16.2871, Media: Washington Post: The @ sign

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2871. Wed Oct 05 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2871, Media: Washington Post: The @ sign

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1)
Date: 04-Oct-2005
From: Karen Chung < karchung at ntu.edu.tw >
Subject: Washington Post: The @ sign 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 14:40:57
From: Karen Chung < karchung at ntu.edu.tw >
Subject: Washington Post: The @ sign 
 

The Washington Post  Sunday, October 2, 2005; Page B02

Where It's At -- and Where It's Not
By Nancy Szokan

...Of course. With a little imagination, I could see that a slice of
strudel resembles the @ sign that separates user name from host in e-mail
addresses. 'Strudel!' I hoot. Winkie, agreeing that it's funny, later sends
me a list of words that people in other countries have used for the @
symbol -- most of them a lot more entertaining (if less efficient) than our
simple 'at.'

The list, it turns out, came from an online site, Herodios.com, and was
based largely on research done in the early days of e-mail by linguist
Karen Steffen Chung of National Taiwan University. Her lengthy collection
of @-words, as well as some additions from Post foreign correspondents,
shows that while many countries have simply adopted the word 'at,' or call
the symbol something like 'circle A' or 'curled A,' more imaginative
descriptions still hold sway in many places.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/30/AR2005093002082.html


        Karen Chung

        http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/
        http://lists.topica.com/lists/phonetics/ 


Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Applied Linguistics
                     Lexicography
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Writing Systems





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