| Author |
Message |
Will
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:33 pm
Post subject: This is bad! |
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My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
I went here:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/motorola-e550.htm
and if you go too, you'll see some evolving English usage (or, if Devo
were right, and I suspect they might have been, some de-evolving
English usage).
Will.
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Will
Guest
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Salvatore Volatile
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:48 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | It is not "cell" in the US. Cell phone and mobile phone are both
common terms, and any preference would be individual or regional. I
see both "Cell:" and "Mobile:", followed by the number, on business
cards. The European term that I don't see or hear here is "Handy".
|
I agree that *some* (say, where is...?) Americans do use "mobile".
However, it is undeniably the case that, in general discourse, "cell" or
"cell phone" is currently the most commonly-employed AmE term for a
mobile telephone of any type.
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Jim Lawton
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:23 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
I went here:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/motorola-e550.htm
and if you go too, you'll see some evolving English usage (or, if Devo
were right, and I suspect they might have been, some de-evolving
English usage).
I take it you are commenting on the users' comments. I have to tell you these |
are almost pristine English compared with what's coming. I fixed someone's PC
the other day - they couldn't get Instant Messenger to work. I fixed it, and it
connected, but it was displaying corrupt message headers. At that point the
customer's son came in and was delighted to see that all was well. The
"corruption" was his friends' names and subject headers littered with symbols,
codes, and God knows what. I can't do it, but on the lines of @tr@ktIv2u .
--
Jim
the polymoth |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:37 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
|
This is regularly done in the US. Here, the offer requires you to
extend your agreement for another year or two. No charge for the
phone, and no concern for the type of plan you are on, but a
requirement to stay with the provider for a longer period of time.
It is not "cell" in the US. Cell phone and mobile phone are both
common terms, and any preference would be individual or regional. I
see both "Cell:" and "Mobile:", followed by the number, on business
cards. The European term that I don't see or hear here is "Handy".
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:00 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Tony Cooper spake thusly:
| Quote: | On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
This is regularly done in the US. Here, the offer requires you to
extend your agreement for another year or two. No charge for the
phone, and no concern for the type of plan you are on, but a
requirement to stay with the provider for a longer period of time.
It is not "cell" in the US. Cell phone and mobile phone are both
common terms, and any preference would be individual or regional. I
see both "Cell:" and "Mobile:", followed by the number, on business
cards. The European term that I don't see or hear here is "Handy".
|
"handy" is German only, so it's not likely to be heard in the US, nor
in the UK where it's also unknown.
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Jim Lawton
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:52 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:00:42 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper spake thusly:
On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
This is regularly done in the US. Here, the offer requires you to
extend your agreement for another year or two. No charge for the
phone, and no concern for the type of plan you are on, but a
requirement to stay with the provider for a longer period of time.
It is not "cell" in the US. Cell phone and mobile phone are both
common terms, and any preference would be individual or regional. I
see both "Cell:" and "Mobile:", followed by the number, on business
cards. The European term that I don't see or hear here is "Handy".
"handy" is German only, so it's not likely to be heard in the US, nor
in the UK where it's also unknown.
|
Except, actually, that in amateur radio circles, it is / was the common term for
a handheld transceiver - as in "2 metre handy".
G0LHU (not active for over ten years)
--
Jim
the polymoth |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:41 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Jim Lawton spake thusly:
| Quote: | On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:00:42 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com> wrote:
"handy" is German only, so it's not likely to be heard in the US, nor
in the UK where it's also unknown.
Except, actually, that in amateur radio circles, it is / was the common term for
a handheld transceiver - as in "2 metre handy".
|
Isn't it difficult getting a 2 metre handy into your coat pocket?
| Quote: | G0LHU (not active for over ten years)
|
I ran the film society at Manchester University for a couple of years
- the office next door housed the ham radio society. We could hear
them at all hours - G3VUM ... G3VUM ... G3VUM. Unusually, their call
sign stood for something "Victoria University of Manchester).
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:17 am
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Richard Fontana:
| Quote: | I agree that *some* (say, where is...?) Americans do use "mobile".
However, it is undeniably the case that, in general discourse, "cell" or
"cell phone" is currently the most commonly-employed AmE term for a
mobile telephone of any type.
|
Really, any type? I don't think I've ever heard it used in reference
to a non-cellular mobile phone.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | An actual human would feel guilt in this situation.
msb@vex.net | -- Scott Adams: Dilbert |
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Harvey Van Sickle
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:27 am
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On 19 Oct 2005, Jim Lawton wrote
| Quote: | On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com
wrote:
My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me
a free handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that
allow them to give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone
who makes about four calls a year, I decided to postpone my
acceptance until I'd checked out the handsets on offer.
I went here:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/motorola-e550.htm
and if you go too, you'll see some evolving English usage (or, if
Devo were right, and I suspect they might have been, some
de-evolving English usage).
I take it you are commenting on the users' comments. I have to
tell you these are almost pristine English compared with what's
coming.
|
My gut feeling/suspicion is that the English in the responses probably
doesn't differ a great deal from English-as-she-is-written-by-yer-
average-punter for a century or more: ever since mass literacy.
The major difference is that those who are prone to having fainting
fits now encounter this sort of English on a daily basis. (Prior to
sites like this, one saw only polished English.)
Plus ca change, 'n' all that.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Canadian (30 years) and British (23 years)
For e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van |
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Jim Lawton
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 12:40 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:27:07 GMT, Harvey Van Sickle <harvey.news@ntlworld.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | My gut feeling/suspicion is that the English in the responses probably
doesn't differ a great deal from English-as-she-is-written-by-yer-
average-punter for a century or more: ever since mass literacy.
|
I think you are right to a degree - I recall my mother coming back from
Wakefield in a state of high amusement having seen the phrase "Cock O'Van" on a
pub menu - probably in the 1960s sometime.
However the stuff I was seeing written by kids in IM was vastly more - degraded?
- full of numeric short forms and pronunciation driven encoding. Perhaps it was
the written equivalent of street slang, but much more impenetrable.
| Quote: |
The major difference is that those who are prone to having fainting
fits now encounter this sort of English on a daily basis. (Prior to
sites like this, one saw only polished English.)
Plus ca change, 'n' all that.
-- |
Jim
the polymoth |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:03 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:37:56 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
.... |
| Quote: | It is not "cell" in the US.
|
An amazing claim.
| Quote: | Cell phone and mobile phone are both
common terms, and any preference would be individual or regional.
|
If that were true you'd expect the clear majority of Google hits on
"mobile phone" would come from sites in the US*. That, as I'd expect,
isn't the case. Conversely, no-one on this side of the Atlantic uses
the soon-to-be outdated term "cell phone".
| Quote: | I
see both "Cell:" and "Mobile:", followed by the number, on business
cards.
|
Shit happens, as we all know.
| Quote: | The European term that I don't see or hear here is "Handy".
|
The what?
*Compare the population of the US with those of other English-speaking
countries and remember that more use is made of the Internet in
America than anywhere else, excepting, perhaps, Japan.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Robert Lieblich
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:39 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Charles Riggs wrote:
| Quote: |
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:37:56 GMT, Tony Cooper
tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
On 19 Oct 2005 03:33:33 -0700, "Will" <billrigby@hotmail.com> wrote:
My mobile (AmE = "cell") provider called me just now to offer me a free
handset upgrade. Leaving aside the voodoo economics that allow them to
give away a handset worth £150 retail to someone who makes about four
calls a year, I decided to postpone my acceptance until I'd checked out
the handsets on offer.
...
It is not "cell" in the US.
An amazing claim.
|
It's "cell *phone*," Chazz. "Cell" is that little biological thing,
or a place where convicts spend most of their time.
Okay, Tony could have been clearer. But shouldn't you be making
allowances for him by now?
--
Bob Lieblich
Who uses "cell phone" as default label for the thing |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:27 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Mark Brader spake thusly:
| Quote: | Richard Fontana:
I agree that *some* (say, where is...?) Americans do use "mobile".
However, it is undeniably the case that, in general discourse, "cell" or
"cell phone" is currently the most commonly-employed AmE term for a
mobile telephone of any type.
Really, any type? I don't think I've ever heard it used in reference
to a non-cellular mobile phone.
|
What's a non-cellular mobile phone?
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:57 pm
Post subject: Re: This is bad! |
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Richard Fontana:
| Quote: | I agree that *some* (say, where is...?) Americans do use "mobile".
However, it is undeniably the case that, in general discourse, "cell" or
"cell phone" is currently the most commonly-employed AmE term for a
mobile telephone of any type.
|
Mark Brader:
| Quote: | Really, any type? I don't think I've ever heard it used in reference
to a non-cellular mobile phone.
|
"David":
| Quote: | What's a non-cellular mobile phone?
|
This thread just keeps repeating, doesn't it?
(1) A traditional mobile phone -- you see Humphrey Bogart using one
in the original movie "Sabrina". Connections were manually arranged
through an operator. And (2) a satellite phone.
Although I don't think most people would take "mobile phone" to
include it, there is also arguably (3) a cordless phone (you know,
the kind that only works within a short distance of a fixed base
station, meant for carrying around the house).
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | English is just getting used to the telephone.
msb@vex.net | -- John Lawler
My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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