Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 01-13-2005, 09:28 AM   #1 (permalink)
Fast'n'Bulbous
 
Location: Australia, Perth
Large Wave Semantics

This is extremely pointless, and i don't mean to be offensive with this; but do you think, if the large natural disater happened somewhere in a Western/Enlgish speaking world - would we (Or the Media) call it a Tidal Wave or a Tsunami?
or something else?

http://dict.die.net/tidal%20wave/

Tidal wave.
(a) See Tide wave, under Tide. Cf. 4th Bore.
(b) A vast, swift wave caused by an earthquake or some
extraordinary combination of natural causes. It rises far
above high-water mark and is often very destructive upon
low-lying coasts.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=tsunami

Tsunami (Japanese):
A very large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption.


....These kind of random thoughts are what happen late at night
Sleepyjack is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 09:59 AM   #2 (permalink)
Addict
 
Location: Amish-land, PA
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a tsunami only occurs in the Pacific, whereas a tidal wave occurs in the Atlantic. At least that's always what I believed.

But then again, I was always led to believe that hurricanes only occured in the Atlantic, whereas out west they had to worry about typhoons. Much to my surprise, it seems that the western gulf of Mexico now gets hurricanes, too.


People change the meanings of words to suit them. "Tsunami" just sounds so much cooler than plain old "tidal wave". It's like salsa
__________________
"I've made only one mistake in my life. But I made it over and over and over. That was saying 'yes' when I meant 'no'. Forgive me."
TM875 is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 10:39 AM   #3 (permalink)
Fast'n'Bulbous
 
Location: Australia, Perth
Hah, yeah that's what i was getting at

People like to say salsa

Good point about the hurricanes as well! i missed that. I find Typhoon never gets used though?
apart from SIm City 4 - i think? or am i thinking about the tycoon simulation series...
Sleepyjack is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 10:43 AM   #4 (permalink)
Tone.
 
shakran's Avatar
 
a tsunami is a big wave that is caused by something OTHER than tidal forces (the moon's gravity). A tidal wave is a wave caused by tidal forces. Technically, all those waves you surf on are tidal waves.
shakran is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 10:44 AM   #5 (permalink)
Illusionary
 
tecoyah's Avatar
 
I would think the term "Tidal Wave" has fallen out of favor because the Tides have nothing to do with the actual wave.
__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha
tecoyah is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 10:51 AM   #6 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: Wales, UK, Europe, Earth, Milky Way, Universe
I agree with tecoyah. Tidal wave is logically wrong if the tide has nothing to do with the wave.

However, there are types of tidal waves (bores) which can be seen rolling upriver with the funneled, fast rising tide in some places (the river Severn bore is the nearest definite example i can think of). In these cases "tidal wave" would be accurate. Unfortunately there's a smaller and easier to pronounce word for it - "bore" - so i've rarely heard it referred to as a tidal wave.
__________________
There are only two industries that refer to their customers as "users". - Edward Tufte
welshbyte is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 10:55 AM   #7 (permalink)
My future is coming on
 
lurkette's Avatar
 
Moderator Emeritus
Location: east of the sun and west of the moon
Yup. We call it a tsunami because "tidal wave" is technically incorrect. The fact that this one happened to hit in Asia is coincidental.

Aren't tsunamis also more common in the Pacific region because of the "ring of fire" - lots of tectonic/volcanic activity going on there? I know they could happen anywhere, but are they more frequent in the Pacific to start with?
__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France
lurkette is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 11:04 AM   #8 (permalink)
Banned
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
a tsunami is a big wave that is caused by something OTHER than tidal forces (the moon's gravity). A tidal wave is a wave caused by tidal forces. Technically, all those waves you surf on are tidal waves.
That is more or less what I was taught in high school geography. Although I was taught that the swell was tidal and the individual waves that ride the swells are weather formed.
Powderedmaggot is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 08:07 PM   #9 (permalink)
Frontal Lobe
 
Squishor's Avatar
 
Location: California
I've always wondered why we started calling tidal waves "tsunami." When I was a kid they were just tidal waves but now everybody uses the Japanese word. Then why don't we start calling earthquakes "jishin" or volcanos "kazan"?
Squishor is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 09:41 PM   #10 (permalink)
Upright
 
Location: Athens, Ga
Simple! Tsunami has passed into common parlance in English. "Jishin" and "kazan" still require a bit of knowledge of Japanese to know the meaning. Plus, as was mentioned earlier, tsunami more accurately describes what is actually happening. Combine that with the tendency of the English language to assimilate other words into itself (the creation of synonyms), and you see phenomena like "tsunami" being used to the exclusion of the previous English term.

Historical linguistics is your friend!
__________________
The door flew open. A Mongol warrior surged into the hut like a savage wind. Two children ran screaming to their mother who was cowering wide eyed in the corner of the tiny room. A dog yelped.

The warrior hurled his torch on to the still glowing fire, and then threw the dog on to it. That would teach it to be a dog.
vorpal_rabbit is offline  
Old 01-13-2005, 11:51 PM   #11 (permalink)
Frontal Lobe
 
Squishor's Avatar
 
Location: California
Quote:
Originally Posted by vorpal_rabbit
Simple! Tsunami has passed into common parlance in English. "Jishin" and "kazan" still require a bit of knowledge of Japanese to know the meaning. Plus, as was mentioned earlier, tsunami more accurately describes what is actually happening. Combine that with the tendency of the English language to assimilate other words into itself (the creation of synonyms), and you see phenomena like "tsunami" being used to the exclusion of the previous English term.

Historical linguistics is your friend!
Well yes but what I'm wondering is how the word "tsunami" happened to become so widely used in English. Why are we using that particular word to the exclusion of others, and why the Japanese word? I'm sure plenty of other languages also have words to describe the same thing, not to mention our own (even if the waves aren't particularly "tidal" in origin).
Squishor is offline  
Old 01-14-2005, 12:04 AM   #12 (permalink)
Adequate
 
cyrnel's Avatar
 
Location: In my angry-dome.
Did you have any words in mind?

I'm not aware of English alternatives. Tsunami was fairly well entrenched in Western language even before the recent disaster.
cyrnel is offline  
 

Tags
large, semantics, wave


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 11:50 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76