zompist bboard

Adams (1978) reports the following: In today’s modern Galaxy there is, of course, very little still held to be unspeakable. Many words and expressions which only a matter of decades ago were considered so distastefully explicit that were they merely to be breathed in public, the perpetrator would b...

finlay wrote:How can you go a whole episode without mentioning Belgium?

I'm sorry? I'm not familiar with Flemish or Waloon French, that's why. I think I had a Belgian linguistics professor, if it helps.

Finnish has saatana (from Satan obviously) -- my impression, solely from watching Star Wreck, is that it and perkele aren't that harsh. "Ai saatana," etc. I want to work out this stuff for langs but conculturing is annoying. Feedback: Don't rearrange furniture, or edit it out. Try to normalize the ...

Guitarplayer wrote:What's the occasional knocking in the background?

That would be QQ every time one of my contacts logs on. I will remember to turn that off in the future.

It's out! Conlangery #13: Profanity, Insults, and Taboo Words

Nannalu wrote:

MisterBernie wrote:Nine year olds? Rammstein built a whole chorus around that pun

Is that the song "Pussy"?

Or are just all Germans immature?

Oh, come on. Everyone does sexual humor once in a while. The measure of maturity is knowing when it's acceptable.

"to pierce a shield (with one's spear)" = "to take a woman's virginity" Didn't the Romans have a somewhat similar concept? I vaguely remember a line from Catullus about shields and such. My memory is a bit vague, being that I last read it 18 years ago. Vagina derives from a Latin word for "sheath",...

Astraios wrote:That's not really a euphemism, because it's really graphic. xD

It's not the most polite of euphemisms.

I am waiting for #13 now :( Fuck yessssssssssssssssssss! ;) You will like it. I was re-listening just now seeing if I can shave off some time (with not much luck) and got an idea for a great euphemism. "to pierce a shield (with one's spear)" = "to take a woman's virginity" I'll get the actual conla...

Hmm, so it was used. Interesting. I wonder what you would do if the bolt got jammed somehow, probably the same thing as if your bullet jams in your gun: either use the gun as a blunt weapon, or toss it to one side. That's also why historically, most Crossbowmen and Musketmen in the medieval and ear...

It sounds logical that primitive peoples have less modesty because of necessity. But then you have to wonder - if that goes all the way back, how could we evolve to have any sense of modesty in the first place? Or is it an entirely cultural concept? My thoughts as well. It seems hard to explain our...

Actually if you're talking about the Chinese crossbows, they're actually called repeating crossbows. The Chinese variant is called the Cho-Ko-Nu (or something like that, there's a few different spellings). Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow and according to a couple of ...

clockwork crossbow? if its what I think he means, its the crossbow version of a machine gun/gatling gun - you crank the * and then fire teh crossbow, crank again, which drops/pushes a new arrow into place, and the process continues until the weapon is out of arrows. * = the handle that attaches not...

re: Chinese names, I met a guy called Jian-hong, which is something to do with the cultural revolution, which was when he was born. I think the characters in his name mean construct-red or something. We were discussing the meaning of our names in an English class a few months ago – he kind of impli...

It did not seem too complicated to me- it is simply a second cousin marriage. Your mother's sister's kids are considered your siblings as it may be possible that you share a father, thus it would be incestuous to have sex with them, and your father's brother's kids are also considered your siblings...

It kinda helps though, that the men are most likely, traditionally, fretsoi (brothers or paternal half brothers) and the women are most likely, traditionally, siwai (sisters or maternal half sisters), and that the paternal grandfather of the bride(s) and the maternal grandmother of the groom(s) are...

@Latinist13 That's a really interesting system. Is there any particular convention on the choice of house names, like taking them from a set of historical names or a specific semantic domain? Or even a giant list passed down like Chinese generation names? To be brutally honest, I haven't given much...

I always thought that one factor leading to "civilization" was a dry climate. In the middle east, egypt, and pakistan a great deal of central planning was required in order to irrigate - and this was perhaps a driving factor towards civilization. In China, no worries, it would rain on your field. S...

I am wondering whether this would really make for a viable housing typology or whether it violates some sense of privacy and separation of uses. It seems to me that making the main room of the house both a living room for the family and a bedroom for the children makes the room too generalized and ...

Really? I had never heard about there being no evidence for towns before 2000 BC in China. I'm quite sure they had the beginnings of writing before that time (oracle bone script). One thing to consider is that they may have built their homes at that time from materials that were not preserved well....

@Latinist13 That's a really interesting system. Is there any particular convention on the choice of house names, like taking them from a set of historical names or a specific semantic domain? Or even a giant list passed down like Chinese generation names?

Really? I had never heard about there being no evidence for towns before 2000 BC in China. I'm quite sure they had the beginnings of writing before that time (oracle bone script). One thing to consider is that they may have built their homes at that time from materials that were not preserved well. ...

Wow. I guess I shouldn't be so close to the microphone (I have a headset). Sorry for ruining your quality. :( No worries, it's certainly not the worst episode we've had as far as audio quality. I really need to get some better equipment and editing software, but that requires money, and I have none...

Wow. I guess I shouldn't be so close to the microphone (I have a headset). Sorry for ruining your quality. :( No worries, it's certainly not the worst episode we've had as far as audio quality. I really need to get some better equipment and editing software, but that requires money, and I have none...

There's also the fact that they probably get asked what their " real name" is if they tell their English nickname to an English speaker. People kinda don't "believe" the English nicknames. Well, I often ask for Chinese names, but only because I speak Chinese and want to know what to call them in Ch...