#261460 - 26/07/2005 18:19
Empeg acquired?
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addict
Registered: 20/05/1999
Posts: 411
Loc: Cambridge, UK
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Edited by mac (26/07/2005 18:25)
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#261461 - 26/07/2005 18:23
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: mac]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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I really do hope you guys knew about this before that article was published. Reading about your future in the newspapers before being told by your boss was a favorite in the BBC....
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#261462 - 26/07/2005 18:42
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: mac]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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So does this mean the Rio branded players will still be made by D&M but with different people or is SigmaTel taking over the entire Rio name ?
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Matt
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#261463 - 26/07/2005 18:44
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: andym]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Oh my. Hmmm... Comments from the folks in blue? Edit - I wish they would have at least mentioned the empeg...
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#261464 - 26/07/2005 18:54
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: mac]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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Maybe that's why Alpha11 was squeezed out in such a hurry?
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Brad B.
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#261465 - 26/07/2005 18:57
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: SE_Sport_Driver]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Agreed. Or there was time to work on it, while all the M&A anarchy was going on.
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#261466 - 26/07/2005 18:59
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: msaeger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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It sounds like D&M is keeping the name. SigmaTel is getting the IP behind all the players. Presumably sigmatel will then give the IP back to D&M, and also give it away to anyone else that wants it. Of course, they'll only give away the IP that makes it easy to use sigmatel chips, which is not the Karma/Empeg. Does D&M keep the karma code? Does sigmatel burry the code in a hole in the back yard so no one else can use it? Pure speculation, but perhaps this is the reason we've been seeing the alpha releases now, as there may not be a later. (I'm not complaining, I know the empeg guys are entirely capable of building releases just to be nice to us, so this may not be the reason...)
Matthew
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#261467 - 26/07/2005 19:14
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 21/05/1999
Posts: 5335
Loc: Cambridge UK
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Quote:
So does this mean the Rio branded players will still be made by D&M but with different people or is SigmaTel taking over the entire Rio name ?
The press release stated that Sigmatel are getting the engineers and IP - not the name, not the player designs and not any inventory. I daresay D&M will hawk the rest of it to a random CM, although restoring value to that brand would be quite an undertaking!
Sigmatel is a pretty big player right now - something like 80% of flash players in the world use their chips, and no doubt they want the hard drive market now. The empeg codebase will get a very wide audience which will be nice, but I fear they are a supplier to a commodity market and I won't hold my breath to see the wonderful innovations I know the guys in Cambridge are capable of.
Rob
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#261468 - 26/07/2005 19:18
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: rob]
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enthusiast
Registered: 11/06/2003
Posts: 384
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Wow, two thoughts.
First, best wishes for the folks at empeg towers! I hope the new employers treat you well and/or you all end up where you want to be.
Second, wah! I want an H4!
--Nathan
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#261469 - 26/07/2005 20:26
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: Mataglap]
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addict
Registered: 10/11/2000
Posts: 497
Loc: Utah, USA
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The DNNA press release: http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/company/press.asp?ID=611Looks to be a big financial win for DNNA, as they get some cash now, some cash later, and the ability to keep releasing new versions of the same players without having to pay the SW engineers anymore.
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-Aaron
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#261470 - 26/07/2005 20:54
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: adavidw]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
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SigmaTel's press release is identical to the wire copy (linked in the first post): http://phx.corporate-ir.net/preview/phoe...;id=735180&
_________________________
10101311 (20GB- backup empeg)
10101466 (2x60GB, Eutronix/GreenLights Blue) (Stolen!)
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#261471 - 27/07/2005 06:49
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: rob]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/05/1999
Posts: 3457
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
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Quote:
Sigmatel is a pretty big player right now - something like 80% of flash players in the world use their chips, and no doubt they want the hard drive market now. The empeg codebase will get a very wide audience which will be nice, but I fear they are a supplier to a commodity market and I won't hold my breath to see the wonderful innovations I know the guys in Cambridge are capable of.
That's one way of looking at it; another would be that Sigmatel is a chip supplier, and wants to sell chips. Restrictions that have previously bound Rio's product directions - like brand direction, capturing shelf space in Best Buy and Circuit City, and what sales and marketing feel comfortable bringing to the market - don't apply to a core IP supplier like Sigmatel.
There are literally hundreds of companies basing their products on Sigmatel's IP who, for example, may feel less bound by things like the AHRA than Rio did when considering whether to offer, say, some cool player to player transfer technology. Everyone in the market is looking for an edge, and we've got thousands of the damn things here 
Just because they have (IMO) the flash market very nicely tied up doesn't mean they don't have designs on lots of other markets - and the know-how & cash to do it.
Hugo
(who, obviously, is posting in a personal capacity and not for his shiny new employer  )
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#261472 - 27/07/2005 07:37
Pwned
[Re: Mataglap]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
First, best wishes for the folks at empeg towers! I hope the new employers treat you well and/or you all end up where you want to be.
I think this move has a lot of potential. (Of course, the D&M takeover had a lot of potential, too, precisely none of which was realised, unless you count keeping the company alive until Sigmatel came along.) Certainly Sigmatel have shown a level of enthusiasm about us which was notably lacking from D&M during their takeover, and compares favourably with Sonicblue's during theirs. IMO it's a Good Thing, better than staying at Rio would have been. Everyone I've spoken to about it at Empeg is taking the red pill and seeing how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Quote:
Second, wah! I want an H4!
H4 seems to be very much the idea, yes.
If you go to http://www.sigmatel.com/investor.relations/ and click on "Company Presentation", there's a lot of information in there about Sigmatel's longer-term plans that isn't to be found elsewhere on the web site.
We found out last week, and that did spur the latest car-player release; Sigmatel have said they don't object in principle to further car-player development (it's not as if they perceive 4,500 units in the field, of a product not manufactured for some years, as competition), but it seemed prudent to get a release out just in case. Likewise, we squeezed out a Rio Music Manager release yesterday, to fix the Karma playlist bug -- though it hasn't hit the external website yet.
Peter
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#261473 - 27/07/2005 08:19
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Wow! From what you are describing, it really sounds like a nice move. At least you will have the opportunity to experiment more. Best of luck with the shiny new employer!!! Is there someone at SigmaTel that we can bribe with a "spare" player, to get them hooked into a) knowing what a great thing the empeg is and b) allowing you to keep tinkering with it? Or am I too late and this has already been done...
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#261474 - 27/07/2005 16:08
Re: Pwned
[Re: pgrzelak]
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journeyman
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 55
Loc: Kansas
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I got a buddy that works at Sigmatel, good guy, and good company. He's well aware of the empeg goodness, having had one in his wrx wagon for a few years. Unfortunately he traded in the car without taking it out. The shiny side of that coin is that I found it on ebay and got it for a steal of a price.
unfortunately my 'baby' empeg was stolen out of my car a few months later. That was my first one and I was very upset.
whoah, but back on topic. Sigmatel is a good company, and hopefully they will realize (realise, for the europeans) the full potential of the empeg development team.
Just heard word that he's spreading the gospel about the cambridge team to the locals.
Edited by TheTwin314 (27/07/2005 16:14)
_________________________
Empeg 50gig MkIIa (stolen :'(, my baby)
In an Impreza 2.5 RS-T
-also (new additions to the family)-
Empeg 10gig MkIIa
Empeg 50gig MkIIa
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#261475 - 27/07/2005 16:20
Re: Pwned
[Re: TheTwin314]
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new poster
Registered: 16/01/2002
Posts: 12
Loc: Austin, TX
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I'm the guy that works at SigmaTel. So I guess I've got some new co-workers on the board Anyway, SigmaTel is a hip company, we have a bunch of cool people that work in the Austin office. A lot of the people here are users of the products, and we tend to buy SigmaTel based products (although I've seen some iPods around here!). Being a former Empeg owner, I am stoked to hear that the UK team is with us!
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- Steve
MKIIa 60GB in my '08 Mazda Miata PRHT
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#261476 - 27/07/2005 16:54
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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enthusiast
Registered: 11/06/2003
Posts: 384
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Quote:
If you go to http://www.sigmatel.com/investor.relations/ and click on "Company Presentation", there's a lot of information in there about Sigmatel's longer-term plans that isn't to be found elsewhere on the web site.
Page 13 is interesting. SDK4.x includes "ARM9 core" and "Enhanced Playlits". There's not a single mention of Ogg Vorbis anywhere (sigh), and the Janus DRM stuff seems to be a bullet point everywhere. AAC is looking like a standard feature as well.
Page 22 has some nice things to say: "World class engineers in Cambridge, England and San Jose, CA" and "Years of experience desiging most technically sophisticated MP3 hard drive solutions (Rio Forge, Rio Carbon, Rio Karma)
--Nathan
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#261477 - 28/07/2005 01:36
Re: Empeg acquired?
[Re: mac]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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The Register had some nice words at the end of their article about the acquisition: Quote:
During its short life, SonicBlue also acquired our old chums at UK in-car Linux-based MP3 hardware developer Empeg, who went on to become Rio's audio software team. Presumably, they too will now become SigmaTel employees. ®
-Zeke
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WWFSMD?
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#261478 - 28/07/2005 08:17
Re: Pwned
[Re: Mataglap]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/05/1999
Posts: 3457
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
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Quote:
Page 13 is interesting. SDK4.x includes "ARM9 core" and "Enhanced Playlits". There's not a single mention of Ogg Vorbis anywhere (sigh), and the Janus DRM stuff seems to be a bullet point everywhere. AAC is looking like a standard feature as well.
OGG is definitely supported on the older Sigmatel chips - do a google for "OGG Sigmatel" and you'll find pages like this:
http://www.myprice.com.cn/product/2005/0726/41893.shtml
...which appear to be listing players based on the Sigmatel 3520, mentioning OGG support for several.
Hugo
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#261479 - 28/07/2005 12:47
Re: Pwned
[Re: altman]
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addict
Registered: 27/10/2002
Posts: 568
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So how will this affect all the new stuff you were talking about in Amersfoort?
Stig
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#261480 - 29/07/2005 20:47
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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addict
Registered: 10/11/2000
Posts: 497
Loc: Utah, USA
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Hey, I just had a thought. Let's imagine that one of SigmaTel's many customers decides they'd like to build some sort of audio playing device for the car around the 3600 chip. And then, they use the new SigmaTel SDK to create the software to run the thing. It's not exactly empeg Mark 3, but it's close.
Far as I can tell, there's no technical reason why that couldn't happen, just all the usual marketing reasons. Either way, though, it just makes me excited to know such a possibility exists.
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-Aaron
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#261481 - 29/07/2005 20:52
Re: Pwned
[Re: adavidw]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
Hey, I just had a thought. Let's imagine that one of SigmaTel's many customers decides they'd like to build some sort of audio playing device for the car around the 3600 chip. And then, they use the new SigmaTel SDK to create the software to run the thing. It's not exactly empeg Mark 3, but it's close.
If you go and look at the Investors' Information presentation I linked upthread somewhere, you'll see that on one of the pages it lists "Automotive" as an area they'd like to get into in the future. At present not even we know any more than that about Sigmatel's plans in this area, but yes, your scenario can certainly be described as a possibility.
Peter
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#261482 - 29/07/2005 21:56
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quote:
but yes, your scenario can certainly be described as a possibility.
I think you know where to come if the SigmaTel suits are looking for, say, a 4,000 person focus group on this subject...
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#261483 - 29/07/2005 23:47
Re: Pwned
[Re: tonyc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 31/08/1999
Posts: 1649
Loc: San Carlos, CA
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Quote:
a 4,000 person focus group
Or, say, 4000 beta testers... BTW, congrats guys on what sounds like a step in the right direction.
-Mike
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#261485 - 09/08/2005 13:13
Re: Pwned
[Re: Taym]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
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Like everybody else hope this works out well for the Empeg team.
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#261486 - 06/09/2005 16:01
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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enthusiast
Registered: 11/06/2003
Posts: 384
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So it's been a little while. How are things going at empeg towers? Y'all doing well?
--Nathan
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#261487 - 06/09/2005 16:55
Re: Pwned
[Re: Mataglap]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
So it's been a little while. How are things going at empeg towers? Y'all doing well?
Hot dang. Us all (what is the first person of "y'all"?) are dandier'n a sucking hog in a root tootin' sink o'grits, although we are experiencing difficulty adapting our vernacular to that of our new paterfamilias.
No, actually it is going OK so far, though we're really still only starting down the journey towards getting properly integrated into Sigmatel. We had the CEO and CFO visit us just today, and they said lots of jolly encouraging things, especially when we gave them the whole dog-and-pony show of Empeg/Rio products over the years. They laughed when Hugo started in about "What often happens when we get bought...", and said "Yeah, we wondered why the DNNA sign on the front of your building was fixed with velcro. Well, let me tell you, you can put up a Sigmatel sign in concrete."
Peter
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#261488 - 06/09/2005 17:02
Re: Pwned
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Quote:
what is the first person of "y'all"?
Um, "we" (or "us"). Any problem with a de facto ad hoc distinct second-person plural?
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Bitt Faulk
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#261489 - 06/09/2005 17:08
Re: Pwned
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
Um, "we" (or "us"). Any problem with a de facto ad hoc distinct second-person plural?
No. And in fact, to my slight disappointment, Texans don't actually all talk like the Beverly Hillbillies, who anyway came from Tennessee. Although we do get genuinely addressed as "y'all".
Peter
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