Eubonics?

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pythoncoder
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Eubonics?

#1 Post by pythoncoder »

adakadavule wrote:hey ppl.i tried everythin u said n more i also wrote al d addresses and triple checked.i can connect but cant connect,wats up,can a firewal like zone alarm jam eth0 wen windows shut down,do u ppl nid any other info to help?pls do.thnx a ton in advance
( http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=67035#67035 )

This message raises an interesting point about the Puppy forums. Puppy is now a global product, and many of its users evidently aren't native English speakers. People like adakadavule have a Herculean task in front of them: explaining technical problems is tough even in your own language. The thought of having to do this in an alien language, and of then having to interpret the answers, is daunting in the extreme. I have nothing but admiration for these people, but perhaps it's time to make their lives a little easier.

I'm not a cunning linguist myself, so I've no idea what adakadavule's native tongue might be, but perhaps it's time to institute Puppy forums in the principal non-English languages?

Pete

pmshah
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#2 Post by pmshah »

This may not be the case. The quality of English & spellings used by the SMS generation may appear to the pure linguists as a new foreign language.

laptopnewbee
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#3 Post by laptopnewbee »

pmshah wrote:This may not be the case. The quality of English & spellings used by the SMS generation may appear to the pure linguists as a new foreign language.
i have read the posts by adakadavule, and find that they look like "eubonics" the extreme left say that it should be accepted as part of the "culture of some youths". i personally feel that it is lazyness to use numbers and letters in place of actual words, and using "words" like "dem" and "dat" in place of "them" and "that" are signs that some people don't bother to find out what the proper words are. most people that i have known who have english as a secondary language have trouble with grammer, and are usually very ready to use the proper wortds when they are offered, even if they can't get things figured out to fix their grammer.

really with actual language differences, typos, and jargon we have enough on our plates without having to try and decode eubonics with all it's variations (you can have three or more versions in a small town, much less a big city).
so much to learn, so late a start.

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Ian
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#4 Post by Ian »

If adakadavule writes code in c/c++ & python as stated I would have thought that some understanding of English could be obtained.

pythoncoder
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#5 Post by pythoncoder »

Hi laptopnewbee and pmshah, thanks for that. I must confess I've never heard of eubonics. I must also own up to the fact that it's a language as foreign to me as Babylonic Cuneiform. I suppose that people fluent only in this language will have to provide their own technical support, like people whose only language is Greek or Urdu.

Are these people also able to speak English? It's not clear to me whether eubonics is an affectation or whether it reflects a genuine inability to communicate with English speakers.

Pete

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Béèm
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#6 Post by Béèm »

Communication is about trying to get yourself uderstood, specially for the initial poster. He tries to get attention.
If he/she writes in a cryptic sms style language, I quit reading.
He/she is probably capable to write correctly in English.

My native language is Dutch and I see this phenomena in Dutch forums as well. People absolutely capable of writing in there own language persist in writing in a cryptic sms style.

If it's a question of not writing in your own language, spelling and grammar errors can and must be forgiven.
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bugman

#7 Post by bugman »

Eubonics localisation project?

:shock:

I'm up for doing a Jamaican patois version.

Jah Pup I

:D

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Pizzasgood
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#8 Post by Pizzasgood »

Communication is about trying to get yourself uderstood, specially for the initial poster. He tries to get attention.
If he/she writes in a cryptic sms style language, I quit reading.
He/she is probably capable to write correctly in English.

My native language is Dutch and I see this phenomena in Dutch forums as well. People absolutely capable of writing in there own language persist in writing in a cryptic sms style.

If it's a question of not writing in your own language, spelling and grammar errors can and must be forgiven.
Same here. I don't have time to fiddle with that garbage (and I'm of this generation, so don't pull the "old fuddy-duddy excuse). I'm trying to fit Puppy in between classes, meals, homework, and sleep. Generally, I'm either in to much of a hurry or too tired to attempt to decypher things. I do my best, but I really don't like having to rush to class. English, for example, is up six fleights of stairs, and before that it's a ten-minute walk, or five minute bike-ride.

Now, on to my computer-science class. We're "learning" functions :roll:
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Dougal
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#9 Post by Dougal »

pythoncoder wrote:I must confess I've never heard of eubonics.
"Eubonics" is just a modern word for pidgin-English. Trying to be intellectual about stupidity.
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Béèm
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#10 Post by Béèm »

I came across a surprising comment about eubonics here http://www.skratchpad.com/news/NEWS/biz ... 28-47.html :wink:
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raffy
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its hir

#11 Post by raffy »

y cnt we jst acpt dat its hir n wil stay? :D

It's really from SMS and chat, and if you feel that there should be a rule in this forum that people should use proper English, then we could set the rule.

Non-English-speaking people use the proper words, as they consult a dictionary or translator, but somehow mess up the grammar, which is not really a big problem.

So the pidgin English is the real issue.
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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Pizzasgood
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#12 Post by Pizzasgood »

It might be a good idea. Not because I don't like seeing it (I don't have to look at the post if I don't want too), but because non-English speaking people have to work hard enough to read the normal posts. It isn't fair to them to have to put up with drbl lk tis. When chatting with your friends, by all means scramble togeather your own jargon. But when attempting to interact with a bunch of people you don't know who possibly don't know English well, in a "Support Forum" environment, you should try to use proper English (in this forum's case, others use other languages of course). It's common curtesy, not to mention common sense.

I'm hesitant to back any "rules" though. One thing I like around here is that it's fairly informal. Everyone just uses common sense. I just wish people would use it with typing style too.

Yes, we will make grammer, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. I make plenty. But there is a difference between mistakes and intention.
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Flash
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#13 Post by Flash »

Perhaps newcomers see the terse and cryptic names of almost everything in computerland, from applications to the filesystem in Linux, and assume that's the way they're supposed to talk. :lol:

marksouth2000
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Re: its hir

#14 Post by marksouth2000 »

raffy wrote:... if you feel that there should be a rule in this forum that people should use proper English, then we could set the rule.
A viewpoint: I detest bad use of language. I support high standards of language teaching and expression. I would prefer that there be no enforced rules on the posts in this forum. Why not? Well, as has been pointed out, many people here speak English as a second or third language only.

BUT: there should be a notice hung over the door to the forum that says in LARGE LETTERS "If you don't express yourself clearly enough for other people to understand you, then no one will be able to help you."

S tht clr nuf 4 u L? C U l8r,
Mrk

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Béèm
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#15 Post by Béèm »

I wouldn't see a rule either for the aforementioned reasons of people of which English isn't their native language.

I am in favour of a warning and even a bit more (work for moderators)
When such a post in gibberish is seen, answer with a request to translete and in the meantime block the post util 'translated' decently.
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#16 Post by amish »

[quote="B

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MU
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#17 Post by MU »

I find this slang much more difficult to understand than the english of 15 year old vietname users (which has grammatical mistakes of course, but is astonishingly good).

I really like to help the vietnamese phantrongnghia, because he undertakes some efforts trying to make it easy for me, to understand what he wants.
I even use the dictionary, if he uses a "wrong" word, to understand what he intentionally meant.

But if someone throws in an unmotivated manner some hard to understand words (gangsta-slang), I find it quite unpolite especially concerning non-native english speaking guys like me.

So I usually ignore such messages, and don't waste my time trying to understand them.

Mark

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Left overs fron Telegram times

#18 Post by pmshah »

I wholly agree with you. I earned my engineering degree 35 years ago. I never had the need to to use a type weriter since we were required to PRINT our reports like in engineering drawings and that too with pencil. So the first time I sat at the keyboard was in front of a PC. I am no great typist either.

I can accept sms type of short cuts for characters like y, r, u, 2, b4, u, y, b, 4 which sound close to or same as the words they replace. But some of the short cuts/abbreviations are atrocious.

I remember times when the charge for a telegram was based on number of words under 6 characters or part thereof. One did tend to cut cost but sounds ridiculous in today's times.

I can quite understand the difficulties of people whose entire education was in their native language. It would be like greek or latin to me. So one need only try and help them in difficulties if so inclined, otherwise keep away from the topic.

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