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Month: February 2017
Will the 2011 edition of the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon by the TLG ever be published in print?
I no longer work for the TLG, and I didn’t get to speak for the TLG when I did. But while a lot of work over several years went into the TLG redaction of the 1940 LSJ (involving myself among others), that work involved proofreading, corrections to mistagging, typos or misprints in the digitisation (and […]
Why isn’t Esperanto the global lingua franca?
As is so often the case here: there are some good answers (Vote #1 Andreu Massana’s answer; Vote #2 or #3 Laurie Chilvers’ answer), there are some bad answers, and this is my answer. The initial hope of Zamenhof, and indeed of most people in the auxiliary language movement, was that the global language would […]
What is the latin rendering of “The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting¨”?
Differunt pornographia eroticaque per luminatione. I could try to come up with something more historically accurate for pornography and erotica, maybe invoking the Ars Amatoria. But frankly, the reference is to film, and I don’t think historical accuracy is worth it. Answered 2017-02-15 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-latin-rendering-of-The-difference-between-pornography-and-erotica-is-lighting¨/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
What is the latin rendering of “Pornography is literature designed to be read with one hand”?
Pornographia litterae sunt uno manu legendae. Answered 2017-02-15 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-latin-rendering-of-Pornography-is-literature-designed-to-be-read-with-one-hand/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
My native language is English, but it seems that more inflected languages are widly more complex. Does every language really have equally complex grammar?
Drop everything you are doing, and upvote Joachim Pense. Vote #1 Joachim Pense’s answer to My native language is English, but it seems that more inflected languages are widly more complex. Does every language really have equally complex grammar? There are some bad answers here, and some good answers here. There’s a progression of sophistication […]
Which transliterated version of a surname sounds better, Potyomkin or Potemkin?
Yes, English routinely transliterates Cyrillic Ё as E. For that matter, Russian routinely writes Ё as Е. Our transliterations (and your default orthography) aren’t up to date with the last couple of centuries of sound change in Russian. Potemkin is the most familiar version to English-speakers, since “Potemkin village” is a well known expression (and […]
What forms the basis of the suffix used when describing which country someone comes from?
There are no rules, but there are trends. -ish is used for country names that the English would have been familiar with in the Middle Ages. -ese is used for country names that the English learned of via the Italians or Spanish. That includes East Asia. -(i)an is used as a default for new-fangled country […]
What does your accent sound like in Esperanto?
http://vocaroo.com/ I have recorded a couple of passages I have read out in Esperanto, but why not a new one. Klingono, from Neciklopedio, the Esperanto version of Uncyclopedia. Vocaroo | Voice message Well, that was fun! My Esperanto has a mercilessly Greek accent, with no variation in vowel length or quality. In theory, that is […]
Could someone who speaks Cypriot Greek tell what “λεγνά” is/are?
https://youtu.be/FhLRDY78B5U A2A, and I don’t speak Cypriot. Well, this is quite the puzzle. The lyric goes: Τ’ άι Φιλίππου δκιάβηκε, τζι ήρτεν τ’ άι Μηνά,τζι οι κορασιές παντρεύκουνται τζι αλλάσσουν τα λεγνά St Philip’s day is gone, St Menna’s day is here,and girls get married, and the slender ones change/and change the slender ones. I’ve […]
Trenchant
Not as recondite as some of the Magister’s lexical choices, but I just saw it today, and I see that he’s used it against me once: Michael Masiello’s answer to Can someone be intelligent and not agree with your political views? she [Irene Colthurst] is a fierce intellectual who writes trenchant, lucid, well-argued answers supported […]