The English Language

[John McKenna]

Michael, pleased to see you keeping on topic and not getting into the 'contract' debate that has spread to the language thread.

No need to be quite so serious, though.

I know I was grammatically incorrect but was just pointing out that I was in good company and that in a usage sense the preposition form "from whence... " was fairly well established and accepted.

Of course, a linguistic purist - such as your good self - has every right to object to its use. But not to have it struck out. English has no Academy so anomalies have krept in and will continue to do so.

My 'menace' was all just a front. Afer all I did say - please.

[John McKenna]

I don't know to which clause you refer.

Clause 8. I though you've seen it. Here is it again:
8. The Publishers shall neither assign this license nor issue the said translation of the said work
under any imprint other than their own without the previous written consent of the Proprietors.

Didn't we conclude that we need to know how "Publishers" was defined? But since the contract was never signed, the question is surely moot.

Alistair, I hope you will excuse me for my earlier Marxist flippancy. (But I also hope that the lesson was not entirely lost on you and other involved "parties of the nth part".)

Clause 8 sounds standard. If a proprietor (original author or copyright owner that may also a publisher) gives a licence for a translation then the translator may have to approach a foreign language publisher to have the translated work printed.

The contract clause warns the translator and their foreign lang. 'Publisher(s)' that they cannot transfer any publishing rights on to others without the express permission of said 'Proprietor(s)'.

I agree with you about the 'moot' point.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

What does it mean
"I am not longer interested"?
Shouldn't it be "no longer"?

[John McKenna]

Yes, "I am no longer interested." is the correct version.

An alternative would be - I am not interested any longer.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

What's the difference between 'Lithuania" and "Latvia"?

[NickFaulks]

What's the difference between a guinea pig and a hamster?

[Barry Sandercock]

Soheil Hooshdaran wrote:
What's the difference between" Lithuania" and "Latvia" ?
They are different countries as far as I know.

[Carl Hibbard]

What's the difference between 'Lithuania" and "Latvia"?

A warning has been given already about asking stupid questions.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

What's the difference between 'Lithuania" and "Latvia"?

A warning has been given already about asking stupid questions.

Obviously two different countries, but why are their names so similar?

[NickFaulks]

What's the difference between 'Lithuania" and "Latvia"?

A warning has been given already about asking stupid questions.

Obviously two different countries, but why are their names so similar?

Funny that, both beginning with the letter L. Could be a conspiracy.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

They are written very similarly in Farsi, where we don't differentiate the 'th' and the 't' in thise name, and we don't write small sounds like /a/, /e/, /o/ normally

[Alan Walton]

These are the anglicised versions of their names there official names in their own languages are

Lativa = Latvija
Lithuania = Lietuva

Quite different in my view

[NickFaulks]

They are written very similarly in Farsi

Probably the people who named the countries did not consider how they would be written in Farsi. Had they done so, I'm sure they would have made the necessary changes to avert this confusion.

[Alistair Campbell]

To be fair, there are similar problems in English was lots of similarly named countries, some for good reason, some apparently randomly. For example:

Iraq and Iran

Slovakia and Slovenia

Austria and Australia

Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea (and Guyana)

Liberia and Libya

Dominica and Dominican Republic
Niger and Nigeria

(not to mention countries which have been split)

[soheil_hooshdaran]

What does it mean that
The performance-study groups at U.C.L.A. are an extracurricular activity.?