words

[cellio]

Overheard in the office: "My tires were slippy and didn't have any gription". I've heard "slippy" where "slippery" was meant before; this seems to be the same linguistic quirk that produces "prolly" when the word is "probably". But "gription" was a new one for me, and quite entertaining. (It would be clever were it intentional.) We all got a good laugh out of it. (The coworker was not serious; the neighbor he was quoting was.)

- - -

Yesterday at a meeting the CEO introduced a new employee, who previously worked in the military as a translator specializing in Hebrew. So the CEO said "can you say something in Hebrew for us?" and the employee said "ken" (yes). I found myself longing for the idiomatic knowledge that would have allowed me to respond with the functional equivalent of "smart-aleck". Oh well. :-)

Comments

heh

[ironangel]

slippy seems to be a western PA thing, since I had never heard it until I moved there from eastern PA. we have our own interesting words...

gription is a new one on me though. :)

the first word my first german teacher (for intro and German I) taught the class was etwas (something), so that 'when auntie sue and uncle bob ask you to say something in German at the holiday parties, you can be a wise-acre.'

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I have a very nice ex-boyfriend who lives in Japan. When pestered by Japanese or English-speakers for a chunk of the other language he usually says "this is something in Japanese/English". Occasionally "your shoe is untied". *giggle*

A.
wishing she were good at languages.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

When I was trying to learn Hebrew the school was at Fort Meade, Maryland. It was a good school and I was a poor student. Hebrew is hard.