Tiffany problems

[LingEarth]

Along the same lines as Tiffany: It feels weird to me that there was a guy named Guy Fawkes in the 1600s. "Guy" sounds so modern.

[Raphael]

The uniform of the employee in the classic Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks looks a bit too modern for 1942 to me.

[elemtilas]

The uniform of the employee in the classic Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks looks a bit too modern for 1942 to me.

Curious. This caught my eye. What makes it seem too modern? Standard white shirt & cap of the mid century soda jerk.

[Raphael]

I somehow associate that outfir more with the 1950s - or even later times - than the 1940s.

[Raphael]

I just came across this Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventio ... ural_State

An international convention on environmental protection signed in 1933? Wut?

[MacAnDàil]

What I notice msot about that was that the 1933 document was ratified whereas the 1900 document was based on was not. And the 1900 also included species that were intended to be reduced like lions and leopards, unlike the 1933 one.

[Pabappa]

I guess transatlantic cables are the big one that really got me. I remember about twenty years ago having a conversation online about Internet speeds, and I'd always assumed that global Internet communication relied on satellites wherever there was a large body of water, unaware not only that there were in fact giant wires under the sea, but that they had been there for more than a hundred years.

I still don't understand how they did it.

[Linguoboy]

I guess transatlantic cables are the big one that really got me. I remember about twenty years ago having a conversation online about Internet speeds, and I'd always assumed that global Internet communication relied on satellites wherever there was a large body of water, unaware not only that there were in fact giant wires under the sea, but that they had been there for more than a hundred years.

I still don't understand how they did it.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... s+are+laid

[Travis B.]

Proto-Mongolic dates back to no earlier than the thirteenth century.

[Yalensky]

Proto-Mongolic dates back to no earlier than the thirteenth century.

An anti-Tiffany, when something that seems like it must be ancient is revealed to be younger than expected. Is there a better term for the opposite of a Tiffany problem?

[Raphael]

Another example of an "anti-Tiffany", or "reverse Tiffany": I was pretty surprised when I learned that the current unofficial national anthem of Scotland was written in the 1960s. I would have expected it to be a lot older than that.

[xxx]

are we antitiffanies builders...

[Linguoboy]

Maybe “Scotland problems” because, as we all know, Scotland, rather than being the modern successor to a mediaeval kingdom, was actually invented in 1912 by the McGowan company as a way of marketing Highland toffee.

[Kuchigakatai]

One major reverse Tiffany I had was learning that Polynesia was first settled on circa 900 AD, and even Madagascar was reached just around 500 AD. I knew there aren't languages in Polynesia that aren't, well, Oceanic Polynesian, and that the languages are pretty similar so it couldn't have happened long ago, but I thought the expansion had occurred maybe in 300 AD or something... Even Madagascar was only reached by Austronesian speakers circa 500 AD.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... 011%29.png

[Pabappa]

its at least possible that Madagascar was settled by African natives before the migrants from Borneo arrived. We dont know. They would have been pre-Bantu Africans, thus not having a whole lot in common with the people who live in Mozambique, so genetics isnt much help here.

[MacAnDàil]

Another example of an "anti-Tiffany", or "reverse Tiffany": I was pretty surprised when I learned that the current unofficial national anthem of Scotland was written in the 1960s. I would have expected it to be a lot older than that.

I remember learning this as an adult, but it didn't surprise, because it's in English, which didn't become used (along with Scots) by the lower and lower middle classes in Scotland until the 19th to 20th centuries.

Older texts from Scotland are all generally Scots, Gaelic or even another language (e.g. Norn or Old Welsh). The corrolary of this is that, when you do find an older text in English, it's likely a translation. An example is 'Mairi's wedding', which is a translation from the Gaelic 'Mairi bhàn'.

[Raphael]

Older texts from Scotland are all generally Scots, Gaelic or even another language (e.g. Norn or Old Welsh).

Old texts from Scotland written in Old Welsh? That sounds interesting. Could you tell us more about that?

[Travis B.]

Older texts from Scotland are all generally Scots, Gaelic or even another language (e.g. Norn or Old Welsh).

Old texts from Scotland written in Old Welsh? That sounds interesting. Could you tell us more about that?

Old Welsh was previously spoken in parts of southwestern Scotland.

[Raphael]

Ah, thank you!

[MacAnDàil]

For a specific example, Y Gododdin is an Old Welsh/Middle Welsh text focussing on the Gododdin (known to the Ancient Romans as Votadini) who lived in the Southeast of Scotland around Edinburgh and in Northumberland. Aneirin, the bard who wrote it, was likely court poet at Edinburgh and born in Dumbarton (although both of these places are uncertain).