7.968, Sum: The @ symbol
The Linguist List
linguist at tam2000.tamu.edu
Tue Jul 2 15:48:03 UTC 1996
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LINGUIST List: Vol-7-968. Tue Jul 2 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 1387
Subject: 7.968, Sum: The @ symbol
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
Associate Editor: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 15:43:47 +0800
From: karchung at ccms.ntu.edu.tw ("Karen S. Chung")
Subject: @ summary (*very* long)
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 15:43:47 +0800
From: karchung at ccms.ntu.edu.tw ("Karen S. Chung")
Subject: @ summary (*very* long)
WARNING: THIS FILE IS *LONG*!
Finally, the @ summary! So sorry it's taken so long, but I
hope you will find it worth the wait. I sure had fun with this. The
creativity that blossomed (one Turkish source calls @ a 'rose') from
one little @ is breathtaking.
Data came in for the following 37 languages: Afrikaans,
Arabic, Cantonese, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian,
Farsi, Finnish, French, Frisian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Mandarin
Chinese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian,
Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, and Turkish. There
is an expectedly heavy bias in this mix toward languages of Europe (26
of the 37 languages) and other more technologically advanced
regions. The response from the Netherlands was positively
overwhelming!
In one case, Tamil, the question definitely seemed to
influence the data - members of the Tamil list are *still* talking
about the best term to use for @!
A broad spectrum of metaphors, some very concrete and others
relatively abstract, is used to describe @, ranging from animals and
body parts (e.g. Chinese 'little mouse', Danish 'elephant's trunk',
Dutch 'monkey's tail', French, Hebrew, Italian, Korean 'snail',
Hungarian 'worm/maggot', Russian 'little dog', Swedish 'cat's foot',
Arabic, German, Turkish, 'ear') to food (e.g. Hebrew 'strudel',
Swedish 'cinnamon bun', Czech/Slovak 'collared herring/rollmop') to
letters of an alphabet (e.g. Norwegian 'curled alpha', Tamil _du_;
and the more abstract French, Italian, Russian 'commercial "a"',
Serbian 'crazy "a"'); some are direct borrowings (e.g. Icelandic,
Cantonese) or translations (e.g. Romanian, Greek) of the English 'at';
and there are a few variants of the Spanish weight measure _arroba_,
(e.g. Catalan _arrova_/_rova_, French _arobase_).
There are interesting patterns of influence, sometimes within
a language family or subfamily, sometimes within a geographical area,
and sometimes from dominant cultures (the English 'at' turns up in
several disparate languages).
Much more could be said, but I will let those interested
figure it out for themselves from the data!
Karen Steffen Chung
National Taiwan University
karchung at ccms.ntu.edu.tw
Many, many thanks to the 105 (!) individuals who contributed to this
project:
Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz <axast2+ at pitt.edu>
Amira Agameya <aagameya at auc-acs.eun.eg>
Lotfi Ben Ahmed <e441 at ugru.uaeu.ac.ae>
Maria Cristina F S Altman <altman at usp.br>
Pascale Amozig <pascale at tovna.co.il>
Gisle Andersen <gisle.andersen at eng.uib.no>
Malte Andreasson <fredrika at oden.se>
Cheryl AndristPlourde <c-andrist at nwu.edu>
Tareef Attar <ax436 at freenet.carleton.ca>
Cyril Belica <belica at ids-mannheim.de>
Unni Berland <Unni.Berland at eng.uib.no>
Jose Eugenio Borao <borao at cc.ntu.edu.tw>
Piero Bottari <bottari at mbox.vol.it>
Paula Bouffard <d211744 at er.uqam.ca>
E. Wayles Browne <ewb2 at cornell.edu>
HUseyin Canbolat <huseyic at ces.clemson.edu>
Lisa J. Conathan <lisa.j.conathan at dartmouth.edu>
Louise Cornelis <louise.cornelis at let.ruu.nl>
Peter De Bie <debie at novell.com>
Bart Diels <b.diels at student.kun.nl>
Jean-Louis Duchet <duchet at univ-poitiers.fr>
Alex Eulenberg <aeulenbe at indiana.edu>
James L. Fidelholtz <jfidel at siu.cen.buap.mx>
Frederik Fouvry <fouvry at essex.ac.uk>
Karthi Gesu <kgesu at usm.my>
Sean Golden <iuts0 at cc.uab.es>
Sandra Golstein <sandra at tovna.co.il>
Anthony Green <green at ippo.uniba.it>
Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk>
Soren Harder <sharder at ling.hum.aau.dk>
Pierre Igot <igot at zeus.newedge.net>
Leonid Iomdin <uc611ac at sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de>
Hegedu:s Ire'n <ihegedus at btk.jpte.hu>
Przemyslaw Jablonski <u212386 at vm.uci.kun.nl>
Peter Jaumann <pjaumann at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>
Herman Kappen <hkappen at pi.net>
Birgit Kellner <kellner at hws.ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
Alexander King <aking at virginia.edu>
Petur Knutsson <peturk at rhi.hi.is>
Olaf N. Koeneman <Olaf.N.Koeneman at let.ruu.nl>
Koh <kohh at pc.jaring.my>
Jacek Koronacki <korona at ipipan.waw.pl>
Jacek Kostyrko <ifjk at vms.acad2.alaska.edu>
Ernst F. Kotze <afaefk at upe.ac.za>
Mette Kreutzmann <mette at sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
Esther Kuntjara <estherk at peter.petra.ac.id>
Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at Helsinki.fi>
Lucie Langlois <langlois at balzac.sti.uottawa.ca>
Peter A. Lazar <lapid at osiris.elte.hu>
Chungmin Lee <clee at plaza.snu.ac.kr>
Lee-yong Tan <leeyong at cog.psy.cuhk.hk>
Judith Levi <jlevi at casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Jan Lindstrom <jklindst at polva.helsinki.fi>
Angelika Mayer Loo <anlo at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>
Lu Bingfu <bingfu at chaph.usc.edu>
Eva Madry <emadry at ibm.net>
Ruta Marcinkeviciene <ruta.marcinkeviciene at vdu.lt>
Anna Matamala Ripoll <annamat at intercom.es>
Steve Matthews <matthews at hkucc.hku.hk>
Michalis Milapides <milapides at olymp.ccf.auth.gr>
Igor Milosavlevich <igor at sedal.usyd.edu.au>
Ali Mohammadi <mohamada at net1cs.modares.ac.ir>
Virginia Motapanyane <mota at admin1.unbsj.ca>
Folke A. Nettelblad <Folke.Nettelblad at uadm.uu.se>
Markus Nussbaumer <mnussbau at ds.unizh.ch>
Jan Odijk <odijkje at natlab.research.philips.com>
Erik Oltmans <oltmans at cs.utwente.nl>
Tassos Panopoulos <tassospa at netor.gr>
Jaan Penjam <jaan at greta.cs.ioc.ee>
Christian Heyde Petersen <chp at language.ou.dk>
Homme Piest <piest at pobox.leidenuniv.nl>
Wilfried Pieters <wilfried.pieters at ping.be>
Amara Prasithrathsint <amarapra at chulkn.car.chula.ac.th>
Ole Ravnholt <ravnholt at hum.auc.dk>
Alexandr Rosen <alexandr.rosen at ff.cuni.cz>
Dina Rosenfeld <denro at netvision.net.il>
Rosental Mikhal <rosen2 at hum.huji.ac.il>
Anne Ruh <ruh.am at pg.com>
Deborah D. Kela Ruuskanen <druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi>
Lisa Seitz <elisabeth.seitz at uni-tuebingen.de>
Danko Sipka <sipkadan at hum.amu.edu.pl>
Nigel Smith <smithrn at lamp.ac.uk>
Eva Stro"m <eva.strom at wineasy.se>
Peter Szigetvari <szigetva at osiris.elte.hu>
As Halil Teletas <ash at sebb.bel.alcatel.be>
Bruno Tersago <Bruno.Tersago at ccl.kuleuven.ac.be>
Theriault Alain <theriaal at ere.umontreal.ca>
Craig Thiersch <c.l.thiersch at kub.nl>
Serge Thion <thion at msh-paris.fr>
Yishai Tobin <yishai at bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
Carolina Turrini <tov1356 at comune.bologna.it>
Vassilis Vagios <vvagios at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>
0ystein Alexander Vangsnes <vangsnes at foli.uib.no>
Theo Vennemann <tvn at cis.uni-muenchen.de>
John Verhaar <101457.3114 at compuserve.com>
Maurice Vliegen <vliegen at mede@taalk>
Peansiri Vongvipanond <artfpvv at chulkn.car.chula.ac.th>
Gerry Wanders <G.Wanders at let.uva.nl>
Soeren Wichmann <soeren at cphling.dk>
Jeroen Wiedenhof <jmwied at rullet.leidenuniv.nl>
Shuly Wintner <shuly at cs.technion.ac.il>, <shuly at techunix.bitnet>
Henk Wolf <wolf at fa.knaw.nl>
Adam Zachary Wyner <mswyner at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
Eric Zee <ctlzee at cityu.edu.hk>
Paul Kingsbury <kingsbur at unagi.cis.upenn.edu>
AFRIKAANS
** In Afrikaans, some e-mailers have started using the term "aapstert"
(= monkey's tail), which is also a term used jokingly to address
children who have done something stupid.
Ernst F. Kotze <afaefk at upe.ac.za>
ARABIC
** I do not know what the @ is called in Arabic, but I call it
informally "othon", which means ear or formally "3alamat 3Inda".
Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz <axast2+ at pitt.edu>
** From Egypt: I have asked a few people, mainly typists, what the @
sign is called in Arabic, and to my surprise I found out that it does
not exist on manual Arabic keyboards. It is only found on
dual--English and Arabic-- keyboards of electronic and word processor
keyboards.
Most of the people I asked did not even notice it was on the
keyboard, and therefore did not have a name for it. Only two people
had a name for it. The first used the English translation of 'at' and
called it 'fi'. The second called it 'a', thinking that it is some
kind of sign referring to the letter 'a'.
Amira Agameya <aagameya at auc-acs.eun.eg>
** From the United Arab Emirates: Email has been around for two years
in the institution where I work. We often use the word "at" for the @
symbol because our e-mail addresses are all in English codes.
Lotfi Ben Ahmed <e441 at ugru.uaeu.ac.ae>
** I think it's called 'at', just like in English.
Tareef Attar <ax436 at freenet.carleton.ca>
CANTONESE
** Thanks for your query on the local pronunciation of "@". As you may
have found out by now, the answer is not terribly interesting but
typically Hong Kong: they pronounce it "at". I'll let you know if I
find any alternatives.
Steve Matthews <matthews at hkucc.hku.hk>
** Interestingly we have not yet come up with a term in Cantonese for
"@". We refer to it as the way it is pronounced in English as many
loan words in Cantonese. This goes for a computer mouse too - a
vernacular Cantonese equivalent[lou Sy] has never been used. It is
simply referred to as [mao Si]. This I think has to do with the speech
habits of the HK speakers who are accustomed to code mixing. I may
want to suggest to the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong to refer to "@"
as [lou Sy fu hou] parallelling the way you call it in Taiwan.
Eric Zee <ctlzee at cityu.edu.hk>
** I got your email inquiry regarding what the symbol "@" was called
in Cantonese. I will be happy to help you out, but to be honest, I am
not a native speaker of Cantonese, either, although I do speak the
dialect fairly well. Lao3 Shu3 Hao4 in Cantonese would be
/lou//hsu//ngan/.
Lee-yong Tan <leeyong at cog.psy.cuhk.hk>
CATALAN
** In Catalan there is a little bit of confusion about this term.
Most people call it "arrova" or "rova" (the two "a" are pronounced
like cupbOArd or mothEr; the "rr" is rolled; and the "v" is pronounced
like a soft English "b") because this symbol corresponds to a unit of
measure. Maybe it is because ot the influence of Spanish. I actually
work in a newspaper and we use the term "arrova". However, I was quite
surprised to know that the linguists of one of the main Catalan radio
stations suggest speakers should say "at".
Anna Matamala Ripoll <annamat at intercom.es>
CZECH and SLOVAK
** In Slovak, the '@' sign is called _zavinac_, 'rollmops'. (The
second _a_ has a grave accent. The _c_ has a hacek accent.)
I first heard this usage some 15 years ago. Since I am not
familiar with any standard pronunciation transcription scheme, I'll
give you an English approximation:
z as z in zoom
a as o in mother
v as v in view
i as i in hit
n as n in net
a+grave as a in past
c+hacek as ch in check
The initial '_za_' is stressed.
Cyril Belica <belica at ids-mannheim.de>
** In Czech, the @ sign is colloquially called zavin\'a\v{c} (LaTeX
diacritics), according to my Czech-English dictionary `collared
herring', `rollmop'. The spelling is more or less phonetic, with the
accented "a" long, the "c" with caron as "ch" in "chocolate" and the
stress on the first syllable.
From a second communication: The Czech colloquial term for
`commercial at' (the official term is just a calque of the English
one) is spelled "zavinac", with an acute accent (') on the second "a"
and a hacek (a little "v") on the top of "c".
Alexandr Rosen <alexandr.rosen at ff.cuni.cz>
DANISH
** In Danish, 'grisehale' 'pig's tail' is occasionally heard, but the
received reading is 'snabel-a', i.e. 'trunk a', that is 'an a with an
elephant's trunk attached'. That's a nice one, isn't it? I have also
heard the expression 'master space' which seems to go back to some
arcane terminology of some operating system for some vintage IBM
mainframe computer.
Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk>
** In Danish the @-character is called: 'snabel-a'; "(elephants)
trunk-a".
Soren Harder <sharder at ling.hum.aau.dk>
** In Danish, the @ is called and spelled: "snabel a". A "snabel"
means the trunk of an elephant, and the "a" is just the letter a. I'm
not sure how to explain the pronunciation, but it is close to English
except for the "a" which is both shorter and flatter and it doesn't
have the diphthong sound /ai/. I have probably known the term for
about 10-12 years. (I am Danish though currently studying in Germany.)
Mette Kreutzmann <mette at sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
** As far as I know there are two ways of referring to @ in Danish;
it's either called _alfa(-tegn)_ which is _alpha(-sign)_ in English,
or _snabel_ which is proboscis/elephant's trunk in English.
I think they are used in 'two different areas': I say
alfa-tegn to people who (I think) are new to e-mailing, but _snabel_
to everybody else.
Christian Heyde Petersen <chp at language.ou.dk>
** In Danish @ is called "snabel-a", which translates as "trunk-a", an
elephant's trunk i.e., not the trunk of a tree.
Ole Ravnholt <ravnholt at hum.auc.dk>
** The sign @ is called _snabel-a_ `trunk a' in Danish. The
designation refers to the likeness of a elephant's trunk combined with
the letter a. Elephants and mice usually don't get mixed up
cross-linguistically, so this case perhaps calls for a paper
countering some version of universal grammar?
Soeren Wichmann <soeren at cphling.dk>
DUTCH
** In Dutch, we call @ `at' (as in English), but also `apestaartje'
`monkey-tail-DIMINUTIVE' (the diminutive is very productive in Dutch,
but it is optional, so `apestaart' works as well). ...
Louise Cornelis <Louise.cornelis at let.ruu.nl>
** In Dutch it is sometimes referred to as "apestaart", which means
"tail of a monkey". I have no idea how frequently this term is used.
Peter De Bie <debie at novell.com>
** In Dutch, the @-symbol is usually referred to as "apestaart" (lit.
"monkey's tail": "ap" (with a long /a/; from: "aap") meaning "monkey",
"staart" meaning "tail", and "e" (a shwa) being a linking morpheme.
I am not sure about the etymology of this word, but I think
the fact that the letter "a" can be recognized in the sign plays a
role in the word's origin: something like "a met staart" ("a with
tail") could have devellopped to "apestaart", which is phonologically
close tot it.
I do not know of other ways in Dutch tot refer to this symbol:
as far as I know, "apestaart" is by far the most common name for it,
if not the only one. I think I first heard it being used some eight
years ago.
Bart Diels <b.diels at student.kun.nl>
** A nice name for @ in Dutch is "apestaart" (or the diminutive
"apestaartje"), meaning `monkey tail'. It is especially nice that the
name starts with an "a", and looks very much like a monkey tail: it
makes it very mnemonic.
Another is "a-krol" or "a-krul", meaning `a-(with-a-)curl'.
("a" and "aa" are pronounced in both cases like "aa" in the
German "Saar" or "Staat". The "e" is pronounced as a schwa, and the
stress in the first word is on the first syllable. The stress in the
second name is on the second syllable (a rather unusually stressed
word). krul is pronounced /kryl/.)
Frederik Fouvry <fouvry at essex.ac.uk>
** The Dutch have an original and funny name for the "@"sign: it is
referred to as "apestaartje", which means "a monkey's tail". The
reason is obviously to be found in the form of the symbol, and perhaps
also because "apestaartje" also starts with the letter "A".
As far as I know, the Dutch term has existed for quite a long
time, possibly since the symbol appeared on the computer keyboard.
Herman Kappen <hkappen at pi.net>
** In Dutch the at-symbol is usually referred to as "apestaart",
meaning `monkey's tail'.
Olaf N. Koeneman <Olaf.N.Koeneman at let.ruu.nl>
** In Dutch `@' is called `apestaart', i.e. `monkey's tail'
Jan Odijk <odijkje at natlab.research.philips.com>
** In Dutch, "@" is often called "apestaartje", i.e. "little tail of a
monkey".
Erik Oltmans <oltmans at cs.utwente.nl>
** In Dutch it is called "apestaart" ("monkey's tail") or (diminutive)
"apestaartje" ("[little[monkey's tail]]". The first form mostly is
used bare, like when telling somebody your email address: "My address
is piest "apestaart" pobox.leidenuniv.nl". The second form is used on
other occasions; because it's a diminutive it's more fitting than
"apestaart" there (pointing at the sign and saying it's an "apestaart"
would more or less imply it's bigger than usual).
Pronuncation: something like "Ap at stArt", "Ap at stArtj@" (A =
long a, @ = schwa). N.B. I'm not sure whether this names will be used
in the future or not: the Dutch generally don't seem to mind lending
some words from English, and since more and more people are getting
acquainted with the Internet over here the symbol is more and more
frequently just called "at", like in English including English
pronuncation <et>). But I'm quite sure no one would have called it
that as far back as 1989: I remember having had a discussion about it
with some friends, and no one of us seemed able to come up with the
official term (whatever it was), we all called it "apestaartje".
Primary stress falls on the first A: "A'pestaart",
"A'pestaartje", secondary stress on -staar-. Syllables with schwa's
are never stressed in Dutch.
First time I heard someone calling it "at" must have been
about 3 or 4 months ago.
Homme Piest <piest at pobox.leidenuniv.nl>
** We call it usually APESTAART (AAP "monkey" + STAART "tail" ->
"monkey's tail"). That's the word I always hear in the Dutch speaking
part of Belgium. In the Netherlands it's the same word I think,
eventually in the diminutive form (APESTAARTJE). In a recent
publication about Internet (380 Internet tips & trucs, by
HenkEllermann, Amsterdam 1995) I found on page 141 following
explanation: the original name was EEN A MET EEN SLINGER ("an a with a
swinging" -), but soon it became popularly called APESTAARTJE or
SLINGERAAP (literally "swinging monkey", which is the Dutch equivalent
for "spider monkey"). But I must tell you that I never heard
personally that last word (slingeraap): maybe it's used only in the
Netherlands.
Wilfried Pieters <Wilfried.Pieters at ping.be>
** I think the @-sign is sometimes call a-scroll in English as well.
Anyway: I speak Dutch and we sometimes call it "apestaart" or the
diminutive "apestaartje" which means "monkey's tail". A fine metaphor,
I should say ;-)
Bruno Tersago <Bruno.Tersago at ccl.kuleuven.ac.be>
** Dutch = apestaart (`monkeytail' from aap=monkey, staart=tail).
Craig Thiersch <c.l.thiersch at kub.nl>
** In Dutch I have heard it called _apenstaart_ 'monkey's tail'.
John Verhaar <101457.3114 at compuserve.com>
** In Dutch the symbol @ is called ape_staart 'monkey tail'.
Gerry Wanders <G.Wanders at let.uva.nl>
** The @ sign in Dutch is called: 'apestaart' (monkey's tail).
Maurice Vliegen <vliegen at mede@taalk>
** In Dutch the most common form seems to be _apestaartje_, literally
'little monkey tail' (from _aap_ 'monkey'; _-e-_ attributive; _staart_
'tail'; _-je_ diminutive);
Pronunciation: [``ap at st`aRC@], with [``] = main stress; [@] =
schwa; [`] = secondary stress [R] = dorsovelar aproximant (in formal
speech, this may become a dorsovelar trill or an apico-alveolar trill;
in informal speech, the consonant disappears and the preceding [a] is
lengthened); [C] = palato-alveolar affricate; the other symbols
according to IPA.
There is also the more facetious _apeklootje_, literally
'little monkey testicle' (cf. vulgar _kloot_ 'testicle'). The
pronunciation is [``ap at kl`oC@].
I heard the latter term just once or twice, maybe three years
ago.It does not seem to be very common,but it may have been more
succesful in restricted groups (hackers? computer whizkids? male
speakers talking among themselves?). The expression is not really
coarse, just slightly naughty.
The use of diminutive forms for diacritic signs is widespread
in Dutch. Compare _hekje_ 'little fence' for the # sign (from
_hek_'fence') and _haakjes_ 'little hooks' for the ( and ) signs (from
_haak_ 'hook').
Jeroen Wiedenhof <jmwied at rullet.leidenuniv.nl>
** In Dutch it's most often called _apestaartje_ (monkey's tail). I
have also heard _slinger-a'tje_ (little swing a).
Henk Wolf <wolf at fa.knaw.nl>
ENGLISH
** I learned @ in my first office job as a high school student in
Chicago, Illinois in 1962 or 63. It was just called the at sign, and
there was no more whimsy or curiosity about it than there was about $,
or =A2, or %.
Michal Brody <brody at mail.utexas.edu>
** I have been told that @ is called "commercial 'A'" in English.
Sean Golden <iuts0 at cc.uab.es>
** Another interesting bit that I just read today (now that's real
_usage_:
>In regards 2 boots, there R a couple of places here in Austin where U
>can get just @ any boot CD on the man. I haven't been able to buy
>much because they're expensive but U might B able 2 call them directly
>& place UR order over the phone or via mail. If any1 is interested
>e-mail me back and I'll get the info. 4 U. Also I would like 2 get
>the MPLS news coverage of any1 who recorded the BIG event. Please
>e-mail me back and let me know. I can send you'll a video tape.
>Thanks & Peace and B Wild Nidia
Note the "@" in the second line that stands for "about" !
Guess this thing is continually evolving! :-)
Pierre Igot <igot at zeus.newedge.net>
** I don't know how relevant this is to your inquiry, but I have seen
the @ sign also referred to in English as a 'snail.' This is the usage
on the newsgroup alt.fan.warlord, which seems to be dominated by
Australians.
Paul Kingsbury <kingsbur at unagi.cis.upenn.edu>
** In English I don't even say the word "sign", just "my address is
druuskan at cc dot helsinki dot fi (each letter separately except for
helsinki and fi, pronnounced fee).
Deborah D. Kela Ruuskanen <druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi>
ESTONIAN
** In Estonian @ is officially called: kommertsma"rk. a" is Estonian
umlaut a (like in German, but is pronounced rather than German
e). This is the word officially fixed by standard and can be
translated as 'commercial sign'. There are some other slang words used
as well, for instance 'komerts-a"tt'.
Jaan Penjam <jaan at greta.cs.ioc.ee>
FARSI
** It is a pleasure to answer your question but I am afraid to let you
know that there is no word in Farsi for @ sign. I consulted some of my
collegues at our computer center but not a single person knew of any
word for the sign in question; We simply pronounce it like 'at sign'.
Ali Mohammadi <mohamada at net1cs.modares.ac.ir>
FINNISH
** As for Finnish: The first time I ever heard about the sign @ was in
the early 1980's, when an acquaintance of mine used it (in an ordinary
IBM typewriter - we didn't have any computers yet in our department)
in some special use (I have forgotten what it was): she taught me to
call it "kissanh=E4nt=E4" (kissa 'cat' + -n [GEN] + h=E4nt=E4
'tail'). Later on, I have heard other names for it in Finnish, also
connected with "cats": "miau", "miumau" or "miuku" (all onomatopoetic:
"meow"; the last one could be analyzed as containing a "nominifying"
(quasi-)suffix -ku). The first one , I think, even appeared in a kind
of a computer manual (unfortunately, I have forgotten where). (I have
also met computer people who insist on using the English word "at".)
Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at helsinki.fi>
** Finnish and Swedish are influenced by each other in bilingual
regions such as Helsinki, so it is no wonder that the [Swedish]
cat-metaphor also exists in Finnish appellations, like "kissanhanta"
(the last two a's with umlaut, pronounced like the vowel in the
auxiliary "have", "hanta" meaning 'tail'), i.e. 'a cat's tail). Other
animal refences are recorded as well: "apinanhanta" (see pron. etc
under SWEDISH), i.e. 'a monkey's tail', or "hiirenhanta" (ibid.),
i.e. 'a mouse's tail'.
As some languages make poetry out of the sign, Finnish makes
onomatopoeia out of it! With a reference to the cat, @-sign may be
called "miau" (i.e. 'miaow') or "miukumauku" (appr. the as the
former), that is, an imitation of a cat's meowing.
>>From a second communication:
About the Finnish "miukumauku": perhaps it is more appropriate
to see this as a development from the origininal onomatopoeic
expression "miau". The rest part ("-mauku") resembles the verb for
'meowing', i.e. "naukua". The whole expression feels like a noun, I
think in baby talk a cat might be called "miukumauku" in a manner
rather similar to the English "bow-wow" for 'dog'. But in both cases,
the origins lie in onomatopoeia.
Jan Lindstrom <jklindst at polva.helsinki.fi>
** In Finnish, the sign is called the "miau merkki" (meow merk-key),
from the supposed resemblance to a cat with its tail curled round it -
also I think the alliteration of the "m" contributes. The word for
mouse in Finnish is hiiri, but mouse means mouse i.e. the cursor
control, and is so attached as signifier/signified that mouse cannot
be used for anything else. Another fun thing in internet/computer
language is what does the mouse "say" - there was a big debate in
Poland recently when the computer manuals had to be translated from
English: many translators in Poland refused to have a "mouse" that
"said" CLICK! Everyone knows mice SQUEAK, after all. Anyway, we have a
meow mark or meow sign for "at" in Finnish. My keyboard won't make
it, BTW, when using the email software editor. I have to copy and
paste it from somewhere else.
Please post a summary. This is fun: the metaphors being used
are really interesting. I wonder how many computer nerds in Finland
have cats as pets as opposed to dogs....
Deborah D. Kela Ruuskanen <druuskan at cc.helsinki.fi>
** It's called "kissanh=E4nt=E4" in Finnish. I'm not sure if you are
getting my Scandinavian letters so let point out that there should be
two little dots above the last two "a"-letters in the word
"kissanhnt".
The meaning of the word is "cat tail".
Miika Vanhapiha <miika.vanhapiha at helsinki.fi>
FRENCH
** As far as I know, in French, the @ sign is called "arobase" (say
"arobass") and sometimes "escargot" (say "escargo"), which means
"snail".
Pascale Amozig <pascale at tovna.co.il>
** In French we call the @ "a commercial" (commercial a).
Paula Bouffard <d211744 at er.uqam.ca>
** In French it is referred to as 'arobase'. I have heard it referred
to as such by programmers and computers specialists for the past five
years at least. In English I have always heard it referred to as
'arobase' (pronounced as if "air o' base"), and some computer firm has
used this word for some software or for the name of the firm, I don't
remember exactly, although I have seen it spelt arobace in that
context. The Oxford English Dictionary has the spanish arroba in its
meaning of the measurement unit for 25 lb. ...
>>From a second message:
['Arobase'] does not mean anything, in the sense that it is
not derived from anything else by metaphor. It is obviously derived
from the Spanish word, but it is difficult to know why it has a
consonant added (might be derived from the plural of the Spanish word)
and although I have heard it used orally it is not in dictionaries,
not even in big ones.
Jean-Louis Duchet <duchet at univ-poitiers.fr>
** My first language is French and some people call it: <a commercial>
("commercial a") even though I have no idea where this comes from. I
heard this for the first time long ago when PCs were first introduced
(early 80's, I guess), where it was already used for electronic
purposes (even though I can't exactly remember which).
It is never used in French as it is used by grocers in the
English-speaking world (meaning "at"). The first time I ever saw this
sign was on a computer keyboard.
From a second message: Since you're still working on your
summary, I thought I would mention that I just found out about two
more metaphors for the "@" symbol in French: @ = "a escargot" ("snail
a") and @ = "a enroule'" ("coiled a"). Apparently, the "a escargot"
one is even mentioned in a French-English dictionary somewhere. This
comes from the "france-langue" mailing list, which is currently
discussing this issue (among many others).
Pierre Igot <igot at zeus.newedge.net>
** We [French speakers] call it the "a commercial" (which means the
"business a"). I believe that word's been around for quite some time,
although I would be hard pressed to tell you when I personally heard
it first.
Lucie Langlois <langlois at balzac.sti.uottawa.ca>
** Apparently it is called 'petit escargot' (little snail) in French.
Although I know French, I didn't know this until I read it in a
British computer magazine, _PC Pro_. I have not yet checked its
accuracy with native speakers!
Nigel Smith <smithrn at lamp.ac.uk>
** In French, it is called un "A commercial" or a commercial "a".
Theriault Alain <theriaal at ere.umontreal.ca>
** In French, I learned three or four years ago that @ is an
"arobase", although I believe most people do not know the word (not
the sign). No known meaning or relative. I have heard people calling
it a snail (escargot).
Serge Thion <thion at msh-paris.fr>
FRISIAN
** In Frisian it's usually _apesturtsje_ (monkey's tail). I've also
heard _aapke_ (little monkey).
Henk Wolf <wolf at fa.knaw.nl>
GERMAN
** Re @ in German: _Klammeraffe_, 'spider monkey' (literally,
'clinging monkey'); and _Ohr_, 'ear'.
Angelika Loo <anlo at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>,
Peter Jaumann <pjaumann at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>
** ... a correction: although it is true that German 'Klammer' means
'bracket' (it also can mean 'peg'), 'Klammeraffe' is rather derived
from the verb '[sich] klammern', 'to cling', and means a 'clinging
monkey' or rather 'sapajou' as the dictionary tells me. (The idea is
of course that the monkey uses its curly tail to hang down from trees
or the like.)
Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk>
** In your recent posting to LINGUIST, you translated the German
expression for "@", "Klammeraffe", as "bracket-monkey". My modest
native-speaker language-competence, supported by Langenscheidt's
German-English-dictionary, however, would understand "Klammeraffe"
rather as a monkey who likes to cling ("klammern" as a verb, as
opposed to "Klammer" as "brackets"). Langenscheidt gives
"spider-monkey" as an equivalent, and also quotes the idiom "Er ist
ein Klammeraffe" ("He is like a leech"). A "Klammeraffe", thus, is
simply somebody (or something) which tends to stick to other people
(or things), and the expression has decidedly negative
connotations. Don'task me why "@" was termed this way.
Birgit Kellner <kellner at hws.ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
** Ich sage fuer @ meistens "Affenschwanz", und mit mir sagen das hier
in Zuerich noch einige andere. Ich habe aber keine Ahnung, woher das
kommt, ausser dass es mir von der Form her
einleuchtet. Moeglicherweise eine Weiterentwicklung des
"Klammeraffen".
(Translation: I say mostly "Affenschwanz" ('monkey's tail')
for @, and some others here in Zurich use this term, too. I have no
idea, however, where it comes from, though it might be because of the
shape of the character. It could possibly be a further development of
'Klammerfaffe'. - KSC)
Markus Nussbaumer <mnussbau at ds.unizh.ch>
** I think that the term "Klammeraffe" is even more poetical than you
thought, getting quite near the Chinese option.
"Affe", of course, means "monkey", but "klammern", a verb,
means "to hold fast" ("Klammer" as a noun does mean "bracket", but I
think not in this context). Now there is a special kind of monkey
which moves from tree to tree using its tail to get hold on the
branches (according to the dictionary, in English this monkey is
called "red-faced spider monkey", which isn't much helpful here). The
sign @ *does* look like a monkey's tail, doesn't it?
Lisa Seitz <elisabeth.seitz at uni-tuebingen.de>
** German Klammer means bracket all right, but in the compound
Klammeraffe (Affe means monkey and is etymologically the same as
English ape - a word of unknown origin, by the way), klammer- is
verbal and means to cling on to, clutch to. Perhaps clingmonkey or
clutchmonkey would be a snappy translation.
From a second communication: A while ago I sent you remarks on
German Klammeraffe. I think I then merely wrote that the literal
translation into English would be something like cling-monkey or
clasp-monkey, considering the meaning of the German verb
klammern. What I did not mention was that Klammeraffe is also a
zoological technical term, designating a branch of the New World
capuchin monkeys, to wit the spider monkeys or ateles.
Theo Vennemann <tvn at cis.uni-muenchen.de>
GREEK
** In reply to your question please note that we, Greeks, use the same
symbol in our e-mail communications because we have to due to the fact
that it has become a convention (see Language and Cultural
Imperialism). However, when translated we use the expression "sto"
which means "at".
From a second communication: We use "at" for the symbol @. But
if we need to translate that symbol we will say "sto" if the name of
the network is neuter*, "sto(n) if the name is masculine, and "sti(n)"
if feminine. In Greek articles show gender. Please, note that n is in
parenthesis because its realization depends on the sound that follows.
(*Note from Vassilis Vagios, professor of Classical Greek at
NTU <vvagios at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>: E-mail sservers in Greece have names
like "Ariadne", which is of course feminine.)
Michalis Milapides <milapides at olymp.ccf.auth.gr>
** In Greek - so far as I know - there is no specific word for this
sign. Usually, we use the phrase "the @ sign".
Tassos Panopoulos <tassospa at netor.gr>
HEBREW
** In Hebrew, we use "shablul" (pronounce "shablool"), meaning
"snail", or "Strudel", from the famous roll-shaped small sweet
buns. These two terms are very current and I heard them since I
started speaking Hebrew, 4 years ago.
Pascale Amozig <pascale at tovna.co.il>
Forwarded by Judith Levi:
>I have a heard people using the word shtrudel for @ but, as a quite
>involved email and cyberspace user, I cannot say it became a generic
>term. Most people say "at" in English, others say "you know what" and
>still others "chupchik" which is in Yiddish for "peak" or something like
>that. ronen
>
Cheryl AndristPlourde <c-andrist at nwu.edu>
** In Hebrew, @ is called "snail" (shablul).
Sandra Golstein <sandra at tovna.co.il>
** By chance, I stumbled on this issue when speaking in Hebrew with an
Israeli cousin who was just learning to do e-mail.I learned that *she*
had learned to call it "strudel" (pronounced a la Viennese, i.e.,
shtrudel [roughly]). (There are, of course, many Israelis whose
parents come from Europe, and so the actual pastry called "shtrudel"
is common in Israel.) ...
Judith Levi <jlevi at casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
** In Israel we call it 'strudel' because it reminds us of rolled up
cake.
Dina Rosenfeld <denro at netvision.net.il>
** In Hebrew we call it Shtrudl, which is the German name of a cake
made from thin dough wrapped around some kind of filling. The word has
been in use by computer programers for years.
Rosental Mikhal <rosen2 at hum.huji.ac.il>
** In colloquial Israeli Hebrew when we give our e-mail addresses we
often refer to @ as a strudel (from the German or Austrian pastry I
think because of its shape) pronounced: SHtrudel.
Yishai Tobin <yishai at bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
** This is certainly not the dictionary definition, but computer
scientists in Israel usually use the term [shtrudl] for the '@'
sign. I, for one, have heard this term at least 10 years ago, and I
assume it was common in the internet users community long before I
first heard it. [shtrudl] is the Hebrew pronunciation of the German
'Strudel' (sp?), which is a pastry consisting of rolled dough filled
with (usually) apples. The pastry is popular in Israel, in its German
name, and I guess the rolled dough reminds one of the '@'.
Shuly Wintner shuly at cs.technion.ac.il shuly at techunix.bitnet
** In Israel, @ is called "Strudel". As a non-Israeli, non-Hebrew
speaker, I only understood this on an occassion when sitting with a
friend over coffee and strudel, we exchanged e-mail addresses in
Hebrew.
Adam Zachary Wyner <mswyner at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
HUNGARIAN
** Hungarian calls the @ sign "kukac" (= worm/maggot).
"Hegedu:s Ire'n" <IHEGEDUS at btk.jpte.hu>
** A Hungarian teacher of our department called it "kukac" ('worm').
Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at helsinki.fi>
**...[In Hungarian] @ is kukac ("coo-cots") is 'worm' (the type you
expect to find in an apple). Nobody including grocers and typists had
ever heard about the darned thing before computers came in -- not only
has Hungarian never used it but also, no typewriter has ever had a
kukac (the old machines were based on German models rather).
From a second message: A colleague here says 'maggot' is the word
for the thing. And he's English, which I'm not...
Peter A Lazar <lapid at osiris.elte.hu>
in reality: Lazar A. Peter, in that order
** The @ sign is usually referred to as _kukac_ [kukats] `worm' in
Hungarian. (The [a] is low, back, rounded, very similar to RP's _hot_
sound.)
Peter Szigetvari <szigetva at osiris.elte.hu>
ICELANDIC
** As far as I know we haven't a name yet - we just say "att"
(pronounced [aht])
Petur Knutsson <peturk at rhi.hi.is>
INDONESIAN
** [Re @:] People just pronounce it as : [ /\ ] like the /u/ in the
word 'but'.
Esther Kuntjara <estherk at peter.petra.ac.id>
ITALIAN
** In Italian the word for @ I've often heard (I use it myself) is
"chiocciola" pronounced /kjotSola/ where /tS/ stands for a voiceles
palatal affricate (the first consonant of the English word
'church'). The literal meanin is 'snail; in particular, in Italian
there are two words for 'snail', 'chiocciola' and 'lumaca', the former
especially referring to the shell: the visual relationship with @,
then, is straigtforward.
Piero Bottari <bottari at mbox.vol.it>
** In Italian we call it a "chiocciola" which is the Italian for a
snail, which is one of the prettiest images I've heard. (Notice how
the shell spirals round to protect the flesh!).
From a second communication: To complete what I wrote before
about Italian, we also call it the "A commerciale" similar to
French. By the way, if you're not familiar with Italian, chiocciola is
pronounced something like "ki-'o-cho-la" with second-syllable stress
and short O sounds.
Anthony Green <green at ippo.uniba.it>
** [In Italian the term for @ ] is 'chiocciola'.
Carolina Turrini <tov1356 at comune.bologna.it>
JAPANESE
** Indeed, it's been bothering us laymen, who are not familiar with
jargons in accounting or computer. A lot of Japanese do not know what
to call the symbol. I used to say something like "the a with a circle
around it" in Japanese until I started e-mail two years ago. Now I say
"atto maak (='at' mark), the a with a circle around it, you know, it's
called atto maaku." I hear that people in accounting normally call it
"atto maaku". Computer people call it "atto maaku", too. Japanese has
a set of letters called katakana to be used for loan words, and
foreign words are used quite commonly with Japanized pronunciation.
Masayoshi Hirose <hirose at icu.ac.jp>
KOREAN
** Well, I heard many of my Korean folks call it 'dalphaengi' (snail
in Korean). yes, it looks like a snail. But isn't it funny and
ironical, since snail mail is opposed to e-mail in english?
From a second communication: The whole thing is a one morpheme
word meaning 'snail'. Its syllable division is dal-phaeng-i.
Chungmin Lee <clee at plaza.snu.ac.kr>
LITHUANIAN
** This sign has "official" or teminological name in Lithuanian -
comercial et, but people simply call ir an email sign. Some, having
mixed it up with the English abbreviation for the word "and" translate
it into Lithuanian equivalent"ir".
Ruta Marcinkeviciene <Ruta.Marcinkeviciene at vdu.lt>
MANDARIN CHINESE
** In Taiwan Mandarin Chinese, @ is called _xiao3 lao3shu3_ 'little
mouse' or _lao3shu3 hao4_ 'mouse sign'.
Karen Steffen Chung <karchung at ccms.ntu.edu.tw>
** I call @ 'at-hao4' ['"at" sign'] or 'lao3shu3-hao4' ['"mouse"
sign'].
Lu Bingfu <bingfu at chaph.usc.edu>
** From Guangzhou: Your question was a puzzler and an eye-opener, as
none of the locals I asked (even the hard core internet ones) ever
called it anything - and in no way did "litttle mouse"et al ring abell
with them. They don't even call it "at". They were as puzzled as I as
they had never given it any thought. One said I guess I call it the
"thing over the two". That's as close as we all got.
Anne Ruh <ruh.am at pg.com>
NORWEGIAN
** In my native language, Norwegian, the sign is often called
'grisehale' (gris=pig, hale=tail, ie 'pig's tail'). In academic
circles, however, the English term 'at' is widely used.
Gisle Andersen <gisle.andersen at eng.uib.no>
** In Norwegian, the @ is called a "kro/ll-alfa", meaning "curl
alpha". I don't know when I first heard it, it is quite recent though,
I think, and very descriptive.
Unni Berland <Unni.Berland at eng.uib.no>
** Norwegian: 'grisehale' - "pigtail" (i.e. _gris_ + _hale_) or
'kro/llalfa' - "curly alpha" (the letter o/ should be an "o with a
slash" (as in my surname), and corresponds in pronounciation to German
o"("Umlaut o"). Both terms are quite common.
0ystein Alexander Vangsnes <vangsnes at foli.uib.no>
POLISH
** (Translation of a note from Jacek Koronacki <korona at IPIPAN.Waw.PL>)
"In Poland most of the people (scientists) using the Internet call the
"@" sign malpa "monkey". I have no idea why. However some of the
people I spoke to swore that the term ac'ka (acute accent over the c)
is familiar, others that it is ucho s'wini "pig's ear". I have heard
both these terms for the first time [now]. Summing up, in Poland the
term is not fixed."
From another message:
>Kolezanka z Warszawy mowi na to "malpa". (A Warsaw friend calls it
"monkey.")
>
Robert A. Rothstein <rar at slavic.umass.edu>
And another:
>Ja od wielu lat nazywam ten znak kotkiem. Ze wzgledu na dlugi,
>podwiniety ogon. Zaslyszalem to okreslenie od kolegi ok 10 lat temu.
>(Mam cztery koty, w tym jeden Manx, czyli bezogoniasty...)
"For many years I have called that sign _kotek_ 'little cat'.
With respect to its long, curled tail. I heard this term from a
colleague about 10 years ago. (I have four cats, including one Manx,
i.e. tailless...)"
Jacek Kostyrko <ifjk at vms.acad2.alaska.edu>
And yet another:
>W Krakowie moi koledzy na znak @ mowia - po angielsku 'at'
"In Krakow my colleagues/friends call @ in English, 'at'."
Przemyslaw Jablonski <u212386 at vm.uci.kun.nl>
The above contributions were all forwarded and translated by:
E. Wayles Browne <ewb2 at cornell.edu>
** In Polish they call @:
1.malpa - (with / crossing l letter) - monkey
2.ogon - tail
Eva Madry <emadry at ibm.net>
PORTUGUESE
** In Portuguese, we call the sign _ at _ like in Spanish: "arroba" (I
didn't know it was the same term, by the way).
Maria Cristina F S Altman <altman at usp.br>
ROMANIAN
** The equivalent [of @ in Romanian] is 'la' which means exactly 'at'
as in English.
Virginia Motapanyane <mota at admin1.UnbSJ.CA>
RUSSIAN
** The Russian word that I have heard used for '@' is 'sobachka,' (I
can't get an IPA font to work here, but it's pronounced
suh-BAHTCH-kuh) which means 'little dog' or 'doggie.' It was
interesting for me to read that similar imagery seems to account for
the name in Mandarin and German, naming the symbol after what it looks
like (a dog, a mouse, an ear).
I heard this term in St. Petersburg, Russia in September
1995. An American professor was giving her e-mail address to a Russian
colleague and the Russian speaker supplied the word.
Other Russians I've spoken to since then, who are living here
in the U.S., hadn't heard the term 'sobachka' used to refer to this
sign. I don't know whether that's because the term itself is new, or
because it has only come into common usage with the availability of
e-mail (which is still relatively scarce in Russia).
Bridget Canniff <bridget.canniff at dartmouth.edu>
** In Russian I have heard @ referred to as 'sobachka' 'doggie'.
Similar to the Chinese example...
Lisa J. Conathan <lisa.j.conathan at dartmouth.edu>
** In Russian @ is called /sobachka/ 'doggie' < /sobaka/ 'dog' + /ka/
(dim. suffix)
--Not a native Russian Speaker
Alex Eulenberg <aeulenbe at indiana.edu>
** Here are three variants of the thing in modern Russian:
1) obez'jana ("monkey")
2) pljushka ("kind of round bun")
3) sobaka ("dog")
The pedants tend to call the thing "A kommercheskoe", the
commercial A. This has been known for 5 years or so.
Leonid Iomdin <uc611ac at sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de>
** I was in Kamchatka, Russia last fall, and I learned that they call
@ a "little dog" - _sobachka_, which is "dog" with a diminuative
suffix. This was from a computer professional who grew up in
Novosibirsk, but he told me that this was a general term current all
over Russia.
Alexander King <aking at virginia.edu>
SERBIAN
** Vlado Keselj communicates on my request in ST-L mailing-list: Ja
sam do sada "cuo da ljudi upotrebljavaju slede'ce izraze: majmun,
ludo a i et. (Ovaj zadnji izraz je direktno (uz na"su fonetiku)
usvojen iz engleskog.)
I translate it for you: "I have heard until now that people
use the following names: MAJMUN, LUDO A and ET. The last name is
directly taken from English, adapted to our phonetics."
My comment: MAJMUN means "monkey" (the usual Serb word for it;
it's a loan word from Turkish); LUDO A means "crazy a"
Danko Sipka <sipkadan at hum.amu.edu.pl> writes: Ima jos i
"majmunsko a". Ovo s majmunom, odnosno majmuncicem cuo sam I u
poljskom i u njemackom.
This means: it is also called "MAJMUNSKO A" ("monkey-ish a":
MAJMUNSKO is the adjective derived from MAJMUN, "monkey"). This stuff
with the monkey or the little monkey I heard also in Polish and
German.
And Igor Milosavlevich <igor at sedal.usyd.edu.AU> adds: >Ja sam
cuo za izraze "majmun" i "majmunski rep".
which means: I heard also the expressions "MAJMUN" and
"MAJMUNSKI REP" (monkey tail).
So there are until now following words in Serbian: majmun:
'monkey', majmunsko a: 'monkey a', majmunski rep, 'monkey tail', ludo
a: 'crazy a', et: 'at'
Forwards and translations from:
Wilfried Pieters <Wilfried.Pieters at ping.be>
SLOVENIAN
** I asked also my wife Majda (she is Slovenian) and she told me that
the word in Slovene is "AFNA". She is not computer specialist, and she
heard it just some weeks ago from a Slovene friend residing Belgium,
who is herself working in the field of computerization. She didn't
know the etymology of the word. I suppose it's a loan from German
"Affe" ("monkey").
The word AFNA exists also with another meaning in Slovene: "a
girl who likes to dress herself very nicely, with make up and perfume,
etc.". I think, that also in this meaning the word comes from German
Affe (such girl looks like a monkey at the end, because she
exagerates).
I think there's no relation between the two meanings of
"afna", besides their common origin. BTW, the word for "monkey" in
Slovene is "opica", which is also derived from Germanic.
Wilfried Pieters <Wilfried.Pieters at ping.be>
SPANISH
** Re @ in Spanish: It's called _arroba_, a 25-pound measure of
weight.
Jose' Eugenio Borao <borao at cc.ntu.edu.tw>
** [The Spanish term for @, 'arroba',] comes from Arabic (like most
a[l]- words in Spanish).
James L. Fidelholtz <jfidel at siu.cen.buap.mx>
SWEDISH
** In Swedish, the @ has been given a number of nicknames. The most
wide-spread are the following: apsvans (monkey's tail), kanelbulle
(cinnamon roll), snabel-A (elephant's trunk A), kringla (pretzel).
"Snabel-A" is by far the most common word used.
Malte Andreasson <fredrika at oden.se>
** In Swedish, I have seen the word "kattfot" ("cat-foot") used in a
computer manual (written at our Nordic department, for the users of
the Swedish corpora in Helsinki).
Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at Helsinki.fi>
** Here in Helsinki, Finland -- where Swedish is spoken by a minority
of people -- the most usual colloquial appellation is "kattsvans",
that is, 'a cat's tail'. For some strange reason, we at our department
used to call the sign first "kattfot", i.e. 'a cat's paw'. But the
identification with a cat seems to have been an important common
motivation, as is the mouse for the Chinese -- a rather intriguing
parallel!
There is also another rather wide spread animal metaphor. @
can be heard called "elefantora" (with umlaut o, pronounced like the
vowel in English "girl"), i.e. 'an elephant's ear'. I do not use this
myself but I have heard it.
I have a feeling that the most common colloquial name of @ in
the Swedish spoken in Sweden is "kanelbulle", i.e. 'cinnamon
bun'. This piece of pastry has a formation that looks a bit like the
human ear and, thus, has a resemblance with the sign.
Jan Lindstrom <jklindst at polva.helsinki.fi>
** In Swedish the sign is most often called "snabel-A" (pronounced
snah-bell-Ah), meaning "trunk-A" (that is the letter A with an
elephant's trunk).
Another, older denomination, mainly used among programmers is
"kanelbulle" (pronounced kunn-ayl-boulle), meaning "cinnamon
bun". This is due to the fact that the typical Swedish cinnamon bun
has the form of a helix.
Folke A. Nettelblad <Folke.Nettelblad at uadm.uu.se>
** I can add the Swedish language to your collection:
Snabel-a
The name recommended by Svenska Spr=E5kn=E4mnden (approx. "The
Swedish Language Board") for this sign in Swedish is "snabel-a". This
is the most common name among users, too, but it has got strong
competitors, follows below. The meaning of "snabel-a" is "trunk a",
from the elephant's trunk. The picture is the letter 'a' that has got
a elephant's trunk that circles around it. A bit humouristic and
creative from the beginning, but has now settled in the Swedish users,
becoming more and more serious. I guess I personally heard the word
used 4 or 5 years ago.
Kanelbulle
A strong competitor is, or rather has been, the name
'kanelbulle', this name too is quite humoristic and creative. The
meaning is 'cinnamon roll', from the most common traditional Swedish
pastry, looking like a @ from the top. Personally I think I heard the
word also 4 or 5 years ago for the first time, but only occasionally
now.
At-tecken
An attempt to introduce a more strict name for the sign was
'at-tecken', simply meaning 'at sign'. I heard it the first time 2 or
3 years ago, and I still hear it occasionally.
Eva Stro"m <eva.strom at wineasy.se>
TAMIL
** The Tamil character that most resembles @ is called "dugaram" and
pronounced "du"("d" as in donkey and "u" as in pull). As my Anjal does
not function I cannot write it for you here. Perhaps some other good
soul can send you the exact form of "du".
But I am only pointing out similarities, and make no claim
that it is universally recognised that way among Tamil users. But for
lack of other offerings, this would be my contribution.
Karthi Gesu <kgesu at usm.my>
Of: tamil at tamil.net
** Regarding the discussion on @ in Tamil, there are a few
suggestions:
1. Il
2. Ku
3. Du
4. KaNini suzhi (pronounce suli)
5. INai vari
6. Vattu
1. Il is equal to "in" and "at" in Tamil. But if we use in e-mail
addresses it shows some kind of misplacement in the address.
2. Ku is very suitable for use in e-mail addresses. But the ku is
not a word. It is a letter only.
3. Du - Regarding this, Prof. Karthigesu has not given any further
details.
4. KaNini suzhi (pronounce suli) - suzhi is a wonderful word in
Tamil. In old times people used to write a letter (sounds u in
Uganda) which is called Pillayar Suzhi. Pillayar is one of Hindu Gods.
5. INai vari - For Internet we coined a word recently ie. INayam
which is much more meaningful than English word Internet. Its meaning
not only connecting computer networks but also the mankind. Tamil word
for address is Mugavari. So the first half of INayam and the other
half of Mugavari forms the word InaiVari which means Internet
address. It is O.K for e-mail address. But not suitable for @ in other
usages.
6. Vattu - It means round.
So now we are going to select a word from this list.
Koh <kohh at pc.jaring.my>
Of: tamil at tamil.net
THAI
** I have to admit that as a Thai I don't know how we call the sign
@. I don't remember myself using any name to call it. It is rarely
used in spoken language. Any way I will ask people in some other
areas, like business. I will send you more information if I have some.
Amara Prasithrathsint <amarapra at chulkn.car.chula.ac.th>
** What an interesting topic to pursue. Thai does not have an official
coinage for the sign yet. But there is a nickname, which "?ai tua
yUkyU:" literally meaning "the wiggling worm-like character". The
"?ai" is an equivalent of ?a in Chinese, which is prefixed to a
person's name. "Tua" is character, body, shape. YUkyU: (unrounded
back vowel) is a sound symbol for the crooked way a worm moves.
Occasionally people will borrow the English name of the
sign. In textbooks, the problem is eliminated with the use of the
symbol itself.
Peansiri Vongvipanond <artfpvv at chulkn.car.chula.ac.th>
TURKISH
** I don't know any widely accepted Turkish name for it. But I would
like to call it 'gUl'=rose or 'at'=horse. BTW U in gUl denotes the
character in Turkish alphabet which is practically same as u except
two dots above it. It is same as German counterpart which may be
denoted 'ue'.
From a second communication:
...No, I haven't heard this, except the German word _ohr_,
'ear" in your message. _Kulak_ is also possible, but I like the other
two more, esp. _at_, 'horse' which is same as English _at_ in
spelling.
HUseyin Canbolat <huseyic at ces.clemson.edu>
** As far as I know we call it "Kulak" which is "Ear" in English.
There may be other names but I use "Kulak" in Turkish for that sign.
From a second communication:
...Personally I heard for the first time "Gul" and "At" for
add-sign, but Turkey is a big country and we are 60 million, and I am
not very surprised to hear different names for it. I do find "Gul" (=
Rose) meaningful but not "At" (= Horse) becasue of the shape of the
sign.
As Halil Teletas <ash at sebb.bel.alcatel.be>
THE WEB
** And some interesting information from a Web site, pointed out by
Judith Levi (see HEBREW above) - check it out yourself for more neat
stuff:
http://www.ling.nwu.edu/~sburke/stuff/pronunciation-guide.txt
[copied from
ftp://ftp.wg.omron.co.jp/pub/unix-faq/docs/pronunciation-guide on 19
Nov 1995 -- sean at qrd.org]
The Pronunciation Guide
-----------------------
version 2.5
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are
marked with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and
names deserving further explanation are marked with a #. The
explanations will be given at the very end.
...
@ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whirl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape
(tail), cat, snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol,
strudel#, fetch#, shopkeeper&, human&, commercial-at, monkey (tail)
...
@ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
@ strudel as in Austrian apple cake
@ fetch from FORTH
*******************************************************************
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