99.44% (was Re: German dialect in Texas)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:51 AM -0500 11/28/06, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
>Wilson writes:
>     >>>>>
>
>Chris has a point, though not necessarily the one she intended to
>make. Words beginning with /h/ in a Slavic language or in Rumanian are
>99.44% certain to be of non-native origin. The root of "haken" could
>easily be the historical source of both "haczyk" and "hacek."
>
>  <<<<<
>
>How widely used is that "99.44%"? And how many who use it are aware of its
>origin, Ivory Soap, "99 44/100 % pure" (IIRC)?
>
>-- Mark
>[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>
One diagnostic:  Those of a certain age who remember the Ivory Soap
commercial will recall that it's always "Ninety-nine and forty-four
one hundredths percent pure".  I don't say any other decimal percent
figures that way; "33.33% affected", for example, would be just
"Thirty-three point thirty-three percent", never "Thirty-three and
thirty-three one hundredths percent", affected. So if you say "99
point 44 percent", you're not a true member of the Ivory Soap ("So
pure it floats") generation.

H

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