Search found 271 matches

by Rhetorica
Sun Nov 10, 2013 12:31 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 237899

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

I think the record for reuses of a modern composition is probably John Murphy's Sunshine Adagio in D Minor; check out the list. You'd think they'd just hire Rank 1 and get it over with.
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:57 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Racist words for White People
Replies: 61
Views: 14455

Re: Racist words for White People

Wikipedia gives four citations for the 'whip-cracker' etymology : Smitherman, Dr. Geneva (2000), Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner, Houghton Mifflin Books, 100 pp. Herbst, Philip H (1997), The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United State...
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 2:24 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 237899

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

Also worth adding to the list: Edward Shearmur's K-PAX soundtrack. Somehow a movie about a guy who goes crazy and thinks he's from another world and has worked out the orbital mechanics for it seems fitting for conworlding.
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 1:33 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Help your conlang fluency (2)
Replies: 6633
Views: 926766

Re: Help your conlang fluency

Apes saní veshekhíes, venes dútessos, mí atshovifa íé asitha alzessoníha vizé kai. Imralú... dí? apes s-a-ní vesh-ekhí-es, venes dút-ess-os, mí atshov-if-a íé a-sith-a alzess-o-ní-ha v-izé kai. Imral-ú... dí? within 1-SG.F.LOC-ADJ being-process-LOC.N.SG under sorrow-echo-LOC.M.SG a day-ARCHAIC_NOM-...
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 12:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

Well, the phylogeny still holds true for a few very well-conserved genes—well enough at least to build the taxonomic tree—but not all of the core genes agree with each other on some details. Most of the diversity doesn't result in appreciable structural similarities, though—many bacteria are just ro...
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:04 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Racist words for White People
Replies: 61
Views: 14455

Re: Racist words for White People

A lot of people don't realise that 'cracker' comes from 'whip-cracker', so it loses some strength by that alone. It's easy to misread it as meaning 'saltine' because of the long-standing white-bread stereotype: maximally bland (and starchy.)
by Rhetorica
Sat Nov 09, 2013 12:27 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

I'm not mixing Linnaean and cladistic systems—I'm comparing them. As someone who works primarily with prokaryotes I'm naturally inclined to regard Carl Linnaeus a non-Avian member of Dinosauria , as it were, due to the hilariously high amount of horizontal gene transfer that's made most phylogenetic...
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 8:00 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: ZBB Census 2013
Replies: 221
Views: 65117

Re: ZBB Census 2013

Nesescosac wrote:
KathAveara wrote:
Rhetorica wrote:Favourite game: Uru
Yay! There are others around!
Meh, I prefer Chipaya.
Cheeky. Seriously, though, the later Myst games are glorious and impossible to overrate.
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:19 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 237899

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

Writing English essays is dull, and not at all enjoyable at 22:00, but, if you have to, do it while listening to the Inception soundtrack. (And finish it off with the Chariots of Fire theme.) Hmmm, the Inception soundtrack... Me takes note of it. It was something new (usually I listen to the Moon s...
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:08 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: ZBB Census 2013
Replies: 221
Views: 65117

Re: ZBB Census 2013

Interestingly, 'English' and 'British' are generally not interchangeable, and you can probably guess with a high degree of accuracy which a person living in England would pick. Someone whose family has lived in England for numerous generations will likely identify as 'English', whereas a person who...
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:34 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Help your conlang fluency (2)
Replies: 6633
Views: 926766

Re: Help your conlang fluency

Imralu wrote:Na i sehenu hu cem na zeua si ka olaz.
I'm really sad and I don't know who to tell.
Trúhinzé, sei olíes viteia.
see-3.SG.PRES.IMP, 1-N.PL.NOM be-1.PL.PRES
Well, we're here.
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:26 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 256782

Re: Cheese that smells

All-time favourite (I'm sure it's already been posted, but still): Foot Heads Arms Body, after Michael Foot got involved in nuclear disarmament.
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:37 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: ZBB Census 2013
Replies: 221
Views: 65117

Re: ZBB Census 2013

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by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:40 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Lexicon Building
Replies: 4308
Views: 913200

Re: Lexicon Building

Lilitika: shúkhristíu, /ʃuːxɹɪstiːʌ/, wind-hair-pen. (Yes, I know, the phonology is boring. I'm working on a new one.)

Next: prescriptivism.
by Rhetorica
Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:32 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

This is what I get for reading history of science papers for too damn long. ("paraphiletic with" doesn't mean anything; a group is just "paraphiletic", or it isn't) Not quite—a parent group is paraphyletic with respect to the monophyletic groups that have been removed from it. Try Googling the phras...
by Rhetorica
Thu Nov 07, 2013 5:53 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

What Legion said. You don't stop being part of your grandmother's family because you have a family of your own. A taxon is not a lineage, nor is it a family. Birds aren't dinosaurs, even though they evolved from them, and you are not a fish, even though you evolved from an aquatic vertebrate genera...
by Rhetorica
Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:34 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

Drydic wrote:You're saying birds aren't dinosaurs even though birds are dinosaurs.
Birds are paraphyletic with dinosaurs Dinosaurs are paraphyletic with birds; birds are not actually dinosaurs. According to your logic, humans are a kind of fish.
by Rhetorica
Wed Nov 06, 2013 11:17 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: A language game
Replies: 17
Views: 3859

Re: A language game

I've been able to get up to 850 or so, but I think that was mostly dumb luck. Damn you, Hausa.
by Rhetorica
Tue Nov 05, 2013 1:28 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

hwhatting wrote:
Rhetorica wrote:merde de vachê is
Merde de quoi?
I could've sworn there was a circumflex there... sigh. I guess my third-grade French teacher was Belgian or something.
by Rhetorica
Tue Nov 05, 2013 1:58 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 13489

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

ol bofosh wrote:Right, bullshit. Which isn't French.
No, in French you say foutaise or connerie, although merde de vachê is gaining some traction (unlike merde de taureau, which remains the sole purview of fancy-talkin' Americans.)
by Rhetorica
Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:20 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Help your conlang fluency (2)
Replies: 6633
Views: 926766

Re: Help your conlang fluency

http://records.l5.ca/misc/alphabet-difficulty.png Ilú noví litshai il aporafebektíe, saraví títina tshentúekhíenú ílizé kai. like other element-PL-S.N.NOM of alien_language-make-RESULT-S.N.Ø, refined letter-set-S.F.NOM postwork-ACTION_OF-S.N want-3S.PRES GNO. Like other aspects of language creation...