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Culture: Grammar
email geography   (+2, -4)  [vote for, against]
program detects poster's homeland by linguistic clues

A hobby of mine is tryng to determine people's origins by clues from the grammar/spelling of posts (ostensibly english). This should be automatable, making it easier to communicate (by allowing the user to switch from Australian to American or whatever, if they speak various dialects) or to avoid 'diplomatic' incidents. (Is twosheds Australian? I MUST know..)
-- pfperry, Jul 16 2002

This may hinder your endeavours http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/ICML
(Shameless plug) [angel, Jul 17 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

RFR? http://www.richards.../default.asp?S=2215
Doesn't say anything about dogs, though... [earl, Jul 19 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

This could be interesting - I sometimes do this with emails that have been forwarded on to me, where I don't know the author of the original message.
-- salachair, Jul 16 2002


Sorry, bliss, I was being a retard and didn't get it until after I'd posted!
-- salachair, Jul 16 2002


Australian? Ewe must be joking....mate.
-- TwoSheds, Jul 16 2002


AH-HA ! He's .... Welsh ?
-- 8th of 7, Jul 16 2002


There's something aboot this idea that I like, eh?
-- earl, Jul 16 2002


Well, it has a certain "je ne sais quoi".
-- TwoSheds, Jul 16 2002


There are packages designed to spot writing characteristics - that is how they identify new pieces as written by Shakespeare (or not). Presumably you could run those on the ideas and annotations here to spot regional patterns. (Probably turn out that everything is written by UnaBubba.)
-- DrCurry, Jul 16 2002


"...everything is written by UnaBubba" You (UnaBubba) just write that so that we wouldn't think that everything is written by UnaBubba, since UnaBubba wouldn't reveal it if it were true ... unless he knows that we would realize that revealing it wouldn't fool us and therefore writes this anno afterwards to confuse us/himself.
-- FarmerJohn, Jul 16 2002


My husband and I are wholly unacquainted with this UnaBubba person of whom you speak.
-- po, Jul 16 2002


Sorry TwoSheds! (feeling sheepish)
-- pfperry, Jul 17 2002


// (feeling sheepish) //

So you're from New Zealand, then...?
-- waugsqueke, Jul 19 2002


Oh I say.
-- sappho, Jul 19 2002


ya'll are nuts. ya' can't tell a thing about a dude from the way they write. catfishbone. ;-)
-- runforrestrun, Jul 19 2002


What of you aren't here makin' a mudhole are busy stompin' it dry.
-- reensure, Jul 19 2002


Wow!I had no idea you were from Roumania, reensure!
-- pfperry, Jul 19 2002


Fishbone. Not because it isn't a good idea but because it would take all of the fun out of the game. And, judging by the annos above, everyone seems to enjoy the game as it is.
-- DrBob, Jul 19 2002


I'm not one to piss on your leg and tell you "it's rainin".
-- reensure, Jul 19 2002


No blissmiss, the piss is just a red herring. Note the dropped 'g'.
-- DrBob, Jul 19 2002


Please to explain.
-- hob, Jul 19 2002


[rfr]: Are you Stan Richards? I'm trying to put all the pieces together...
-- earl, Jul 19 2002


hob, it's well known that the Scots (particularly Glaswegians) don't pronounce their g's. Added to reensure's anno on Ego Bell, I'd surmise that he's a hunchbacked camponologist from The Gorbals. Further given the preponderonce of letters from the left-hand side of the keyboard used in the name 'reensure', I would further add that he (and it's definitely he because a woman would never add a link to a pub on their profile page) is left-handed. Moreover, if the previous deductions are correct and reeinsure is, indeed Scottish, then the fact that he has never mentioned either Celtic or Rangers clearly indicates a rugby (union not league) supporter. Additionally, the fact that he didn't immediately add a comment on 'Pie Fritters' shows that he did not want to give himself away and is clearly of above average intelligence for a Glaswegian. Altogether, the evidence clearly reveals that reeinsure is the evil Professor Moriarty. It's all elementary my dear hob!
-- DrBob, Jul 19 2002


who then is Moriarty? Dr Bob. <wanders away to the nearest opium den, dazed and confused>
-- po, Jul 19 2002


//[rfr]: Are you Stan Richards?//

who the hell is Stan Richards?
<<<muttering under breath>>>
Damn Canadians, they're as bad as Yankees....
<<<muttering under breath>>>
-- runforrestrun, Jul 19 2002


[rfr]: Oh, nevermind... I was just linking mentally some of the random personal information you've shared since I arrived on the HB (including on this page) and making a wild guess. You're a Southerner, and you manage(?) / run(?) / own(?) / are a senior person at(?) an advertising agency...

[later] See link.
-- earl, Jul 19 2002


haven't been married to the same woman for 40 years <snicker> and don't have any kids other than the assortment of pets. Sold out the ad business 2? 3? 4? months ago (time flies)....now just have several restaurants which I've been avoiding since I moved....trying to break the workaholic mode and suffering from a midlife crisis. also currently losing my ass in the stock market. and how is your day going? oh, and I *really* do own part of a shrimpin' business....
-- runforrestrun, Jul 19 2002


¯DrBob: ‘Eh? Me, from the land o‘the likes o‘that Mel Gibson? Bonny! Aye, but I takes o‘me chill on another shore … and on nary a finger the spirit be.
-- reensure, Jul 19 2002



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