zompist bboard

I've had an idea for a species like this for a while, so I think I'll offer them for the CCC game. Appearance They are similar to humans, but whereas we are descended from a species of ape, they are descended from a species of monkey. They are smaller (maximum hieght c. five feet), have powerful arm...

I finished the first reading last night. I'd give this novel four stars, or possibly even five.

What's the Quququqquq for "pulling our legs"?

The hobbitry is more typical of children's stories, such as Oz. Tolkien actually started out by writing children's stories if I remember right. One of the amazing achievements of Tolkien is the sense of a layered world-- we are in the Third Age and the book is alive with clues that the author knows...

How come wa is the auxiliary for the progressive tense and not se? Is wa an archaic copula preserved in this usage only?

Interesting - I suppose past and future must be indicated by adverbs or auxiliaries.

I don't remember the horse being introduced. But I do like the epilogue, where we see just how barbaric and primitive all these characters we've been following are, compared to the foreign ambassador. P.S. Good to see you outside the Almea board again! Right at the end. The ambassador has horses wi...

Glad to hear Babblers is on the way! When you want a reader, Zompist, here's a volunteer!

(Why weird? The plot sounds similar in some ways to I, Claudius (a favourite of mine), only Claudius has even less possibilities for action than Beretos.

And here's the next instalment: 4 Tokn All those who supported Munśuk in the late rebellion are to be skinned alive. Munśuko śaiok to:lgu lilok śaukzejido jaŋuŋ rokkaba:ilurouŋ Munśuk-OBJ support-PAST every-person near-PAST rule-NEG-NOM-LOC breathe-ADJ outside-NOM-remove-IMP-ADJ A few prisoners were...

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels, set in a world of islands, not large continents. Richard Adams' Shardik , apparently a bronze age culture in a subtropical climate. There is an impregnable fortress (by the standards of the day), city walls, stone carving and writing (rare, possibly fallen into disu...

I wonder which of the three nations I've mentioned will be the first to start? They all have intriguing ancient ruins. Of course, maybe the Barakhinei or the Mei might surprise us all.

Technology such as DNA sequencing, radiocarbon dating and X-ray photography won't be available for a while. However the Xurnese, or the Erelaeans or the Uyse?ic states might well have already started archeological excavations. The Uytainese want to find another Miller's Stele with all the legendary ...

In celebration of Christmas, and my copy of the Lexipedia arriving, I thought I would try out my Wede:i translation skills on Zompist's latest story. The Multipliers 2 Tokn "Dined with Bokugo tonight. Truly an unsung genius" Go:źiok Bokugoli lil seki. Raluŋ, ŋinuulze to:magu. eat-PAST Bokugo-WITH th...

I was not aware that the elephant said baraag in my native tongue!

Interesting. It sounds from what you say, Zompist, as though the borderline between the two types of economy could be fluid. What is the title of that book you're reading? I think I'd like to read it too.

In this early story the Wedei civilization does have merchants. The class must have died out under the empire. I wonder how that happened. Perhaps certain wealthy people would be granted monopolies (like Miriŋi:l with elcarin steel) as royal favours, which could then be revoked, and either retained ...

Not necessarily. The Sumerians had a writing system of sorts for nearly a millennium before they had multiplication tables. (They had pictographs as early as 3500 BC.)

What clued me in was the incipient boom in copper. It had to be around the time bronze working was getting started. I also thought it was telling that a lot of the towns, like Na:iwor and Śinji, seem to be independent. Interesting to note the major god seems to be Akśim, the river ("Euphrates"?) and...

Wondered where and when it was set, thought it had to be Wede:i, as the narrator is literate. Have found most of the towns mentioned on this map.

I am guessing that the city is Bi:dau and the date around -650 Z.E. Am I right?

If we've got seven genders, why not have alternation of generations too? Then we get to add more conjunctions based on whether the speaker is sexual or parthogenetic.

Some more declensions:
The speaker's allergies.
The speaker's favourite music.
The listener's position on the Dunning-Kruger scale.

As Asimov said himself:

They will just disrupt his dreaming and his necessary scheming
With that psychohistory.

Oh, wait, he wasn't talking about robots.

zompist wrote:Can't find any reference to their lifespan in a quick search, Mornche.

I suspect it's somewhere on the Old Board.

Zompist implies somewhere that ktuvoks have shorter lifetimes than humans, but I can't find the reference - comment please, zomp?

And it started out with a species of which many individuals liked humans anyway. Read In Defence of Dogs by John Bradshaw. His theory is that we (accidentally) selected those wolves who were less shy and more willing to hang around with us, and they evolved into the domestic dog. We left the shyer a...

Ha! Found something.
This post on Yahoo Answers.
Poul Anderson's essay