FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: A new BMessage implementation (Message4)

[Charlie Clark <charlie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2005-11-11 at 13:32:41 [+0100], Ingo Weinhold <bonefish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Charlie Clark wrote:
> 
> >
> > On 2005-11-11 at 12:59:16 [+0100], Ingo Weinhold 
> > <bonefish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >> Oh, OK. My English skills might be lacking here, but I think, it means
> >> exactly the opposite. Any native speaker cares to clarify: "... should be
> >> ... doable if not easy..." -- easy or not?
> >
> > "Machbar, wenn nicht einfach".
> 
> That's actually a bit ambiguous in German -- either "Machbar, wenn nicht
> sogar einfach" (maybe even easy) or "Machbar, wenn auch nicht
> einfach" (but not easy).

Exactly. It's the same in English (and French) where adverbs such as "sogar", 
"even" and "même" are used in speech together with emphasis to provide 
meaning. If you can hear what's being said, it's easy to know what's meant 
but not from a simple transcription.

There is, somewhere, a set of examples of similar transcriptions which are 
totally open to interpretation.

Charlie