« first day (249 days earlier)      last day (4664 days later) » 
00:00 - 09:0009:00 - 13:0013:00 - 16:0016:00 - 19:0019:00 - 20:0020:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
11:00 PM
@Cerberus, articles? Dijon? Wines? Moving the ant nest?
@Cerberus s and accents.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@AlainPannetier The rule that, whenever an s disappears from Latin, it becomes a circonflexe in French.
@AlainPannetier Ding!
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Yes.
 
user19161
@Cerberus You mean circumflex.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@JasperLoy I was trying to say it in French...
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
These are exceptions indeed. But the rule kind of works. Yes.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
11:02 PM
@AlainPannetier Hah! Then I am vindicated.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Le nôtre, le vôtre.
 
user19161
@AlainPannetier What is that?
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Lenôtre (last name) is with an accent. Spanish el nuestro, Italian il nostro.
The accent stays is the "o" is closed.
notre votre is open.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Yeah, I know.
But I think those exceptions were what made me distrust the rule as a kid.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@JasperLoy circonflexe is the French spelling.
 
user19161
11:06 PM
@reg I didn't see you at the usual time yesterday. I'm glad you are having more time for yourself!
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
Hm. Really?
I only played some ilomilo yesterday.
Other than that, nothing unusual.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Ilomilo?
 
user19161
@RegDwight And I know your bed time is around now...
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
A game, I see.
 
user19161
11:07 PM
@Cerberus I only know milo, it's a drink but I don't know whether you know it.
 
user19161
@RegDwight Looks very childish.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
Hmm I don't think so.
It looks cute.
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
If you liked sudoku, you will love this one.
It will fry your brain.
 
user19161
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
@Cerberus That was... unexpected.
"I played ilomilo yesterday" "What's ilomilo?" <video> "Oh, it's a game?" D'oh.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
11:10 PM
@RegDwight I typed that after Googling it, but before you posted that video. See? Sometimes the world isn't as freaky as it appears.
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
But but but!
 
user19161
And we all don't type as fast as the owl.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
No, I don't have three buts.
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
Feb 14 at 15:46, by RegDwight
No matter how fast I type, I can't type faster than I type, so my stuff always ends up chronological.
Also,
Apr 16 at 20:11, by RegDwight
I just realized that it's easier for me to find a quote of "aww" than to type the three characters. I have achieved nirvana.
@Cerberus Sorry, I meant hed hed hed.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@RegDwight Better.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
11:13 PM
@JasperLoy, so you live in Singapore?
 
user19161
Cerberus has three heads, one for eating the owl, one for the viscacha, and one extra one left.
 
user19161
@AlainPannetier Yes, my profile is 100 per cent real, as mentioned to Matt.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Just read it. I've been there only a few hours. On my way to Kaoshung a long time ago. Looked nice. I feel like taking that plane again suddenly...
So you write traditional Chinese.
 
user19161
@AlainPannetier You just went to Singapore. No we write the modern Chinese characters, not the traditional ones.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Then that must be the only place outside mainland China. Or are there others?
 
aedia
aedia
11:21 PM
@Jasper I have finally taken the time to look at a map and I feel enlightened but also now aware of my extreme ignorance.
 
user19161
Well, Singapore is not part of China, haha.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@aedia, IIRC, Singapore is right under the Equator.
 
aedia
aedia
I really had not a very good idea where it was until right now.
 
user19161
I think they use the traditional characters in Taiwan and the modern ones in China, but I may be wrong.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@JasperLoy Sure, but I'm wondering how characters introduced by the Communist regime can be adopted in Singapore.
Taiwan is definitely traditional indeed.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
11:23 PM
@JasperLoy That would seem logical.
@AlainPannetier There are many Chinese in Singapore?
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
I think it's mainly Chinese.
 
user19161
Ya mainly Chinese.
 
Martha
Martha
@Cerberus I thought that was pretty well-established fact?
 
user19161
There are also Malays, Indians and Eurasians.
 
Martha
Martha
(The circumflex thing, that is)
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
11:24 PM
I had a colleague named "Ong" and I thought that meant "red" and that was actually the Singaporean pronunciation of Wang.
@JasperLoy, Is that right?
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@Martha Well, it is well established that that is usually the case; but there are many exceptions, making it a tad unreliable.
@AlainPannetier Oh, I have a friend named Ong! His family are Chinese from Indonesia.
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
Languages are like that.
 
user19161
@AlainPannetier Yes we had a president called Ong Teng Cheong (Wang Ding Chang).
 
RegDwight
RegDwight
Still, rules are rules.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
But so many notable exceptions...
 
user19161
11:26 PM
@AlainPannetier But I don't think it means red.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
French and English have a lot of exceptions. But you know what exceptions are: complex rules overtaking simple rules.
@JasperLoy, that's because I confused with hong.
 
user19161
Wang is actually Mandarin but Ong is the dialect version: could be Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, whatever.
 
user19161
This has nothing to do with the difference between hanyupinyin and wade transliteration, which is another story altogether.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@JasperLoy, I tried to learn Mandarin 3 times and still don't know it. So I'll leave the rest for another life. (red in traditional Chinese => 紅)
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@AlainPannetier Yeah... I wish I could make out some complex rule in the s exceptions, but I don't see it (yet).
 
user19161
11:33 PM
@AlainPannetier Good idea. I'll leave my dreams to the next life too, if they don't happen in this one. :)
 
user19161
@aedia We are all ignorant. What is more important in an education system really is to teach thinking skills rather than knowledge.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
FWIW, the one we agreed upon is already a good start:
- Possessive adjectives "notre" "votre" first lost the "s" and then shifted to an open "o", so they lost their accent as well.
- Whereas possessive pronouns "le nôtre, le vôtre" lost the "s" and kept the accent because the "o" stayed closed.
- For "état", you don't say êtat. The "é" is closed.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
Thanks, Dwig. That was too cute.
@JasperLoy I never like thinking about romanization of Chinese. It always is painful.
 
user19161
@GraceNote I just learnt a new name for reg, namely, dwig.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@jasper, but how do you type Chinese chars without a pinyin IME?
So you need transliteration.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
11:40 PM
@AlainPannetier There's keyboards for that. That's what I always used. I actually used those to learn zhuyin.
 
user19161
@AlainPannetier I never typed Chinese before, we just write it in school. :) And whatever needed to be typed was in Eng!
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@JasperLoy, unless you want to use this kind of keyboard
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
...yeah, you don't need a keyboard like that. One structured the same as any normal QWERTY can suffice.
 
user19161
But yes I think there is software where you type in the hanyupinyin. Or you can use LaTeX, but currently I know not how to do that.
 
user19161
I know the French use AWERTY and the Germans use QWERTZ.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
11:42 PM
@aedia, I'm curious now. I thought the only way to type Chinese on a Qwerty kbd was an IME?
 
user19161
The English use QWERTY keyboard of course.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
@AlainPannetier There are multiple IME options, though
There's at least 3 distinct ones I know - by pinyin, by bu-pu-mu, and... one that I never ever figured out but it's what my cousins use.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@aedia, that's right. I only use the pinyin variants. Never understood the other ones.
What's the one you mentioned before?
bopomofo?
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
I'm not aedia, if you're talking to me
 
user19161
There are some which use UTF-8 encoding?
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
11:44 PM
@AlainPannetier Zhuyin? That's the same as bopomofo (though I never wrote it as an o)
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@GraceNote, sorry. Eyesight pb.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
This is why I hate romanization of Chinese, y'see. No one can agree about even the basic structure components.
 
aedia
aedia
Tee hee it is an honor to be mistaken for Grace.
I must be out to dinner anyhow!
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
@aedia Is it, now? I'm flattered that being confused of is an honor.
Dinner sounds like a good idea to me.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
Now I see mimetism also applies to unicorns.
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
11:46 PM
My gravatar's not a unicorn, though
 
user19161
Yes Grace and aedia can go for dinner together now.
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
@GraceNote, @aedia Bon appétit.
 
aedia
aedia
@Alain Gracias! See y'all on the flip side.
 
user19161
I am going to bed now. And reg should be too. Good night everyone! (though it's morning here)
 
Grace Note
Grace Note
Vanish~
 
Alain Pannetier
Alain Pannetier
11:49 PM
Ok, well if you live in Singapore, I really wonder.. that must be a nap then.
I'll go to bed as well. But it's nearly 2 am here.
 
00:00 - 09:0009:00 - 13:0013:00 - 16:0016:00 - 19:0019:00 - 20:0020:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

« first day (249 days earlier)      last day (4664 days later) »