PF Random Thoughts

Jimmy Snyder

dkotschessaa

Happy Birthday!

I'm confused as to how you went to 2n to 3n without 20 in between though.

Borek

I wonder if it qualifies as a cultural difference.

zoobyshoe

I always took them to be singing, "Tu, tu, tu, lookin' out my backdoor." "Tu" being French for "you", an affectation they threw in to make them sound more Cajun.

Jimmy Snyder

Yeah, but then what is lookin' out my back door French for?

zoobyshoe

"Lookin' out my back door," is actually English. It's hard to translate into English, but, roughly, it means, "Lookin' out my back door."

Evo

Lol.

I always thought they said doot doot doot. Never liked that song.

Seems others say it's doot.

http://www.songlyrics.com/creedence-...ckdoor-lyrics/

Egads, the guy that wrote is says it's doot doot doo.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5071

turbo

Creedence was never about linguistics. Somehow, they sold a lot of records. I disliked them, but my wife bought a "best of" CD because (in part) she had pent a few years with an older sister. The sister liked Creedence, and Neil Diamond and didn't have too many records. Must have been a depressing atmosphere.

zoobyshoe

My mother and grandmother were French Canadian so I grew up around them shifting back and forth between English and French in mid-sentence. Therefore, I've always heard it as the French "Tu", which fits in with CCR's Cajun Bayou thing. Other people I know think they're saying, "Two, Two, Two...". This is the first time I've run into anyone hearing the initial consonant as a "d".

Not that it matters since the whole song sounds like a mushroom trip.

turbo

My mother and her aunts were all French Canadian (metis), and they would swing back and forth between English and French, until they learned that I could understand French. Then they stayed French and "invited" me to go outside. The breaking point was was when I overheard them talking about a great-aunt's daughter, and asking when she was going to have her baby. My mother got flustered. She had been slagged badly for being French-Canadian as a child and refused to speak to me in French. Didn't matter. I heard it so much that I learned. Little kids are like sponges.

OmCheeto

Stop me if I've told this story B4...

My mother was German and would hurl insults at us as children when we were bad. Of course, we couldn't understand what she was saying. Then we went to high school, and asked the instructor what; "Doo kleina fowla misgabort!" meant.

More recently, we hired at work a Bosnian lady, and she would mumble the insult; "Machu Pichu Moderna" at me under her breath, daily, for about 3 years straight. Then I found "Curse Phrases from around the World" on the internet and figured out what she was saying. I confronted her with my revelation, and she insisted that it was not to be taken literally. I decided it was more of a British type; "**** off" kind of phrase. Which of course, just means; "Go away. You are bothering me."

lisab

machu pichu moderna...I'm gonna use that next time I want to swear at someone...

dkotschessaa

I frequent that thread and this one more than anything relating to math or physics here. Kinda sad...

dkotschessaa

RE: Life of Pi

I refuse to see this film unless they either change the title or make it about math.

zoobyshoe

Any New England town that had a mill at the turn of the century is now half French Canadian. Have you noticed, though, that, despite all the French names, there's no more French speakers left?

OmCheeto

Just don't say that to a Serbian speaking person. Though they generally laugh when I try and pronounce it.

I suppose it is the fact that my mother spoke a foreign language that predisposed me to a fascination with other languages.

The only two words I learned from the Nigerians I worked with would get me an infraction for sure: "O-ko! O-bo!" (they were Ebu, or so they said....)

turbo

Still got a lot here, though. I'm older than you though, and get to interact with that last generation of native French-speakers.