The language thread

 
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Korplem said:
Oh, really? So, the ancients landed men on the moon or had telescopes in orbit?
Click to expand...

I can't give you a 100% correct, or satisfying answer for this question.
But, in recent history (and our known history is very young), the ancients did have observatories for sure. From birth,children where kept in dark rooms/chambers for years so their eyes could adapt to the dark more, so they can see the nightsky more clearly.

Some ancient texts reveal that our solar system had 12 planets, 7 where visible by the naked eye, as are today.
Also, it was known back then, that our planet was the 7th planet if you count it from the outside of the solar system ring(that is from the planet Pluto).

As for landing man on the surface on the Moon...I don't know, maybe back then,yes, but, I don't subscribe to the NASA fake Moon landing footage(yes I'm one of those,hehe).
It could be, that it has happened, but that one was not shown to the public.

All in all, I just don't like the so called modern society bashing and underestimating the works and knowledge of the past. We can learn from our ancestors, after all, there is nothing new under the Sun.
 
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I won't get into the moonlandings thing, but it's probably fair to say that the average ancient was much more familiar with the heavens than the average person today - for navigation, tracking the time of year, religious significance, etc.
 
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The Ancients made a bone and let it be displayed to us human citizens as an asteroid.
At least that's *one* interpretation of it. ;)
 
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The Ig Nobel prizes were awarded yesterday (Thursday 17th of September). Here's one winner relevant to the language thread:

LITERATURE PRIZE — Mark Dingemanse [THE NETHERLANDS, USA], Francisco Torreira [THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, USA], and Nick J. Enfield [AUSTRALIA, THE NETHERLANDS], for discovering that the word "huh?" (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language — and for not being quite sure why.
REFERENCE: "Is 'Huh?' a universal word? Conversational infrastructure and the convergent evolution of linguistic items," Mark Dingemanse, Francisco Torreira, and Nick J. Enfield, PLOS ONE, 2013.

pibbur who thinks that a "ne-ne-ne-ne-neee-ne" equivalent is present in at least umpteen languages.
 
Scots have 421 words for snow.
It is often said that the Inuit have 50 different words for snow but researchers at the University of Glasgow have discovered that the Scots have even more.

Researchers cataloguing different Scots words for the white stuff have officially logged 421, including the most obvious “snaw” but also “sneesl” to begin to rain or snow, and “skelf” a large snowflake.

[…]

The study by the University of Glasgow is part of an AHRC-funded pilot project to compile the first ever Historical Thesaurus of Scots (HTS), classifying every word in the Scots language from earliest records to present day.

[…]

Other Scots words for snow include:

“feefle” - to swirl, as of snow round a corner
“feuchter” - of snow: to fall lightly, to come down in odd flakes
“snaw-ghast” - an apparition seen in the snow
“spitters” - small drops or flakes of wind-driven rain or snow
“blin-drift” - drifting snow
“snaw-pouther” - fine driving snow
and “flindrikin” - a slight snow-shower
Click to expand...
 
It seems to have got the attention of the world, the phrase we Norwegians (myself included) often use to describe something chaotic, wild and out of control: "texas" (with an undercase 't'). As in "the situation was completely texas". Or "my last visit to Texas was completely texas".

The expression probably derives from" the wild west", and has hopefully nothing to do with the people living there.

Is the term used in other countries? And are there other, similar phrases in use? We sometimes refer to the more seedy parts of our cities by the nickname "Chicago". And of course we have the phrase "Polish parliament" which I know are used in other scandinavian countries and in Germany. Maybe even in Poland, but I suspect the meaning is slightly different..

Any other examples?

pibbur who is a bit disappointed because he can find no use for the word "australian".

PS: We have the "Norwegian Blue", which is something completely different.
 
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In Germany we have many sayings including other countries, cities:

"Rom is auch nicht an einem Tag erbaut worden"
Rom was not build in one day, too.
Meaning: To make something perfect you need time.

"Alle Wege führen nach Rom"
All ways lead to Rom
Meaning: We find our way home, even if we don't know where we are currently.

"Wie Gott in Frankreich leben"
Living like God in France
Meaning: Living in luxury

"Hinter schwedischen Gardinen"
Behind Swedish curtains
Meaning: in jail

"Holland in Not"
Holland in danger
Meaning: something goes terrible wrong

"Bin ich der Kaiser von China?"
Am I the emperor of China?
Meaning: Do you really think I have power/money to do that?

"Noch ist Polen nicht verloren"
Poland is not lost yet
Meaning: There's still hope in a (very) bad situation

"Das ist getürkt"
this is turked
Meaning: this is faked, doctored

"Hier sieht es aus wie bei den Hottentotten"
Looks like at the Hottentotten
Meaning: It's like bedlam in here.

…
 
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Tolkien actually once translated the Beowulf … My sister gave that book to me as an Xmas present … :D
Now, reading throiugh this will be hard work … for most of the year, because this book is not small !

So I can truly say that 2015 has been "The Beowullf Year" for me … :D

I can't say if I can recommend it, yet, because I really don't think anyone would be interested in the Old English that the Beowulf was written in … :biggrin:
 
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Animals. Sometimes they appear on their own, sometimes in collections. Question is: what to call them, and it turns out, that depends on the species. We have:


But what about gorillas? Oxford dictionaries suggests "a band of gorillas". But there is another term which (apparently) has gained popularity in scientific circles: the "whoop", as in "a whoop of gorillas". Similarly "a flange of baboons" is used increasingly in stead of Oxford's rather lame "troop of baboons".

The quite interesting thing is where these words come from. Gerald. As in Gerald the gorilla:


pibbur who claims there would be a "pibbur of pibburs" if there was more than one.
 
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