I have to say I am mighty impressed with the demand for authenticity that today's gamers demand in scenic.    Why back in the 1970/80, I can remember articles in Wargame magazines where the same plastic Hong Kong  "Bluebell"  farmhouse and barn graced every table from Waterloo to Kursk. 

   

Quote from: Sunray on 05 February 2016, 08:02:34 PM
I was in the Irish Department of University of Ulster today, and asked about Ma'nas - it has no Irish meaning- Irish Gaelic being the pure mother tongue.  This probably means it is lifted from P Celt (Ancient Briton), Norse,  Old English or Norman.

The Gaels do things like this.  They have just invented a word Te'armai' cosu'la  it translates "website", and is a literal translation of the English.   I note that Gaelic speakers on BBC Alba still use the English word.

If you are wanting to know more about Scottish parks/perks and fields beyond Wikipedia google search , I would recommend an article like George Whittington's Was there a Scottish Agricultural Revolution?  Royal Geographical Society, Vol 7, No 3 (1975), pp.204-206.


Forum goes quiet as all readers file off to find the nearest university library........

Better get on to these guys and tell them their wrong and giving misleading information:
http://www.cairnwater.co.uk/faclair/?txtSearch=m%C3%A0nas

Much obliged I now have sufficient insight.

Quote from: SV52 on 06 February 2016, 11:58:04 AM
Better get on to these guys and tell them their wrong and giving misleading information:
http://www.cairnwater.co.uk/faclair/?txtSearch=m%C3%A0nas

Much obliged I now have sufficient insight.

No, they are not wrong.  The word is valid and correct  in Scots Gaelic, in the same way that "bungalow" is not in the pure Georgia English of Jane Austin ..."Mr Darcy is in the bungalow[sic]".  We lifted it from Indian Urdu in the days of Empire.  So it is valid in the Estuary English (so called because of the socio-cultural  dominance of the Thames estuary demographic ) we speak today. As are loads of American words and "text speak".

The Scots have lots of words lifted from Norse and English. 

  Even pure  Irish Gaelic varies.  In the pure form the word for boy is Balach. In parts of Ireland where the Anglo-Norman settled we have the word garcon.   But this is Saturday. I have no students or tutorials  ...so please lets talk wargaming.   

Quote from: Sunray on 06 February 2016, 11:40:27 AM
I have to say I am mighty impressed with the demand for authenticity that today's gamers demand in scenic.    Why back in the 1970/80, I can remember articles in Wargame magazines where the same plastic Hong Kong  "Bluebell"  farmhouse and barn graced every table from Waterloo to Kursk.     

In my youth, my games regularly saw Napoleon's army attack or defend the Oakham level crossing signal box.

I'm not so much impressed as bemused by the level of detail required by gamers these days in both figures and scenics. For me they are playing pieces, it's nice if they look nice but what matters is that players can tell what's what.

Erm ...... don't think we speak Estuary English in Merseyside, unless of course it's the Mersey estuary.

Quote from: Ithoriel on 06 February 2016, 01:21:34 PM
In my youth, my games regularly saw Napoleon's army attack or defend the Oakham level crossing signal box.

I love this beautiful hobby (obsession?) because we can do it to the detail that pleases us - can admire shear artistry when we see it - but in the end it is all about the games - and the stories we tell about them to ourselves - and to each other.

Quote from: Leman on 06 February 2016, 02:21:11 PM
Erm ...... don't think we speak Estuary English in Merseyside, unless of course it's the Mersey estuary.

It is heartening that even you'uns don't always understand each other!

Quote from: Leman on 06 February 2016, 02:21:11 PM
Erm ...... don't think we speak Estuary English in Merseyside, unless of course it's the Mersey estuary.

Its not so much the accent - its the words and phrases are changing . Even in places like Liverpool.  The pure Scouser dialect that I would have heard on the Netherfield Road 50 years ago have been decanted to places like Norris Green and diluted.  Dominant media changes things.  Down in the Dingle  amongst the older generation where you have a settled community you still hear authentic Scouser.  They are impervious to Estuary English - and see the folk from Bootle as from  another planet.

Quote from: Sunray on 06 February 2016, 11:40:27 AM
I have to say I am mighty impressed with the demand for authenticity that today's gamers demand in scenic.    Why back in the 1970/80, I can remember articles in Wargame magazines where the same plastic Hong Kong  "Bluebell"  farmhouse and barn graced every table from Waterloo to Kursk.   

Quote from: Ithoriel on 06 February 2016, 01:21:34 PM
In my youth, my games regularly saw Napoleon's army attack or defend the Oakham level crossing signal box.

I'm not so much impressed as bemused by the level of detail required by gamers these days in both figures and scenics. For me they are playing pieces, it's nice if they look nice but what matters is that players can tell what's what.

Back in the 1970/80 our choice was so much more limited, today we have a vast array of choice

Getting the details right helps transport us in time and space, or as d_Guy says helps to tell the story

For the majority of us right is a relative term so we can find where on the spectrum suits our group of players

Spectrum! I had an Amstrad! 

Quote from: mad lemmey on 06 February 2016, 08:37:47 PM
Spectrum! I had an Amstrad! 

And over here - a C64! 

BBC for me. I still play Elite on it occasionally... I had an Atari ST after that

I had a spectrum for a long time and felt like I'd been jipped, it had been my Dad's, and I really envied my friends with c64s (then in due course Amigas, STs etc). I eventually got a c64 and spurned the speccy.
I now see the spectrum's limited but colourful graphics as beautiful, and the c64's odd rectangular pixels and weird washed out colours as unappealing. By chance I happened to take a rare day off today and spent it loading Spectrum games on to my 3DS; they look great on that small screen. Gaming has moved on a lot since, but they are still fun to play for 15 minute chunks.

Well not to waller too much in nostalgia BUT my favorite C64 game was "raid on Bungling Bay" .

ZX80, then ZX81 with 1K RAM pack, then Spectrum with "dead squid" keyboard replaced by a proper one and a micro-tape drive for extra storage, then Amstrad CPC 464, an Amstrad CPC 6128 and finally on to real PCs and the, then cutting edge, 486 DX-2 processor!

"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"* - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr


* The more things change the more they stay the same


I too have fond memories of Raid on Bungling Bay, played on a friends C64, Guy.

Well this thread appears to have been well and truely hijacked - from drystone Scots boundry wallls to 1980's computers in under a page?!? 

Sometimes I used to lie awake at night dreaming about owning a 486 DX-2 PC......but you try telling the young people of today that and they won't believe you 

There are also small stone enclosures used for sheep pens.

(Spectrum ZX)

Actually, I've been meditating a few stone sheepfolds like that as terrain features. How about a few shepherd figures?

Gang......

I've had a very nice (Not grumpy in any way)   request, to 'split this topic' as we seem to have veered off a really interesting thread regarding the Scottish Park Walls, to one which is now also involved with old 'computers'.....Also a very interesting discussion.  

Could we (for the moment, at least) keep this thread to 'the walls'....And if necessary start a new thread for the old computers ?

I CAN split threads....(Apparently....I've got a button.) .....But blank knows what will happen, if I try this before Leon is back.

(If you want me to delete or modify a post you've typed out......NO PROBLEM !  ..........But I'm not sure what will happen if I start trying 'splitting' threads.  )

Cheers - Phil

I confess, it was me. I really would like a thread about computers, but don't want to continue to hijack this topic. I'll go off and start that thread then!

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,13608.msg190879/topicseen.html#msg190879