Tadeusz Piotrowski wrote:
>
> I have a slightly unusual request: what do the speakers of various languages
> call the at sign (@), as in the email addresses?
> Germans and Poles call it monkey, Russians: little dog, etc etc.
> Thank you very much.
I checked out the list posted on LINGUIST by Karen Chung
(http://linguistlist.org/issues/11/11-1740.html), and I have an addition
for Romanian:
I remember everybody used to call the "@" sign "monkey tail" (sometimes
shortened to "monkey") as far back as 15 years ago and as recently as 5
years ago. I think "at" (Rom. "la") is a more recent development, but
surely there would be many people who haven't adapted (I, for one, have
never used or heard "la" being used this way). Romanians who work in
environments where English is spoken frequently (both in Romania and
outside) tend to use the English import "at" even among themselves.
_
-Lucian Galescu, U Rochester
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