It's official: centaurs, Greek chariots, and minotaurs are Medieval

Blind Owl

Maybe you'll find this amusing, @maikdecker: Mark Twain on "The Awful German Language." (https://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html)

 

JOdel

Blind Owl said:

MDO2010 said:

Talking pants indeed. 

What I really need from you all though is support on my position that the author of the book I just read should be bonked on the head for consistently using "casted" instead of "cast" for the past-tense of performing a spell. If the book were set in the 15th or 16th Century I might put up with it, but not in a modern setting!

Make it author and editor and you'll have my support: go ahead and write an angry round-robin letter to send to the publisher. I'll gladly add my John Henry (hoho).

What I find horrifying--truly--is that Microsoft has become the de facto arbiter of the English language. Those sub-literate bozos once informed me, through MS Word's so-called style checker, that the word slut is a "Sexist term; Suggest prostitute instead."

That from the era when the MS Word spellcheck for 'childcare' suggested 'kidnappers' instead?

DrNewcenstein

Kids take naps at a childcare facility, do they not? :P

 

As for spellcheck, Apple is no better than MS. While typing "Kidneys" into my iPhone I was offered "misbehavior" as a suggestion. 

 

"Underpants" indicates there are pants to go under.

While UK English may call them "trousers", there are also things like "bubble and squeak", "spotted dick", and "bangers and mash" which reduce the credibility of the term "trousers". The exploration of the origins of words then leads down the dank and smelly holes of slang, nicknames, alternate meanings, adopted meanings, and the urban dictionary (where things like "fleek" are given the same credibility as real words).

 

miladyderyni_173d399f47

JOdel said:

Blind Owl said:

MDO2010 said:

Talking pants indeed. 

What I really need from you all though is support on my position that the author of the book I just read should be bonked on the head for consistently using "casted" instead of "cast" for the past-tense of performing a spell.

What I find horrifying--truly--is that Microsoft has become the de facto arbiter of the English language. Those sub-literate bozos once informed me, through MS Word's so-called style checker, that the word slut is a "Sexist term; Suggest prostitute instead."

That from the era when the MS Word spellcheck for 'childcare' suggested 'kidnappers' instead?

I wish people would learn the limits of present-day spellcheck. I am a staff writer and copy editor for a small games blog. Two or three times a year, other staff writers get lazy and send in a bunch of articles that read like first drafts, not final, so I send out a group email about it. Said email always includes, "Spellcheck cannot flag wrong homophones/homonyms like 'allowed' vs 'aloud,' or typos that happen to be an actual English word, like 'cat' vs 'can.' You have to read through your submissions." 

MarkIsSleepy

 

miladyderyni_173d399f47 said:

 I wish people would learn the limits of present-day spellcheck. I am a staff writer and copy editor for a small games blog. Two or three times a year, other staff writers get lazy and send in a bunch of articles that read like first drafts, not final, so I send out a group email about it. Said email always includes, "Spellcheck cannot flag wrong homophones/homonyms like 'allowed' vs 'aloud,' or typos that happen to be an actual English word, like 'cat' vs 'can.' You have to read through your submissions." 

Hold up a minute! You want them to write AND read? That seems unreasonable.

Also - I love your your username. I discovered Camber of Culdi at the local library sometime around 1984 and immediately fell in love with that entire world.   

manekiNeko

MimicMolly said:

Centaurs can be medieval too.

 

best centaur pic ever! 

 

thistledownsname said:

Don't you know? Medieval starts in pre-history, and continues on until it starts bleeding into Pirate.  Even then it stays a bit blurrily in there until you get to Steampunk and Western.  Regency tried to end it, but just didn't have enough presence.

i knew my history knowledge was wonky...

maikdecker

Blind Owl said:

Maybe you'll find this amusing, @maikdecker: Mark Twain on "The Awful German Language." (https://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html)

Seems to me, he liked the german language a lot, if he took the effort to make fun of it. Alas, in a few cases Mr. Mark Twain - HAH! and he complains about Tannenwald being a name... - did err.

A tomcat is of course male. In german it's "der Kater", while a cat (female) is "die Katze". A group of cats, with no specification of gender, is "die Katzen" though, even when the majority is male. If there is a specification of gender - like in an all-male group of cats - it gets complicated. Because they are a group then and a group is always "die Gruppe" - so, female - a bunch of tomcats suddenly gets transformed into "die Kater".

And with dogs it's about the same. A male dog is "der Hund", while a female dog is "die Hündin". I guess, Mr. Twain capitulated here, due to the usage of the "Umlaut-U" (the "ü" - the nasty trap which unmasks 90% of native english speakers, when they try to speak german...).

Funny that we germans seem to be able to grasp all these oddities at a very young age, while a man of age and knowledge, like Mr. Twain, seemed to have real problems with it. How about his latin, french, italian and spanish? Did he use his wits to complain about those languages, too, as they share a lot of their grammaticals with the german language (which, to my knowledge, has blatantly stolen quite a few grammatical rules from latin).

My favourite author is the late Sir Terry Pratchett, btw, whose novels are utterly untranslatable into the german language, due to his tendency to play with words and their meanings. Like, when his magician Rincewind was stating: "I've been a racist all of my life - 100m dash, 110m hurdles, 400m dash, I did them all..." which just can't be translated into something funny in german. It also proves, that the english language has some nice traps for foreigners, too, with quite a few words being spelled and/or pronounced similiarly or even the same, but having a totally different meaning.

"After he had a couple of shots he was really gay and called out for some fags" - nothing wrong with someone having a few drinks making him happily asking for some cigarettes, right? Right??? 

Chohole

DrNewcenstein said:

Kids take naps at a childcare facility, do they not? :P

 

As for spellcheck, Apple is no better than MS. While typing "Kidneys" into my iPhone I was offered "misbehavior" as a suggestion. 

 

"Underpants" indicates there are pants to go under.

While UK English may call them "trousers", there are also things like "bubble and squeak", "spotted dick", and "bangers and mash" which reduce the credibility of the term "trousers". The exploration of the origins of words then leads down the dank and smelly holes of slang, nicknames, alternate meanings, adopted meanings, and the urban dictionary (where things like "fleek" are given the same credibility as real words).

 

bubble and squeak   a dish that uses up left over cooked potatoes and vegetables. mixed together like a hash and fried in a little oil, it bubbles, and the squeak is heard as you turn it in the hot oil.
Spotted Dick  a steamed or boiled suet pudding containg dried fruit, normally served with custard.

Bangers and mash   Sausages grilled or fried eaten with mashed potato. called bangers cos at one time a sausage would pop it's skin if you cooked it without pricking the skin.

All great "comfort foods"  all cheap and cheerful to make and all traditionally british and nothing to do with Trousers.

miladyderyni_173d399f47

MDO2010 said:

 

miladyderyni_173d399f47 said:

 I wish people would learn the limits of present-day spellcheck. I am a staff writer and copy editor for a small games blog. Two or three times a year, other staff writers get lazy and send in a bunch of articles that read like first drafts, not final, so I send out a group email about it. Said email always includes, "Spellcheck cannot flag wrong homophones/homonyms like 'allowed' vs 'aloud,' or typos that happen to be an actual English word, like 'cat' vs 'can.' You have to read through your submissions." 

Hold up a minute! You want them to write AND read? That seems unreasonable.

Also - I love your your username. I discovered Camber of Culdi at the local library sometime around 1984 and immediately fell in love with that entire world.   

Well, I write, read, and fix, so yes. :)

Yay another fan! I've been reading the Deryni books since the early 80s too. Still favorites of mine.