Author: Nick Nicholas

Website:
http://www.opoudjis.net
About this author:
Data analyst, Greek linguist

irenic

By: | Post date: 2017-02-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Love this word, because it comes from my sister’s name, Irene. Love this word, because it describes the attitude I aspire to having on the Quoras, and I use it a fair bit myself as a disclaimer. Love this word, because while I had seen it ages back, the Magister reintroduced me to it. Michael […]

ineluctable

By: | Post date: 2017-02-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Habib Fanny has just included inexorable in A few of my favorite words here, and I wondered to myself: has the Magister used one of my favourite words, which is related to inexorable but is even more emotive? Was there ever any doubt? Michael Masiello’s answer to What is importance of divine intervention in literature? […]

What does fluency mean in a conlang like Klingon?

By: | Post date: 2017-02-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Artificial Languages

https://www.quora.com/How-did-you-learn-Klingon/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5 Oh, it’s a very good question, ’erIq qaDye qaH and raHul chabra qaH. Although it’s a question I did prompt. Let me clarify the question I prompted, because it may not be as obvious from the wording. Klingon is a made up language. Noone has ever spoken it fluently. All the records we have […]

Will swear words become used so much that they will be normal and not rude eventually?

By: | Post date: 2017-02-02 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

Deadwood (TV series) is celebrated as being one of the most foulmouthed shows on cable TV. This was a conscious decision by the scriptwriters, to convey the impression that 1870s foul language would have had on its contemporaries. Because using actual 1870s foul language (which was blasphemous rather than scatological) would have sounded so anodyne […]

If I want to work in linguistic typology, which linguists should I read?

By: | Post date: 2017-02-02 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

My top 3: Joseph Greenberg. The founding father. And very useful to get a sense of the kinda functionalist programme he had in mind. Bernard Comrie. Martin Haspelmath. Answered 2017-02-02 · Upvoted by Steve Rapaport and Eric Meinhardt [Originally posted on http://quora.com/If-I-want-to-work-in-linguistic-typology-which-linguists-should-I-read/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Can fascism grow in Greece?

By: | Post date: 2017-02-02 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

Tolis Malakos of London Metropolitan University wrote a very insightful piece on this in 2013: What does the rise of fascism mean for Greece and for Europe? Above and beyond that, turning to populist, authoritarian solutions when faith is shaken in bourgeois democratic politics is not an idiosyncrasy of Germans or Italians: it is human […]

How did you learn Klingon?

By: | Post date: 2017-02-01 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Artificial Languages

It’s a someone idiosyncratic method, and while it worked for me in both Klingon and Lojban, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for a natural language. I did lots of translating from English. Lots and lots of translating. With some experimenting, trying to work out what looked more fluent. (The question of what the hell fluency […]

Are ήρθε and ήλθε interchangeable? Is there a difference in meaning?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-31 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

No difference in meaning. ήλθε is the archaic form. ήρθε is the vernacular form, and represents a regular sound change in the modern language. ήρθε is now the unmarked verb form. If you use ήλθε, you will come across as speaking in Puristic (Katharevousa); 100 years ago, that made you be educated, 50 years ago, […]

How did those unworthy Terran petaQ manage to plagiarize Shakespeare so many years before first contact?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-31 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Artificial Languages

Lucky you, OP, because I wrote the introduction to The Klingon Hamlet, and translated the verse of the play (or rather, in-universe, I was editorially involved in the Terran edition of the play Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Kronos, by Wil’yam Shex’pir, and translated the introduction). And the introduction pays glancing mention […]

What was Nick Nicholas’ process to translate Hamlet into Klingon?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-31 | Comments: 1 Comment
Posted in categories: Artificial Languages

I thank you for the question, ’erIq qaDye qaH! I’ll answer a bit more broadly than your details ask, but I may get a big vague; it was after all 20 years ago. I learned Klingon in 1994. I had enough arrogance and free time, that I knew I’d be the one to write the […]

  • Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Join 329 other subscribers
  • February 2026
    M T W T F S S
     1
    2345678
    9101112131415
    16171819202122
    232425262728