Author Topic: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them  (Read 12475 times)

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Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #100 on: September 25, 2021, 02:09:24 pm »
What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).

Perhaps Americans just don't understand the concept of a good ribbing.

Not that eti's any less of a ranty snob.
Oh, we do. I’m not even counting those. It truly does shock (and disappoint) me how often it happens in earnest.
 

Offline bsfeechannel

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #101 on: September 25, 2021, 03:25:41 pm »
That's not even close to the top reasons.

The first thing is that written English is not really phonetic. Same letters, same pairs of letters, even same sub-words are pronounced/written differently depending on context.
Then is the bizarre pronunciation of all 'i's and 'y's in obvious loanwords which sound similar in continental languages.
16 tenses, gotta be kidding me.
Lack of singular pronouns besides "I", apparently :P

I've studied a bunch of languages and English is just as "weird" as any other language. The inconsistency of its spelling has historical reasons. There was never a regulating body of writers and academics to establish, but specially to update the spelling of the language as its pronunciation evolved, like you find in other languages.

Take the word night, for instance. It was pronounced the same as the German word nicht, somewhere in the past. But as its pronunciation evolved to [neit], and then [nait], no one cared to update it. The k in know was pronounced in the days of yore, but now that it is silent, people still write it because tradition.

There were attempts at reforming the English orthography most notably by guys like Noah Webster, the one of the Webster's Dictionary, however. But to no avail. Au contraire, his influence resulted in differences between American and British spellings, such as color/colour, center/centre, etc, adding even more confusion to the chaos.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2021, 09:08:59 pm by bsfeechannel »
 
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Offline themadhippy

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #102 on: September 25, 2021, 03:32:01 pm »
Bloody septics claiming to have invented english,just like they claimed to have invented the electric lamp,the computer , friendly fire  and 101 other things that us brits done first.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #103 on: September 25, 2021, 03:53:53 pm »
The Roman alphabet is an efficient code for spelling Latin, and was later applied to other European languages with different codings, sometimes requiring extra diacritical marks.  English inherited inconsistent spellings from words adopted from disparate sources.  Artificial spelling rules, such as the Hepburn Romaji romanization of the Japanese spoken language, can be efficient but radical changes in extant orthography with the same character set are highly unlikely.
 
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Offline Stray Electron

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #104 on: September 25, 2021, 03:58:47 pm »

   might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.

   What's your point?  AFIK, the same applies whether the descendants were American or not; or if the originating country was England or any other country.

   I'm not aware of any country that would allow immigration or citizenship based solely on someone's far removed ancestry.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #105 on: September 25, 2021, 04:00:20 pm »
Bloody septics claiming to have invented english,just like they claimed to have invented the electric lamp,the computer , friendly fire  and 101 other things that us brits done first.
The fact you think Americans claim to have invented all those things doesn’t mean we actually claimed it. (Not to mention that an individual’s false understanding doesn’t mean the entire country has it wrong.)

Not that anyone has ever claimed Americans “invented” English. For starters, it wasn’t invented by anyone, since natural languages evolve… naturally. Even if we use the word “invent” lazily to mean “created by any method, intentional or not”, still nobody would claim Americans invented it. We did, however, continue to use it as our native language.


And “septics”? ”Septic” has to do with infection. You probably meant to to write “sceptics” (“skeptics” in American orthography). But if anyone is denying the reality of how modern English came to be, and what it means to even be the English language, it’s the Brits who attack American English and pretend the UK has a monopoly on the English language.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #106 on: September 25, 2021, 04:00:37 pm »
What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).

That has nothing to do with the English, it's to do with a certain type of American who cannot resist telling everybody in the world, at every opportunity, that everything American is bigger, better, any positive superlative you like, than everything else in the world.You know the type, that cannot resist telling the English, the French, and anyone else that was involved, that "we saved your butts for you in WWII" conveniently forgetting that they were missing for the first half of the match. It's a reaction to that certain type of American. And it has nothing to do with the English, everybody in the world hates that kind of guy/gal and has it in for them. It only sticks out because if it was "that certain type of Bulgarian" nobody would notice.

It sticks out with the English and "English" because (1) the English character traditionally loathes a loudmouth and thinks they "need taking down a peg or two", (2) the language is called English and, rightly or wrongly, that lends a certain proprietorial air, (3) it's an easy target when dealing with the aforementioned type of loudmouth becuase, let's admit it, to that certain type of American syntax and semantics are the names of some villages in France.
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Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #107 on: September 25, 2021, 04:10:40 pm »
And so, we see that “a certain type of American” and “a certain type of Englishman” are both jerks.  The rest of us can get along.
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #108 on: September 25, 2021, 04:14:44 pm »

   might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.

   What's your point?  AFIK, the same applies whether the descendants were American or not; or if the originating country was England or any other country.

   I'm not aware of any country that would allow immigration or citizenship based solely on someone's far removed ancestry.
Depends on how far removed “far” is! Italy, for example, has a quite generous rule that theoretically goes back indefinitely: https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/servizi/stranieri/cittadinanza_0.html
 

Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #109 on: September 25, 2021, 04:26:09 pm »
What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).

That has nothing to do with the English, it's to do with a certain type of American who cannot resist telling everybody in the world, at every opportunity, that everything American is bigger, better, any positive superlative you like, than everything else in the world.You know the type, that cannot resist telling the English, the French, and anyone else that was involved, that "we saved your butts for you in WWII" conveniently forgetting that they were missing for the first half of the match. It's a reaction to that certain type of American. And it has nothing to do with the English, everybody in the world hates that kind of guy/gal and has it in for them. It only sticks out because if it was "that certain type of Bulgarian" nobody would notice.

It sticks out with the English and "English" because (1) the English character traditionally loathes a loudmouth and thinks they "need taking down a peg or two", (2) the language is called English and, rightly or wrongly, that lends a certain proprietorial air, (3) it's an easy target when dealing with the aforementioned type of loudmouth becuase, let's admit it, to that certain type of American syntax and semantics are the names of some villages in France.
Believe me, I know and detest that “certain type of American” as much as you do! (They’re the ones who’ve called me “euro trash” and accuse me of not being a “patriot” because I won’t kowtow to their indiscriminate, uninformed belief in the USA being #1 in all things past, present, and future.)

However, the British ragging on American English sadly has precious little to do with that, as it’s brought up regularly in the total absence of any “certain type of Americans”. Literally just encountering a (perceived) Americanism is can be enough to trigger an outburst.

I find it amusing that the British worry about boorish Americans, when meanwhile, the rest of Europe worries about boorish Brits!

Things would be so much nicer if the British would accept that the US and the UK are peas in a pod, that we are far more alike than we are different. Alas, the deference and admiration most Americans have for the UK is most decidedly not reciprocated.
 

Offline jmh

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #110 on: September 25, 2021, 04:28:44 pm »
'reaching out' was one, albeit very minor reason that I retired earlier than I had intended a few years ago. That, and other phrases came across as poison from marketing and dragged IT in. Well, that and enforced ITILisation, along with all those ITIL words and phrases and ways to abuse perfectly functioning processes. In the end we techies were told that we were not to talk to our users, sorry, customers, contact being via the helpdesk where all staff were presumably well versed in the art of reaching out.

One other rather daft phrase I keep hearing is someone explaining a situation by saying they are 'not lying when they say ...' - what, they usually do lie?
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #111 on: September 25, 2021, 04:53:52 pm »
One other rather daft phrase I keep hearing is someone explaining a situation by saying they are 'not lying when they say ...' - what, they usually do lie?

You're on a hiding to nothing there. That construction is known as iitotes and has probably been around as long as there has been language. The Illiad has litotes in it.
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Offline themadhippy

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #112 on: September 25, 2021, 05:35:56 pm »
Quote
And “septics”? ”Septic” has to do with infection.
Nope.its an ancient form of old english that means american as in septic tank-yank
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #113 on: September 25, 2021, 05:47:55 pm »
That was English before the invention of punctuation?
 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #114 on: September 25, 2021, 05:55:55 pm »
Quote
And “septics”? ”Septic” has to do with infection.
Nope.its an ancient form of old english that means american as in septic tank-yank

Oi! Less of the "Old English" thank you. That's proper pukka modern English, as what's spoke on my manor. In the words of one of the pair of modern poets of East London, Charles Hodges and David Peacock: "Gertcha, cowson".
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Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #115 on: September 25, 2021, 06:35:02 pm »
“Old English” is a technical term for the language before the Norman Conquest.  It was followed by “Middle English” (e.g., Chaucer and Malory), “Early Modern English” (e.g., Shakespeare and the King James Bible translation), and “Modern English”.
I remember a local academic making fun of a suburban high-school teacher who was proud of teaching Shakespeare in “Old English”.  The academic thought that that would require a scholar like J R R Tolkien to do properly.
 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #116 on: September 25, 2021, 07:15:52 pm »
Erm, it's pretty obvious from context that he was referring to a contemporary but traditional from of slang (London rhyming slang) as "Old English" not as a technically correct appellation, but as a form of humour.  :palm:
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Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #117 on: September 27, 2021, 05:18:29 pm »
What's the etymology of Pommy Bastard? Anyone know?
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Offline dave j

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #118 on: September 27, 2021, 07:00:14 pm »
What's the etymology of Pommy Bastard? Anyone know?

Pommy most popularly seems to be related to rhyming immigrant with pomegranate. Bastard is just from the Aussie habit of robust language use - they have a product called Start Ya Bastard for example.

From the OED:
Quote
Pommy (_____), n. (a.) Austral. and N.Z. colloq. Also Pommie and with lower-case initial.
[Origin obscure.]
A. n. A derogatory term for an immigrant from the United Kingdom; an Englishman or Englishwoman, a Briton.
B. attrib. or as adj. Of or pertaining to a Pommy; British, English, spec. (often as a term of affectionate abuse) in Pommy bastard. Cf. Pom2.
The most widely held derivation of this term, for which, however, there is no firm evidence, is that which connects it with pomegranate (see quots. 1923, 1963). A discussion of this and of other theories may be found in W. S. Ramson Australian English (1966) 63.
1915 in B. Gammage Broken Years (1974) 86 We call the Regulars–Indians and Australians–‘British’–but Pommies are nondescript.
1916 in Ibid. 240 They’re only a b— lot of Pommie Jackeroos and just as hopeless.
1916 Anzac Bk. 31 A Pommy can’t go wrong out there if he isn’t too lazy to work.
1920 D. O’Reilly in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 144 The ‘Pommy’ parson made good, as a good man always will.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo vii. 162 Pommy is supposed to be short for pomegranate. Pomegranate, pronounced invariably pommygranate, is a near enough rhyme to immigrant, in a naturally rhyming country. Furthermore, immigrants are known in their first months, before their blood ‘thins down’, by their round and ruddy cheeks. So we are told.
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Offline VK3DRB

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #119 on: September 28, 2021, 12:42:56 pm »
Office speak is full of silly phrases.

Two come to mind:

1. Some years ago, one extremely ambitious egocentric manager at IBM would often say "Show me the metrics!" and "Let's take it offline" etc, etc.

2. A more recent one is "The takeaways from the meeting are..." In Australia, "takeaway" has the same meaning as "to go", eg: you buy a pizza in a shop and take it home to eat. A CFO I know overused this word a lot and once asked "What are today's takeaways?" to all at a meeting. I answered "A dollar's worth of chips, two dim sims and one potato cake.":-DD
 

 

Online xrunner

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #120 on: September 28, 2021, 01:21:23 pm »
Don't forget the unacceptable use of the "S" word now in any technical talk too.
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Offline Ed.Kloonk

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #121 on: September 28, 2021, 08:41:27 pm »
I wonder if hiring someone to 'whip the crew into shape' is off the table.
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Online xrunner

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #122 on: September 28, 2021, 09:47:03 pm »
I wonder if hiring someone to 'whip the crew into shape' is off the table.

Reminds me of the old saying "The beatings will continue until moral improves"  :-DD
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Offline Ed.Kloonk

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #123 on: September 29, 2021, 12:54:08 am »
I wonder if hiring someone to 'whip the crew into shape' is off the table.

Reminds me of the old saying "The beatings will continue until moral improves"  :-DD

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Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #124 on: September 30, 2021, 02:27:36 am »
Don't forget the unacceptable use of the "S" word now in any technical talk too.

In some ridiculously liberal area of muuuurica, I heard they'd banned the term "manhole" as it was sexist, and renamed it "maintenance access cover"

😏🤣
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