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Latin script is a given. Years ago I'd have been comfortable with hiragana but as I haven't used it since high school I'm more than a bit rusty. At the time I recognized maybe seventy kanji but that's like saying at the time I recognized uppercase A.

I think another layer to this might be that if a live action actor changes his voice for a role, you might still recognize his face (hey, that's Gary Oldman). With a VA you don't get that connection until the credits. Therefore, it might be to some degree harder to track a voice actor from one role ...

I was reading TV Tropes and it raised an interesting question: If a man changes his name upon marriage, what does he call his old name? Obviously maiden name does not work. TV Tropes offers bachelor name. A neutral name may be birth name. Maybe something longer like pre-marriage name to differentiat...

I suppose also the few English words (most or all borrowings) which vary by gender (blond/blonde, widower/widow, fiancé/fiancée, actor/actress, hunter/huntress). There are also the archaic -tor/-trix pairs (administrator/administratrix, aviator/aviatrix, executor/executrix).

So is this something to the effect of, "He's so mean, right?"

My library card was free. Of course, it has only about four or five grammars, discounting ILL.

My native tongue is English. I have many ancestral languages, as I am a genetic mutt. One such language is Swedish, however, the last person in my immediate family to speak it was my great-grandmother who reportedly only knew enough English to order a Pepsi.

When I have heard it used, it appears to be more like "those". I recall it being used by a Southern co-worker when I told her about a museum in D.C. featuring blown glass made to look like flowers. She said something to the effect of "Them smart Yankees" or "Them Yankees are smart."

The dream began at my childhood home where my brother and I saw a meteor fall. It was not really a meteor. One of our neighbors who in this reality was apparently one of my brother's ex-roommates, had built an aircraft which most resembled a hot-air balloon. This is interesting as he is not an engin...

I'm sure the White House has a medal detector. (ba-da-cha)

Who Would Win in a Fist Fight Between Michael Dorn and a Zombie Benjamin Whorf?: Never heard of them. Dorn is a Klingon actor who occassionally plays a human on non-Trek shows. Whorf is a dead linguist (hence the fact that he is a pulse-challenged American in this scenario). Also, for some reason I...

Who cares? In Swedish we have a hundred words for rubbing snow in someone's face. 8) This is pretty neat, though. Inspiring, definitely. Not necessarily for snow, but for anything important to the culture of one's people. ... And no, rubbing snow in someone's face isn't important to Swedish culture...

It wouldn't be unheard of. Akan goes from Iroquois to Crow in certain circumstances. I don't know about a Crow-Omaha switch though. They seem too dissimilar, but that's just me.

I used "animal-vegetable-mineral" because it is the set phrase one uses. Who is this "one" you speak of? I've never heard that phrase before in my life. Let's sing it together now! I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of En...

blank stare II wrote:.

Peh! If Arnold has taught me nothing else, it's that you can't bring weapons back with you.

This reminds me of the documentary the Linguists . They go to talk to speakers of, among other languages, Chulym. The linguists were told that, "if you had only come so-and-so long ago my uncle or my grandmother'd be alive to talk to you." The film was made four years ago and the last linguist who w...

I was directed here for the sake of parallel posting, so: F: Father M: Mother B: Brother Z: Sister S: Son D: Daughter H: Husband W: Wife English Term Chompi English Term Chompi Father F sathi Uncle FB sathi Mother M hsa Uncle MB umiwa Brother B pihe Aunt FZ nechpi Sister Z pihe Aunt MZ hsa Cousin FB...

Since when can't you bathe in soup?

y cn ndrstnd nglsh wtht th vwls

So, "M dd tld m t g t th str nd pck p sm sp" makes perfect sense to you?

[Edit: Added]

It looks like a surgeon with a mask on to me.

What do you call it? Sub
Where are you from? Kansas
Where do you live now? Id.
What else might have influenced your choice? Subway?

Had my brother look in his big ass OED dictionary that you need a magnifying glass to read and it says "octopodes (anglicized) octopuses". So historically I suppose, octopedes and if you don't want to sound like a jackass, octopuses.

In regards to the bit on theme naming "Ave. A-D", Lawrence, the local college town has streets named for US states in order of admission to the Union up to Oregon (the state before Kansas). Other than with Mass. (its main street), navigation is left to remembering what the fuck state came in after, ...

At least conceptually, the Americans number buildings based on location (so the 1200 block), whereas in some areas of Japan numbers are based on the age of the building, which I'd imagine makes navigation fun. Also consider the people's primary mode of transportation: foot, horse, jetpack.

I did that once! Rolled over and my laptop came a-crashing down. Broke in half. I was heartbroken.