English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

terdon

12:00 AM

@tchrist That includes me. What the hell is Friul?

tchrist

I wonder what FP means up in the oily zone?

Ice Boy

Bush went to Algeria and said he wished he could give his speech in their native language but he was never any good at Algebra :D

tchrist

Sure.

terdon

No idea, what the FP is.

tchrist

It won’t be Parisian French.

terdon

12:03 AM

Doubtful. The circle is way too small.

tchrist

What do the Walloons speak? Just French, or are there older pieces of something there?

terdon

No idea.

tchrist

Yea, the smallness is why I ruled it out.

Then again, Paris is smaller than France. :)

> Languages of Spain
Official languages Spanish (aka Castilian)
Regional languages Co-official languages
Basque, Catalan / Valencian, Galician and Occitan (Aranese)
Recognised languages
Aragonese, Asturian / Leonese and Catalan[1]
Unofficial languages
Cantabrian, Extremaduran, Eonavian, Fala, Portuguese, Iberian Romani (Caló and Erromintxela), Judaeo-Spanish, Riffian Berber, as well as some distinct varieties of Spanish and the Gomeran whistled language

terdon

@tchrist Depends on who you ask.

tchrist

Mirandese is also spoken in one place in Portugal. It is probably an Astur-Leonés language IIRC.

terdon

12:05 AM

@tchrist, the FP is probably Franco-Provencal whatever that is.

> Celtic
See also: Celtic languages

Breton aka Brezhoneg.

Germanic
See also: Germanic languages

Alsatian (Elsässerdeutsch).
French Flemish: West Flemish dialect of Dutch.
Lorraine Franconian aka Lothringen.
Old Frankish

Gallo-Romance
See also: Gallo-Romance languages

Oïl language:
Berrichon
Bourguignon-Morvandiau
Champenois or Campanois.
Franc-Comtois.
French.
Gallo.
Lorrain.
Norman.
Picard.
Poitevin and Saintongeais.
Walloon.
Angevin.
Manceau.
Mayennais.
Romande.
Anglo-Norman

Occitan language (also Lenga d'òc, Langue d'oc):

They may actually have more languages than cheeses.

tchrist

Mirandese language

The Mirandese language (autonym: mirandés or lhéngua mirandesa; Portuguese: mirandês or língua mirandesa) is a Romance language belonging to the Astur-Leonese linguistic group, sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and Vimioso. The Portuguese Parliament granted it co-official recognition (along with the Portuguese language) for local matters on 17 September 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January 1999. Mirandese has a distinct phonology, morphology and syntax, and has been distinct at least since the formation of Portugal in...

terdon

Miranda do Douro, well there's an unfortunate name.

tchrist

Heh.

I imagine it means del Oro, but am unsure.

terdon

That would seem like a pleonasm what with the do though.

tchrist

No, it’s the Río Duero.

> The name, Latinized Durius, may have come from the Celtic tribes that inhabited the area before Roman times: the Celtic root is *dubro- and in modern Welsh dŵr is "water" with cognate dobhar in Irish. In Roman times, the river was personified as a god, Durius.

terdon

12:09 AM

Ah, like dorado then.

Or not.

tchrist

> The Douro (Portuguese: Douro [ˈdowɾu, ˈdoɾu]; Spanish: Duero [ˈdweɾo]; Latin: Durius) is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto.

Yokay.

terdon

Durius? I wonder if that's connected to the greek horse.

tchrist

> It is the third longest river in the Iberian Peninsula after the Tagus and Ebro; its total length is 897 kilometres (557 mi), of which only sections of the Portuguese extension are navigable, by light rivercraft.

terdon

Ah, no, that one is probably from doron, a gift.

tchrist

@terdon Probably not.

terdon

12:10 AM

Tagus? Tajo?

tchrist

Right.

terdon

The Tajo Alto national park is gorgeous.

tchrist

In Portugese it’s the Rio Tejo, which sounds like the start of the Brit pronunciation of leisure, but chopped off.

You know, I think I’ve only crossed that river in Portugal, not in Spain.

Well, not sure. It was small in Spain if so.

It was not small in Portugal.

I certainly only ever drove over it in Portugal.

They pronounce regions like Alentejo the same way: so /ˈtɛʒ/ for the ending in IPA.

terdon

I've done both. Well, not sure I actually crossed it as such in Lisbon but I certainly saw it. Kinda hard to miss.

tchrist

Yuh.

I’ve only ever driven-driven in Andalucía. When I lived in Madrid or worked in Barcelona, I had no car.

Just as well, I’m sure.

terdon

12:16 AM

Going off topic, do you know the collective term for UNIX >,<,>>,<<,<<<,&,;, and | ? They're not operators, what are they?

tchrist

You mean shell metacharacters?

Except no.

Hm.

What do you mean?

I have no idea what "<<<" is.

terdon

@tchrist That's like a here doc but expands variables

tchrist

The first are I/O redirectors, the ";" is a statement separator, and &&, &, ||, | are logic and flow thingies.

Here docs expand variables.

Depends.

<<\Foo and <<'Foo' do not, but <<Foo and <<"Foo" do so.

terdon

$ foo=bob

$ sed 's/o/A/' <<< $foo
bAb

tchrist

Oh wait, that's different.

And more than somewhat gross.

terdon

12:19 AM

It's called a here string.

tchrist

Disgusting.

What is wrong with echo $foo | sed?

terdon

Umm, needless use of echo?

tchrist

It’s a builtin.

terdon

@tchrist Sometimes.

OK, usually.

tchrist

Do you know how long it has been since shell scripts called /bin/echo when they said echo?

About as long ago as when they called /bin/glob.

terdon

12:21 AM

I think it still happens in some embedded systems or other arcana.

232

A: Why is printf better than echo?

Basically, it's a portability (and reliability) issue. Initially, echo didn't accept any option and didn't expand anything. All it was doing was outputting its arguments separated by a space character and terminated by a newline character. Now, someone thought it would be nice if we could do th...

For way, way more than you ever wanted to know about it.

tchrist

I disagree.

I won't use printf anyway. :)

terdon

I do these days. Depends, sometimes it is clearly better, even easier. Others, well, that answer convinced me that it might be a good habit to get into.

tchrist

It is easier to write portable Perl than portable shell.

terdon

But what would you call things like ; , & and >?

@tchrist Well, obviously!

tchrist

Things that need quoting or escaping if you don’t want the shell to interpret them as shell–syntax-related.

Or shell-syntax–related.

Normally we just call them metacharacters.

terdon

12:25 AM

@tchrist Cheating :). That also applies to $. There must be a term for them, like operators for >, < , = etc.

metacharacters might work.

tchrist

What, you want a word for some of the characters the shell treats specially but not for all of them?

Control-flow for &, &&, |, ||, and perhaps ;

terdon

Well, the bash manual calls them redirection operators. That covers a lot. Now I just need a term for ; and &&. || and && are clearly operators.

OK, they're all operators according to the bash manual:

> A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by one of the operators ‘;’, ‘&’, ‘&&’, or ‘||’, and optionally terminated by one of ‘;’, ‘&’, or a newline.

> control operator
A token that performs a control function. It is a newline or one of the following: ‘||’, ‘&&’, ‘&’, ‘;’, ‘;;’, ‘|’, ‘|&’, ‘(’, or ‘)’.

Control-flow was almost it.

Cerberus

1:55 AM

@Robusto Yes, it is what one would expect of the (historical or current) Emperor of China, denying those critical of the communist party access to officials.

Jasper Loy

Some XXX just downvoted me.

Cerberus

What a XXX!

Robusto

2:15 AM

XXX = 30 = The End (journalism term)

Cerberus

Oh?

Why does 30 signifiy the end of a story?

tchrist

@PeterShor "the first source contains "until my son die"" Who said that in the book? In the first source, God said "so what make you so worthy to bring this news to me?" — ivanhoescott 32 mins ago

Robusto

Because the writers would put # # # at the end of a piece, signifying the end. # # # also means 30.

tchrist

I’m glad we have that clear now. Since God said it, it musted been right.

Robusto

> Used (as –30–) to indicate the end of a newspaper (or broadcast) story, a copy editor's typographical notation. (Wikipedia)

Cerberus

2:19 AM

Funny.

By why is # 10?

tchrist

The American criminal injustice system, part 1 and part 2.

In shell scripts, people write commands like blah blah <<'-30-' using heredocs.

Must more cryptic than blah blah <<'EOF' or blah blah <<'Hell freezes over'.

Cerberus

Or is it that # # # could also be written as X X X, which does mean 30?

@tchrist @1 That is what I have been saying all along, judges need to be somewhat active, and harsh punishments in the laws encourage plea bargains, which are really extrajudicial and wrong, in criminal cases.

tchrist

Have I ever disagreed with you?

Cerberus

I do not think so.

tchrist

Here’s the thing: despite 95% cases being settled out of court, we still have the worst incarceration rate imaginable.

Cerberus

2:30 AM

I would say "partly because of", not "despite".

tchrist

Perhaps so.

Cerberus

Or were you referring to the idea that plea bargains are cheaper for public prosecutors and courts? (They no doubt are, but then you have to pay back all the money you have saved for your prisoners.)

tchrist

No.

> A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.[5]
Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.
One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.
Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.

Most of those people will not be allowed to vote again in their lives.

I find this troubling.

Cerberus

Why not?

Does a prison sentence take away your right to vote?

tchrist

Oh, because they were convicted of a crime, of course.

Normally, it does. This varies by jurisdiction, however.

Cerberus

2:35 AM

Forever, or until they leave prison?

tchrist

Depends.

Felony disenfranchisement

Felony disenfranchisement is excluding people otherwise eligible to vote from voting (known as disfranchisement) due to conviction of a criminal offence. Jurisdictions vary in whether they make such disfranchisement permanent, or restore suffrage after a person has served a sentence, or completed parole or probation. Affected individuals suffer "collateral consequences" including loss of access to jobs, housing, and other facilities. Opponents have argued that this disfranchisement restricts and conflicts with principles of universal suffrage. This can affect civic and communal participation in...

Usually forever.

Cerberus

Wow.

But surely not after short sentences?

> Plea bargains were unobtainable in the early years of American justice. But today more than 95% of cases end in such deals and thus are never brought to trial. ... Jed Rakoff, a district judge in New York, thinks it unlikely that 95% of defendants are guilty.

I didn't know it were that many!

tchrist

Yes.

@Cerberus Doesn’t matter!!

Cerberus

All ex-felons, in those red states?

And what's the difference between parole and probation?

tchrist

thinks

Ok, if you are convicted, you can be placed on probation for some time instead of serving time.

Somehow who is paroled is let out early.

I think.

> Each state has its own felon voting laws, and all but two — Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow prisoners to vote — have some kind of disenfranchisement law that prevents current or former offenders from casting their ballots. The degree of severity varies dramatically by state and crime. The report found that nearly half of the disenfranchised population lives in the eleven states where voting rights for ex-felons are only conditionally restored.

From here.

So, it varies by crime. Huh.

Cerberus

2:41 AM

Kind of makes sense.

tchrist

From here.

Cerberus

@tchrist Ah okay, I think I understand. In Holland, you can be sentenced to, say, 1 year onvoorwaardelijke gevangenissstraf ("unconditional prison punishment"), plus one year voorwaardelijk ("conditional", upon terms prescribed by the court). So voorwaardelijk is like probation. If you have served 2/3 of your onvoorwaardelijke straf, you will normally be let out if you behaved well, but you can probably be sent back if you misbehave (how exactly?) during that time.

Not sure what the latter is called.

tchrist

> In addition, 10 states restrict some people with a misdemeanor conviction from voting.

Yes, 2/3 is the normal figure.

Cerberus

Maybe proeftijd, "proving time", where you have to prove you deserve your early release.

It actually rather means "testing time", where your release is a "test".

tchrist

So many black men in Florida forever banned from voting.

You can be sure that the Republicans will fight tooth-and-nail to keep it that way. How very Mississippi of them!

Cerberus

2:48 AM

Coöperating witnesses are of course another huge problem. We vacillate between allowing and disallowing them here. They were banned again after a scandal a while ago, but now they are sometimes allowed again. But only ever in very big, mafia-like cases, I believe.

> In federal cases an estimated 25-30% of defendants offer some form of co-operation, and around half of those receive some credit for it. The proportion is double that in drug cases. Most federal cases are resolved using the actual or anticipated testimony of co-operating defendants.'

I don't understand the last number, "most".

tchrist

Most = 50% + 1

Or worse.

Cerberus

50+% are resolved using actual or anticipated testimony, 25–30% using actual testimony, so 20–25+% using anticipated testimony?

Or do they mean "all federal cases" with respect to the 25–30%, but "federal drug cases" with respect to the 50+%?

tchrist

No.

They mean most federal cases period.

Cerberus

It is ambiguous.

tchrist

Remember the figureds are doubled in drug cases.

That leads to 50-60% offered.

I doubt it means 100% granted.

Cerberus

2:53 AM

Umm then you mean "yes, the figure of "most" is about drug cases"?

tchrist

But yeah, that could have been clearer.

I believe that they are saying that the (simple) majority of all federal cases whatsoever are being resolved by relying on coöperating defendants.

Not just drug cases.

Cerberus

So then 20–25+% of all cases are solved using anticipated testimony?

tchrist

No, they said over 50%.

You can read as well as I can. It says what it says.

Cerberus

It is totally ambiguous to me.

Even the "double that" is ambiguous.

tchrist

What part about “Most federal cases are resolved using the actual or anticipated testimony of co-operating defendants” is ambiguous?

Cerberus

2:56 AM

Double the "half", or double the "25–30%"?

tchrist

Oh, that part I dunno.

Cerberus

@tchrist Whether or not they mean only drug cases there, because they have just introduced the subject of drug cases in the previous sentence.

tchrist

Partly I don’t know how many federal cases are drug cases.

Cerberus

If the last sentence is not about drug cases, then why put the drug bit there?

Well, never mind.

We know it is a problem, period.

tchrist

Just to show that there are more snitches and copped pleas in drug cases.

And the whole 666 unindicted co-conspirators thing is a problem.

Those are all going to be snitches, to avoid indictment.

And as we know, snitches say whatever you want them to say.

So does anybody with a gun to their head.

Cerberus

2:59 AM

Yes, the testimony of those who might profit from testifying should not be allowed at all.

In any way.

tchrist

No shit.

The standard thing is to hit somebody with umpty-million horrendous charges so that they will do anything to avoid those. They therefore willingly plead guilty to crimes they never committed so as not to face many, many decades in prison.

Cerberus

I know.

tchrist

It is a racket — and I do mean in the crime syndicate sense. Protection money. Shakedowns. The whole nine yards.

Cerberus

Yes, it is like patent cases.

> Prosecutors enjoy strong protections against criminal sanction and private litigation. Even in egregious cases, punishments are often little more than a slap on the wrist. Mr Stevens’s prosecutors, for example, were suspended from their jobs for 15 to 40 days, a penalty that was overturned on procedural grounds.

Not good. It's probably the same here.

> Mr Treacy has an axe to grind, but he is not alone in arguing that the system encourages embellishment, or in believing that some prosecutors overstep the mark because they hope to parlay courtroom victories into lucrative partnerships at law firms or platforms to run for public office.

I don't think this is an issue here (yet), though.

tchrist

I don’t know how to cure it.

I would like it all banned.

And anybody should be allowed to vote.

“But our court system would collapse!”

Cry me a river.

Cerberus

3:06 AM

Yeah.

tchrist

Something this broken deserves collapse.

It just seems evil, no two ways about it.

Cerberus

No more minimum sentences. No more "guidelines" that force judges to hand out punishments based on points in a table. Much shorter/milder sentences in general. No more plea bargains in criminal cases, at all. No more "coöperative" witnesses. Loser pays all in most civil cases, especially patent cases. Oh, and more active judges in general, who will never simply grant the demands of the plaintiffs by default.

tchrist

Let judges judge.

Cerberus

Jinx.

tchrist

Take away the prosecutor’s power of virtual life and death.

Cerberus

3:09 AM

Yes.

The changes I proposed above should be a huge improvement.

tchrist

Not in my lifetime, nor yours.

Cerberus

Oh, and all drugs are to be completely legalised.

That should release more pressure off the system than it will ever need released.

tchrist

I think blackmarket pot here is more expensive than the legal stuff. I don’t know; I buy neither.

Cerberus

Nor I.

@tchrist If only citizens of Colorado can get the legal weed, then that would make sense.

tchrist

That doesn’t mean I want everyone who chooses to use it to have their eyes gouges out, their tongues ripped out, and their hands chopped off.

There are quantity limits based on residency.

I suppose these can be worked around by going to multiple shops. I don't know.

Cerberus

3:12 AM

Discourage the unhealthy use of drugs and their manufacture in any effective (but proportional) way that you can, but do not make their use illegal.

tchrist

I know drugs, including alcohol, ruin lives. I am not convinced that they do more harm than our criminals and our criminal justice system do, especially not combined.

Cerberus

Adultery also ruins lives.

As do suicidal thoughts and ladders.

tchrist

So do fatal automobile accidents.

jinx

Cerberus

Indeed.

But, hey, I need to try and get some sleep.

tchrist

People walking under ladders deserve what they get.

Me too.

Just gonna say that.

Cerberus

3:16 AM

Good luck trying.

tchrist

Falling over here.

Cerberus

We're very jinxy tonight.

tchrist

I should be successful.

Cerberus

I am never falling. I never want to go to bed.

Good for you.

Ice Boy

Sleep well guys

tchrist

3:16 AM

Bought diphenhydramine yesterday.

Cerberus

A sleeping pill?

@IceBoy You, too!

tchrist

No, but yes.

Cerberus

A tranquillizer?

tchrist

Benadryl, brand name for diphenblah, is an antihistamine.

Cerberus

Oh.

Against?

What allergy?

tchrist

3:17 AM

Insomnia.

I’m allergic to sleep, apparently.

Cerberus

Odd.

tchrist

At least, it seems to work. :)

Cerberus

I know a side-effect of a.-h. van be grogginess.

tchrist

Benzodiazepines are normally used as “tranquilizers”.

Yeah, and I was this morning.

Cerberus

But I have never noticed it myself, I am very insensitive to things that make other sleepy.

tchrist

3:19 AM

But benzos also have a hypnotic effect, varying with which chemical.

Cerberus

Right.

But anyway, good night!

Night beckons.

Adios.

Away.

Later

3:53 AM

I have 10 stars on the wall, miracle.

Ice Boy

5:03 AM

This would be your brightest star:

in Mathematics, 45 mins ago, by Jasper Loy

Actually, I don't take this site seriously anymore.

on your road to recovery.

Ice Boy

7:07 AM

@hey hey

hey

Hi

Ice Boy

they sit with babies :-)

hey

they interpreted it incorrectly.

Ice Boy

for "comic" effect

hey

"It is a star but it does not shine" Who is it?

Ice Boy

7:16 AM

a movie star?

hey

Porn star, lol

Ice Boy

a special kind of movie

but yes, it does not "shine"

or shines is an immoral sense

Ice Boy

8:20 AM

A physicist, a biologist, and a mathematician are sitting on a bench across from a house. They watch as two people go into the house, and then a little later, three people walk out.

The physicist says, "The initial measurement was incorrect."

The biologist says, "They must have reproduced."

And the mathematician says, "If exactly one person enters that house, it will be empty."

This illustrates how strongly mathematicians believe in negative numbers.

hey

10:04 AM

Several scientists were all posed the following question: "What is pi ?"
The engineer said: "It is approximately 3 and 1/7"
The physicist said: "It is 3.14159"
The mathematician thought a bit, and replied "It is equal to pi".
ME: "Pie is a healthy and delicious dessert!"

Matt Эллен

10:14 AM

or main course. peppered steak pie. mmmmm

hey

delicious

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus can we send this question to linguistics?

0

Q: Why are these words ungrammatical

I can't find the reason why : riceful and antful are ungrammatical. Can someone help me? Thanks

Ice Boy

@MattЭллен is that a cottage pie?

Matt Эллен

@IceBoy no. Cottage pie is mince covered in mashed potato

I think

cottage and shepherd's pie are similar

so, conceivably you could mince up a steak, and make it into cottage pie

but I meant a regular pastry pie

Steak pie

A steak pie is a traditional meat pie served in Britain. It is made from stewing steak and beef gravy, enclosed in a pastry shell. Sometimes mixed vegetables are included in the filling. In Ireland Guinness Stout is commonly added along with bacon and onions, and the result is commonly referred to as a Steak and Guinness Pie (or Guinness Pie for short). A Steak and Ale pie is a similar creation, popular in British pubs, using one of a variety of ales in place of the Guinness. The dish is often served with "steak chips" (thickly sliced potatoes fried, sometimes fried in beef dripping). Steak pies...

damn that's making me drool

Ice Boy

I see now, thanks.

Robusto

10:52 AM

@MattЭллен Schmierkase pie is cottage-cheese pie and is surprisingly good.

@MattЭллен What exactly are savouries? Not meat pies, or are they?

Jasper Loy

livinglanguage.com/languagelab has 46 language lessons for each of 16 languages, awesome.

Matt Эллен

11:08 AM

@Robusto just not sweet snacks as far as I know.

Robusto

Have you had them?

Matt Эллен

I think you're thinking of something I don't know anything about

Jasper Loy

I sometimes have chicken pie and beef pie.

Robusto

@MattЭллен Hey, you're English. We rely on you to know all the English stuff.

Jasper Loy

Chicken pie contains chicken and beef pie contains beef.

Matt Эллен

11:11 AM

@Robusto I blame the schooling system.

they've removed all the classism

Well, some of it

Robusto

They've removed classes from schooling? Not sure how that works, exactly.

Matt Эллен

exactly :D

Robusto

When I was a kid we had classes which we held in classrooms. And we were proud to do so.

Jasper Loy

I am sad that blackboards are being replaced by whiteboards.

Robusto

I guess teachers now just tweet their classes. Or maybe we need a new social medium: SnapClass.

@JasperLoy That's racist.

Matt Эллен

11:14 AM

@Robusto I do recall the classrooms and the classes. but now we're all peasants we're not allowed in.

Robusto

So much for "public" schools.

Jasper Loy

The schools here are dumbing down their syllabus and building nicer buildings instead.

Matt Эллен

maybe the niceness of the architecture will improve students' ability to learn

Jasper Loy

The education here is supposed to be world class, but I think it just turns you into robots.

Robusto

@MattЭллен It will improve their ability to learn to the same degree that waxing their foreheads will.

Jasper Loy

11:20 AM

@Robusto My forehead is already very oily and needs no waxing.

Robusto

note to self: see what the market might be for forehead paste

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

note to self: see what the market might be for forehead de-waxer/de-oiler

Jasper Loy

I don't have acne now, but I have acne scars.

Robusto

He jests at scars that never felt a womb.

Jasper Loy

11:21 AM

I don't have male pattern baldness, but I have dropped much hair due to stress.

I think I should take it easy and try to worry less.

Matt Эллен

sounds like a good plan

Robusto

@tchrist: How many times are you going to edit your beggar answer? And are we obliged to read it all over again each time?

Is there a prize for most edits of an answer?

> Many identically sounding words just use -er, if not all.

Doesn't he mean "identical-sounding"?

Ice Girl

@JasperLoy Hi

Jasper Loy

@IceGirl Hello, your pal is not here.

Ice Girl

I know.

Jasper Loy

11:35 AM

Wow, Josh 61 got 25k this year. Maybe he will reach 100k.

@Robusto You only need 7.5k to reach 100k, you should go for it.

Robusto

Yeah, I've been answering a few questions lately with that in mind. Once I reach 100K I can pack it in for good.

tchrist

@Robusto I only edited the first paragraph.

@Robusto Wah.

Grammar and glamour and armor and armour, but paramour and troubadour.

You know, our curare trolls didn’t ever say what he thinks it ought to be spelled begger.

Most if not all -Vr words kicked around in English long enough get a reduced vowel there.

It is quite possible the beggar showed up with an unreduced vowel in the second syllable, and that the temporary begger spelling reflects the subsequent reduction.

Cerberus

Is that from The Chaos?

tchrist

It’s from my brain. Call it what you will.

Cerberus

Hah.

Do you know The Chaos?

tchrist

11:48 AM

Check the search box.

Cerberus

So yes.

Then that line is deserving of a star.

tchrist

At least he isn’t asking why we don’t spell it shooger, honey.

Or cooger.

However, I refuse to bring up jaguars.

They cost too much in catfood.

But perhaps if I did, our packs of prairie wolves could be thinned out. Our pumas don’t seem to doing a good enough job of that.

Robusto

@Cerberus Isn't chaos the English version of Italian plural of ciao?

tchrist

He’s going to kill you.

Robusto

His bark is worse than his bite.

tchrist

11:54 AM

I’d like to see you try to construct an Italian plural out of ciao.

Robusto

English/Italian hybrid.

tchrist

Kneel, slave.

Robusto

Hey, it's alternative linguistics. You don't have a problem with fantasy and alternative history.

tchrist

Well, that’s what it means.

ciao < MedL. sclavus.

Robusto

I drive a hybrid. So I'm allowed to fuse languages at will.

tchrist

11:56 AM

And χάος is generally considered a mass noun, beyond the reach of pluralification.

Robusto

Etymology has no necessary effect on current meaning.

tchrist

But ciao and chaos do not even share one single phoneme in common.

Robusto

A grown man is not the same as a zygote.

@tchrist Thanks for getting to the point of my joke, though the one came from the other.

Chaos looks like it should be pronounced like chows. Get it?

tchrist

I see the gods in battle rage on high.

Thunderbolts across the sky.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hah, I guess it would be the Spanish version...

Robusto

11:59 AM

There are no gods but what we create.

Cerberus

Chao pronounced the Spanish way would sound like ciao.

Robusto

@Cerberus Thank you.

See? Cerb got it.

tchrist

> Then all at once the chaos ceased
A stillness fell, a sudden peace
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified

Apollo was atonished
Dionysus thought me mad
But they heard my story further
And they wondered, and were sad

Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres

They sat a while in silence
Then they turned at last to me
'We will call you Cygnus
The god of Balance you shall be'

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