Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182631 More actions · Answer 1

dwain.c (12/28/2014)
I wanted to take a moment to wish all the forum members a (late) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I've been extremely busy of late so have been of little help on the forums (but I managed to sneak in a few answers in the last week). Projects, etc., etc., not the least of which being a new house that we just completed our move into yesterday (Sunday). This is not something that is as easy to do here in Thailand as it is in the west. Many bits are left unfinished by the builder and simply left for the buyer to handle. Fortunately, my wife was a saint through it all, as she had to handle most of it due to the language barrier.
Fortunately as it is her house (can't even be part-owner due to rules/laws), she's letting me stay in it at the moment. Hopefully that'll stick.

Congrats on the new house Dwain and happy holidays, just did similar, moved home just before Christmas, Boxing day turned into an un-boxing day;-)

😎

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86913 More actions · Answer 2

Eirikur Eiriksson (12/29/2014)
dwain.c (12/28/2014)
I wanted to take a moment to wish all the forum members a (late) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I've been extremely busy of late so have been of little help on the forums (but I managed to sneak in a few answers in the last week). Projects, etc., etc., not the least of which being a new house that we just completed our move into yesterday (Sunday). This is not something that is as easy to do here in Thailand as it is in the west. Many bits are left unfinished by the builder and simply left for the buyer to handle. Fortunately, my wife was a saint through it all, as she had to handle most of it due to the language barrier.
Fortunately as it is her house (can't even be part-owner due to rules/laws), she's letting me stay in it at the moment. Hopefully that'll stick.
Congrats on the new house Dwain and happy holidays, just did similar, moved home just before Christmas, Boxing day turned into an un-boxing day;-)
😎

I think for me Jan will be un-boxing month. Happy Holidays to all!

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TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 3

Eirikur Eiriksson (12/29/2014)
TomThomson (12/28/2014)
Here are some more languages people can guess at:-
Nollaig chrìdheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr
Nollaig faoi shéan agus ath-bhliain faoi shonas
Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Bonan Kristnaskon kaj felican novan jaron
Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda
Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bon Nadal i un bon any nou
I'm going to give this a shot, first the rather obvious ones, one and two are Scottish and Irish, fourth is Esperanto, fifth Welsh and the eight is somewhere between Spanish, Neapolitan and Italian so I'm guessing it's Katalan.
The third is more like northern Gaelic while the sixth and the seventh have a more southern feel to it, my guess is somewhere around the English Channel.

You got 1,2 4,5 and 8 straight off the top, which surprised me - in my experience very few people can tell any two celtic languages apart (usually they can't even distinguish Brythonic from Gaelic; and in fact few people will even recognise that the languages are celtic languages) so recognising three straight away is quite impressive; and it's equally true that people tend never to have heard of non-national Romance languages like Neapolitan and Catalan. You got the others about right too: 3 is indeed another Gaelic, despite the bizarre un-gaelic orthography. It's Manx Gaelic, aka Gaelk, whose original orthography was lost several centuries ago when no literate native speakers remained, and a new orthography - totally divorced from the language's phonology - was invented by a Bishop of Sudor and Mannin who wanted to have a Manx version of the new testament to teach his flock and wasn't aware that Manx had used the same orthography as the other Gaelics. Numbers 6 and 7 do come from close to the English Channel, being Cornish and Breton respectively (I know that some Cornish people will find my orthography pretty bizarre, as there seem to be at least two two quite different ways of writing the language).

Tom

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182631 More actions · Answer 4

TomThomson (12/29/2014)
Eirikur Eiriksson (12/29/2014)
TomThomson (12/28/2014)
Here are some more languages people can guess at:-
Nollaig chrìdheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr
Nollaig faoi shéan agus ath-bhliain faoi shonas
Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Bonan Kristnaskon kaj felican novan jaron
Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda
Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bon Nadal i un bon any nou
I'm going to give this a shot, first the rather obvious ones, one and two are Scottish and Irish, fourth is Esperanto, fifth Welsh and the eight is somewhere between Spanish, Neapolitan and Italian so I'm guessing it's Katalan.
The third is more like northern Gaelic while the sixth and the seventh have a more southern feel to it, my guess is somewhere around the English Channel.
You got 1,2 4,5 and 8 straight off the top, which surprised me - in my experience very few people can tell any two celtic languages apart (usually they can't even distinguish Brythonic from Gaelic; and in fact few people will even recognise that the languages are celtic languages) so recognising three straight away is quite impressive; and it's equally true that people tend never to have heard of non-national Romance languages like Neapolitan and Catalan. You got the others about right too: 3 is indeed another Gaelic, despite the bizarre un-gaelic orthography. It's Manx Gaelic, aka Gaelk, whose original orthography was lost several centuries ago when no literate native speakers remained, and a new orthography - totally divorced from the language's phonology - was invented by a Bishop of Sudor and Mannin who wanted to have a Manx version of the new testament to teach his flock and wasn't aware that Manx had used the same orthography as the other Gaelics. Numbers 6 and 7 do come from close to the English Channel, being Cornish and Breton respectively (I know that some Cornish people will find my orthography pretty bizarre, as there seem to be at least two two quite different ways of writing the language).

Must say Tom that you did put together quite a challenge although a pattern emerged which did help with the Gaelic languages, mainly a geographic lineage from north to the south. There are also similarities in the differences from one to another as found in the Scandinavian languages.

😎

I find both human and computer languages a very fascinating subject, must admit that I've been taken aback by the general ignorance here in the UK when it comes to the old languages (and often languages in general). I might also be exposing my tendency to hoard useless information:-D

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 5

... Mark one off, 60 days on the calendar to go. 60 days on the calendar to go, 60 days to go, ...

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 6

Eirikur Eiriksson (12/30/2014)
I find both human and computer languages a very fascinating subject, must admit that I've been taken aback by the general ignorance here in the UK when it comes to the old languages (and often languages in general). I might also be exposing my tendency to hoard useless information:-D

That sounds as if we have something in common - whether it's an interest in languages (both human and computer) or a tendency to hoard useless information is perhaps a question we can leave to others. 🙂 The general tendency in the UK to ignore older languages (most English speakers I know can't even read Shakespeare, let alone Chaucer) and all languages other than English whether modern or old (except for the few whose native language is one of the Celtic languages, or Shelta, or Rom) doesn't just take me aback, it apalls me. :angry:

Tom

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 728164 More actions · Answer 7

BrainDonor (12/24/2014)
Lynn Pettis (12/23/2014)
Okay, I have a question about PASS 2015. I can save a lot of money by registering for PASS 2015 now. My question is when do I make my hotel/flight reservations?
I've already booked the flights, because they only get more expensive as time progresses - and I don't have the nerve to wait for standby flights. I haven't got around to booking accomodation yet but that will be done soon. The prices tend not to climb so fast (or at all) but the choices diminish the closer we get to the required date.

I haven't found flights to change much from 6-9 months out to 2 months before. Sometimes there's a short climb below 2 months, and certainly steep when it's 2 weeks out, but not substantial savings I've seen. Might be different depending on airlines.

Hotels will fill up, but I think they tend to fill for the conference in the last 2-3 months. I've booked most of the Summit hotels within 3 months, maybe within 2.

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 8

... Mark one off, 59 days on the calendar to go. 59 days on the calendar to go, 59 days to go, ...

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 9

[font="Arial Black"]Happy New Year from far off Afghanistan!!![/font]

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182631 More actions · Answer 10

TomThomson (12/30/2014)
Eirikur Eiriksson (12/30/2014)
I find both human and computer languages a very fascinating subject, must admit that I've been taken aback by the general ignorance here in the UK when it comes to the old languages (and often languages in general). I might also be exposing my tendency to hoard useless information:-D
That sounds as if we have something in common - whether it's an interest in languages (both human and computer) or a tendency to hoard useless information is perhaps a question we can leave to others. 🙂 The general tendency in the UK to ignore older languages (most English speakers I know can't even read Shakespeare, let alone Chaucer) and all languages other than English whether modern or old (except for the few whose native language is one of the Celtic languages, or Shelta, or Rom) doesn't just take me aback, it apalls me. :angry:

I know of but don't know much about the Travellers' languages and cant, seems to me for the reasons you mentioned that those left are indeed quickly vanishing. My source on cant is mainly a digitized copy of A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, fun to read on the commute.

😎

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 11

Lynn Pettis (12/31/2014)
[font="Arial Black"]Happy New Year from far off Afghanistan!!![/font]

Same to you, Lynn!!!

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