Dirty book
On the radio, I said that all those unnecessary English words were irritating, but Dutch linguists yet again from the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) were less modest. The proper term for improper use of one language in another is contamination, but this time it’s referred to as language pollution. (Taalvervuilingsaward). “Hard core and critical, but all in good fun”. But not free (hint, hint).
December 1st, 2005 at 4:09 pm
TaalvervuilingsAward, even, with a CamelCapital/VerdwaalKapitaal in it.
December 1st, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Ah yes, capitals.
German has tons of capitals, English and French have some but in different places, the Dutch like acronyms without capitals and Russian follows the French quite closely. Very interesting.
December 1st, 2005 at 9:13 pm
I think brand names in English started the trend of capitals in the middle of words (PowerPoint, for example) and Dutch just copied it because hey, it’s English, therefore it’s cool to do it that way.
What I find frustrating about translating Dutch is the acronyms/abbreviations (yes, many of them lowercase) that are never spelled out! Especially the ones relating to social security legislation, for some reason – it takes some Googling to find out what they really stand for.
December 1st, 2005 at 9:15 pm
Capital!
(That’s how LOL was spelled before the internets came along.)
December 2nd, 2005 at 9:35 am
internets… you can do better than that 🙂
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Interweb? Intarnet?
December 2nd, 2005 at 3:11 pm
Much better 🙂 Go work, it’s still early.
December 2nd, 2005 at 9:44 pm
Intarweb
February 7th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Strangely enough the “Vrije Universiteit” isn’t fee free either. It’s rather disappointing, even to the Dutch…