Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 October 13

= October 13 =

English creoles
What English Creole is most intelligible to English speakers? HOOTmag (talk) 10:34, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Maybe Middle English? (a creole according to at least some linguists I believe) Mikenorton (talk) 11:43, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the consensus is that Middle English was probably not a creole, and even if it was, it is pretty unintelligible to modern English speakers, at least until you get the hang of correcting for the Great Vowel Shift. For speakers of American English, at least, I think that Gullah is relatively intelligible, if only because it shares some features with African American Vernacular English, which may itself be a Creole, in which case it is even more intelligible than Gullah.  Marco polo (talk) 13:11, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Jamaican Creole isn't too bad. An important concept here is acrolect and basilect. The acrolects of most English creoles are intelligible enough, but the basilects of most creoles will be unintelligible to an uninformed native speaker (much in the same way that a Geordie speaker will be understandable to most outsiders when he wants to be, but will be near unintelligible in conversation with other Geordies). Steewi (talk) 00:50, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

OP's comment: Thank you all! HOOTmag (talk) 09:04, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Arabic
Can someone who understand Arabic please translate User:Ani medjool wikiped webpage. Thank you.


 * I'm the truth, and the truth comes from me.
 * Thanks to God (or rather: Praise to God).
 * HOOTmag (talk) 15:03, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

bejeebees
bejeebees

i have been in the states for ten years and think i heard of this word as in putting the b into someone as in making them frightened. does such a word exist, how is it spelt and where are its origins? thank you for your time looking into this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.125.212.57 (talk) 17:43, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Sounds like you might be thinking of heebie-jeebies or bejesus. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 17:56, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Have a look at heebie-jeebies. --62.47.139.68 (talk) 18:35, 13 October 2009 (UTC)  Ooops, --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Only thing that seems similar to me is to "scare the bejesus out of" someone. --jpgordon:==( o ) 21:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yep, it's "bejesus". "Heebie-jeebies" has a slightly different usage: e.g., watching scary movies at night gives me the heebie-jeebies. r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 21:56, 13 October 2009 (UTC)