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Thread: Not many people know that ..........

  1. #1
    Vice Admiral Virtuoso Dorsetmike's Avatar
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    Not many people know that ..........

    The English word window is a corruption over the years of "wind hole"

    Add your pearls of useless wisdom here.

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    Commodore con Forza Soubasse's Avatar
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    The title of this thread wouldn't happen to be a doffing of the cap to one P. Sellers and his impersonation of one M. Caine now would it?

    In which case, my trivial contribution for the moment would be that it was not Michael Caine who first used the phrase "There's not many people know that" but actually Peter Sellers impersonating Michael Caine. The phrase was later used by Caine as an in-joke in the film Educating Rita.
    Music is made to transform the states of the soul, for an hour or an instant (J. Alain)

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    Duckmeister teddy's Avatar
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    To follow Mikes original post the French and Welsh words for window are almost identical.

    teddy

  4. #4
    Vice Admiral Virtuoso Dorsetmike's Avatar
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    @ Soubasse, well yes, my tongue was somewhere near my cheek when posting, as is often the case.

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    Commodore con Forza Soubasse's Avatar
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    Best way to be, Mike!

    Teddy, I noted with interest when in Wales, that the Welsh and French words for "church" also have a striking similarity.
    Eglise and Eglwys (I'm sure I don't need to point out which of those two words is the Welsh one, the absence of vowels should be a big enough clue )
    Music is made to transform the states of the soul, for an hour or an instant (J. Alain)

  6. #6
    Duckmeister teddy's Avatar
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    An interesting language Welsh is it not Soulbase. Welsh lessons were compulsory when I was at school, but I can barely remember enough to say hello or be rude. Bye the way the Welsh are masters of the veiled insult. Luckily I still can pronoince the names and awkward words, which so infuriate my American cousins.
    teddy

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    Duckmeister teddy's Avatar
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    There are no poisous snakes in Jamaica

    Most of them belong to the epicrates family

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    Vice Admiral Virtuoso Dorsetmike's Avatar
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    There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.

  9. #9
    Duckmeister teddy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dorsetmike View Post
    There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.


    teddy

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    Commander, Assistant Conductor Lusaka_Guitarist's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soubasse View Post
    Best way to be, Mike!

    Teddy, I noted with interest when in Wales, that the Welsh and French words for "church" also have a striking similarity.
    Eglise and Eglwys (I'm sure I don't need to point out which of those two words is the Welsh one, the absence of vowels should be a big enough clue )
    No Vowels? I would like to hear the pronounciation of the word.

  11. #11
    Vice Admiral Virtuoso Dorsetmike's Avatar
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    The written Welsh language murders the alphabet as we know it, see this Wiki entry, it will either make you laugh or weep (or maybe laugh until you weep)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language#Vocabulary

    hides from Teddy

  12. #12
    Admiral of Fugues Contratrombone64's Avatar
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    The author of this thread needs to lookup ellipsis as strings of dots are ugly, methinks.

    And no, had no idea of window's origin, but it makes sense I guess.

    And as to the Welsh use of the alphabet and your arrogant observation, I think they might still be burning houses owned by the English, yes? Good for them.
    I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
    —Albert Einstein.

  13. #13
    Vice Admiral Virtuoso Dorsetmike's Avatar
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    It's not a string of dots, it's a string of 3 elipsi

    Sorry Dafydd, didn't know you were Welsh

  14. #14
    Admiral of Fugues Contratrombone64's Avatar
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    I'm not Welsh, I just happen to know the fondness the Welsh hold for the English ...

  15. #15
    Duckmeister teddy's Avatar
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    Being Enlish Welsh, Italian and French can you imagine the problems I have when the international rugby is on. There is no doubt that the Welsh language is very different from anything else spoken throughout Europe in its pronunciation. It helps to have a bad cold. lusaka I would like to help you out on the pronunciation of Eglwys but the phonetic interpretation would be just as bad. Mike, you can hide but you can't run. (Much more appropriate for our age group). The amninosity between the Welsh and English is very similar to that from the Scots and the French. Considering how we subsidise all these people it really is biting the hand that feeds. Burning down someones house is never an option in my mind, particularly when the property concerned belongs to a friend who happens like me to be part Welsh.

    teddy

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