variation, but that doesn't make it correct.
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Post by sandjosieph on Aug 14, 2009 21:26:51 GMT
It's good to see an old student return. And she seems to have learned a few more words since then.
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Post by Per on Aug 14, 2009 21:27:02 GMT
Galicia is a region of Spain. She's speaking in Spanish, not in Galician. Some regions of Spain have a regional language in addition to Spanish, so they are all bilingual. Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, for instance. Yes, these are all premises that my proposed parallel was resting on. Her incorrect use of Spanish is not a dialect. This however is the thing I couldn't know. Thanks.
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Post by Casey on Aug 14, 2009 21:27:05 GMT
The irony of course is, this is exactly what Tom predicted you all would do when he posted the very tweet that turned us towards Galician in the first place.
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Post by Per on Aug 14, 2009 21:40:48 GMT
The irony of course is, this is exactly what Tom predicted you all would do when he posted the very tweet that turned us towards Galician in the first place. But the thing I'm wondering (well, that I wasn't wondering up until ten minutes ago) is: if her first language is Galician, why is she seen speaking Spanish, and if her first language is Spanish or at any rate she's so comfortable with it that this is what she falls back on whenever she's not addressing someone, why would she make some error? Tom's comment doesn't resolve this, or at least not for me, since I wasn't really thinking the error might be on Tom's part anyway. My parallel would have explained how someone from one region speaking the same language as people from another region can be perceived to make some error when they actually aren't, but this apparently is not applicable. Another possible solution would be something like, "Galician children often speak imperfect Spanish but are encouraged to use it even when they don't have to and in fact do so especially when encountering cows", but that would be pure conjecture on my part. Please solve this, Spanish guy. Her incorrect use of Spanish is kind of a dialectal variation Aha! An edit! A linguist will tell you that dialectal variation is not at all "incorrect", so that may mean my parallel is apt after all.
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MesÃas
Junior Member
Shine on You crazy Diamond!
Posts: 57
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Post by MesÃas on Aug 14, 2009 21:45:43 GMT
I actually felt it very natural. Though I still can't imagine her galician accent. I didnt knew she is galician and her spanish is supposed to be ungodly awful until i read Tom's twitter and then felt bad for nagging about it . Another reason of why I can't imagien her voice is because I've never heard the galician accent before.
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kefka
Junior Member
Posts: 97
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Post by kefka on Aug 14, 2009 21:54:37 GMT
Spanish is the official language, so there's not a "main" language. Regions with two languages are equally proficient in both of them, so yes, they are bilingual.
Galician people don't speak Spanish incorrectly, of course. However, as Tom said, she is a "hick" (which, if I'm not mistaken is what Americans call a redneck), meaning that she lived in a rural area, a small village probably.
So it's like if a typical redneck says something like "Stay where yer at, I’ll come where yer to." There's no denying that's an incorrect use of the language, but when there's a big enough collective who speaks like that, I guess it could be considered a dialectal variation, that's why I made the edit.
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Post by Per on Aug 14, 2009 22:00:35 GMT
There's no denying that's an incorrect use of the language Oh, linguists will deny it. They'll deny it all day long. This is because they're crazy. Unfortunately they are also sort of right and scientific about the whole thing, but we can pretend they aren't.
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kefka
Junior Member
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Post by kefka on Aug 14, 2009 22:19:04 GMT
I don't know about English, but the Spanish language (only the Spanish spoken in Spain, not the Latin American ones) is actually regulated by the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) and they are very strict and they have been criticised to be too conservative and slow to change the language, so according to them, that would be an incorrect (if I remember correctly, they use the term "vulgar") use.
The existence of this institution is sometimes a problem, because the Spanish language keeps being updated every year (with some major changes from time to time, like the removal of two letters from the alphabet in 1994) and most people don't know or care about these changes, including some school teachers (I'm kind of an orthography freak, and in the past I've had to contradict some of my Spanish teachers, who in the end had to admit I was right). Of course, most changes are just the RAE adapting to common mistakes and making them correct (which annoys me for some reason).
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rageboy
Junior Member
just like real cows! only with lasers.
Posts: 91
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Post by rageboy on Aug 14, 2009 22:23:44 GMT
Yes, but English doesn't have an RAE, so we linguists can deny it and be right (and crazy, but for other reasons)
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rageboy
Junior Member
just like real cows! only with lasers.
Posts: 91
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Post by rageboy on Aug 14, 2009 22:32:19 GMT
But the thing I'm wondering (well, that I wasn't wondering up until ten minutes ago) is: if her first language is Galician, <snip> Tom's comment doesn't resolve this, or at least not for me, since I wasn't really thinking the error might be on Tom's part anyway. My parallel would have explained how someone from one region speaking the same language as people from another region can be perceived to make some error when they actually aren't, but this apparently is not applicable. Another possible solution would be something like, "Galician children often speak imperfect Spanish but are encouraged to use it even when they don't have to and in fact do so especially when encountering cows", but that would be pure conjecture on my part. Please solve this, Spanish guy. I'm not Spanish or Galician, but I'm gonna take a stab at this anyhow. Tom said she was a Galician hick, not that she spoke Galician. Maybe she's from that area of Spain but didn't necessarily learn Galician as her first language? After all the area is in Spain and does have Spanish as "a language" according to the "Galician people" wiki entry.
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Post by Casey on Aug 14, 2009 22:38:02 GMT
I think rageboy has a point. If Paz is a Galician ruralite and she is speaking Spanish (for whatever reason) then it stands to reason her Spanish isn't going to be perfect.
BTW out of curiosity, who here besides Xanbcoo actually has credentials in linguistics? Because Xanbcoo has a degree in linguistics and Spanish specifically, so...
P.S. I'm still very amused at how well Tom called it, on exactly this kind of debate about Paz's lines was going to happen. I'm glad I'm only mostly watching the debate and tossing popcorn at the participants.
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kefka
Junior Member
Posts: 97
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Post by kefka on Aug 14, 2009 22:43:20 GMT
I'm not Spanish or Galician, but I'm gonna take a stab at this anyhow. Tom said she was a Galician hick, not that she spoke Galician. Maybe she's from that area of Spain but didn't necessarily learn Galician as her first language? After all the area is in Spain and does have Spanish as "a language" according to the "Galician people" wiki entry. I already answered that, Galician people are bilingual, they don't have a main language, they have TWO main languages. I can think of many reasons why Paz is speaking Spanish and not Galician in this page: - Many readers can understand Spanish, I'm not sure if even one GC reader could understand Galician. -Tom has said in the past that he has Spanish family, so he may be more comfortable with that language than Galician, and less likely to get it wrong. -Even if none of the above were true, she might just prefer Spanish to Galician. The "mistake" is not a mistake caused by lack of proficiency. She just learned to speak like that because everyone else did.
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Post by Casey on Aug 14, 2009 23:12:58 GMT
Tom has said in the past that he has Spanish family Hm, I did not know this! Learned something today. Which does make one wonder why Tom made Paz Galician, instead of just Spanish, which would have been easier. The answer: because "Galician" is cool to say. It's like regular cows... but with lasers.
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rageboy
Junior Member
just like real cows! only with lasers.
Posts: 91
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Post by rageboy on Aug 14, 2009 23:14:32 GMT
Oh, right. Sorry kefka, I didn't realize that was in answer to Per. And thanks for the addendum (not quite the word I'm going for, but the best I can come up with atm). Casey: Does dating someone for four years who majored in linguistics and almost minoring in it myself count as credentials? Also, I think the nitpicking he called is mostly what's going on in the comments rather than what's going on here int he forums. We're not so much correcting her grammar as discussing if it's wrong
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Post by pepoluan on Aug 14, 2009 23:19:15 GMT
Moo! MOO! Whahaha... Laser cows. That surely makes my day That said, someone guessed that the cows would be a variant of the TicToc birds, except in bovine form. Well, whoever you are, you're quite, but not really, almost hit the nail And Bob is so full of win
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Post by Casey on Aug 14, 2009 23:27:43 GMT
rageboy, the "nitpicking" tweet was in response to a comment in the on-page comments, I found it, that's exactly how the comment started out... it was funny.
I was referring to the earlier tweet that said "A new page. Can't wait for all the people correcting the grammar of a Galician hick."
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Post by Jiminiminy on Aug 15, 2009 0:04:18 GMT
Those aren't cows, Paz. Those are mechanical monstrosities, and they have but one priority: to disappoint you.This person was more right about it, consider that's exactly what happened. Anyhow, a few hours before the comic updated, I was reading the comic again, looking at the cows, and I was like 'I bet that those are just some crazy mechanical cows that are there to keep the grass cut.' Probably should have said that before it updated, but it was rather late in the night-times. It seems that out own mowing counterparts are not good enough for the Gunnerverse. Maybe we need Laser Cows in real life.
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Post by coreint on Aug 15, 2009 1:35:05 GMT
Those aren't cows, Paz. Those are mechanical monstrosities, and they have but one priority: to disappoint you. I totally called it. Also: laser shooting cows are awesome, but I question their practicality. Hilarious, though.
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Post by clementine on Aug 15, 2009 3:22:05 GMT
Oh, Paz, someday you won't be deceived by ghost balloons or robot cows . This page has also given me the idea to convince my Spanish teacher into doing different regional accents. Something tells me Galician would be amusing.
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Post by Babble-jargon Bill on Aug 15, 2009 5:12:32 GMT
Those aren't cows, Paz. Those are mechanical monstrosities, and they have but one priority: to disappoint you.This person was more right about it, consider that's exactly what happened. Anyhow, a few hours before the comic updated, I was reading the comic again, looking at the cows, and I was like 'I bet that those are just some crazy mechanical cows that are there to keep the grass cut.' Probably should have said that before it updated, but it was rather late in the night-times. It seems that out own mowing counterparts are not good enough for the Gunnerverse. Maybe we need Laser Cows in real life. Don't you mean cownterparts? Or am I misteaking that word for something its not?
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Post by King Mir on Aug 15, 2009 5:57:50 GMT
I'm not meaning to feed the fires (or cows for that matter), but I feel cow belled to point out that a linguist's job is to catalog language as it is used, not to apply standards on native speech.
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dario
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by dario on Aug 15, 2009 8:08:41 GMT
Hi! I'm from Mexico, I was wondering a few things about Paz, for example: Is Paz her first name of her last name? Is she from Mexico, Argentina of Spain?
"a ver si que son lindas" sounds a little.. weird for a Mexican "let's see if they're so cute" <-affirmative sentence but i might be a little more accepted in Argentina
also depends on what Tom try to say: "hay que ver si son lindas" ----> "they sure are cute" (Argentina) "haber si son lindas" ---------->"Let's see if they're cute" "a ver, si que son lindas"------> "Let's see, they sure are cute"
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