Oh. my. goodness.

[pne]

Is what the people who wrote the comments on this article used really English?

*händeüberdemkopfzusammenschlag*

Comments

[volantwish]

That was painful.

[asciident]

As much as slang and bad spelling are part of any language, yep that's English. ;)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

grand innit?

[pne.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd seen some butchered teenspeak, but that really took the cake.

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

My eyes... they bleed.

workin' klas

[remi-jakovlevic.livejournal.com]

This comment sounds quite logical:
but wen they say workin i asnt worked 4 a long time tho cnt b bovad lmao

Re: workin' klas

[pthalo]

"but when they say working [class], I haven't worked for a long time, though. Can't be bothered. Laughing my ass off.



strangely enough, I understood every word on that page. and i've never spent more than a week in great britain, nor have i hung out with english people sufficiently.

Re: workin' klas

[remi-jakovlevic.livejournal.com]

I had understood (urbandictionary.com helped for "bovard" ;) ), i just wanted to draw attention to the content of this comment. "Working class" in the definition is quite strange, some lexicologists seem to live in the 19th century.

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

...................!!

What'd you write up there, I mean, inside the ** ?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Thanks to Babelfish, we know it is "*hand over that head together impact*".

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok, headdesk or facepalm or the like. Cool, thanks.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Kind of like "facepalm", yes, but it's more a gesture of desperation or resignation.

[pne.livejournal.com]

*throws up arms in horror/despair/resignation/whatever* is perhaps closest.

[angelsk.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Nonsense--the German for that would be "*Gesicht Palme*"!

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

lol

[pne.livejournal.com]

That's not a proper Erikativ (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikativ), though! It doesn't even have a verb, for starters.

Erikativ is an interesting German morphological phenomenon, made popular through Erika Fuchs's translation of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse comics.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Wie wär's denn mit "*gesichtinderhandversteck*"?

(Vielen Dank für den Link!)

[pne.livejournal.com]

That would do, yes.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Something totally different:
If I remember correctly, about two years ago you posted a table in an lj-community where you listed examples of languages using a certain grammatical person to mean a different person (like German uses the third person in the plural to refer to second person). Back then you wrote that you couldn't think of an example where the third person singular is used instead of the first person singular, and I gave the example of mothers calling themselves "Mama" or something when talking to their children and you agreed.

Now I notice that the third person instead of the first person is apparently not uncommon in writing. I've read several documents by lawyers in German, where the writer always refers to himself as "der Unterzeichner". Just wanted to let you know that! :P

I wanted to post this comment where it belongs but I wasn't able to find your entry anymore.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Good point.

There's also "Meine Wenigkeit", which is also third person for first person, now that I think of it.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Now that I think of it, Bugs Bunny always calls himself "meinereiner".

And apparently, some people in English use "yours truly" to mean "I".

[pne.livejournal.com]

Now that I think of it, Bugs Bunny always calls himself "meinereiner".

Oh! Right.

It's been ages since I watched him :)

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

True. While it's not universal by any means, and it has some connotations not present on general first person pronouns, yours truly thinks "yours truly" might be what we've been looking for. :) It's relatively common in Australian English, particularly as an emphatic pronoun:

"...and who do you think he was looking for? Yours truly!"

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Ouch. My brain! The hurting!