pound signs

[Carolyn Quintero]

I've noticed that in the US on company phone lines where I often listen in
Spanish, the scrunch-hash-pound sign is referred to as "el signo de numero",
but in English as "the pound sign" in the corresponding set of instructions.
This sign isn't really used all that much for "number" in Spanish, though.
I guess they just couldn't think of any other way of describing it than "the
number sign", at least a better choice than rhomboid/diamond, or "pound"
which for sure wouldn't mean anything to Spanish speakers.
Carolyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "ROOD DAVID S" <rood at spot.Colorado.EDU>
To: "Anthony Grant" <Anthony.Grant3 at btinternet.com>
Cc: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: pound signs


>
> This is way out of the realm of Siouanist discussions, but since we're
> naming the # sign in various cultures, I'm reminded of a problem I had
> programming my German cellphone.  I was supposed to do something and then
> press the "raute Taste" (Taste - key, button), which experimentation
> finally showed me to be the pound sign. "Raut" refers to either a rhomboid
> in technical geometry terms, or the diamond in a deck of cards.  Neither
> of those meanings struck me as right for #; does that say something about
> the way we match and categorize abstract symbols in various cultures, or
> am I just dumb about such things?
>
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> On Thu, 13 Jun 2002, Anthony Grant wrote:
>
> > What you guys call the pound sign, the noughts and crosses sign (I know
what tic-tac-toe is but I've spent a lot of time in the US and most Brits
would just be puzzled) is called the Hash sign here.  Probably from French
hache 'axe'.  It's fairly recent in use in Britain: we wouldn't have
understood what the sign in (say) 'Riot in Cell Block #9' meant 20 years
ago.  Now that we have it, I wonder how we ever lived without it.
> >
> > I customarily use $ for the posatalveolar sibilant in postings to people
I think will understand.  British keyboards don't have the cent sign,
though, which is a pity as I've long liked it as a quick way of signalling
/ts/ in the way that Mayanists use it.
> >
> > Anthony
> >
>