Time Commanders

[Didz]

Can everyone stop talking about grammar?

I hate to mention this but I'm not sure the use of a question mark at the end of that sentence is correct.

If the sentence was intended to be a question, (e.g. is it possible for everyone to stop talking about grammar) then the question mark is appropriate.

However, I suspect that in fact your statement was intended to be read as a request, proposal or instruction.

e.g. Would everyone please stop talking about grammar,
or, I suggest that everyone stops talking about grammar,
or, Stop talking about grammar, Now.

In which case the question mark is inappropriate.

[Fridge]

So, by your reasoning, I could correctly use the japanese rendering of our prime ministers name, TAWNY BRAIR!

If you were Japanese, I'd have thought the only way you would be able to render it phonetically would be in Japanese script (and even then it wouldn't match exactly the sounds of Englis. The whole problem is the Japanese can't (or find it difficult without training) to reproduce some phonetic elements of the English language, and, I imagine vice versa.

Cool. This would be ok would it? By your use of Boadicea, you're saying its ok (or are you ancient roman? my you're looking good for your age). Its Boudicca, BOO-DICK-A!

I doubt he's ancient Roman, but he is, after all, using a language directly descended from theirs. And, having given us the ancient spelling of Boudicca, you're very confident of how it's pronounced, bearing in mind the original was wrtitten in a language with (AFAIK) no, or effectively no, relation to modern English.

So either Boudicca is the original spelling and it's not pronounced BOO-DICK-AH, or Boudicca is a phonetic rendering and the original spelling was very different, or it's both spelt and pronounced that way and it's all a coincidence of astounding proportions.

Did the Britons (or Iceni) even use a latin alphabet in those days? Or was Boudicca just an attempt to transcribe the name in the latin alphabet before the Romans came along and did their latinizing?

[Didz]

I doubt he's ancient Roman, but he is, after all, using a language directly descended from theirs.

Good God. You mean he is posting in Italian. I never noticed and since I can't read Italian I really don't know how I understood his post.

And, having given us the ancient spelling of Boudicca, you're very confident of how it's pronounced, bearing in mind the original was wrtitten in a language with (AFAIK) no, or effectively no, relation to modern English.

Presumably, Boudicca is either derived from Celtic or Gallic and as modern English still retains links to both languages whilst latin was limited to the clergy and eventually irradicated from modern english by the Black Death, I would argue that Boudicca (according to language achaeologists pronounced BOO-DICK-AH) is more closely related to modern english than Boudicea.

Did the Britons (or Iceni) even use a latin alphabet in those days? Or was Boudicca just an attempt to transcribe the name in the latin alphabet before the Romans came along and did their latinizing?

Not sure what that has to do with price of eggs. After all the Chinese don't use a latin alphabet but we still know how they pronounce their names.

Presumably no matter what alphabet the Iceni used the historians have managed to both translate it and read it, as indeed they are able to do with ancient Egyptian, Hebrew and many other languages.

[Barbarossa82]

So, by your reasoning, I could correctly use the japanese rendering of our prime ministers name, TAWNY BRAIR!

Cool. This would be ok would it? By your use of Boadicea, you're saying its ok (or are you ancient roman? my you're looking good for your age). Its Boudicca, BOO-DICK-A!

Yes, well understood. It would be absolutely OK, especially if you're Japanese, and even if you're not. If it makes it easier for you to say in your own native language, go for it.
It's Boudicca in Gaelic, Boadicea in Latin, to me Boadicea sounds more natural and easily flowing in modern English, so that's what I'm gonna say. If you want to say Tawny Brair, fire away.

Must go now, my 2000-year-old Italian bones are feeling the cold!

[tai4ji2x]

for those interested, linguists use what's called the International Phonetic Alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...netic_alphabet

[tai4ji2x]

btw, season two is forthcoming. http://www.totalwar.com/time2.htm

still hoping someone out there is generous enough to try and video-capture pharsalus and qadesh from season 1... ;)

[Kraxis]

for those interested, linguists use what's called the International Phonetic Alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...netic_alphabet

Imagine when this alphabet is found sometime in the distant future... It will be like:
"It is obvious that sometime around 1500-2200 a group of people splintered away from the main European culture. During their wanderings (also called the 2nd migration period) they developed their latin alphabet into what we now call the drawn alphabet (from the many interestingly drawn symbols). Obviously it has roots in the even more ancient greek and phoenician alphabets, indicating that it was something that survived the ages, until the migrations finally took it up again.
Interestingly enough it has never been found near the large religious grounds, such as outside Roskilde or any of the other places where thousands of people gathered to pay homage to their gods at large altars (usually they would be crammed tightly togther only at one side) for days on end, where they sacrificed many thousands of oddly shaped coins to the ground (circular in shape but with one side ebnt inwards in a serrated fashion). That indicates that the splinter groups were heretics to the normal population and it can explain the migration and the relative lack of physical evidence."

[tai4ji2x]

kraxis:

huh? when i said linguists "use" the IPA, i certainly don't mean that they write everything (letters, email, books, etc) in it. that would be silly. they just use it as a tool for representing human speech in a standard way. it is almost always interspersed as notation within a main body of text, which would be written in the linguist's native language.

[Kraxis]

kraxis:

huh? when i said linguists "use" the IPA, i certainly don't mean that they write everything (letters, email, books, etc) in it. that would be silly. they just use it as a tool for representing human speech in a standard way. it is almost always interspersed as notation within a main body of text, which would be written in the linguist's native language.

I know that... Otherwise would be silly indeed. I just made a joke about how this in the future will be handled, just like I made a little joke about musical festivals, and how they would be interpreted in the future.