Is it Irish to be Cuil?

[Mark Mandel]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 2:41 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> I suppose, but this has a bit of the air of the old canard about how
> the Chevy Nova didn't sell in Spanish-speaking countries because "no
> va" means 'doesn't go' in Spanish--but in fact there's no evidence of
> depressed sales, nor would Spanish speakers have been likely to
> ignore the fact that "nova" is more likely to be associated with the
> meaning 'new' in Spanish, given "novela", "nueva", etc.  Of course
> these instances of cross-linguistic interference do facilitate puns,
> but I'd be more skeptical about effects on sales.

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

--
Mark Mandel

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