
“Full understand”: The new language of the Lesvos refugee camp - colinscape
https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/11/full-understand-new-language-lesvos-refugee-camp
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Havoc
Reminds me of Fanagalo [0] - South African mines employed workers from all
over the place - tower of babel type. Fanagalo even means literally "Do-Like-
I-Do".

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanagalo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanagalo)

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rad_gruchalski
Why is the place described in the article referred to as a prison and
detention camp? Nobody imprisoned these people and nobody sent them there as a
form of punishment.

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LukeShu
They may not leave the camp. There are barb-wire fences and guards. They not
there as punishment, but they are literally being detained; hence "detention
camp".

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nostromo123
They may not leave the camp to roam freely and without any documentation in
Greece -- but they are free to go back to where they came from. Not everyone
in the camps is a poor honest refugee who is fleeing war.

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LukeShu
In some cases, yes, in some cases no. Many of those in the camp came from
Turkey, and they often lack a legal way to travel back to Turkey from Greece.

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toomanybeersies
I don't like to complain about the grammar or formatting of things posted on
HN, because usually people here should be clever enough to figure out how to
read it.

But this article was really hard to read. The author needs to do a better job
of enclosing examples in quotes, it's hard to parse what's article, and what's
example quotes.

> Thus speak often does the work of say, tell and ask, as in I speak him why?

I cannot parse that sentence easily, because I struggle to understand what's
an example and what's not.

> Thus "speak" often does the work of "say", "tell" and "ask", as in "I speak
> him why?"

Now that, I can understand reasonably easily, just by adding quotes. Even
better:

> Thus "speak" often does the work of "say", "tell", and "ask". For example:
> "I speak him why?"

Change a couple of words and add some more grammar, and it's crystal clear
what the author is trying to convey.

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ramy_d
very much agreed. I had to re-read several times this sentence at the very
begining:

    
    
      > To commonly stands in for other prepositions such as at, in or on:

