Mots nouveaux de Maupassant

bâbord
billevesée
châtain
douer
gredin
mât
moelleux
rudoyer
songerie
tribord

Annals of intereference: personal articles

"Personal article" refers to the generalised use of definite articles before proper names--in all cases, not just when a name is being used as a generic noun, as in "He's the Cary Grant of pigs". It's something like the use of "our" in English dialects (e.g. "Our Julia") and, in some varieties, such as the Southern-tinged Standard German I use, it has a similar connotation of familiarity and informality. In other languages, notably Catalan, it's simply a standard feature, at least as far as I can tell.

For whatever reason, it's a usage that really appeals to me. So much so that I find myself extending it to other languages where it doesn't belong, like Spanish and French. I mean, perhaps there is a variety of French where "C'est d'un ami du Jean" is a perfectly normal utterance, but if so I haven't found it yet. So it is that I find myself stumbling sometimes, inserting the article in my mind and then deleting it as the words comes out: "¿Qué has oído de...Martín?"

And speaking of names

Sometimes I wish my parents had had the stones to give me "Maria" as a middle name (since I was born on a Marian feast after all) but they were just not Old Country enough for that. Of course, I had a golden opportunity when it came time to pick my confirmation name and I blew it.

Thank goodness for the Internet, then, where you're free to adopt any names you wish. I was helping someone on LJ with their Welsh recently and they told me (in German) "with that name, you must speak German!" And at first I was like How did you find out my surname? I never mention it here! Then it occurred to me that they were referring to my username, which couldn't possibly be more German. Duh.

Did I already mention that someone left a jar of some instant drink called "Pero" in the staff lounge and labeled it "organic coffee"? The label gives the ingredients as "malted barley, chicory, barley". In other words, it's muckefuck. I keep intending to drink some of myself but forgetting to bring along a mug.

WotD: by the way

1. übrigens
2. overigens
3. a propósito
4. a propòsit
5. à propos
6. gyda llaw
7. dála an scéil
8. przy okazji
9. 그런데
10. 順便 shùn​biàn​