Today's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Forums › Off topic › Today's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

1 | ... | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | ... | 266

50 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2923324 6-Jun-2022 19:46

elpenguino:

Our name is Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

‘Waka’ means ‘vessel’ and ‘kotahi’ means ‘one’ so our Māori name conveys the concept of ‘travelling together as one’ and embraces integration, affordability, safety, responsiveness and sustainability.

NZTA is a land Transport Agency

You say "waka" means "vessel". Vessels go on water, that wet stuff. NZTA deals with land, the stuff we stand on.

Transport, carrying things on land so the question is why have an airy-fairy name that means nothing sensible?

What have canoes got to do with carrying things on land?

As for ‘travelling together as one’, travelling with whom? The majority travel one person to a car so again an airy-fairy sort of concept.

Using English names for things means we know what is being talked about, not some fluffy weird concept.

Behodar

10425 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2923325 6-Jun-2022 19:48

RollyShed: NZTA is a land Transport Agency

And it wasn't all that long ago that it was "LTSA"!

RollyShed

50 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2923330 6-Jun-2022 19:59

Behodar:

RollyShed: NZTA is a land Transport Agency

And it wasn't all that long ago that it was "LTSA"!

Back in 2004 and 2008 the government fiddled with things and combined agencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Transport_New_Zealand

At least LTSA was sensible as Land Transport Safety Authority. The words told you what it was about.

No canoes with one person in them

RunningMan

8912 posts

Uber Geek

#2923335 6-Jun-2022 20:11

RollyShed:

You say "waka" means "vessel". Vessels go on water, that wet stuff. NZTA deals with land, the stuff we stand on.

Waka is a common word for any vehicle, not just a water based one. I'd previously linked to the Māori Dictionary, which is good resource for you as you learn - here's another for you to check out as it will no doubt explain it better than I have. Waka

RollyShed:

Using English names for things means we know what is being talked about, not some fluffy weird concept.

That fluffy weird concept is called Māori and it's an official language of New Zealand. Like many things it's only weird because you don't know much about it, but I'm sure as you learn more it'll seem less weird.

Paul1977

5007 posts

Uber Geek

#2923408 7-Jun-2022 09:19

I heard a long time ago that when the IRD adopted the name Te Tari Taake that they intentionally misspelled it, and it should be Te Tari Tāke, but "tāke" looks too much like the English work "take" and they were worried about the connotations. Their explanation that "taake" is simply an "older spelling" seems pretty flimsy.

RollyShed

50 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2923412 7-Jun-2022 09:25

RunningMan:That fluffy weird concept is called Māori and it's an official language of New Zealand. Like many things it's only weird because you don't know much about it, but I'm sure as you learn more it'll seem less weird.

Except it is very limited. I know no one who speaks it. There are no books on the subjects that I'm interested in, in Maori. Computers are in English or computer languages and there is enough work keeping up with them. Aircraft, the language is English. Doing publishing, proofing reading and writing, English. All marine terminology, internationally is English or Inuit. Technology, the main item is English.

So basically I have enough to do to keep up with items in English without trying to figure what might be an equivalent Maori word for something they never had and could never invent.

Linuxluver

5828 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2923418 7-Jun-2022 09:29

RollyShed:

RunningMan:That fluffy weird concept is called Māori and it's an official language of New Zealand. Like many things it's only weird because you don't know much about it, but I'm sure as you learn more it'll seem less weird.

Except it is very limited. I know no one who speaks it. There are no books on the subjects that I'm interested in, in Maori. Computers are in English or computer languages and there is enough work keeping up with them. Aircraft, the language is English. Doing publishing, proofing reading and writing, English. All marine terminology, internationally is English or Inuit. Technology, the main item is English.

So basically I have enough to do to keep up with items in English without trying to figure what might be an equivalent Maori word for something they never had and could never invent.

You need to get out more. Small town NZ - especially on the North Island - has many Maori speakers. They tend to not make a show of it because some people are seriously racist and it leads to some nasty moments.

I live near the East Cape. There is a lot of Maori spoken around here......most of my neighbours.

They will be in Auckland and Wellington, too......but talk to each other and not....well.... you.

_____________________________________________________________________

I've been on Geekzone over 16 years..... Time flies....

Behodar

10425 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2923419 7-Jun-2022 09:30

RollyShed: There are no books on the subjects that I'm interested in, in Maori. Computers are in English

A while ago at work they handed out a booklet with Maori words for various computer terms. I was amused to find Bluetooth translated (presumably with the words for "blue" and "tooth") but it's the name of a person and shouldn't be translated!

RollyShed

50 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2923422 7-Jun-2022 09:37

Behodar:

A while ago at work they handed out a booklet with Maori words for various computer terms. I was amused to find Bluetooth translated (presumably with the words for "blue" and "tooth") but it's the name of a person and shouldn't be translated!

Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson died c. 985/86, was a king of Denmark and Norway.

As for Maori speakers, the South Island is a large place and those from the south of it can't understand those from the north of the North Island so I've been told by one who headed up that way.

Bung

6399 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2923430 7-Jun-2022 09:54

Paul1977:
I heard a long time ago that when the IRD adopted the name Te Tari Taake that they intentionally misspelled it, and it should be Te Tari Tāke, but "tāke" looks too much like the English work "take" and they were worried about the connotations. Their explanation that "taake" is simply an "older spelling" seems pretty flimsy.

Not necessarily older, it's an Iwi preference whether to use a macron or double vowel. I don't think the IRD would worry about connotations.

This is another answer I found "At least one of their old systems couldn't handle non ASCII characters, and so they couldn't send letters from it with macrons or graves. I suspect there might be some reverse folklaw about taake..."

Behodar

10425 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2923433 7-Jun-2022 09:57

Bung: This is another answer I found "At least one of their old systems couldn't handle non ASCII characters, and so they couldn't send letters from it with macrons or graves. I suspect there might be some reverse folklaw about taake..."

That doesn't surprise me at all. We have a relatively modern infrastructure where I work and we've killed off most of our legacy systems... but we can't use macrons in filenames.

RollyShed

50 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2923436 7-Jun-2022 10:00

Bung:Not necessarily older, it's an Iwi preference whether to use a macron or double vowel. I don't think the IRD would worry about connotations.

So how many dialects are we talking about in this low population country?

Another thing, official languages, sign language is official but how many know that language?

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2923440 7-Jun-2022 10:02

RollyShed:
So how many dialects are we talking about in this low population country?

Hey, there's nowt wrong wi' owt what mitherin clutterbucks don't barley grummit!

Handsomedan

7224 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2923441 7-Jun-2022 10:05

neb:
RollyShed:

So how many dialects are we talking about in this low population country?

Hey, there's nowt wrong wi' owt what mitherin clutterbucks don't barley grummit!

By 'eck!

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

Paul1977

5007 posts

Uber Geek

#2923466 7-Jun-2022 11:14

I was watching The Chase the other night, and when asked what the contestant would do with the money if he won he said he'd like to open an "LBGT friendly café".

This is a whiskey tango foxtrot to me because isn't that pretty much just, you know, a café?

1 | ... | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | ... | 266