The only Solar System is where Earth is!

General
21

This is a perfect topic for a new feature on JENI though. I think the evolution of future space language would be a great and hilariously unintelligible piece.

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22

Hmm…

:smiling_imp:

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23

NEVER!!! (!)

24

It is funny when people nitpick over wording like that. Like trying to change the word ‘manufacture’ to ‘personufacture’, not knowing that the word comes from the latin ‘to make by hand’ with ‘man’ being the latin for hand, hence words like ‘manual’.

But I think old English is hard to understand because it didn’t really have a progressive tense like modern English. So there was no ‘doing’, and words didn’t generally have ‘-ing’ on the end. It was ‘forgive them o lord for they know not what they do’ not ‘forgive them o lord they don’t know what they are doing’. Or ‘where goest thou my love’ not ‘where are thou going my love’. Native English speakers might have to deal with this difference when they try to learn another language, since they also don’t really make use of the progressive tense.

Anyway, I think etymology and language is kinda interesting, the point is though don’t nitpick over the words people use, because people are going to use whatever words they want.

Like people are still going to refer to space-based soldiers as ‘space marines’, even though the word ‘marine’ comes from the Latin and French words for ‘of the sea’. I doubt that you’re going to be able to invent a new word that will stick.

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25

Ah, but don’t we consider space to be like an ocean? I mean, we say spaceSHIP, astroNAUT/cosmoNAUT, so why not call soldiers space marines?

I always like it when games try to be consistent about the “space is an ocean” deal, doing things like calling missiles “torpedoes” or using names like “barge” for ship classes. It was always fun to hear a captain calmly announcing “Torpedo inbound. Brace for impact.” in Homeworld 2.

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26

Marines? Cosmins!

27

Espatier gained traction among some SF enthusiasts.
The French Army would probably call them “Troupes Spatiales” at first (they have “Troupes de Marine” as Marines), actually, but Espatier works better as it avoids the confusion with Spec Ops troops.

For the ‘Space Navy’, I personally prefer the Astrale.

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28

Don’t get sucked back in!

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29

Note my choice of avatar. http://i.imgur.com/XuGN4at.png

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30

Engineers call them spacecraft :slight_smile:

It’s a joke don’t hurt me! It’s all definitions but it doesn’t bother me. I’m not an english major and if a word carries the correct message across that’s usually good enough for me!

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31

Remember, if people hadn’t had there way with Latin most of Europe would be speaking one language.

British films have to have an American English version along with there home version.

Look up jock and then laugh at people calling women jocks. It’s athlete.

32

Clearly the only solution is for everyone to start speaking Latin again. Or maybe that proto-language they had in Prometheus. Or Esperanto. Edit: Or Newspeak. That would be doubleplusgood.

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33

People already speak newspeak. in Corporate jingles, political self-serving language adjustments, foreiner (spellcheck fails me) inability to speak the language and people going along with it.

34

See? The world is already slowly becoming a better place.

35

If you don’t want people clearly understand each other.
Works well with:
Starting wars with a simple misunderstanding.
Causing airliners to crash.
Getting vegetation food with pork.

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36

Writing books like Engine Summer.

37

I’m pretty sure the two drunk guys brawling outside the pub don’t constitute a ‘war’.

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38

You’re agitating over something that has been a fundamental, I would even go so far as to say critical, feature of language since its invention.

Words work because they are commonly understood. If the understanding of what a word means changes to a large portion of people, then the word itself has changed. Language changes to suit the people speaking it. It’s why Latin fragmented into the Romance Languages and why American English broke off from British.

It’s also why if I told you to have a gay old time, you’d probably give me an odd look at best, depending on your individual opinions, but if I asked you to hand me, say, a band-aid, you’d probably hand me an adhesive bandage regardless of brand.

If people understand what you’re saying, there’s no point in quibbling over what words you’re specifically using, unless you’re a pedant or speaking Lojban or dealing in legalese or something.

Thus, the Sun is a star and the Stars are suns. And Io is a moon.

39

It’s more than just that. Words have denotations and connotations. They have rich, and sometimes dark histories. Words have context! Both context in how they’re used, and context in how they have been used. These are things that no amount of language policing can ever possibly erase. Indeed, attempting to ignore the contextual basis of language is, at its core, an attempt to deny history.

Language is a central pillar of culture, and as cultures change, languages, by necessity, change with them. A culture is reflected in its language, and languages are reflected in the cultures that use them. This is why the only languages that are static are those belonging to dead cultures.

Hell, even Klingon changes. Even Elvish is not static.

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40

Or corporations or religions or some idiot who misunderstood the word and the sheep followed. Politicians who want to change the way people think. There messing with the word http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fact?s=t (fact) There is no “my facts” and “your facts” no “you think your facts and I will think my facts”

Words have meaning other wise you can not say what you mean or mean what you say.

That would be over millennia. They are a wise people and would make new words not put words to work in a house of ill repute.