h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...as I've actually started talking again after 2 years of mostly lurking...

But can I join too anyway?

But of course. Rupert will add you to the list, sooner or later...

Hi Amy!

I've added you to the list. Welcome to the club!

You're getting quicker, Rupert.

Yeah.. that's the vacation thing, which is now over. First day at w*rk. Waiting in the email were three meetings for this week. There's water coming in through the roof in one of our computer class rooms and it's not even raining. I'm very tired (though that's Terry Pratchett's fault). I want a holiday.

I'd quite like a holiday too. It's been a while since I had a holiday that wasn't full of obligations to other people... I'm starting to plan a week away in October. Nowhere exotic, just Melbourne - at least the shopping's good there.

Well, from my point of view, Melbourne is quite exotic actually. Shopping sounds like heaps of fun.

There's lots of Greek restaurants in Melbourne. Not many Turkish ones, though...

We don't have that many Turkish restaurants either. Loads of those fast-food kebab places but only few "real" restaurants. Can't say anything about Greek food, really. Moussaka I love but that's the only thing I've tasted.

Greek food is rather like Turkish, just spelled differently.

Okay. Good to know. I'd imagine though, that in a Greek restaurant you don't have to learn new alphabets. In Turkey I had to learn three new ones, but luckily they were just special editions of 'c', 's' and 'i'.

The dotless 'i' always looks strange...

And for a Finn it's quite difficult to pronounce. We don't have a similar sound in our language. My book says it's "like the 'a' in 'about', 'e' in 'open'". In English it comes quite naturally but when put to a different language and represented with a remixed character, it's hard to remember how to say it. I'm not very fond of asking people how they are. It's just one word but has three ı's (just have to try if it works; it's supposed to be the dotless i ) in it.

In Australian English, *most* vowels sound like that dotless i. It's a flat, colourless sound, especially when the speaker is lazy. Try keeping your upper lip still, moving your lower lip only very slightly, and not expelling air when you make a sound that could be 'ah' or 'uh' or 'oh'. (The sort of noise you make when making a noise to indicate to someone that you are paying attention to what they're saying when you're not really paying attention at all, and you don't want to make a noise that could mean anything in particular.)

I bet that doesn't help at all. Oh dear. Good luck...

Okay then. Yeah, that didn't work. I can't make noises without expelling air. I can speak while inhaling, but I'm sure that's not what you meant. Oh, I forgot to mention that there's also an s and a z in it too, and I can't find the difference in the pronounciation. The usual reply though, "I'm fine" is kinda . It's "iyiyim". At first all I could do was to stare at the book, not knowing what to do with the word. If it's pronounced like "eem", I'm sure they could've figured out a better way to spell it!

I'd assume that the 'y' plays a similar role to the Finnish 'j'. 'Iyiyim' would have three distinct syllables. I can hear how it should sound, but I can't explain it in writing. Good luck...

That's one thing. 'Y' is just that. Except in that word, it really *is* pronounced like "eem" in English. Well, I have about a month to get used to these kind of things. Well, the course begins in a month or so. That's when the luck will be needed.

It all sounds like tremendous fun. I decided to learn Chinese for fun; Turkish might be a little more straightforward.

No, not straightforward. The order of the words is part a bit of a challenge. In Turkish the verb at the end of the sentense is. I'd imagine the word bending might not be a problem, there are only six cases (in Finnish there are 15; wanna give that a go? )

No, thank you, but it's nice to have the offer. I have enough trouble with their, they're and there - not to mention cough, hiccough, rough, though, through, chough, plough, and all that lot.