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

>post 8083<
Quo Tardis?

I thought the whole 'waves of invasion' theory with each successive lot pushing the previous lot out the way was consider a little passe now? It does seem to make far more sense that only some were pushed out the way, some remained. Thus to say the english are descended from Sven and Thingumy is about as correct as refering to the 'pure bred englishman'. Within England there are those descended from the Celts, from the Danes, the normans (who were Vikings) etc. etc. It just that theres more of a melting pot than in the sticks. The Scots for example are as much Viking in many areas as Irish. The Irish are as much Spanish as English (Celts) and the others that moved over there.
Just because a new lot came in, beat up and exiled the local ruling class and rewrote (or wrote!) history doesn;t mean the local populace gave up and legged it en mass. After all, someone needs to farm the land, herd the sheep and pay taxes.

Oh, what about Avalon then? (Not the Canadian one!). Was that just pure french invention or has it a more interesting history?

Interesting ,word choice invasion ,pushing, previous.
Whereas exspansion, mergeing ,present is more to the mark.
You dont need go out into the sticks to see the extent of movement for
a lsrge part of the inhabitents "genectic dna" has moved.
Or areas of settlement , such as ,found round natural harbours and islands around the globe.

Avelon,atlantis,mithengrad,garden of genisis,olypus, to name but a few
and depending on wether you believe, we wrote to each other before we spoke to each other,very few religous texts can explain ,how communication was started ,between families, its only in the last 200 years that a large population of the world can use the written word as a form of communication.So tales regarding the above has had to be passed down oraly,...........even today i assume a large part cannot read or write so cannot confirm what is told,......



Not forgetting most of the land at some time was cajouned, the united states(theres a anomilie "united")where closer to europe, beliefs held Australian native indians ,not to much disimuler than Eskimosin alaska.
If what i have so far exstrapilated from writeings i've seen and read in my time and on tv ect.

"Interesting ,word choice invasion ,pushing, previous."
Que? Those words describe the theories I referenced pretty much exactly, not sure why you have a problem with them
"Whereas exspansion, mergeing ,present is more to the mark."
Exactly what I was alluding to.

"You dont need go out into the sticks to see the extent of movement for a lsrge part of the inhabitents "genectic dna" has moved."
No, but it is a good place to go to see that some of the supposedly supplanted peoples still have a strong presence.

The Northern US was not so much 'closer' as physically joined to. Rocks in Northern America (the continent) are the same as those in Ireland and other places.

Was it the Inuit or the native American tribes that are french?

Olympus exists. It just doesn;t have Gods at the top of it. Garden of Eden I think you meant?

"its only in the last 200 years that a large population of the world can use the written word as a form of communication."

What? Evidence please!

"its only in the last 200 years that a large population of the world can use the written word as a form of communication."

What? Evidence please!

The fact that i can reply to this question ,even say for example you where at work in the albert dock in liverpool,and you wanted to ask me , some flippent or even theological question ,leaveing aside phone radio recent oral formsinteraction+150, tv internet visal oral written,+20 we have written, so you would send me a letter, thus cutting down the ammount of communication in our lifetime (present)
Also takeing into the equation is the working practises, only in the recent history(western culture) has the average person the need to read, to surive,which was the advent of the printing press ,.....the written word.........

UP until then a small part of the global population had acess to it
but now unlike then we can speak to non native speakers and confirm for ourselfs instentaniously ,or obtain further information from a different reference point.
But the Question you posed
Was it the Inuit or the native American tribes that are french?
I was drawing attention to beliefs and culture that have evolved amongst these two groups are related native australians was what i thought i wrote ,.

Olympus,garden of eden ect all signifying "home" of one sort or another concepts passed down oraly and ledgibly(though not in my case)

Ah, I think Isee. You are saying that it is only in the last 200 yrs that we have had fast global communications between cultures?
I put 'fast' in there because obviously the romans had empire wide communications but it could only go as fast as a horse (for complex messages) or as fast as light for simple messages (via the use of semaphore and beacon fires). Communications and trade world wide is increasingly being shown to be a very ancient practice.
Of course, we assume that the average person was illiterate due to our preconceived ideas and a lack of written material. But then paper and so forth doesn;t last long. Certainly the finds at Hadrian's wall of the wood based notepads written by the general inhabitants would suggest that at least some common soldiers could read and write, and I thought the ancient Greeks were a pretty literate lot. Also, didn;t the Ancient Egyptians have a 'common' script?
(getting so OT it's unreal! Appols to regulars!)

Vestboy

>post 8083<
Quo Tardis?

Yes, they've still got it; but due to a failure of the polynomial bypass relief simulator it hasn't changed one second, chronologically, latitudinally nor longitudinally since 1977, despite the plaque by the door which proudly (should that be loudly?) proclaims "Rockin all over the world".

Just in passing why isn't monosyllabic?

>> Just in passing why isn't monosyllabic? <<

Is this a trick question or is something missing?

If you mean 'why isn't "monosyllabic" mono-syllabled', your point is well taken. Words should conform to the same rules of 'form follows function' that everything else is subject to. Go where you will in this wide old world, and material objects will have assumed a form that suits their function. Cutting tools will always have an edge and houses will usually have rooves. But words?! They just get more complex and convaluted, even to describe the simplest things. 'Serendipitous' springs to mind but its gentle demeanor seems perfectly suited to its meaning and provides at least one exception to the rule.

If you mean 'why isn't "mono" syllabic, I'd have to say "mono" IS syllabic, having two of them "Mon" and "o".

But if you meant something else you're gonna have to fill in the blank bits or we won't know what it is, or isn't, that you believe ought to be monosyllabic.

BTW for Quo Tardis!


~jwf~

"monosyllabic"

The question is from the guide to illogicallity, as is:
why is "abbreviation" such a long word? and
why do we say "french horn" but "cor anglais"?

Updated version of:
"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck ..."

I thought this was the guide to illogicality. How improbable is that! And I'll thank 'e to keep yon woodchuck in your pocket. Or dans la poche as the French so foppish...

jwf aka Dan LaPoche

Most orchestras don't use the term French horn -- not because they dislike the French but because the horn most western orchestras use is the German horn. The French bit refers to piston valves (as on a trumpet) but most orchestral horns use rotating valves (German). They just say horn.

In my preferred circle, there is the expectation that, with the exception of the more esoteric, all wind instruments answer to the name "horn".

That would be jazz? Well maybe it's not so different in classical orchestras; the French and German horns are brass and the English horn is a reed.

In the EU enlargement celebrations I saw a hornpipe played live for the first time -- a bagpipe with a polished cow's horn attached to the end of the chanter. The upturned-bell shape must have been the inspiration for Adolphe Sax when he invented the saxophone; so it makes sense to call it a horn.

Recumbentman,
I suppose if I'd grown up with the retroussé chanter, the no frills version would seem odd. I wonder how it would affect the sound. Make the melody more easily discernible



~jwf~
"I saw a sign that said Albion yesterday near Amherst Nova Scotia"

Nice to the the colonies have got the hang of "alphabetical order". Or did you mean they'd put it in the wrong place?

Leave the conversation to the fellas for a bit and it turns horny.

Dan LaPoche, Here are some more for your consideration: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=76493&latest=1 post 6562

We're only in it for the trills.

I was going to say I bet they don;t call it the horn in the youth orchestras.
"Now then class, who's got the horn?" Hmmm.

Question for you, the below sentence has been passed to me to correct. Why me I know not. Anyway, here it is
"A number of initiatives were discussed to ensure that the largest number of accounts are unlocked as possible. "

Would you say that is worded correctly? If not, why not and how would you change it? The reason for asking is that it is in a high level business document and as such needs to be correct.

Personally, I'd change the end to "number of accounts as possible are unlocked. "
There was some question as to whether it should be 'are' or 'is', mainly due to someone believing the MS Word Grammar checker

"A number of initiatives were discussed to ensure that the largest number of accounts are unlocked as possible. "

Nasty piece of work, clumsy number, number, when we have so many words to select.

I like the minimalist approach, e.g.

"Several (or Numerous) initiatives were discussed to ensure that as many accounts as possible are unlocked. "

Gets rid of the singular/ plural number thing.