Tell Techno.

[d_Guy]

Picks up forum thread again. A multiple choice test. What to chose? In no particular order:

It's a sam'itch.

I have some orange pills if you need them, fsn. I don't remember what they do but that may not be a concern?

I live in a town whose pronounced name does not hint at the correct spelling.

The best Welch occasion was spending time in a pub near the Black Mountains when, after being recognized as ignorant hillbillies, the locals took delight in teaching us how to pronounce the unpronounceable. The beer and spittle flowed freely.

We had an existential philosopher/president once who parsed the meaning of "is"

Grew up with fingers being savaged with a ruler for the "its/it's" mistake. Went to grad school with Oxford commas ingrained, but soon learned to minimize when points were deducted for the unnecessary ones.

I play horseshoes with spelling and grammar.

Roundabout = clockwise, rotary = counterclockwise (directional notation that has lost meaning).

We call them "blinkers", our constabulary calls them "turn indicators". Their use is often cavalier and their meaning ambiguous.

My wife's car has side looking radar that alerts me to shopping carts and fast moving pigeons .

Everyone I encounter at the infrequent con says "Pendragon" when naming our beloved hosts.

[Ithoriel]

The car in front of you is a BMW.

The rear left turn indicator light is flashing.

What does that tell you?

...

...

...

At least one turn indicator bulb is working!

[Westmarcher]

All of this progressive thinking and not being "straight-jacketed by arbitrary rules" from you is heartening, Mike.

So, "Wendy houses" ......   

[Ithoriel]

All of this progressive thinking and not being "straight-jacketed by arbitrary rules" from you is heartening, Mike.

So, "Wendy houses" ......   

I've always said that people were free to use Wendy Houses in their games if they wished but that I felt free to find that perplexing and amusing.

"Mankind will reach maturity on the day it learns to value diversity—of life and ideas. To be different is not necessarily to be ugly; to have a different idea is not necessarily to be wrong. The worst thing that could happen is for all of us to look and think and act alike." — Gene Roddenberry

[Norm]

I was watching a program some years ago about the migration of mankind using the out of Africa theory. They were looking at the progress of one route, that into Polynesia, a large area with islands spread apart that use different language. They used a formula that language evolves at the rate of 1% every 19 years to work out the rate of expansion.

So language evolving seems a natural occurrence, but I guess it happened to slowly and so locally in the past that it was never really noticed. In todays age of small world and instant media and every body having access to that media without having to go through an editor, the rate of change is so much more noticeable.

The nature of the internet means that often people are not using a native tongue when participating and the internet is a leveller, so that anyone, regardless of education / knowledge etc can participate and against that background, I'm not sure I like the idea of people being pulled up for phrasing things in a away that are not necessarily correct, yet remains understandable - especially when the person doing the pulling up clearly understands the message, it is all a bit condescending in my view - though I fully appreciate that the same actually accelerates the issue about deterioration and confusion in language.

Frankly, a lot of years have passed since I was at school learning the 'rules' of English and much of those rules have been forgotten. Do I care, well yes, it would nice to be fully articulate, do I care enough to do something about it - well no, not really, those around me seem pretty forgiving. My hand writing is now appalling (spell-checker has just told me there is no 'u' in appalling :-) ) because I only use a keyboard. I have a couple of friends who are ex- English teachers, so sometimes I run things through them first, before hitting the keyboard and attracting harsh stares!.

 

[paulr]

An interesting post Norm

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Round here its 'somefink' and 'enyfink' both with hard k

[sunjester]

But surely (Don't call me Shirley!) it would be easier for all the English-as-a-2nd/3rd-language users on the internet, if there were rules that everybody adhered to rather than a hodge-podge that changes on a daily basis?

[Ithoriel]

Whoever told you life was easy?

[Westmarcher]

Yeah, at times, "life thucks."  [Cockney or man with lithp?]

"Free mumfs"  [three months or a dose of mumps for nothing?]

"Don't never do that!"  [so, have I to do 'that,' never to do 'that' or always do 'that?']

"Fork handles ......" 

[Techno]

Sex.

(What rich people have their coal delivered in.)

Right.... another quick question.. What's the right pronunciation of the Roman javeliny thing called a pilum ?

I'd always assumed that it was pill-um.....But now I'm not so sure that it shouldn't be pye-lum.

Having done a bit of 'googling'....the concensus appears to show the latter.....That right ?

Cheers - Phil

[Westmarcher]

Sex.

(What rich people have their coal delivered in.)

Right.... another quick question.. What's the right pronunciation of the Roman javeliny thing called a pilum ?

I'd always assumed that it was pill-um.....But now I'm not so sure that it shouldn't be pye-lum.

Having done a bit of 'googling'....the concensus appears to show the latter.....That right ?

Cheers - Phil

; Took me a while to figure out the 'sex' one!   

As for how the Romans pronounced Latin, there is a school of thought that Roman Catholic Church Latin is probably the closest, based on the fact that Latin has been spoken in the Church ever since the Church was founded away back in Roman times. So, after consulting Google translate, it appears it is "pee-loom.' Click to the link below, enter the word 'pilum' then click on the loudspeaker icon to hear how it is pronounced in 'modern' Latin (if there is such a thing?). 

https://translate.google.com/?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#la/en/pilum

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I was going to say PiLAA, as der wuz always lots o dem 

[Leman]

One excuse after another. Maybe some of you really are thick. Goodbye.

[FierceKitty]

It's certainly clear that the terminal -um in Latin must have been much softer than our final sound in red rum or Where's Mum? It may have been close to a modern Italian -o termination.

[sunjester]

All the Roman reenactors I knew always called them pee-la or pee-lurm. And some of them were really OCD on their research!

[Orcs]

Hi, Bill....If I ever have to order something from a firm I haven't dealt with before....I have to spell my home address phonetically.......Either that, or I let them guess from my postcode, which one's my home addy.

Cheers - Phil....(Yep...Part of my home address is a throat clearing sound.)

Amazon Found you OK 

[Orcs]

I'm not sure I like the idea of people being pulled up for phrasing things in a away that are not necessarily correct, yet remains understandable - especially when the person doing the pulling up clearly understands the message, it is all a bit condescending in my view 

I totally agree Norm.  If you understand what the person posting is saying, there is no need to correct them. it is very condescending and in my opinion downright rude, particularly if you do not know if English is their first language, or that they do not have difficulties using the computer. 

By way of an illustration .  You have played a wargame with an opponent. Its been a fun and friendly game with both of you playing fairly and honestly. You then notice his figure painting skills  are below the standard of yours. Would you then start telling him what's wrong with his painting and point out he has use the wrong shade of blue etc etc.  I think not.

If you do not understand the post then by all means ask politely for them to explain further. If you do understand it  accept your written English is better than theirs and move on.

[Techno]

Next daft question, Gang.

Throughout the periods, where the sword was the 'main' or secondary weapon of choice....Would a right handed chap always have worn the scabbard on the left hip.
My thought is, that it would be far easier/quicker to reach across your body.

I'm only asking, as I tend to think of all the wee men I make are right handed..But I find that I often want to put the scabbard on the right hip.

If a soldier was carrying a long spear, or similar, in his right hand at the start of a battle.....and he had a large shield being carried on the left arm, would that ever have meant that it would be 'better' to have the scabbard on his right hip, so he didn't have to reach behind the shield ?

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Put your fire out Phil, cause der Womans carried theirs on the right for at least 300 years.