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Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpse
Posted By: YossarianDate: 4/2/04 1:24 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpse (Forrest of B.org)

: That was "old Scottish" with a lower-case "o", to
: distinguish from English as spoken in Scottland today (which some might
: call "Scottish", incorrectly). Old Scottish being an ancestor of
: Scottish. And are you sure it's entirely Celtic? I can see Celtic parts in
: it, just as English has French parts, but I saw an IE language chart
: somewhere that claimed something like "many linguists consider
: Scottish to be a variant of English, while in fact it is an offshoot from
: earlier in the tree, closely related to, but not a variant of,
: English."

Nope. It's all here:

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/oe-ie.html

: I hate English too, though it's mostly because modern English is a mushpot of
: other languages and their conventions intermixed.

Whoa whoa whoa, I love English, but I suspect that's because I already speak it. It's a bastard language to be sure, but its also one of the most successful and versatile.

: Old English actually
: made some sense, at least as much as French.

I guess that depends on who is reading it. I've not spent much time poring over the intricacies of Old English, but it is completely unintelligible to readers of Modern English; though a good thousand years will do that to any language. If you are referring to Old French, I am equally at a loss describe the level of similarity.

: I just think French is funky
: from a purely design viewpoint - how does something like "-eaux"
: make an "oh" sound? (I can see how "ea-ooh", the 'x'
: being pronounced as an aspirant, could devolve over centuries into a
: single dipthong that eventually becomes "oh", but then just drop
: the damn letters already!) Same thing for "-ois" being
: pronounced "ua", etc.

Actually, IIRC, the "x" at the end denotes the plural, such as in multiple desks, or "bureaux". "Bureau" is said the exact same way as "bureaux", and the fact that there is multiple is denoted by the preceding, uh, whatever part of speech "the" is, i.e., "Les Bureaux" (lay-byuro) as opposed to "Le bureau" (luh-byuro). You're also right that the "x" is typically silent, as are most consonants at the end of most French nouns, unless followed by an adjective that starts with a vowel, in that case, the "x" makes a 'z' sound and the "s" makes an..'s' sound. So 'the orange desks' would be "Les bureaux orange" (Lay-byuroez-orahnge). What does this mean? Only that I know enough French to get beaten up, but probably not, because, I mean come on, they're FRENCH*. My actual point is that though seemingly silly, a lot of these oddities serve a purpose not readily apparent.

French has its exceptions, but again, they're not as glaring and sometimes outrages as those of English.

: VIVA LA QUENYA! ;-)
: -Tauron Erufailonissi

"Frederico Lorca is dead and gone"
-Joe Strummer

*the obvious exception to this being Quebecois, who could easily kick my ass.

...


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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseYossarian 4/2/04 12:20 a.m.
     Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpsezudo 4/2/04 3:24 a.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseYossarian 4/2/04 4:34 a.m.
                 Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpsezudo 4/2/04 6:40 a.m.
                       Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseForrest of B.org 4/2/04 7:34 a.m.
                             Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseForrest of B.org 4/2/04 7:38 a.m.
                             Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseYossarian 4/2/04 11:39 a.m.
                                   Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseForrest of B.org 4/2/04 12:41 p.m.
                                         Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseYossarian 4/2/04 1:24 p.m.
                                               You guys keep this up...Anaphiel 4/2/04 1:34 p.m.
                                                     Re: You guys keep this up...Yossarian 4/2/04 2:02 p.m.
                                                           Re: You guys keep this up...Anaphiel 4/2/04 2:42 p.m.
                                                           Re: You guys keep this up...zudo 4/3/04 7:09 a.m.
                       Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseElliott 4/2/04 8:53 a.m.
                             Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpsezudo 4/3/04 7:04 a.m.
                       Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseTodd. 4/2/04 10:42 p.m.
                             Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpsezudo 4/3/04 6:54 a.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a CorpseSteve Levinson 4/3/04 9:50 a.m.
                 Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Like Flies on a Corpsezudo 4/4/04 6:27 a.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

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