Almea+400

[Mornche Geddick]

(Could we have the old wordpress theme back? Please? I can't stand the hamburger logo and sliding popup window!)

I changed it again. It's a different theme, but it doesn't break the pictures and has no hamburgers.

Thank you! Huge bouquet specially for you, Zompist!

And, do you know what?CTRL++ several solves the wasted margins problem nicely. Admittedly it gives you huge fonts, but I can work with that.

[Ketsuban]

Apparently Adobe sells its products not just world-wide but multiverse-wide: Verdurian has a word for ‘PDF’! (Perhaps this is another interdimensional slip? Some sorcerer messed up their spell again and accidentally summoned a bunch of programmers from Adobe?)

Given "PDF" stands for "Portable Document Format" and Almea+400 heads into the future relative to our tech level, perhaps it's a pragmatic translation to indicate that there's a word for a standard interchange format on the hipgečë?

[Nachtswalbe]

How would the gender roles of Belesao be affected by modernization?

[bradrn]

Apparently Adobe sells its products not just world-wide but multiverse-wide: Verdurian has a word for ‘PDF’! (Perhaps this is another interdimensional slip? Some sorcerer messed up their spell again and accidentally summoned a bunch of programmers from Adobe?)

Given "PDF" stands for "Portable Document Format" and Almea+400 heads into the future relative to our tech level, perhaps it's a pragmatic translation to indicate that there's a word for a standard interchange format on the hipgečë?

Well, yes, that would of course be the sensible interpretation; I was being facetious. (Though I still like my interpretation better!)

[zompist]

How would the gender roles of Belesao be affected by modernization?

It varies by countries. Some embrace equal rights (though it's a struggle and arguably they don't entirely get there); some double down on female supremacy; some reverse it.

[sasasha]

Somebody may have mentioned this, but I feel worried for the icëlani going into the 'modern' era. Widespread habitat destruction seems fairly likely.

[Richard W]

They're not quite synonymous. c is the speed of light in a vacuum; but you can talk about the speed of light in a given medium, v. (Water, for instance. Or glass). The difference is important in optics: n = c / v is the index of refraction.

Historically interesting shift in meaning in English. I've got old text books where c is used in differential equations for the speed of propagation in a medium for other things, such as sound.

[Ketsuban]

I decided on a whim to go through the Secret Dictionary and note down which terms have no corresponding "real" Verdurian word in the Almea+400 list (once you remove the Earth-specific ones).

• There's imanižec air conditioner, but no term for air conditioning which would supplant the Secret Dictionary's anižë šalea "cool air". In English, an air conditioner is a unit, but anywhere from a single room to an entire building can "have air conditioning", making no assumptions about how many air conditioners there are or what other infrastructure is required. Does Verdurian not make this distinction?
• There's no term for bulletin board; Almea+400 redefines letuë vouë "wall of messages" as forum. Presumably Verdurians don't see a distinction between the two?
• Somewhat astonishingly (I think) there's nas truck and nažžen bus but nothing to supplant pavona "wagon" for car. (Admittedly the English term is clipped from "carriage"... the Secret Dictionary does give what looks like a diminutive vonye, is this the Verdurian term?)
• Apparently Almeans never invented the sigarét.
• There's nothing in Almea+400 corresponding to nivo college degree - is this term used in Verdurian academia? How would they understand our academic qualifications?
• lacanilo deconstructionist has no etymology, and Almea+400 doesn't seem interested in (what I assume is) literary criticism. What do we do with this?
• Did Almea not invent fax? retden "far-document" now means PDF, leaving retdenniru fax machine stranded.
• Is droî de aďán "rights from God" still the appropriate term for human rights?
• Vitamin is given a Swedish loanword, but Almea+400 has nothing. Does U. planitiei not have metabolic deficiencies like H. sapiens?

[bradrn]

[*]There's no term for bulletin board; Almea+400 redefines letuë vouë "wall of messages" as forum. Presumably Verdurians don't see a distinction between the two?

There’s a difference?

[*]Somewhat astonishingly (I think) there's nas truck and nažžen bus but nothing to supplant pavona "wagon" for car. (Admittedly the English term is clipped from "carriage"... the Secret Dictionary does give what looks like a diminutive vonye, is this the Verdurian term?)

I don’t see anything wrong with that — ‘wagon’ is a perfectly respectable word for car (one which sees occasional use in English, even).

[zompist]

I decided on a whim to go through the Secret Dictionary and note down which terms have no corresponding "real" Verdurian word in the Almea+400 list (once you remove the Earth-specific ones).

I admire your thoroughness! Let's see...

[*]There's imanižec air conditioner, but no term for air conditioning which would supplant the Secret Dictionary's anižë šalea "cool air".

I didn't always provide names for the process as well as the machine. "Air conditioning" should be šalea imanižula.

[*]There's no term for bulletin board; Almea+400 redefines letuë vouë "wall of messages" as forum. Presumably Verdurians don't see a distinction between the two?
[*]Did Almea not invent fax? retden "far-document" now means PDF, leaving retdenniru fax machine stranded.

This just reflects the march of time since I made the Secret Dictionary in the 1990s. Bulletin boards and faxes seem pretty quaint now and didn't seem to deserve their own terms— the later terms can be presumed to include them.

[*]Somewhat astonishingly (I think) there's nas truck and nažžen bus but nothing to supplant pavona "wagon" for car. (Admittedly the English term is clipped from "carriage"... the Secret Dictionary does give what looks like a diminutive vonye, is this the Verdurian term?)

There's a reason for this, but I'm going to leave it a mystery for now...

[*]Apparently Almeans never invented the sigarét.

I should think about this one, as they do have tobacco!

[*]There's nothing in Almea+400 corresponding to nivo college degree - is this term used in Verdurian academia? How would they understand our academic qualifications?

They will continue with their own system of degrees.

[*]lacanilo deconstructionist has no etymology, and Almea+400 doesn't seem interested in (what I assume is) literary criticism. What do we do with this?

There's already a word imbolëo which can be used for literary criticism. I haven't got far enough to think about schools of criticism!

[*]Is droî de aďán "rights from God" still the appropriate term for human rights?

Probably!

[*]Vitamin is given a Swedish loanword, but Almea+400 has nothing. Does U. planitiei not have metabolic deficiencies like H. sapiens?

They'd be included under nurictoš. I should think about subcategories. So far as I can see, "vitamin" is not really a natural category— it's defined by subtraction: nutrients, used in small quantities, not produced by the body, organic, not amino acids, not fatty acids. Another civilization (indeed, another biology) might not have that named category.

[Emily]

not sure if this is the right thread to ask this, but in printed text, how do verdurians emphasize certain portions? in the roman alphabet, we use bold text which essentially mimics letters written with thicker pen-strokes, or italic text which imitates more fluid or cursive styles of handwriting (and has developed specialized uses outside of mere emphasis). in older german blackletter (fraktur), which already had fairly thick strokes as compared to the so-called antiqua standard of other european countries, they would emphasize words or phrases by increasing the spacing between letters (a practice which continued for at least a couple of decades after the abandonment of fraktur, and which i've seen in cyrillic texts as well). and of course in handwritten materials emphasis is most frequently indicated with underscores, which became a common practice on typewriters as well. what are the conventions on almea?

[zompist]

not sure if this is the right thread to ask this, but in printed text, how do verdurians emphasize certain portions?

There's a little about this in the Reference Grammar. In short, there are no italics, and the most common means of emphasis is additional spacing. However, bolder or larger fonts, or all caps, are also used.

[Emily]

ah, i missed that when i was looking through it. thanks!

[sasasha]

Small thought re bicycles. Someone on Patreon suggested they might well have developed earlier than they did here, and Zomp said he may rethink the timeline of this to drop them in earlier (maybe early enough to make Jeerio's bicycle non-anachronistic).

It occurred to me that the main issue in the development of the bicycle is not the mechanical tech to build the bike (sure the clockmakers turned automaton-makers of the 18th century could easily have done it, and maybe people in far earlier times). Instead it's probably the availability of smooth road surfaces.

Syxesteer, of course, is notable for its colourful road surfaces. If flaids pay enough attention to their roads to colour them in, I bet they can make them nice and smooth. Once you have the smooth roads, the bicycle is an obvious invention.

It could have existed in Flora for decades or centuries before anyone else thought it useful to make them, because roads elsewhere would be rough, or optimised for the horse.

[zompist]

The point about pavement is very smart! Plus I do like keeping Jeerio in the pre-3480 period.

[sasasha]

This may be a bit fanciful, but could Chunio have had something to do with it? All that experimenting with things falling downhill...?

(Nölne Maranhëya "proved using an inclined ramp that falling objects accelerate" inspiring Nosčerey; relevant ideas were obviously in the air. If flaidish roads were already smooth, bicycles might have had their zeitgeist in the 3340s. If not before, of course! They might rather have helped inspire Chunio's ideas - a bicycle, rather than an apple...)

[Raphael]

Would have asked this on the Patreon, but wasn't sure where...

Will Almea+400 ever contain a follow-up on this brief conversation we had more than 21 years ago?

http://www.zompist.com/board/messages/268.html

[zompist]

Would have asked this on the Patreon, but wasn't sure where...

Will Almea+400 ever contain a follow-up on this brief conversation we had more than 21 years ago?

http://www.zompist.com/board/messages/268.html

Yes— see here, the last section on iliu/humans.

[Raphael]

Would have asked this on the Patreon, but wasn't sure where...

Will Almea+400 ever contain a follow-up on this brief conversation we had more than 21 years ago?

http://www.zompist.com/board/messages/268.html

Yes— see here, the last section on iliu/humans.

Ah, I must have forgotten about that. Thank you!

[Raphael]

What, no one in this thread commented on this announcement yet?

https://zompist.wordpress.com/2023/09/2 ... trial-age/

Is everyone who might be interested in it already on the Patreon?