The Great Christmas Debate

I'm here to please... ;-)

I posted two comedy vids, nothing xenophobic about them at all. Have you watched them, or would you rather just pontificate?

You clearly don't have much of a sense of humour. You spent a lot of time arguing when you first got here because you didn't get a joke. Those that don't get jokes end up as the butt of them. That's happened to you.

He is pretty entertaining, you have to admit.

It's a bit like reading gungasnake after he's spent a year at the Sorbonne.

Still a complete arsehole, but now able to prove it with his own words, rather than quoting someone else.

Well, the pagans used to bring greenery in to the house during solstice, and burn a yule log big enough for it to burn for twelve days.
The christmas tree was introduced by Albert and is a beautiful thing to behold when done properly, so I have no problem in giving you credit for it.
When it comes to inventiveness, you are almost up there with us Brits!

George the First was always reckon'd
Vile -but viler George the Second
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
And when from earth the Fourth descended
God be praised, the Georges ended.

W. S. Landor.

The poem may seem cruel, but the Georges were not popular (great fodder for the cartoonists though).
Being Germans from Hanover, they only got the job because they were protestant.
George the First was actually fifty eighth in line to the thrown at the time of Queen Ann's death, but the first fifty seven were Catholic.

William the Fourth was probably the best of the male bunch, but it was undoubtedly Queen Vic who restored the dynasty's reputation and restored respect for the Royals.
However, Hanover regained its independence because she couldn't actually rule there, being a mere woman.
She married Albert from your aforementioned saxe coberg wotsit and renamed the dynasty doo dah accordingly.
It remained saxe coburg until the first world war, whereupon everything remotely German was basically thrown out, smashed up, sent packing or indeed in this case, renamed.

It still remains the case that it is only the Royal families that both you and Inspector Clouseau seem to be claiming ownership over, which begs the question to both of you.
What is the fascination that you have for all of this. Why the desire to seek proof of ownership regarding our monarchy/country.

We're not that much better than you with the way we do things, so why not ease back and try to be happy with your lot.

Go and re-establish your own Royal families if you regard the idea of such a thing so highly.

I hear the French have also banned muslim women from wearing the burka in public, well done France..

Please don't ever think of going to live there, Romeo Flatulanus.

I would like a pleasant retirement, thank you very much.

Yes, those vids were both xenophobic and remarkably boring. If you gona throw a tantrum every time someone doesn't laugh at your jokes, TRY AND BE FUNY! You should have tried the Pink Panther... Better still, try posting a vid that poke fun at the Brits. Using comedy to poke fun at other nations is not an argument, at best it's comic relief.

Anyway, I looked up the sources for the Wikipedia stat of 29% Latin and 29% French. I found one that you can preview on Google book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RamwAZ6fpaoC&pg=PA67&lpg=PP1&focus=viewport&dq=Origins+of+the+English+Language+Joseph+M.+Williams+(3)&output=html_text

If the link doesn't work, go to the bottom of page 67 of Origins of the English Language by Joseph M. Williams. There's an interesting frequency table, from which it follows that words borrowed from French represent exactly 41% of the 10,000 words most frequently used in business letters. :p

They weren't my jokes, and I wasn't throwing a tantrum. You just don't get it. Goodness Gracious Me was a ground breaking comedy series by British Asians that was highly acclaimed, and it is self deprecating, as is most of our humour. Rik Mayall is a great comic, and his portrayal of a lecherous small town French priest is comedy genius. Like I said you don't get it, plenty do.

French comedy begins and ends with Monsieur Hulot, that's why nobody every accuses a Frenchman of being intentionally funny.

Even then Vic and Bob did it better.

But the French have got the Rire & Chansons radio station, suck on that

Et La Vache qui rit!

They can cook a bit as well, although their young are now very much into McDonald's, when one is within moped distance.
Ma belle soeur loves our cookery programmes when she's over here, and admits that our normal pub grub now knocks spots off the average Plat du jour.

I say, it's all the fault of the Germans. They're laughing up their sleeves at the French and the English, and egging both sides on . . .





. . . Walter!

Indeed. We do have a better football team as any British or the bleus.

LOL. Mr Hulot had class, but it never stopped. Jean Dujardin is a genius, and so is Jamel Debouze or many others. You're just stuck in the 70s...

You've probably even got a better cricket team at the moment, as well.

As opposed to all those French medical terms like accident, malady, urgency, clavicle. abdomen that add up.

Glad you're back. The issue is settled.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RamwAZ6fpaoC&pg=PA67&lpg=PP1&focus=viewport&dq=Origins+of+the+English+Language+Joseph+M.+Williams+(3)&output=html_text

If the link doesn't work, go to the bottom of page 67 of Origins of the English Language by Joseph M. Williams.

There's an interesting frequency table, from which it follows that words borrowed from French represent exactly 41% of the 10,000 words most frequently used in modern business English.

And as I correctly guessed, Latin is far behind.

Happy now? :-)

Moving the goal posts? That always works well if no one notices.

We've gone from the 600,000 words in the English language to only 10,000 words in order to prove your original point of 50% is still wrong. Nice try though.

1) 600,000 words was YOUR figure for the total size of the language, and it's a rather absurd figure given that the average dude knows no more than 30,000 words.

2) My point was ALWAYS about the most frequently used English words, of which I always said French borrowings represented "close to half".

3) You are a sore loser.

Your point changes by the minute. You lost a long time ago, but you don't realise it.