Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:some might refer to the word "nevadas" as Spanglish

I wouldn't call this an example of Spanglish. This is just the adoption of a proper noun from one language into another. We use neither "sierra" nor "nevada" as borrowed words. And even if it were a borrowed word, we'd expect to adapt it to English rules of grammar. Pretty much all languages do the same. Cases where we preserve some aspect of the original grammar rules are the exceptions, not the rules.

Nitpicker wrote:

owlice wrote:As others have mentioned, we have a mountain range called Sierra Nevada in the US, too, and these are usually referred to/called "the Sierra Nevadas."

I suppose that's one of the things about the English language which adds to its richness. It seems to have been appropriate to appropriate many words from other languages and tweak them and call them English. Having said that, some might refer to the word "nevadas" as Spanglish (which is itself a word of the New World).

Bill R wrote:Bell Weather? I don't thin so. Maybe Belle Weather from the French.

From Wikipedia A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.

The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) leading his flock of sheep. The movements of the flock could be noted by hearing the bell before the flock was in sight

Cute though. Great photo

owlice wrote:As others have mentioned, we have a mountain range called Sierra Nevada in the US, too, and these are usually referred to/called "the Sierra Nevadas."

madtom1999 wrote:Its a lovely cloud and a lovely picture but this is Astronomy Picture Of the Day and it seems clouds are getting in the way of astronomy here too!

Chris Peterson wrote:

owlice wrote:Right, but that''s not the point, or not my point, anyway. My point was that in English (at least in the US), the Sierra Nevadas are called the Sierra Nevadas, as in the title of the APOD.

I know. It was just a tangent.

owlice wrote:Right, but that''s not the point, or not my point, anyway. My point was that in English (at least in the US), the Sierra Nevadas are called the Sierra Nevadas, as in the title of the APOD.

Chris Peterson wrote:

owlice wrote:As others have mentioned, we have a mountain range called Sierra Nevada in the US, too, and these are usually referred to/called "the Sierra Nevadas."

Half the Spanish speaking countries of the world have mountains with that name. Not very creative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirtball wrote:

Dirtball: (slang, derogatory) A dirty or sleazy planet.

<<Since the age of 15, The Dirtball (aka David Alexander) has dedicated himself to his music. Growing up in Oregon, Alexander quickly became preoccupied with drums and would be the rhythmic backbone for a number of different bands in the North West. “Crook County is actually the area where I live in Oregon. I was born and raised here, which ties into the record and how I’m bringing it back to my roots. I have a lot of old friends that I used to play with back in the day on this record and my parents have a blue grass band so they made it onto a track.”>>

Chris Peterson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:We should have named our planet Rock Ball.

Well, we did name it "Dirt". Pretty close.

geckzilla wrote:We should have named our planet Rock Ball.

FloridaMike wrote:I guess at the end of the day a "snow-covered mountain range" is a "snow-covered mountain range".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veleta_%28Sierra_Nevada%29 wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]IRAM 30m telescope close to the Pico Veleta peak[/color][/b]

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<<Veleta ("Weather vane") or Pico del Veleta is the third highest peak of the Iberian peninsula and the second highest in the Sierra Nevada. Veleta's northern slopes are home to the Sierra Nevada Ski Station. The access road that takes one to approximately 10 metres below the summit is the highest paved road in Europe across the mountains from Granada to the western Alpujarras. The Corral de la Veleta or Corral del Veleta glacier, at 37° N the southernmost glacier in Europe, disappeared in 1913.

On Pico Veleta at an altutude of 2920 m is the location of the IRAM 30m telescope. The IRAM 30m millimeter radio telescope is a radio telescope for astronomical observations in the millimeter range of wavelengths, operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range (IRAM)) and located on the Sierra Nevada, in Spain, close to the Pico Veleta peak. It is the largest millimeter-wave telescope in the world after the Large Millimeter Telescope. Each year more than 200 scientists from all over the world visit this observatory to explore the universe at millimeter wavelengths, with interests going from our Solar System to interstellar dust and gas or cosmology.>>

Chris Peterson wrote:

owlice wrote:As others have mentioned, we have a mountain range called Sierra Nevada in the US, too, and these are usually referred to/called "the Sierra Nevadas."

Half the Spanish speaking countries of the world have mountains with that name. Not very creative.

owlice wrote:As others have mentioned, we have a mountain range called Sierra Nevada in the US, too, and these are usually referred to/called "the Sierra Nevadas."

Nitpicker wrote:

DSYoungEsq wrote:A lovely picture! But the proper name of the mountain range is "Sierra Nevada". There is no need to pluralize it, and in any event, pluralizing the adjectival "Nevada" would certainly be wrong!

No quibbles from me. I just wanted to mention that in Australia there are the Snowy Mountains, which are part of the Great Dividing Range. Respectively, these are known colloquially as The Snowies and The Ranges. It is probably a good thing Oz was never colonised by the Spanish, as we'd surely mangle their tenses too.