Yu save tok Tok Kofi?

[muckefuck]

If this excerpt ganked from Language Log is anything to go by, I am going to love reading Paul Bellos' new book on translation:

If you go into a Starbucks and ask for "coffee," the barista most likely will give you a blank stare. To him the word means absolutely nothing. There are at least thirty-seven words for coffee in my local dialect of Coffeeshop Talk (or tok-kofi, as it would be called if I lived in Papua New Guinea). Unless you use one of these individuated terms, your utterance will seem baffling or produce an unwanted result. You should point this out next time anyone tells you that Eskimo has a hundred words for snow. If a Martian explorer should visit your local bar and deduce from the lingo that Average West Europeans lack a single word to designate the type that covers all tokens of small quantities of a hot or cold black or brown liquid in a disposable cup, and consequently pour scorn on your language as inappropriate to higher forms of interplanetary thought — well, now you can tell him where to get off.

Comments

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that tip.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I know what he's getting at, but in fact I'm always trying to baffle Starbucks baristas by just asking for a small coffee, and they always respond by serving up a plain cup of the brew of the day without batting an eye.

I think the bar example is better; you could probably flummox a bartender by asking for a cup of alcohol, please.