linguaphiles: Fun game: Construct words from language codes

Timwi (

timwi) wrote in

linguaphiles,
@ 2004-02-25 15:17:00

Fun game: Construct words from language codes
This is a fun game, and at the same time a competition for you language geeks. :-)

You know how there are language codes, right? There is the ISO 639 standard which, in two parts, specifies two-letter and three-letter languages codes:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/tei/iso639.html

The challenge to you is to find as long a word as possible (in any language) which consists of a sequence of these language codes. You get an extra bonus point if the language the word is in is also one of the language codes you used. You get even more bonus points if the word is actually a word in several languages and you've used their language codes, too!

For example, from Belarusian + Arabic I can construct bear = bear. However, this is an English word (neither Belarusian nor Arabic), so I get only 2 points.

Another example would be how English + German forms ende = Ende, the German word for "end". Since this is German, and I've used de, I get 3 points!

What is the best score you can come up with?

(Post a new comment)

	madcaptenor 2004-02-25 07:26 am UTC (link)
	española: es - Spanish pa - Punjabi no - Norwegian la - Latin and this is a Spanish word, so 5 points. Of course, this requires we consider n and ñ to be the same letter, but that seems reasonable enough as none of the codes include any sort of accented letter. (Reply to this)

	rydel23 2004-02-25 07:46 am UTC (link)
	Sounds like fun. I think this game can be easily won by writing up a simple program that makes all possible combinations and looks for them through a dictionary. And here is my word: Belarusica Be - Belarusian La - Latin Ru - Russian Si - Singhalese Ca - Catalan (Reply to this)(Thread)

	madcaptenor 2004-02-25 07:49 am UTC (link)
	That's perhaps true, but you'd need word lists in every language. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	co_lum_bus 2004-02-25 07:59 am UTC (link)
	There is no such word. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rydel23 2004-02-25 08:06 am UTC (link)
	In which language? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	co_lum_bus 2004-02-25 08:17 am UTC (link)
	In any of the listed, exceprt possibly Catalon and singalese, but I have strong doubts about these, too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rydel23 2004-02-25 08:21 am UTC (link)
	I believe there is such a word in English. Just search Google: Belarusica - 270 pages. I would define Belarusica as a study and/or classification of books and other objects having to do with Belarus, its people and their history. (Cf. Americana) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rydel23 2004-02-25 08:25 am UTC (link)
	> In any of the listed, exceprt possibly Catalon and singalese, but I have strong doubts about these, too. Well, dear Co_lum_bus, apart from English it is also used in Belaursian - беларусіка. So I even get extra points. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	co_lum_bus 2004-02-25 08:37 am UTC (link)
	I don't buy it. In English, one can make up such a word, as you quote states, but it does not exist by itself. In Byelorussian, it is difficult for me to judge, although it seems you did not know this word yourself, being a Byelorussian, but in any event, conventional transliteration from Cyrillic would look like Belorussika, or even Byelorussika. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rydel23
2004-02-25 08:53 am UTC (link)

Why oh why do we always get this crap from the Russians? Almost ever from any other nationals. I don't know. Or, maybe, I do. ;)

> In English, one can make up such a word, as you quote states, but it does not exist by itself.

What do you mean it does not exist. There are 300 pages in English.

> In Byelorussian

This is an obsolete word, somehow used almost exclusively by the Russians. The correct word is Belarusan or Belarusian, pronounced with an s, not sh.

> conventional transliteration from Cyrillic would look like Belorussika, or even Byelorussika.

There is no such thing as "conventional transliteration".
And, besides, Belarusan language also exists in Latin alphabet, so called Lacinka. And in Lacinka the word looks like this: Biełarusika.

If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic. ;)))))))

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

co_lum_bus
2004-02-25 10:11 am UTC (link)

Hey, pal, are you crazy? Nobody was trying to insult you. What are you talking about? I am an American of Soviet background, not even an ethnic Slav, and what the hell does it have to do with English language??. Are you a racist or what?

I do not understand why are you so agitated about my spelling of the word Byelorussian. In English, both spellings are grammatically correct. Byelorussian is more common than Belarusan, but I am happy with either. You guys are lucky, for Dutch we do not even have a word that were remotely reminiscent of how they call themselves in their own language!

And now to what I mean under "does not exist". I mean your search brings up 14 hits, of which none is by a native English speaker. But it's OK, the word does not exist yet, but you are welcome to use it if you want, it is understandable. Accepted rules for transliteration of Cyrillic, Japanese and other scripts exist. They are used in newspapers, official publications and so on. Cyrillic к is never transliterated as English c. Your own example with the Lacinka proves the same. It is inetersting, by the way, about this alphabet. Is this an official variant of Belarusan (do you like this better?) alphabet? Supported by the government or some kind of national Language Academy? Or is it more like B. Shaw alphabet of English (http://members.aol.com/RSRICHMOND/shawintro.html)?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rydel23
2004-02-25 10:39 am UTC (link)

> Nobody was trying to insult you.

Where did I say that you are trying to insult me.

> What are you talking about?

Ask specific questions if you don't understand something. I think my comment was clear.

> I do not understand why are you so agitated about my spelling of the word Byelorussian.

I am not agitated. I just pointed out that this is an obsolete and misleading word used most exclusively by Russian-speaking people.

> Byelorussian is more common than Belarusan

You did open the link at least? :)

> And now to what I mean under "does not exist". I mean your search brings up 14 hits, of which none is by a native English speaker.

Are you serious? I get 271 pages for "Belarusica". And 209 pages for "Беларусіка". Are you serious that you get 14 pages? There must be something really wrong with your Google. Very wierd.

> Cyrillic к is never transliterated as English c

What do you mean when you say "never"? There are all kind of schemes (for example, LOC is one of the most popular for Cyrillics). Some of the are quite crazy. And I know at least one Belaruisan scheme that uses "c" in this case.

> It is inetersting, by the way, about this alphabet. Is this an official variant of Belarusan (do you like this better?) alphabet? Supported by the government or some kind of national Language Academy?

Unfortunately not. Totally unofficial. Several newspapers and magazines publish some of the stuff in Lacinka. And there are 5-6 people in LJ too who write in Belarusian Lacinka.

> Or is it more like B. Shaw alphabet of English
(http://members.aol.com/RSRICHMOND/shawintro.html)?

If you opened the above link, you know the answer. ;)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	LJ opinion co_lum_bus 2004-02-25 10:25 am UTC (link)
	Byelorussian or Belorusan? Preview Suggestions: Byelorussian Belorussian, Byelorussia's Belorusan Belorussian, Belarus, Blousing, Boleros So LJ likes Belorussian... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: LJ opinion rydel23 2004-02-25 10:32 am UTC (link)
	Sorry, I didn't get your point. Can you clarify what you mean by "LJ opinion"? PS. timwi, das ist ein bischen blöd, ich bitte um Entschuldigung for trashing your game post with this discussion. ;) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

co_lum_bus
2004-02-25 10:57 am UTC (link)

Frankly, I don't like you attitude at all. You arrogant, and you are a cheater. It look like a kook to me.

I comment to your points, and then I am out of here.

1) I meant the spellchecker coming with the LJ favors this spelling. Just an observation.
2) You should also apologize for using macaronic posts in a forum when not everybody understands German (I do, for the record).
3) Byelorussian: 265,000 G-hits. Belarusan: 19,200 hits.
4) Are you serious that you get 14 pages? Absolutely. I get 14 unique pages. If you bother to look at the second page of your search, you will see that Google only 14. Of them one is on an american server, and this one is written by a Belorusan.

I got to go, and anyway you do not look like somebody who would listen. Tschuess.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

rydel23
2004-02-25 11:47 am UTC (link)

> I meant the spellchecker coming with the LJ favors this spelling. Just an observation.

1. Ok. I thought that's what you meant, but I've never used it, so I asked just in case.

Damn, I didn't know that Livejournal spellchecker is an acknowledged authority in philological matters! :)

> You should also apologize for using macaronic posts in a forum when not everybody understands German (I do, for the record).

2. I don't think so. It's

linguaphiles after all. But, well, I am not an expert on 'netiquette.

And why do you break your own "rules" by using words like "Tschüss"?

> Byelorussian: 265,000 G-hits. Belarusan: 19,200 hits.

3. Just for the record:

Belarusian - 528,000

Byelorussian - 263,000

Belarusan - 19,200

And, of course, it's obvious where the "Byelorussian" comes from. From the Russian sources, or more widely, from any Russian-speaking sources. I.e.. people that learned English from old Russian textbooks.

It's like legacy software in Cobol. Nasty code, but it's still working in so many places. ;)

> I get 14 unique pages. If you bother to look at the second page of your search, you will see that Google only 14.

4. I think you are wrong. It's 14 unique webservers with 270 unique pages.

> you do not look like somebody who would listen.

I think you are wrong. I've read your questions carefully and tried to answer all of your questions as clearly as possible.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

co_lum_bus
2004-02-25 12:23 pm UTC (link)

OK, let's hope I am wrong. Now look, LJ thing was meant to be a joke. I do not seem to realize that most people don't give a damn about how their country name is pelled in foreign languages. It is difficults to me to speak seriously on such a ridiculous subject. And yes, there are 14 servers, none of them run by English speakers. Honestly, didn't you get this plain point right away? Did you really need all this clarifications?

My big Webster II, sitting right here on my desk, published in 1994, gives me two alternative spellings for Belorussian: this and Byelorussian. Belarusan and Belorusian wer not even known to the Webster's editors at that time. I am sorry if this makes you so sad. I apologize on behalf of Americans and British. You preferred spelling is new for us. Russians have nothing to do with that. Webster dictionary is not a Russian conspiracy. If it is so important for you guys, we are willing to switch to whatever spelling you like. But let me stay with my opinion, that anybody who cares about such things is nuts. Thanks God, Russian are not knocking at my door demanding that I spell Moscow as Moskva, and Germans do not attack me for saying Munich instead of Muenchen. Nor do they blame Cologne on a French conspiracy.

O tempora, o mores!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

rydel23
2004-02-25 01:00 pm UTC (link)

> LJ thing was meant to be a joke.

I don't think so.

I think even if you'd put a smiley, it still would've been hard to take that statement as a joke. You clearly attempted to use it as some sort of supporting argument, and I pointed out that this is a weak argument.

> most people don't give a damn about how their country name is pelled in foreign languages

How do you know? And I guess I am one of those who do care.

> Russians have nothing to do with that.

Oh, I wish. ;)

> I apologize on behalf of Americans and British

For what? I don't think you need to apologize for anything.

> Nor do they blame Cologne on a French conspiracy.

Do you really NOT understand that this is something completely different?

> My big Webster II, sitting right here on my desk, published in 1994, gives me...

Well, here is the up-to-date biiiiig Webster for you, right here on the Web:

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=Belarusian

- Be·la·ru·san
- Be·la·ru·si·an

Belarusan and Belarusian.

Any questions?

.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

co_lum_bus
2004-02-25 01:21 pm UTC (link)

I do not know why I keep taking to you. You ARE nuts. LJ is not a person. It cannot think. It cannot like or dislike. It WAS a joke!

Russians did NOT write or publish the paper edition of the Webster dictionary (which is by the way the Riverside edition, the one officially used by the U.S. government). And yes, I do not see ANY difference. The British learned the name of Koln from the French, hence the spelling. Americans learned the name of Belorusan from the Russians, hence the spelling. We are peaceful people (except for our current president, but we'll get rid of him :) ), so if you don't like Belorussian, fine, we take it whichever way you want. If Germans would have complained, we could of switched to Koln, just give us some time. I do not think any Russian gives a darn about how Americans spell Belorusan. There are plenty of Russians here, let them correct me if I am wrong.

What I do not like about you is that you keep lying, for the purpose that escapes me. Of course YOUR online M-W has all spellings in question, not just your favorites, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=Belorussian and Byelorussian as well. It's only that my 1500 pages paper edition does not match the humongous online database, which does list all admissible spellings, not just the most common.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

rydel23
2004-02-25 01:44 pm UTC (link)

> Russians did NOT write or publish the paper edition of the Webster dictionary

I am so glad to hear that! ;)

> And yes, I do not see ANY difference. The British learned the name of Koln from the French, hence the spelling

Ok, so here are the words German, Deutsch, Tedesco, Niamiecki, Немецкий in different languages, they all refer to the same nation, but these are all different words with different history and different origin.

And in this case it's like having "Gierman", "Giarman", "Giormann" competing with each other.

> Of course YOUR online M-W has all spellings in question, not just your favorites, Belorussian and Byelorussian as well.

I think you should read the entry carefully. "Constituent republic of the U.S.S.R. bordering on Poland." So the word "Byelorussian" refers to the former Soviet republic, to the BSSR (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic). It's exactly what I've been telling you - this word is obsolete.

"Byelorussian" is an adjective for BSSR.
"Belarusan" and "Belarusian" are adjectives for "Belarus."

It's the third comment where I am trying to tell you that 2+2 indeed equals 4. Which part of the "2+2=4" formula you are not getting?

---

And, listen carefully, Co_lum_bus. You already offended me several times:

Hey, pal, are you crazy?
You arrogant, and you are a cheater.
You ARE nuts.
you keep lying

You either prove to me where I have lied and explain why you call me names, or I will finish our discussion right here.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

co_lum_bus
2004-02-25 02:27 pm UTC (link)

You either prove to me where I have lied

No problem. First, you pretended that m-w.com does not have entries for Belorussian and Byelorussian. Now you pretend that these entries refer only to the Soviet Belorussia, which is a lie:

One entry found for Belorussian.
Main Entry: Belo·rus·sian
Pronunciation: "be-lO-'r&-sh&n, "bye-
Function: noun
1 : a native or inhabitant of Belorussia (Belarus)
2 : the Slavic language of the Belorussians
- Belorussian adjective

You started attacking under a pretext that I am Russian, for a ridiculous reason of spelling some country name not the way you liked, and hinting that this is some kind of a case of Russian nationalism. I find this arrogant: I had not done anything bad neither to you nor to your countrymen. And yes, after taht I was arrogant, too.

It did not occur to me, indeed, that all this time you were attributing one spelling to the "BSSR" and the other to the modern country. You never bothered to clarify that. It does explain, to some extent, your emotions, although I still think it is crazy to mix linguistics and politics. And I still do not buy your theory that modern Russians are intentionally using the other spelling (because they are longing for the Soviet times??). As to Americans, most do not know how to spell names of obscure countries anyway, and have to consult the dictionaries. Whatever in the dictionary, they would use.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

along came a Russian

yers
2004-02-25 04:12 pm UTC (link)

and hinting that this is some kind of a case of Russian nationalism.

It's indeed preposterous to suppose a Russian would be concerned with the spelling of Belarus in English. Now most of us Russians refuse to drop Белоруссия for Беларусь (as well as Молдавия for Молдова or Киргизия for the impossible, in terms of Russian phonology, Кыргызстан). This was, around 1992, a serious issue between Russia and some other post-Soviet states, and it was never properly resolved, each side simply sticking to its own preferred spelling. And lo, it's recoiling at perfectly unsuspecting speakers of English.

Politics aside, though, I'd like

rydel23 to make clear which letter is the greater problem, the y or the o. My guess is o, because the initial consonant is palatised in Belarusian as well as Russian so even in Lacinka, you get Bielaruś. So it seems to be politics again, some Belarusians thinking that some Russians perceive "Byelorussia" as "Byelo-Russia", i.e. "White Russia", which allegedly leads them to imagine it as some subset of Russia. The Belarusian-standard a is thus meant to estrange the name from Russian morphology, rendering it a semantic whole from which the -rus- component cannot be extracted. This is absurd in the case of Russian, where the name of Russia is Rossija - actually less congruent with Belorussija than Belarus' is with Rus', the password of those rather cranky Russian pan-Slavists. So the Belarusian anti-Byelorussian crusade seems to defeat its purpose.

English is obviously more of a problem. (So is Czech, for example, where no alternative exists for Bělorusko, a hundred-percent match with Rusko... hasn't anyone found out yet?) And the whole thing is based on a misconception in the first place because Russian is technically a shortening of Greater Russian, великорусский, which is the proper historical name for the ethic majority of a country called Russia. This misconception was indeed abused by (Greater) Russians in the imperial times when our monarch was proclaimed the "Tzar of all Rus', Greater, Lesser, and White", but this is all dead, completely dead, and maybe the Belarusians (ultimately right in their dispute with our very unpleasant neo-imperialists) should have chosen that line of argument and helped us all finally get rid of this confusion of terms, rather than go about seek-and-destroying the odd y's and o's, which to a large extent is purposeless revanchism.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: along came a Russian

rydel23
2004-02-26 12:40 am UTC (link)

> It's indeed preposterous to suppose a Russian would be concerned with the spelling of Belarus in English.

Maybe it is indeed preposterous. But I am taking from my own experience, that's what almost always happenned in my duscussions. Germans or Brits just say "Ok, thanks for clarifications" or explain their own view, if they have knowledge of the subject.

> it's recoiling at perfectly unsuspecting speakers of English.

You can look at it like that. But that's like a Russian perspective. The situation is much simple, there are "newly indepdent" countries, and there were (still are) issues of how to call them in other languages.

> So it seems to be politics again, some Belarusians thinking that some Russians perceive "Byelorussia" as "Byelo-Russia", i.e. "White Russia", which allegedly leads them to imagine it as some subset of Russia.

Very good summary. And I can testify from my own experience that this is exactly what happens with "Weissrussland" in German. The perception is always the same. For them it's "Russia with some color", whether it's white, yellow or purple.

> So the Belarusian anti-Byelorussian crusade seems to defeat its purpose.

I don't think so. Your argument was not related, because the issue of "Rossija" vs "Rus" has no relevance to the issue of an English adjective.

> So is Czech, for example, where no alternative exists for Bělorusko, a hundred-percent match with Rusko... hasn't anyone found out yet?)

I know, I've lived there. Well, скажу больше. :) In the Czech embassy in Germany they spell our name as "Belorussland" on all the forms. So you can guess that they "translated" it from their language. :)

I think, the idea here is that the proper word is to be established and properly used in English. Then you can pursue this "crusade" as you say in some other major European languages such as German, French, Spanish. And if in some smaller languages have a problem, I guess it's just not worth bothering, because there are so many different langauges in this world.

Anyway, I learned that most Czechs with whom I talked are quite aware of the existence of Belarus, know where it is, know that there is a separate language, know our president. So they are very much informed, and if they are stuck with "Belorusko", I don't find it such a huge problem at all. The two cultures already have good contacts. There is a monument of Skaryna in Prague! Three of our BNR presidents are buried there. The most famous tenor of the 1970's in National Czech opera is a Belarusan, who immigrated from Belarus. So there is plenty of contacts.

> This misconception was indeed abused by (Greater) Russians in the imperial times when our monarch was proclaimed the "Tzar of all Rus', Greater, Lesser, and White", but this is all dead, completely dead, and maybe the Belarusians (ultimately right in their dispute with our very unpleasant neo-imperialists) should have chosen that line of argument and helped us all finally get rid of this confusion of terms, rather than go about seek-and-destroying the odd y's and o's, which to a large extent is purposeless revanchism.

You make a nice summary. But you seem to be drawing wrong conclusions. So what do you propose?

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Czech

rydel23
2004-02-28 06:13 am UTC (link)

So I am in Prague again. And here it is... just what I was talking about, a random taxi driver that took me from the airport to the Prague center... I get in, tell him the address, say something about the weather. He tells me after a little while quite bluntly:

- From your accent [in Czech] I think you are either from Poland or from Russia, but somehow I can't tell which of the two.

- Good call... I am from Belarus.

To that he answers:

- So, guys, do you have gas there already? I've heard the Russians have put you under gas blockade.

- It's fine now, thanks. But it was quite serious several days ago.

- I see. And how about Lukashenka, is he still as tough as he used to be?

- Yea, sure. In some ways a bit better, in some ways - worse. And Lukashenka, you know, is still quite pro-Russian inspite of the "gas war", and our economy is strongly dependent on Russia still.

- It's OK. Remember the socialist times? Czech economy was totally oriented toward Soviet Union, all the exports and stuff. And look where we are now. Entering the Eueropean Union. So I am sure, you guys will manage too.

I felt quite pleased. Imagine, this is just some old guy who worked as a taxi driver all his life, and that's the kind of discussion we are having. I don't care if they call us "Belorusko", as long as there is such level of awareness and interest among the people of both countries, I am totally happy. And, on the other hand, the problem with the Germans, for example, is that for them we are "Russia with color" and they don't study and don't know anything about it, as I already wrote a little while ago in my own journal - http://www.livejournal.com/users/rydel23/242231.html

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Czech yers 2004-02-28 08:00 am UTC (link)
	yawn (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: LJ opinion timwi 2004-02-26 04:17 am UTC (link)
	(you forgot the ; in ö :-p) Your discussion has some merit and is on-topic in parts (in this community, though not in this entry). It would still be nice, though, if you'd try to react less emotional and opinionated against Russians or Russian-speakers. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

rydel23
2004-02-26 04:35 am UTC (link)

> you forgot the ;

Ach ja, danke! And there are also a bunch of typos and mistakes in those comments yesterday which I could've corrected, but I was in a haste...

> It would still be nice, though, if you'd try to react less emotional and opinionated against Russians or Russian-speakers.

Maybe sometimes I do (and I am sorry for that!), but I don't think I did it in this particular discussion. I only pointed out that in modern English Belarusian/Belarusan are considered correct, and the other forms are outdated/obsolete. That's all. And look what kind of flame it evoked. Did I offend him? Did I say anything bad? Was I illogical? Was I lying? No. I only regret I offended him a bit by saying "if ignorance is bliss..." so I'm sorry for that. And, please note, I put a buch of smileys, so that anyone could see that it was meant lightly, as a teasing joke.

I think this guy has a problem. After trashing me here he went to

ru_translate and started another flame with different people:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/ru_translate/1674938.html

It's already 95 comments. He said so many stupid and completely wrong things, and the entry starts "some wierdo in another community..." But my personal favorite from that thread:

"Vasil Bykau is a (classical) Russian writer."

When asked "why", he answered "because I know he wrote in Russian, and someone else translated his works into Belarusian." OMG.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: LJ opinion timwi 2004-02-26 04:44 am UTC (link)
	"I only pointed out [...]" Allow me to quote from earlier: "Why oh why do we always get this crap from the Russians?" - Please try to calm down this attitude. "I think this guy has a problem." It always takes at least two to have a flamewar. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: LJ opinion

rydel23
2004-02-26 04:54 am UTC (link)

> Allow me to quote from earlier: "Why oh why do we always get this crap from the Russians?" - Please try to calm down this attitude.

That statement sounds rather provocative, but I am only stating the actual facts. In the past I've had similar discussion 3 or 4 times, and every time it was with a Russian (or a Russian speaker). I see a pattern... But, yes, my way of expressing that fact was provocative and maybe even a little bit offensive.

> It always takes at least two to have a flamewar.

True. FYI, I am not participating at all in that thread in

ru_translate, and it's already 100 messages, other people trying to explain things to him.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: LJ opinion

co_lum_bus
2004-02-26 07:15 am UTC (link)

This is plain lie. I never said that.

And I do appreciate clarification.
I argued that all mentined spellings are grammatically admissible, but I am happy to use whatever spelling is less infalammatry. I swear by God it had never occured to me that somebody may perceive one spelling as imperialistic and another not.

I was appaled by the way this person reacted on possible misspelling by accusing me in some sort of a Russian conspiracy (I do think it was weird), and my post to a Russian was simply asking the question, do Russians in Russia really have preference toward the old spelling, and do the object against the other spelling (Belarusian)? Indeed, I got one response of that kind, and the responder looked like total jerk to me, but that was it. At the same time I was immediately attacked by the whole gang of Belarusians accusing me in all sorts of crimes.

The bottomline is that if you happen to belong to a big nation (like the US), or be of a background derived from a big nation (like Russia, although I am not even ethnic Russian...) you should be extremely careful not to hurt some feeling you cannot even guess may exist! A good lesson for me. I guess we simply cannot put ourselves in these people shoes.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

OT: Geography

rydel23
2004-02-26 07:54 am UTC (link)

> The bottomline is that if you happen to belong to a big nation (like the US), or be of a background derived from a big nation (like Russia, although I am not even ethnic Russian...) you should be extremely careful not to hurt some feeling you cannot even guess may exist! A good lesson for me. I guess we simply cannot put ourselves in these people shoes.

Yea... yea...

I think Russians are much better with geography. In my experience they are very good at it, well, as long as it is far away from the Russian ~~Empire~~ Federation. ;)

And, on the other hand, Americans are notoriously known for their "deep" knowledge of geography. Here is a story about "Wien, Australia":

http://www.livejournal.com/users/rydel23/216643.html

Today there was another very bad gaffe:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/rydel23/244872.html

The president of a whole country died in a plane crash and CNN messed up the name of that country.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	Bells and Russians squodge 2004-02-25 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I've lived in England all my life and I use: BELORUSSIAN 'Byelorussian' just doesn't look right. It's old. Just like using Peking instead of Beijing, or Kampuchia instead of Cambodia. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Bells and Russians co_lum_bus 2004-02-26 07:22 am UTC (link)
	As we were just explained, you should not use it any more either. Both are supposed to refer to the Soviet Belorussia. You should use Belarusian instead. I definitely will, given all this s--t on my head for a "wrong" spelling. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	timwi 2004-02-28 06:44 am UTC (link)
	Hi! It seems that Wikipedia doesn't have a good article on Lacinka yet. Do you want to write one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacinka (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rho 2004-02-25 07:53 am UTC (link)
	It would be cheating to create a conlang in which aaabafamar...yozhzu was the word for sesquipedalianism, wouldn't it? :) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	timwi 2004-02-25 09:06 am UTC (link)
	Heheheh. Yes. :-) Although, of course, I wouldn't strictly exclude conlangs such as Esperanto or Lojban from this. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	co_lum_bus 2004-02-25 08:02 am UTC (link)
	rubil'nik A word in Russian, means power breaker. Ru-bi-ln-ik=5 (Reply to this)

	goulo 2004-02-25 09:03 am UTC (link)
	Ah, the fun of Esperanto's affixes and word construction... I'll construct: fikameleonoetinas (for 9 points I guess... :) fi-kameleono-et-in-as loosely translatable as "is a villainous small female chameleon" :) from the languages fi, kam, el, eo, no, et, in, as (Finnish, Kamba, Greek, Esperanto, Norwegian, Estonian, Indonesian, Assamese) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	timwi 2004-02-25 09:08 am UTC (link)
	And Esperanto wins again! :-) ... 9 points. Best so far. Congratulations! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	fukurou 2004-02-25 02:56 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm...5 pts. Ja - Japanese Ku - Kurdish Sh - Serbo-Croation In - Indonesian Jakushin (弱震): a slight earthquake. (Reply to this)

	fainic_thu_fein 2004-02-25 03:25 pm UTC (link)
	galtomhais = "steam-gauges" in Irish ga = irish lt = latvian om = (afan) oromo ha = hausa is = icelandic so, 6 points. (Reply to this)

In Armenian

the_nerwen
2004-02-25 03:50 pm UTC (link)

hyerunaabadkamaaxhoss = an Armenian spokesperson (heavily compounded)

hye-run-aa-bad-kam-aa-xh-oss (I'm assuming I can use the 'aa' twice?)

hye--Armenian (in Armenian! yay, extra points!)
run--Rundi (the 'u' would be pronounced like a schwa..not a [u])
aa--Afar
bad--Banda
kam--Kamba
aa--Afar
xh--Xhosa (the 'xh' pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative)
oss--Ossic

9 points :)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: In Armenian timwi 2004-02-26 04:25 am UTC (link)
	blink-blink Is that really a word? :-D How is the 'xh' pronounced in Armenian? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	n_true 2004-02-26 03:03 am UTC (link)
	What about "Rumschokoladensoßenfabriken"? :) ru - Russian ms - Malay cho - Choctaw ko - Korean la - Latin de - German nso - Northern Sotho ss - Siswati en - English fa - Farsi br - Breton ik - Inupiak en - English That's the German word for "rum chocolate sauce facilities" and brings me 14 Points (Reply to this)(Thread)

	timwi 2004-02-26 04:19 am UTC (link)
	Whoo! Impressive! Congratulations :-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

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