Shibboleth
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Halvard Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: abracos
Less indeed! When Trujillo was running the Dominican
Republic one's life, if one lived in the western part of
the DR, over near the border with Haiti, could depend
on one's pronunciation of one particular vowel sound.
One sound, you live; another, you die.
Way back in the 60s I met an archaeologist who had been
working on a dig near Puebla, where the only reason he
managed to get locals to do productive work on the dig
was that he spoke little or no Spanish. The locals spoke
Nahuatl.
Hal
"The highest responsibility of the artist
is to hide beauty."
--R. H. Blythe
Halvard Johnson
================
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http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
http://www.hamiltonstone.org
On Mar 13, 2007, at 12:15 PM, Mark Weiss wrote:
> You're (probably unconsciously) reproducing the attitude that makes most
> Latin Americans deeply suspicious of Spaniards. The Spanish also speak
> murtated forms of Spanish. The mother tongue, already infused with lots
> of Arabic, was further infused to varying degrees, depending on where,
> with West African and Amerindian, but essentially evolved in tandem with
> peninsular Spanish. Which is to say, nobody speaks the Castilian (which
> is what most call "official" Spanish, to distinguish it from the other
> Peninsular dialects) of Ferdinand and Isabella.
>
> Very few Latin American writers or speakers worry about adhering to
> Peninsular Spanish, which can be pretty disquieting when one jumps from
> country to country. But USians and Australians don't usually worry too
> much about Oxonian English, either.
>
> This is pretty essential. Wars have been fought over less.
>
> Un abrazo,
>
> Mark
>
>
> At 02:02 PM 3/13/2007, you wrote:
>> I was assuming
>>
>> Abraços ~= Abrazos
>>
>> which maybe a difference between Portuguese and Spanish? A subtle
>> difference I know, still IIRC, most of Brazil speaks a mutated form of
>> Portuguese. The rest of Latin America speaks mutated forms of Spanish.
>> Picky and pedantic, computer programming does that to you (other forms
>> of the disease include intercapping and drppng vwls).
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> On 3/13/07, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> Are we discussing abrazos here?
>>>
>>> Hal
>>>
>>> "I loathe writing. On the other hand I'm a great
>>> believer in money.Often when I couldn't pay the
>>> grocery bill, Providence intervened and I don't
>>> mean my natal city, Providence, which can be
>>> counted on for nothing."
>>> --S. J. Perelman
>>>
>>> Halvard Johnson
>>> ================
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
>>> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
>>> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
>>> http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>>>
>>> On Mar 13, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Roger Day wrote:
>>>
>>> > I've come across sites saying
>>> >
>>> > Abraços Grátis
>>> > (free hugs)
>>> >
>>> > and caught myself thinking, "why pay for hugs?" No, wait ...
>>> >
>>> > are the portuguese and spainish phrases for "hugs" the same?
>>> >
>>> > On 3/13/07, Anny Ballardini <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> >> I think the X stands for the crossing of paths, since the X
>>> >> features two
>>> >> lines crossed in their exact center, a perfect X stands for
>>> two SO's
>>> >> (significant others) as some might like to define a couple, or a
>>> >> couple
>>> >> tout-court.
>>> >> *Abraços - *as Mark Weiss will let you know better than me, is
>>> the
>>> >> Spanish
>>> >> term for Hugs. You will have to add the Cedille or cedilla
>>> >> (Spanish) to the
>>> >> "c" to pronounce it properly, with an "s" sound.
>>> >>
>>> >> On 3/13/07, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> >> >
>>> >> > a longlost friend has just emailed me, signing off:
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Warm abracos
>>> >> >
>>> >> > ?? First time this word has come my way. Is it much used?
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Wikipedia says
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Abracos means hugs and kisses:
>>> >> >
>>> >> > 'Hugs and Kisses is a term for a sequence of the letters X and
>>> >> O, e.g.
>>> >> > XOXO,
>>> >> > typically used to express affection or good friendship at the
>>> >> end of a
>>> >> > written
>>> >> > letter or email.
>>> >> > It is debatable which letter represents which act. Some
>>> >> interpret X as the
>>> >> > crossed arms of a hug and O as the puckered lips of a kiss.
>>> >> However, the
>>> >> > interpretation assumed in the following, in which X represents
>>> >> the four
>>> >> > lips of
>>> >> > a kiss and O the four arms of a hug, is more common. For
>>> example
>>> >> the
>>> >> > Oxford
>>> >> > English Dictionary states that X is "used to represent a kiss,
>>> >> esp. in the
>>> >> > subscription to a letter." [1]
>>> >> > But in more conventional modern language, the X is most often
>>> >> referred to
>>> >> > as a
>>> >> > Hug denoted by the way it resembles the form a hug when
>>> viewing the
>>> >> > hugger. One
>>> >> > also notices the similar resemblance of puckered lips to the O
>>> >> which
>>> >> > denotes a
>>> >> > kiss.
>>> >> > Additionally, there is a more simple interpretation, based
>>> on the
>>> >> > pronunciation
>>> >> > of the letters X (sounds like 'kiss') and O (sounds like
>>> 'hold',
>>> >> as in 'I
>>> >> > hold
>>> >> > you').
>>> >> > The use of XOXO goes back to the use of an X or cross, which
>>> was
>>> >> > considered as
>>> >> > good as a sworn oath in times before most people could write
>>> and
>>> >> therefore
>>> >> > used
>>> >> > the X in the same way a signature is used today — a mark of
>>> >> one's word.
>>> >> > An X at the end of a letter or document was often kissed as a
>>> >> seal of
>>> >> > honesty,
>>> >> > in much the same way one would kiss a Bible or kiss the fingers
>>> >> after
>>> >> > making the
>>> >> > sign of the Christian cross, thus the X came to represent a
>>> kiss
>>> >> in modern
>>> >> > times.
>>> >> > The origins of the O as a hug are not generally known, although
>>> >> it is
>>> >> > speculated
>>> >> > that it may represent the arms wrapped around someone being
>>> hugged.
>>> >> > Another
>>> >> > thought is that it came from Jewish immigrants who would sign
>>> >> with an O
>>> >> > instead
>>> >> > of an X because they did not wish to mark their word with the
>>> >> Christian
>>> >> > cross
>>> >> > the X represented.'
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> >> > This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://
>>> >> www.netspace.net.au
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
>>> > "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious." Oscar Wilde
>>
>>
>> --
>> My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
>> "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious." Oscar Wilde
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