99.44% (was Re: German dialect in Texas)

[Wilson Gray]

Curses! Horned again! C'moan, La'y! Give a bruvva a break!

-Wilson

On 11/28/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 99.44% (was Re: German dialect in Texas)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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