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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: mobile phone numbers and land lines
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 16:24:12 +0100
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On 13 May 2005 06:31:19 -0700, credoquaabsurdum
<credoquaabsurdum@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Chris Croughton wrote:
>
>> Most people in the UK that I know use "land line" (or "landline").
>> That seems to be a recent (last few years) take-up of the term by
>> ordinary people, it was in common military and technical usage a
>> decade or so ago but at that time it seemed to be regarded as
>> 'jargon'.
>
> Exactly. "Land line/landline" is what I told my learner, but is sounds
> a lot like "Charlie Whiskey Foxtrot, do we need to get a land line
> into the Waco compound, over?"
And what's the opposite, a skyline or sealine? Or even an airline?
>> Many people in the UK don't differentiate the type of numbers when
>> they say them, that may be because they are distinctive: numbers
>> starting 01 or 02 are landlines, ones starting 07 are either mobile
>> or 'personal' numbers, 08 are "diferently charged" numbers (0800 and
>> 0888 free, others are at 'national' rates), 09 are 'pay a lot'
>> numbers.
>
> Here in Greece, all cells start with 69, while, at least in Athens, we
> have a 210 prefix for the ring-rings. I have yet to call a 1-900
> number here, but 1-800s are 08s." Despite such clear-cut conventions,
> the Greek mind feels a distinct need to differentiate between those
> "stationary" and "mobile" numbers. In point of fact, the radio
> informed me yesterday that there are now more cell phones than people
> in Greece. Is the same true in the UK and US?
I don't know about the US, but I saw figures recently (as in a few days
ago) that around 80% of the people in the UK have mobile phones (and
since a number have more than one it wouldn't surprise me if there were
more cell phones than people). However, of those around 50% are what
they call 'emergency' users, like me, only using it occasionally and
mainly to make calls rather than receive them (and my mobile phone is a
phone, dammit, not a TV, camera, Internet access point, games machine,
or any of the other stupid things they keep adding to a perfectly
functional phone).
>> "Call me on my mobile" (but not 'at') is common UK usage, the
>> alternatives being "landline" or sometimes "house phone" or "home
>> phone" or "call me at home". "... on/at my stationary" would not be
>> good English (although 'mobile' has made the transition to a noun
>> easily, 'stationary' and 'regular' haven't).
>
> Every time I think "Mobil," I think gas and an oil-check.
Same with me, my cousin's husband used to be a top manager in Mobiloil.
"T Mobil" is a major German provider of cellphone connectivity, and it
always bugged me.
> Every time I think "Mobile," Alabama springs to mind.
... but to me Alabama makes me think of /that/ Birmingham (not the real
one <g>).
> Hard-wired differences, even for language teachers who are forced by
> the nature of theri jobs to dabble more than a little bit in UK/US
> distinctions.
Yup. I have severe cognitive dissonance when I hear USians talking
about places with the same names as the ones I'm used to in England.
Also when I hear the radio using words which mean something different
from what they meant when I was a kid.
>> An increasing number of people now use 'voice mode' to refer to
>> communications where one speaks rather than email, and will also use
>> 'talking' to refer to email/usenet/irc/etc., so I often hear "I was
>> talking to Fred on IRC" or "do you want to talk voice-mode or on
>> email?"
>
> By the time I get back to the comforts of civilization, I'll be more
> out of touch than Major Tom.
"Here am I sitting on a tin can / Yowling at the moon..." Oh, sorry,
that was "Birth Control to Ginger Tom"...
(That song -- either set of words -- is an earworm, I'll now be singing
it to myself for days...)
> I humbly thank thee...
P'jalst.
> (And I most definitely am...well, well, well.)
But was it a Treacle well? <g>
Chris C
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