The dumbest Stuff or Herald headlines (& other news media)

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#3124174 6-Sep-2023 14:07

Today's rapper would have a hard time understanding Shakespeare,

To be fair - anyone at all today would have a hard time understanding Shakespeare in his original tongue. In the reverse, I like to think Shakespeare would not have too much trouble understanding a lot of contemporary and American English.

RunningMan

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#3124205 6-Sep-2023 15:26

Dingbatt:I guess a “charge” is what you take an EV to a charger to get? (Rather than a fee, which is the other interpretation).

So at least it would be an election promise (by any party) that is likely to be achieved! And early to boot.

I think that would be an electron promise.

eracode

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#3124308 7-Sep-2023 01:46

elpenguino:

There is no integrity to language. Do you use words like kindergarten, rucksack, pyjamas, khaki, smorgasbord, mana etc? We all use loan words which came into English or other languages, because that's how language works. Even French. I read they've given up insisting on 'ordinateur' and have accepted 'computer'.

Languages are in the hands of their users and subject to wider forces, trends and migrations. Languages are like biological organisms, they spread, evolve and sometimes they die too.

Yes - and for anyone who is interested in the origins and the 4,500-year evolution of English, I can really recommend The History of English podcast by Kevin Stroud. Very detailed and thorough and totally fascinating IMO - it covers @elpenguino ‘s point to the n-th degree.

A key point is that almost all Indo-European languages evolved from the same progenitor language spoken in the period 4,500 to 2,500 BC in the steppes area north of the Caucasus Mountains in modern-day Ukraine and Russia. There’s still several thousand words in modern English that are unchanged from that language.

It takes some dedication to follow it - currently up to about 170 episodes and some of them are quite long. So far he’s got as far as year 1600. Available in all good podcast apps - or directly on Stroud’s website.

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eracode

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#3124310 7-Sep-2023 02:23

gzt:
Today's rapper would have a hard time understanding Shakespeare,

To be fair - anyone at all today would have a hard time understanding Shakespeare in his original tongue. In the reverse, I like to think Shakespeare would not have too much trouble understanding a lot of contemporary and American English.

This specific point re understanding Shakespeare is covered in this Introductory episode of the podcast I referenced above. Seems this is a common misconception and not necessarily correct.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

freitasm

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#3124496 7-Sep-2023 11:00

They have it fixed on the page now but the RSS feed was showing the original "liguidator":

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#3125682 10-Sep-2023 20:57

Not sure if it was a classic Kiwi eggcorn or simply a typo, but I chuckled today when reading an article in the Herald in which someone was referred to as being in a state of “high dungeon”!

They meant “high dudgeon” but it was a good error.

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#3125683 10-Sep-2023 20:59

freitasm:
They have it fixed on the page now but the RSS feed was showing the original "liguidator":

It’s hard to keep some companies afloat….

eracode

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#3125691 10-Sep-2023 21:20

Geektastic:
freitasm:

They have it fixed on the page now but the RSS feed was showing the original "liguidator":

It’s hard to keep some companies afloat….

Not surprised they went under if they put insolvent in their pools.

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#3125698 10-Sep-2023 22:17

Here's a headline that should say "National plans to make no changes to something that's already in place"

insane

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#3125709 11-Sep-2023 00:10

Dratsab:

Here's a headline that should say "National plans to make no changes to something that's already in place"

Yeah I picked up on that too. They are really struggling to be politically neutral, and this one is blatant.

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#3125822 11-Sep-2023 09:31

SirHumphreyAppleby:

Surely, if you're communicating in one language, you should stick to that language? English convention is to italicise unfamiliar foreign words, so not only is it [in my opinion, which I have a right to] offensive to swap words out when there are perfectly good English words for the job, but basic conventions are ignored even when they do so.

Foreign words become English words. NZ English has a few words (e.g. bach) which aren't in British English, including several Maori words (e.g. kai, kia ora, hangi). There is clearly a determined effort to diverge NZ English further from British English, which in general I agree with. I think that having your own language is part of having your own culture. However, the downside is that it becomes more difficult for tourists, who we want to encourage to visit, and it becomes expensive to have books in your own language, and a limited market for our own authors.

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#3125872 11-Sep-2023 09:45

eracode:

They have it fixed on the page now but the RSS feed was showing the original "liguidator":

It’s hard to keep some companies afloat….

Not surprised they went under if they put insolvent in their pools.

Being a liquidator of a pool company would be as easy as turning on a tap.

eracode

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#3125875 11-Sep-2023 10:00

frankv:

eracode:

They have it fixed on the page now but the RSS feed was showing the original "liguidator":

It’s hard to keep some companies afloat….

Not surprised they went under if they put insolvent in their pools.

Being a liquidator of a pool company would be as easy as turning on a tap …

… and make it easier to get to the bottom of things so as to find out whether the directors were draining resources.

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#3125897 11-Sep-2023 10:47

NZD now the strongest currency according to Stuff

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#3125905 11-Sep-2023 11:13

frankv: Foreign words become English words. NZ English has a few words (e.g. bach) which aren't in British English, including several Maori words (e.g. kai, kia ora, hangi). There is clearly a determined effort to diverge NZ English further from British English, which in general I agree with. I think that having your own language is part of having your own culture. However, the downside is that it becomes more difficult for tourists, who we want to encourage to visit, and it becomes expensive to have books in your own language, and a limited market for our own authors.

I have visited countries where people's everyday language(s) are not English at all. Yet most of the time I did not have any trouble communicating in enough English as the populations generally had. It's not a real problem for New Zealand.

As for limited markets for authors I really don't think so. One author I spoke with some time ago told me many of her audience purchased her books specifically for New Zealand flavours and enjoyed those aspects of the books. Authors are very capable of writing international English and avoiding local terms if they want to. I'm sure you will agree on that.

They are also capable of throwing in just one for kiwi cred in the local market ; )

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