Massive landslide in the French Alps
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6. gouranga4ever commented 10 years ago
The problem with the French is that they have no word for Avalanche.


8. UofMichFan commented 10 years ago
Now that was a heckuva lot of snow. Nature can really put on a beautiful show whens he wants to.


10. zongap commented 10 years ago
#6 > I suggest you read the definition first next time 
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/avalanche

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/avalanche


11. ImprsdBySmartVid commented 10 years ago
#6, #7, #10: As a french native speaker, I may say that "landslide" can be traduced in exact french by "glissement de terrain" (terrain == land, glissement == slide, so it's literally "slide of land"
. Then you may say "avalanche" to picture a sudden lot of something: "I have tons of work/phone calls" == "J'ai une avalanche de travail/d'appels téléphoniques".
But the main meaning of "avalanche" is for big amounts of snow sliding down a mountain.
I think that english have more words than french, partly because you don't fell guilty borrowing foreigner words. As far as I know, borrowing words begun a long, long time ago in United Kingdom, while ancient french was the kings and queens language, until a french king made an idiot and failed war against them. Then, centuries later, when america was discovered, americans also made a mix with foreign words.
Today, when we traduce an english documentation, it leads to a significantly bigger text in french, we need more words to explain the same things.

But the main meaning of "avalanche" is for big amounts of snow sliding down a mountain.
I think that english have more words than french, partly because you don't fell guilty borrowing foreigner words. As far as I know, borrowing words begun a long, long time ago in United Kingdom, while ancient french was the kings and queens language, until a french king made an idiot and failed war against them. Then, centuries later, when america was discovered, americans also made a mix with foreign words.
Today, when we traduce an english documentation, it leads to a significantly bigger text in french, we need more words to explain the same things.


14. ImprsdBySmartVid commented 10 years ago
#12: You made me think again. You mean, this time we have two different words/locutions for two different phenomenon. "Avalanche" for big amount of snow sliding (in french), and "glissement de terrain" for land-slide, so english is not better in this example (but still shorter).
Looking in the english dictionary, I see that english is less precise in the case of "avalanche" because this word contains also (in english only) the meaning of "landslide", so you're right, it's clearly not a good example to illustrate my good opinion about english language! Thank you!
I also wanted to underline that #6, gouranga4ever, was misleading because french language do have words for landslide and avalanche.
Looking in the english dictionary, I see that english is less precise in the case of "avalanche" because this word contains also (in english only) the meaning of "landslide", so you're right, it's clearly not a good example to illustrate my good opinion about english language! Thank you!
I also wanted to underline that #6, gouranga4ever, was misleading because french language do have words for landslide and avalanche.


15. zongap commented 10 years ago
By the way, check out our German friends and their 79 letters long "compound word"
:
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
(Source : My german teacher from middle school, and wikipedia for the copy/paste : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizit%C3%A4tenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft)

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
(Source : My german teacher from middle school, and wikipedia for the copy/paste : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizit%C3%A4tenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft)


18. gouranga4ever commented 10 years ago
#14 Its a joke.. The word "Avalanche" is French.. I was repeating an old joke "The problem with the French is that they have no word for <insert French word used in English here e.g. Entrepreneur, Gateaux, Cafe>


19. ImprsdBySmartVid commented 10 years ago
#18: I didn't know anything about that custom (the problem with the french is ...). As you say it's a joke, I searched and found a pseudo-bushism on the subject: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.asp and more explanation there: http://irregulartimes.com/honest.html


20. SquidCap commented 10 years ago
Landslide.. It's landslide triggered by an bigger avalanche, there's more snow than dirt. There's a lot of water coming down, the land seems to be oversaturated with it, perfect condition for landslide.. Interesting cascade of events and most likely the force that put all of this in motion was pretty tiny... There's gonna be a nice little stream and a pond for a while and then another smaller event later when the water is released. Perfectly natural, nature just made a ditch where all the extra water channels to.


22. thundersnow commented 10 years ago
That's how the mighty Alps get worn down and get shorter. 



23. Judge-Jake commented 4 years ago
The conversation above certainly sucked all the excitement out of the rock fall. 

+6 1. Woette commented 10 years ago