Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 18:52, Tom wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 07:42:03PM -0700, Wesley J Landaker wrote: (I have a theory, but I don't want to influence what you say). But, now I'm curious... what is your theory? Funny timing, I just said it in my previous email a couple of minutes ago. My (rather facile) theory is that it's freudian. My guess: Round things seem feminine, angular things seem masculine. Things that jut out (gas nozzle) seem masculine; things that recede (gas tank) seem feminine (okay, that's TOO facile). Things that receive actions seem feminine (button); things that cause action (lever) seem masculine. I'm just guessing :-) I don't know about french but in other languiages that have gender it seems pretty random (unless the subject has explicit gender), often you can use words of different genders to name same entity, there is no feminine or masculine feel to the gender of things (see exception above). erik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 04:55, Bijan Soleymani a déclamé : On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:01:38PM -0600, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? Also masculine I believe. Yep. I think Debian is feminine though. Un Unix proprietaire. Une Debian Sid. La Debian, la distribution la plus libre. Right. I've always said une Debian (feminine), like une Redhat, une Suse, une Mandrake, because it is supposed to be a distribution (feminine). I think people might pronounce Debian as though it was written as Debiane though. ...as written as Déb-iane to be correct (with the last e not pronounced, like most French words) ; this pronunciation comes from English and does not match fully with regular French rules. -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- Linux and BSD have combined to form LSD. That will bring totally new meaning to downloading patches. -- EvilTwinSkippy, Slashdot, 07/06/03 3:03 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 05:17, Bijan Soleymani a déclamé : What is the gender of geek? The same as the person who is called a geek. (Pronunciation : djik , from English ) Il est un geek. C'est un geek. Sa femme est une geeke. Sa femme est une geek. (no feminine form, this is not an adjective; and don't forget we have difficulties making feminine forms of many words ;-) Leurs enfants, Lise, Claire et Paul, sont des geeks. Right. A family of geeks :) Oh God... -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, 2003-11-02 at 04:09, Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 05:17, Bijan Soleymani a déclamé : What is the gender of geek? The same as the person who is called a geek. (Pronunciation : djik , from English ) Jeek? Not a hard G, like the word Gaul? Il est un geek. C'est un geek. Sa femme est une geeke. Sa femme est une geek. (no feminine form, this is not an adjective; and don't forget we have difficulties making feminine forms of many words ;-) Leurs enfants, Lise, Claire et Paul, sont des geeks. Right. A family of geeks :) Oh God... Mon dieu! -- - Ron Johnson, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jefferson, LA USA Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 03:42, Wesley J Landaker a déclamé : Then again, as I said, I'm not a native French speaker, and although I've got *fairly* good inuition into a word's gender, I still make mistakes! ;) Don't worry, even French people don't always know all genders :-) -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- If speed scares you, try Microsoft Windows. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 11:29, Ron Johnson a déclamé : The same as the person who is called a geek. (Pronunciation : djik , from English ) Jeek? Not a hard G, like the word Gaul? Yes, more like an English would say 'jeek'. Probably because g+e in French is pronounced the same as j+e. Mix of English and French rules ? -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- Unix is not a A-ha experience, it is more of a holy-shit experience. - Colin McFadyen in alt.folklore.computers -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 03:42, Wesley J Landaker a déclamé : Then again, as I said, I'm not a native French speaker, and although I've got *fairly* good inuition into a word's gender, I still make mistakes! ;) Don't worry, even French people don't always know all genders :-) True, but having lived in Mexico for the last 10 years and speaking Spanish, I note with regret that genders are built-in and if you come from a more or less genderless background (the Netherlands, US) then you never get it: it just refuses to become automatic. Hugo. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 09:56:30AM -0600, Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote: Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 03:42, Wesley J Landaker a déclamé : Then again, as I said, I'm not a native French speaker, and although I've got *fairly* good inuition into a word's gender, I still make mistakes! ;) Don't worry, even French people don't always know all genders :-) True, but having lived in Mexico for the last 10 years and speaking Spanish, I note with regret that genders are built-in and if you come from a more or less genderless background (the Netherlands, US) then you never get it: it just refuses to become automatic. With all due respect, it isn't the most impressive cultural attribute I've ever encountered. It shows some cultural linkage with Americans -- we do lots of (dumb) stuff just because too :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 16:56, Hugo Vanwoerkom a déclamé : Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 03:42, Wesley J Landaker a déclamé : a native French speaker, and although I've got *fairly* good inuition into a word's gender, I still make mistakes! ;) Don't worry, even French people don't always know all genders :-) True, but having lived in Mexico for the last 10 years and speaking Spanish, I note with regret that genders are built-in and if you come from a more or less genderless background (the Netherlands, US) then you never get it: it just refuses to become automatic. As there is almost no logic, this normal. And it changes from language to language: when speaking German I always wonder which gender to use for half of words - and they have three genders... :-( When learning Latin, I had to learn many of them too - as French comes from it, you could expect some coherence - but no! -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- A black hole is when the gods divide by zero And a galaxy is a core dump when a segmentation fault occurs. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 07:20, Bijan Soleymani a déclamé : Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. It seems that people speaking only English can't pronounce the 'u' the way we use it - does not seem to exist in English. This is the same as the 'ü' in German if it can help someone (we're the only language to pronounce 'u' that way...) -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- I disagree _strongly_ that pointers are a misfeature of C. They are a very useful tool. However, misuse of pointers is a misfeature of some programmers. -- Anthony DeReobertis, Debian-user list, 12th March 2002 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 07:26:52PM +0100, Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 07:20, Bijan Soleymani a déclamé : Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. It seems that people speaking only English can't pronounce the 'u' the way we use it - does not seem to exist in English. This is the same as the 'ü' in German if it can help someone (we're the only language to pronounce 'u' that way...) I've always found it odd that Americans pronounce the second syllable of Linux and Unix identically, as if it were spelled Linix. I used to try to pronounce it Lee-nooks b/c I heard the .au file way back in 1993, and I enjoyed knocking smart people down a peg by correcting them, but when I heard it pronounced as Linix on Revolution OS on Bravo one night, I gave up. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 07:26:52PM +0100, Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Dimanche 2 Novembre 2003 07:20, Bijan Soleymani a d?clam? : Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. It seems that people speaking only English can't pronounce the 'u' the way we use it - does not seem to exist in English. This is the same as the '?' in German if it can help someone (we're the only language to pronounce 'u' that way...) Well I did say kind of like :) You're right though, none of the other languages I am familiar with has that same u sound (English, Farsi (well we don't have the letter u, because we use Arabic script...), Spanish), I don't remember much latin but I don't think they had it either (I think u was pronounced like oo). But I do think that Swedish might have a similar sound for u. I have a friend who speaks some Swedish and he confirms it :) Wait I just found this on a website about latin: short y a rare vowel in Latin; combines English long oo and ih, as in French u or German ü tu (Fr.); über (Ger.) long y likewise rare; still combining English long oo and ih, for a longer time tu (Fr.); über (Ger.), with emphasis Well I guess they had the sound but not for 'u'. This is cool because I believe the Finnish also pronounce y the same way, which is weird, because Finnish isn't really related to latin... Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
* Christophe Courtois ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: As there is almost no logic, this normal. And it changes from language to language: when speaking German I always wonder which gender to use for half of words - and they have three genders... :-( When learning Latin, I had to learn many of them too - as French comes from it, you could expect some coherence - but no! Like any issue in language, it has its own logic, though to look at it that way is probably a mistake. Languages change, and they borrow from other languages. In Latin and Greek (I use these because of nodding familiarity), it supposedly makes life easier to gather together words that seem to be similar in construction. They have similar endings, put there by people who needed to make some distinctions between, say, having the farmer (agricola) do something to the cow (vaccam), instead of the opposite (agricolam, vacca). These are from the same declension, which is feminine, except for a few words like agricola. When you bring people together who speak different languages, there will be borrowing until the point of fusion (one supposes, though the only near-modern example of which I am aware is medieval English). Some things don't fit, and maybe a new classification is created, or some other kind of fiddle is done to try to attain regularity. The main point is, I think, that regularity is a fiction, but we keep trying to attain it because it makes communicating easier. Gender in language has nothing to do with men and women. It's a convenient fiction employed to determine whether to say la or le, and it is imperfect. We decide where to put things by consensus (l'Academie Francaise notwithstanding), though the creator of a term probably has an advantage. Don't let it get you down, Cam -- Cam Ellison Ph.D. R.Psych. From Roberts Creek on B.C.'s incomparable Sunshine Coast cam(at)ellisonet(dot)ca camellison(at)dccnet(dot)com cam(at)fleuryassociates(dot)com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 01:05:54PM -0800, Cam Ellison wrote: The main point is, I think, that regularity is a fiction, but we keep trying to attain it because it makes communicating easier. Gender in language has nothing to do with men and women. It's a convenient fiction employed to determine whether to say la or le, and it is imperfect. We decide where to put things by consensus (l'Academie Francaise notwithstanding), though the creator of a term probably has an advantage. Don't let it get you down, Cam Fancy way of saying it's dumb but we do it anyway :-) We all intellectualize the impefect -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 01:20:21AM -0500, Bijan Soleymani wrote: On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 03:26:35AM +, Pigeon wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 08:13:02PM -0500, David P James wrote: On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. In both cases it's a bit different, but that's as close as I can think of. ...so basically like in English, but with standard French vowel sounds. OK, thanks! I think it's pretty close to how Torvalds pronounces it. Well close enough considering it's a whole 'nother language. There's an audio file out there somewhere of Linus saying Linux... must get it sometime! -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x21C61F7F pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 07:37:59PM +, Pigeon wrote: On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 01:20:21AM -0500, Bijan Soleymani wrote: On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 03:26:35AM +, Pigeon wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 08:13:02PM -0500, David P James wrote: On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. In both cases it's a bit different, but that's as close as I can think of. ...so basically like in English, but with standard French vowel sounds. OK, thanks! I think it's pretty close to how Torvalds pronounces it. Well close enough considering it's a whole 'nother language. There's an audio file out there somewhere of Linus saying Linux... must get it sometime! Here it is, both in english and swedish: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/SillySounds/ Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
[ot] Linux gender in French
Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? Thanks Rus -- w: http://www.jvds.com | Dedicated FreeBSD,Debian and RedHat Servers e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]| Donations made to Debian, FreeBSD t: +44 7919 373537 | and Slackware t: 1-888-327-6330 | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 01 November 2003 7:12 am, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? (Disclaimer: I'm not a native Francophone; but this is the experience I've had with colloquial usage of Linux in French. Somebody else can perhaps enlighten us to what is correct, if there is such a thing. ;) Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more like a masculine noun. However, it's much more commonly used as an adjective or a kind of collective, so you'll more often see stuff like la distribution Linux, le truc de Linux, or la Linux Expo, where the gener of the subject follows the non-Linux noun (la distribution, le truc, la Expo, etc) than you'll see references to le/la Linux by itself. - -- Wesley J. Landaker - [EMAIL PROTECTED] OpenPGP FP: 4135 2A3B 4726 ACC5 9094 0097 F0A9 8A4C 4CD6 E3D2 -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/o+Pc8KmKTEzW49IRApZsAJ0Ya8PCg7e1v501+eq3rVibqR3UKACdEvjo fAudF6+Gs19qRJNqT9+Rjmg= =UJf6 -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:48:25AM -0700, Wesley J Landaker wrote: Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more like a masculine noun. Do some free-association and tell me what makes a word feel' masculine or feminine. (I have a theory, but I don't want to influence what you say). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 02:12:31PM +, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I think it's masculine as in le linux. Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Samedi 1 Novembre 2003 15:12, Rus Foster a déclamé : Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? Masculine (ex: Un Linux est plus stable qu'un Windows). Don't ask me why. -- Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
Le Samedi 1 Novembre 2003 17:48, Wesley J Landaker a déclamé :
Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less
often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is
officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more
like a masculine noun.
(I'm French) I've never heard La Linux. It is masculine as are
'ordinateur' (computer) and 'système d'exploitation' (OS).
If someone says la Linux, I would think for example of a car
('voiture', feminine) whose brand is Linux, or the soap for
washing-machine (la lessive) called Linux (I've heard there is one).
--
Christophe Courtois - Ostwald, Alsace, France
http://www.courtois.cc/ - Clé PGP : 0F33E837
--
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Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 06:08:46PM +0100, Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Samedi 1 Novembre 2003 17:48, Wesley J Landaker a d?clam? : Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more like a masculine noun. (I'm French) I've never heard La Linux. It is masculine as are 'ordinateur' (computer) and 'syst?me d'exploitation' (OS). Aargh! So someone taught Microsoft French? :-) -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x21C61F7F pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Second, it has a consonant ending and such words are typically masculine (there are many exceptions, but there's more like it than not). -- David P James Ottawa, Ontario http://members.rogers.com/dpjames/ There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. -Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 08:13:02PM -0500, David P James wrote: On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Second, it has a consonant ending and such words are typically masculine (there are many exceptions, but there's more like it than not). I don't have a high degree of confidence in this statement, but I would guess things that cause action seem masculine, and words that receive action seem feminine. You know, the whole Freudian nine yards. Things that jut out vs. things that recede, angular vs. spherical, c. :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 01 November 2003 9:54 am, Tom wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:48:25AM -0700, Wesley J Landaker wrote: Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more like a masculine noun. Do some free-association and tell me what makes a word feel' masculine or feminine. (I have a theory, but I don't want to influence what you say). Now that you ask, the first thing that jumps into my head is that Linux is named after Linus Torvalds. =) But that's not why I said it feels like a masculine noun. It's more like the way it sounds. Le Linux sounds right, la Linux sounds... odd. Then again, as I said, I'm not a native French speaker, and although I've got *fairly* good inuition into a word's gender, I still make mistakes! ;) Anyway, sounds like a couple native speakers have already responded as well, and it sounds like the word really is masculine. But, now I'm curious... what is your theory? - -- Wesley J. Landaker - [EMAIL PROTECTED] OpenPGP FP: 4135 2A3B 4726 ACC5 9094 0097 F0A9 8A4C 4CD6 E3D2 -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/pG7+8KmKTEzW49IRAuSkAJwM5Eq8ykiOwmF5SibsCRyQ6+Z8CwCeKDmj L68cn31oBjR2/hZcqfL+5+o= =EY75 -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On November 01, 2003 20:28, Tom wrote: I don't have a high degree of confidence in this statement, but I would guess things that cause action seem masculine, and words that receive action seem feminine. You know, the whole Freudian nine yards. Things that jut out vs. things that recede, angular vs. spherical, c. :-) Interesting theory... but I think not. 'Épée' (sword) for example is feminine, as is 'plume' (quill [feather/pen]), both of which have your masculin Freudian connotations. -- David P James Ottawa, Ontario http://members.rogers.com/dpjames/ There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. -Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 07:42:03PM -0700, Wesley J Landaker wrote: (I have a theory, but I don't want to influence what you say). But, now I'm curious... what is your theory? Funny timing, I just said it in my previous email a couple of minutes ago. My (rather facile) theory is that it's freudian. My guess: Round things seem feminine, angular things seem masculine. Things that jut out (gas nozzle) seem masculine; things that recede (gas tank) seem feminine (okay, that's TOO facile). Things that receive actions seem feminine (button); things that cause action (lever) seem masculine. I'm just guessing :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
What is the gender of Unix? -- John Hasler [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Hasler) Dancing Horse Hill Elmwood, WI -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003, at 14:12 +, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? Masculine, of course. Men developed Linux, men primarily use Linux, playing around with powerful operating systems built on top of Linux is a man's thing, et cetera. /me REALLY ducks after that comment ;P -- scott c. linnenbringer[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.panix.com/~sl [EMAIL PROTECTED] pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003, at 21:01 -0600, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? L'unix sounds pretty cool. Would that make it feminine? -- scott c. linnenbringer[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.panix.com/~sl [EMAIL PROTECTED] pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 21:01, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? What is the gender of geek? -- - Ron Johnson, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jefferson, LA USA After seeing all the viruses, trojan horses, worms and Reply mails from stupidly-configured anti-virus software that's been hurled upon the internet for the last 3 years, and the time/money that is spent protecting against said viruses, trojan horses worms, I can only conclude that Microsoft is dangerous to the internet and American commerce, and it's software should be banned. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:01:38PM -0600, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? Also masculine I believe. I think Debian is feminine though. Un Unix proprietaire. Une Debian Sid. La Debian, la distribution la plus libre. I think people might pronounce Debian as though it was written as Debiane though. Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:50:08PM -0600, Scott C. Linnenbringer wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003, at 21:01 -0600, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? L'unix sounds pretty cool. Would that make it feminine? l' can be either masculine or feminine. You see in french you can't have two vowels in a row, so they drop the e or a from le and la, and replace it with an appostrophy. On the other hand you don't have that with un or une and it's Un Unix. So it's masculine. Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:53:48PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 21:01, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? What is the gender of geek? I don't know what it is off the top of my head. It's always a tough call with foreign words. But I think the tendency nowadays is to have it be masculine if it refers to a guy and feminine if it refers to a woman. But if the word is plural and there's at least one masuline individual then the word is masuline. Il est un geek. Sa femme est une geeke. Leurs enfants, Lise, Claire et Paul, sont des geeks. A family of geeks :) Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:47:30PM -0600, Scott C. Linnenbringer wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003, at 14:12 +, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? Masculine, of course. Men developed Linux, men primarily use Linux, playing around with powerful operating systems built on top of Linux is a man's thing, et cetera. /me REALLY ducks after that comment ;P Debian is feminine so there you have. We're all a bunch of little girls :) Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 22:17, Bijan Soleymani wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:53:48PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 21:01, John Hasler wrote: What is the gender of Unix? What is the gender of geek? I don't know what it is off the top of my head. It's always a tough call with foreign words. But I think the tendency nowadays is to have it be masculine if it refers to a guy and feminine if it refers to a woman. But if the word is plural and there's at least one masuline individual then the word is masuline. Il est un geek. Sa femme est une geeke. Leurs enfants, Lise, Claire et Paul, sont des geeks. A family of geeks :) Hmm, I guess I'm not very good at sarcasm tonight -- - Ron Johnson, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jefferson, LA USA Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. Brian W. Kernighan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 19:24:13 +, Pigeon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 06:08:46PM +0100, Christophe Courtois wrote: Le Samedi 1 Novembre 2003 17:48, Wesley J Landaker a d?clam? : Le Linux is typically used as masculine, but I've seen it, less often, used as feminine, la Linux. I'm not aware that it is officially anything, but to me as a French-speaker, it feels more like a masculine noun. (I'm French) I've never heard La Linux. It is masculine as are 'ordinateur' (computer) and 'systéme d'exploitation' (OS). Aargh! So someone taught Microsoft French? :-) .._the_ clue wack. Merci beaucoup, Christophe! ;-) -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
on Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 09:01:38PM -0600, John Hasler ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: What is the gender of Unix? Or eunuchs? Is neuter a masculine or feminine in French? Peace. -- Karsten M. Self [EMAIL PROTECTED]http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What Part of Gestalt don't you understand? Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! - Princess Bride signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 08:13:02PM -0500, David P James wrote: On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x21C61F7F pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [ot] Linux gender in French
On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 03:26:35AM +, Pigeon wrote: On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 08:13:02PM -0500, David P James wrote: On November 01, 2003 09:12, Rus Foster wrote: Hi All, Just trying to work out in French is Linux masculine or feminine? I'd say it's masculine for a couple of reasons. First, it just sounds better as le Linux compared to la Linux. Hmmm... what exactly does the word Linux sound like in French? The Li is kind of like Lee, the nux is kind of like nooks. In both cases it's a bit different, but that's as close as I can think of. I think it's pretty close to how Torvalds pronounces it. Well close enough considering it's a whole 'nother language. Bijan -- Bijan Soleymani [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crasseux.com signature.asc Description: Digital signature
