Zompist Bboard Again

I still don't have anything useful or constructive to comment, but I'd like to stay that I'm following this with great interest. Thank you!

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2026 12:35 pm I thought "Spengler" was [ˈʃpɛŋlɐ] in StG.

Yes, that's correct. I don't know German that well, but that I'm reasonably certain of.

Wiktionary suggests Kontrastfigur. Does that work?

(Each Wikipedia language is basically a separate project, at least as I understand it. So it’s pretty bad for that sort of cross-linguistic search.)

Then there's the question of whether to pronounce the foreign names "correctly" at all. I very much doubt Orwell would, at least speaking to other English people. I think even most Americans would say [spɛŋ glr], not [ʃpɛn glə]. OTOH my friend Daniel-- linguoboy to y'all-- would use the G...

Imralu wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2026 4:12 am
I ngoho nga u nai mu zyi wi nyora u ye nyezi linwo.
An old friend of mine has died.

Nai ndze mwe no zwayo, mye nai ze mweho lwe.
I haven't been able to cry, but I can't sleep well.

Kokrysantiā myā
My condolences.

Oh! As compared to the rest of the country... sorry!

A city on Mars will start out as Musk City but it need not stay this way; and in fact (as Iain M. Banks had pointed out) socialism just makes a lot more sense in space than Musk-ism (which would get everyone killed.) A lot depends on the history of those people. How did their revolution begin? Did s...

1. We are never really sure of the result, either. 2. I think when people choose to call their conlang an auxlang, or a loglang, or an artlang, they're saying something about the overriding purpose or goal of the conlang. For instance, calling something an auxlang labels it as primarily meant for e...

I'd object that I'm not that old ;) The decline of Western power and status, no matter how long it might have been going on, only started getting seriously noticed a few years ago. Oh, do you think so? I think people were already worried about China ten or fifteen years ago. But maybe I misremember...

My own take (if you're interested!): I've heard right-wingers predict bankruptcy ever since I can vote (and I've been of voting age for what turns out to be a surprisingly long time). So I have trouble taking such warnings seriously. For most of that time, the West was a lot more clearly on top of ...

The sweet irony of Paul Krugman turning into a Very Serious Person: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/whats-the-matter-with-france It's interesting that the article starts out by correctly pointing the fallacy of ideologically motivated reasoning when it comes to discussing France, and then falling...

What does everyone think of the Alberta independence referendum and its chances of passing? I believe someone already expressed their skepticism and said the Alberta independence movement lacks majority support. Nonetheless people once said the same thing about Brexit and Trump and so much else. Th...

Writing question: is there a written counterpart to an activity montage sequence in a movie? Suppose that in a work of fiction, there are some people in a place, and then something spurs them into action. Something has happened, or they got the news that something has happened elsewhere, or they've...

I agree with everyone here. But don't tell me your first reaction reading that headline wasn't 'oh not now'

The power of the industrial working class was destroyed. That used to be the most "progressive" force in society. Then politics switched from leftism to centrism for a few decades until growth slowed down for the non-rich: I happen to know many industrial workers and they certainly don't ...

How d'yall deal with assholes at work? I happened to start woking on a particular project together with some narcissist that is trying to sabotage my work and frame me for incompetence, while lowkey vying to 'do' my work better using AI - "just" by the way... I don't think I have any kind...

What really baffles me is the global nature of this reactionary onslaught. If only certain countries were falling to reactionary politics, we could reasonably ascribe this to specific reactionaries having considerable skill at propaganda or the failure of specific liberal and leftist politicians. T...

you can explain at length how leftism would make people's lives better and people won't believe you. We should list the reasons and address them. For example, fascist voters are often under the impression that leftist politics is sappy and that economic success requires hardnosed right-wing politic...

The other is that socialists who are a pretty large faction these days can't find a winning strategy yet (though there are signs this is improving) and usually end up shooting themselves in the foot. In their defense, it is a genuinely hard problem. I think intellectuals have fundamentally lost tou...

It is over in Brazil. The hard Bolsonarist right-wing has won a historic victory unlike anything seen in recent history. That's a disaster. My commiserations. The major problem is that contemporary "leftists" have somehow become incapable of accepting correct explanations and changing cou...