How do you say - - ?

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NancyM
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Re: How do you say - - ?

Post by NancyM »

Liis wrote:No problem with words for once, just enjoyed the title Alison and Robin.
Liis, that title made me go to read the article - it was not what I expected :laugh: (but very good!)
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Post by Liis »

bociany wrote: Liis, that title made me go to read the article - it was not what I expected :laugh: (but very good!)
No? Well, let's hope that an Alison and a Robin meet each other IRL, although it doesn't seem so very likely, considering habitats ...
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Post by Liis »

About Google translations - computer and/or linguistically-minded forum people (unp? others?), please:
How does it work?
We think of translations as work with word-by-word glossaries plus grammar rules.
I think I have seen that Google uses a different "context-based", "inituitive" pattern recognition concept.
Put extremely simple-mindedly, it seems that it takes snatches of text, and matches to other, similar ones, already with translations. The more texts to work with, the more chances to get good matches. However, if its learning bank has been fed a mass of - for instance - religious texts, then a translation of something on "cross-flowered" (Cruciferae) plants may go off-tangent and end up in crucifix matters.
Is it anything like this?
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Post by Patsycat »

Did you realise that this excellent forum has been going for a year and a day!! :D
:loveshower: :loveshower:
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NancyM
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Post by NancyM »

Patsycat wrote:Did you realise that this excellent forum has been going for a year and a day!! :D
:loveshower: :loveshower:
Thanks for noticing, Patsycat ... I noticed too :loveshower:
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Post by Bairbre »

Thanks Patsycat for remembering the date... :loveshower:
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NancyM
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Post by NancyM »

Actually, I think the forum was officially opened in October ... Jo's Welcome message is dated October 31. So maybe there is still time for a birthday party ... stay tuned!
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Post by Patsycat »

bociany wrote:Actually, I think the forum was officially opened in October ... Jo's Welcome message is dated October 31. So maybe there is still time for a birthday party ... stay tuned!
Ah - I was possibly confused - the first ones here have a joining date of 19th Sept!!
But as you say - the actual start was in OCT - so we can get the cake ready for then :loveshower:
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Post by Liis »

Down from the joys of birthday celebrations to more earthy matters:
my permanent headache, those wetlands - "rabastanud" = paludified, as in "the tall russule mushroom often grows in paludified forests". Any nice suitable synonyms, anybody?
"... grows in bogged-down forests" :mrgreen: ?
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Post by NancyM »

the words I learn here!

paludified ... :puzzled:

best suggestion I have (after some internet searches) is "waterlogged"

I found: These paludified soils are typically waterlogged and cold,

I also learned there are several types of paludified soils, but, please, Liis, don't go there!
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Post by unp »

Hardly anything can compare with 'paludified bogs' :D (Google knows them).

What about simple words, such as boggy or swampy (or waterlogged)?
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Post by Liis »

Why simple, when you can have fun finding esoterics? :innocent:
Actually paludified was what my rather basic Estonian/English dictionary suggested. "Rabastanud", "rabastuma" are, I am afraid, necessary and not too unusual words in Estonian wetland contexts.
Paludified bog - same thing twice over? Seems like Hanged, drawn, quartered?
Waterlogged, boggy, swampy: ye-es - only rabastanud/paludified hints at the process of getting there too: there has been a proper forest, got bogged. Probably peaty, at that.
OK, I will keep it simple. Only - where does the word come from?
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Post by alice44 »

I googled Paludified and the second thing (and a bunch there after) I came with is an article on Estonia and it tossed in an additional word -- mire.

palaudification -- (ecology) Bog expansion resulting from the gradual rising of the water table as accumulation of peat impedes water drainage.

I am not finding an origin but I think some where at the back of my mind it seems like it is linked to some other word or words I know.

hmm I saw something linking it to palustrine so I looked that up (not a word I knew!)

palustrine comes from the Latin word palus or marsh. Wetlands within this category include inland marshes and swamps as well as bogs, fens, tundra and floodplains. Palustrine systems include any inland wetland which lacks flowing water, contains ocean derived salts in concentrations of less than 0.05%, and is nontidal. It may be useful to clarify the differences between lacustrine and palustrine wetlands. (The entire wiki stub)

For me waterlogged has the connotation of too much water (and expanding bog? no just more water than is "proper") while a bog forest is just one that grows in the wet. But... in the winter the soil is waterlogged and then it dries out in the summer.
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Post by Liis »

Thank you, Alice!
Of course, now that you found the answer: all the "palustre" botanical names
LOL, I just glanced at palustrine and thought, what, Palestrina, bogs ...?! :puzzled:
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Post by Liis »

Do I have near-monopoly on the topic - only one who doesn't know how to say things? :dunno:

This time - bongers (Estonian, Swedish, Finland Swedish: bongare)
Used for people who collect (rare) bird sightings, keep car & equipment standby to rush to a possible viewing, have networks to spread the word about any rarity.
Do you recognise the word? If not, what do you call them?
Any guess about the origin of the word?
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Post by Jo UK »

LOL, Liis.
I have just been reading about "twitchers" in UK, who rushed off to see a rare bird.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8323930.stm
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Post by alice44 »

Jo UK wrote:LOL, Liis.
I have just been reading about "twitchers" in UK, who rushed off to see a rare bird.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8323930.stm
I don't think Americans use the word twitcher. I think most serious birders would know it, but I do not know what word we do use.

We have rare bird alerts -- email notices about rare bird sightings. I am not finding a word other than "serious birder."

Armed Combat
Serious birders will battle to the ends of the earth to build up their lists
...
"Over there!" Off they galloped.

"Oops, it flew. Over there!" The mob reversed direction.

An incensed farmer appeared. "Off my pasture!" he shouted, waving his arms and flushing the bird.

Who are these people? What makes them behave so oddly? They are from all over the U.S., and they flew across the country or drove for days and then elbowed aside the husbandman, pushing their way forward in order to add the Northern Lapwing to their (life) (world) (North American) ( U.S.) ( New York) ( Long Island) lists. This is power bird-watching, and it has turned a once genteel pastime into a highly competitive sport.

In another, more innocent era, bird-watching was the eccentric enthusiasm of silver-haired Auduboners on annuities and the subject of wry little "Talk of the Town" items in The New Yorker. No more. Bird-watching has turned into hireling, a macho game that requires skill, experience, time, money and passion, a high-tech sport with the entire globe for a playing field.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

It made me giggle and it does show the use of serious birder ;-)
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Post by Jo UK »

What a wonderful commentary, Alice. I think out twitchers are similar in behaviour, with their pagers and internet alerts.
I think "serious birder" is more descriptive of the activity, than "twitcher", but who can account for eccentricities of language! :laugh:
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Post by Liis »

Jo UK wrote:What a wonderful commentary, Alice. I think out twitchers are similar in behaviour, with their pagers and internet alerts.
I think "serious birder" is more descriptive of the activity, than "twitcher", but who can account for eccentricities of language! :laugh:
The word "serious" in connection with these activities :mrgreen: :vangry: - no way!
Thanks, Alice - I read that newspaper report - "combat birder" is a lovely description!
Bonger or twitcher it will be - unless there are more suggestions? What are they called in other languages?
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Post by Olga »

Liis, in Finnish it is said: bongari or bongaaja, in Swedish bongare as you already told. (And when some 'bongari' stands quiet for hours in a same place, he/she is #staijing# - birdwatcher's slang verb in Finnish: staijata = to do observations. It originates from russian verb "stojat", wnere 'o' pronouced as 'a'. Also the the word 'bong' is used as verb. I #bonged# a Spotted Nutcracker today!! ) :D
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