The language thread

Originally Posted by Eye
Basque language is not mixed up with anything.

One theory says that it is the oldest surviving language of the [european] world, and predates any Indo-European language. Some say it predates *everything* in Europe, a remainder from the ice ages. And place names - though often heavily distorted - are all over Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

I'm currently reading through "Througth the language glass : How words colour your world" by Guy Deutscher (yes, that's his real name !). An extremely well written book about colours in languages. It's reading is easy and fluid, and for those with a bit more of knowledge it contains a few looks into the rather unknown spaces of language science.
Highly recommended !

Can't have a language thread without posts about crossword puzzles, can we?

I love crossword puzzles, been solving them for years. Unfortunately that means that the huuuge majority of crossword puzzle magazines aren't fun anymore, they're all of the easy type.

Fortunately, we have in Norway a guy named "Rolf Hansen", who has been making puzzles for more than 30 years. And those puzzles are a challenge. Two things are typically for his crosswords:

1. Looong words, often quite "creative" (weird) - meaning there's significant lateral thinking involved. I'll give you a couple of examples, but first observe that in Norwegian we make compound words by sticking all the components together. For instance "chief justice of the supreme court" becomes in Norwegian "Høyesterettsjustitiarius". So, words like that can be fairly long (although not by Welsh standard). In today's crossword one of the keywords was "legevakt" ("ER" in English) and the solution was "hålkefallskademottakssted" ("falling on ice trauma reception place"). I told you his solutions can be weird. Another keyword was "grisefjøs" ("pig barn), and the solution was "purkeavkomoppvekstarena" ("sow offspring growing up arena"). Fortunately, you get used to it.

2. Relevant but quite uncommon words. For instance "author" (5 letters). The answer was "Llull" (yepp, this is the correct spelling), referring to the Spanish (Catalan) philosopher and writer Ramon Llull (1232-1315!!!). If some of you claim to have heard of him, you're either Spanish (Catalan) or lying. Or both. Or you're Nyx or Maylander, and has solved that particular crossword.

A few of the solutions are used again and again. "River", 6 letters? Very likely it's "Dnestr". City, 10 letters? It's "Srebrenica". And for eight letters "Srinagar" is always an option. He's also quite fond of the fish named "Isgalt" (Macrourus berglax). Knowing these things helps to some degree.

Sometimes (not very often) a solution is wrong (inaccurate) or the spelling is … uncommon. He doesn't seem to care, and when you've solved his crosswords for a while, you know about them (unfortunately I can't remember any of them now)

One peculiar fact: Hansen loves making crossword puzzles, but he doesn't like solving them. According to an article about him a couple of years ago he has solved only two in his lifetime (I'm not sure I believe him).

So, what about you, computer role playing internet forum members (8 letters)? Any of you spending time on crosswords?

pibbur (6 letters)="pibbur"

I try to avoid having a cross word with anyone!!

I don’t. I used to do that when I was much younger, but that was well before we had internet.

I did that once in a while.

I enjoy finishing crosswords other folks started. My mother-in-law nearly never finishes her crosswords, and she's solving (or rather, starting) crosswords on a daily base.

I used to do that as a child with my grandfather, but when he passed I guess my love of those puzzles passed as well. Great memories, though.

Every day I learn a new word.

This time it's the "Refusenik".

Original source : In the SWTOR forums : http://www.swtor.com/community/showp…8&postcount=10

Dedicated PvP-only PvE refuseniks will be able to buy them on the GTN

By sheer chance I came across this highly interesting article : http://slavenorth.com/columns/oldenglish.htm
Please read it if you want to know / learn more about modern English !

On "Ulisses" and on language - and on the ways how "Literature" "works" : https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/m…-journalism-vi

Well, googling to find the link for this revealed that it's been revealed MANY times in the past but it's the first I've heard of it. (Warning: could be offensive to some British folk.) (But their team is doing well so they can take it.)

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/30/62491…er-or-football

Originally Posted by Zloth
Well, googling to find the link for this revealed that it's been revealed MANY times in the past but it's the first I've heard of it. (Warning: could be offensive to some British folk.) (But their team is doing well so they can take it.)

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/30/62491…er-or-football

It's a bit more complicated than that. The game that was codified into what we know today was definitely originally known as Association Football. But, the nickname "soccer" was seen as an upper class phrase (much as posh people tend to refer to Rugby Football as "rugger"). It was always disliked by the working people who thought it was their game, and just called it "football". When the American influence pushed the word soccer, to distinguish it from their own version of football, the pushback grew.

I would suggest that, as the rest of the planet calls football football, we should eliminate the confusion by referring to the US game as "gridiron".

Why should we change to…oooo gridiron is pretty cool…. hmm…..

Origin of the word "Dungeon" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon#Etymology

Sometimes I sit by myself thinking. Sometimes I solve crossword puzzles. And sometimes I do both. The other day a disease (7 letters) turned out to be "myalgia" (painful conditian in muscles), which made me think:

The suffix "algia" comes from Ancient Greek "algos" (pain, grief distress), and is used both as a symptom and a condition/disease. So we have "arthralgia" (pain in joints), "neuralgia" (pain due do neuropathology), "polymyalgia rheumatica", a rheumatic disease affecting mutltiple muscles.

So.

What about "nostalgia"? It derives from Ancient Greek: "nostos" (a return home) and was introduced in the 17th cenrury as a diagnosis for severe (unhealthy) homesickness. For some reason, according to https://www.etymonline.com/word/nostalgia it was "originally in reference to the Swiss and said to be peculiar to them and often fatal" Also: "a military medical diagnosis principally, and was considered a serious medical problem by the North in the American Civil War " (2588 cases, 13 deaths).

Today (after 1920) the meaning has been transferred to the well known "wistful yearning for the past".

Yet another example on how the use of words change over time, while still to some degree related to the original meaning.

pibbur who now understands why some watchers considers nostalgia harmful.

We have a language thread?

Get off the chesterfield, your runners got two soakers!

I think I get the "chesterfield".

But, according to https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/runner, there are more than different meanings of "runner" (one of them concerns cricket).

pibbur who on https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=soaker found mostly NSFW meanings of "soaker".

You are using the wrong dictionaries. Think where Chesterfield comes from - and its not a cigarette.

Right arm. Just giver!

I bet @Carnifex knows (did you just move to Florida or am I mixing you up with someone else?)

That's a brand of couch/sofa, if I remember right. Or if not a brand, urban slang for the same.

Aye, recently moved to Ormond Beach, FL. Traded out the snow for sunshine, and not a moment too soon!!! They had snow showers hit three days after I left Edmonton, in early September.