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[scriver]

It's definitely over 9000

[scriver]

Random thought

We should start translating Chinese place names so they're easier for us to tell apart

[Reelya]

Oh Lord. What a horrible idea.

We already have the name in Chinese characters, then you have transliterations, which may be by multiple systems ("Shanghai, See also: shanghai, Shanghái, shānghài, Shanghaï, Shànghǎi and Shang-hai"), so the same place name might be spelled differently in Latin characters depending who you talk to. Now you want direct translations. So pretty much everyone who speaks a different language will start to refer to foreign place-names by their local translation, which may or may not differ by person as well.

EDIT: for example, Shanghai means "Upon the Sea", so I can call it Upon the Sea, someone else can call it "At the sea" others can call it "Near the sea", and you can call it one of those, but in Swedish. It would clear up communication problems no end.

[Kagus]

We should just teach those damn foreigners to speak English instead, as God intended.

[Naturegirl1999]

English is recent. If you’re talking about Allah/Yahwei, the original languages of the texts would have been Arabic/Hebrew, which are not the first languages. If there are any deities watching Earth, maybe they like watching new languages form anyway, it gives them something interesting to bet on, like “will lit get a meaning other than it’s current one?” Or “I bet a new language branch will involve changing we to wa”

If there are deities watching Earth, they are probably betting on what thing will happen next

[TamerVirus]

Just talk in binary. 1 is beep, 0 is boop

[Imic]

I personally think we should abolish English and replace it with a frankensteined miture of Spanish, Finnish, and Welsh.

[Naturegirl1999]

I personally think we should abolish English and replace it with a frankensteined miture of Spanish, Finnish, and Welsh.

How would one determine which parts of each language are kept in the new Welspanfinnish language?

[Iduno]

I personally think we should abolish English and replace it with a frankensteined miture of Spanish, Finnish, Klingon and Welsh.

[Kagus]

Spanish + Finnish = Spinach

If there are deities watching Earth, they are probably betting on what thing will happen next

I mean, according to the written account of the Abrahamaic god, no. He already knows what happens next (which is just SO boring, as far as divinities are concerned). And also specifically made sure that the one human language got fractured into thousands of others so that we could never work together properly.  Tower of Babel! Fun story.

...which, I suppose, means that multilingual interpreters are de facto blasphemers. Since they're circumventing God's will.


Huh. I suddenly have even more respect for that heretical profession.

[Naturegirl1999]

Spanish + Finnish = Spinach

If there are deities watching Earth, they are probably betting on what thing will happen next

I mean, according to the written account of the Abrahamaic god, no. He already knows what happens next (which is just SO boring, as far as divinities are concerned). And also specifically made sure that the one human language got fractured into thousands of others so that we could never work together properly.  Tower of Babel! Fun story.

...which, I suppose, means that multilingual interpreters are de facto blasphemers. Since they're circumventing God's will.


Huh. I suddenly have even more respect for that heretical profession.

While one out of the many deities might know that, he might not have told the others. Maybe the deities we write about aren’t the ones that exist, if any exist. Not all deities in religion can see the future, and the Abrahamic god doesn’t sound like the type who would tell other deities what he knows

[scriver]

English is recent. If you’re talking about Allah/Yahwei, the original languages of the texts would have been Arabic/Hebrew, which are not the first languages. If there are any deities watching Earth, maybe they like watching new languages form anyway, it gives them something interesting to bet on, like “will lit get a meaning other than it’s current one?” Or “I bet a new language branch will involve changing we to wa”

If there are deities watching Earth, they are probably betting on what thing will happen next

Technically Arabic and Hebrew are just as recent as English

[Naturegirl1999]

English is recent. If you’re talking about Allah/Yahwei, the original languages of the texts would have been Arabic/Hebrew, which are not the first languages. If there are any deities watching Earth, maybe they like watching new languages form anyway, it gives them something interesting to bet on, like “will lit get a meaning other than it’s current one?” Or “I bet a new language branch will involve changing we to wa”

If there are deities watching Earth, they are probably betting on what thing will happen next

Technically Arabic and Hebrew are just as recent as English

Oh thanks, didn’t know that. Did some searching, and it appears Tamil is the oldest language

[TamerVirus]

I thought Sumerian was the oldest known language?

[Kagus]

I thought Sumerian was the oldest known language?

Sumerian is a dead language however, with no modern native speakers. Tamil on the other hand is still very much in use, so I suppose it counts as the oldest known living language...


There are of course a bunch of "known"s involved in this stuff, not to mention "written"s.