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

One wonders out of between which cheeks the winds to which you refer blow.

speaking of wind, check out chauncey's post at the "opinions on a war with iraq" thread: 156?thread=1569585" >F19585?thread=200429&latest=1

A pistol cartridge huh? Very interesting. I don't know why but I thought I should say something.

But here's the real killer.

"Quick, somebody look up a Yukatec word for "writing" and be done with this."

Okay, but it's not going to be real quick because first we have to decide which of the 30, some related, some mutually unintelligible, dialects you want to use.

Will the confusion never end?

Okay, how about Kukulcan, the Mayan equivalent of Quetzalcoatl, patron of learning? His name would probably work better for us than a pistol cartridge or a piece of heavy paper.

Can't you just imagine the scholarly debates?

"Hey look at the jugs on that Xochiquetzal in that kukulcan!!"

"That kukul-what? What's a kukulcan?"

"Sort of like Wiley Coyote and Road Runner, without the soundtrack."

"Ptah!! Really?!!! And I'll have you know those aren't jugs. Those are calendar disks, okay? They don't even look like jugs. Maybe bowls with nipples or whatever."

"Darnit! That's what I said!"

"And stop mixing up things with your nahuatl teoatl. We're confused enough already, okay?"

"Ah-cux!!!"

"I'm not the weasel. You are!"

"Ix-chel!"

"Oh, now we're back to prurient stuff. Thank you very much. Try to hold a scholarly discussion and look what happens!"

"It's not my fault everything reminds me of sex."

"What's sexy about a weasel?"

"Uh.. well... can we talk in private?"

I just picked Yukatec because once I had an interesting experience with a hot pepper somewhere near Uxmal. That's all I'll say about that.

What about just "writing"? But then what do we call the individual -- uh -- glyphs? They aren't letters. They aren't words. They aren't letters. They aren't words

did I mention ?

Yeah, go back to sleep. We can sort this out tomorrow.

Besides I've got to do a workout tape in the bedroom for the next session of New Age Tantric Sociology 101 (NATS.101), Lab hours by appointment.

Pleasant dreams!

hi ya. some of the backlog here is LONG so i have'nt read much. bear with me if i am repeating things already said.

i heard, and i may mean read, that the devil is responsible for mankind being able to write and speak. apperantly, during his fall from heaven he ended up on earth. here he met a race of man known as the Sumarians. he taught them to develop their language and to write so as his Word could be spread faster. the sumarians dissappeared mysteriously but their knowledge was absorbed by other cultures. so there you have it. we speak, read and write thanks to satan!

I'd be interested in finding out your source for that suggestion, Lieutenant.

anhaga

i think i still have it at home. i will look it up for you.

That's nonsense, Lieutenant. It wasn't Satan who taught people to read and write, it was Quetzalcoatl. Everybody knows that. Hah!!

well it didn't actually say satan, it said something about the fallen angel, who as we know, later became known as the devil. i still haven't found the reference but i know i have it somewhere so i will keep looking.

I finally got the copy of the Popol Vuh a couple days ago and I've been reviewing it intensely ever since, well, maybe sort of intensely come to think of it. Let's not go overboard with the hyperbole.

What's especially striking is that some parts appear to be descriptions of what were probably the pictures in the original. This is important to understand because it gives people a clue concerning what this sort of "writing" is actually about.

I think many English speakers could appreciate a comic strip and that's what these books were and are sort of like because the picture can really tell a big story if it's drawn skillfully enough. This is sort of along the lines of the picture I decribed in my story earlier in this discussion.

I just finished Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". While it doesn't completely answer the question of language origin, it does fill in some of the pieces, and also answers a lot of other facinating questions. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read it.

Hey, thanks. Now, what were we talking about again?

COME TO THINK OF IT..

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NOT!!!

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COULD BE?

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TAKING THEIR WORD FOR IT, ALTHOUGH "POWERED" MIGHT BE AN UNFORTUNATE CHOICE OF WORDS CONSIDERING HOW OFTEN THE SITE CRATERS.

a propos of what?

The origin and dispersal of language, silly! Although I think it's more like the ontology and disruption of language. Beebspeak! Meaningless drival revealing shallow minds.

And what's especially hilarious about this is when the lights go out or they get ahead two versions, none of this will even be legible.

>> ...when the lights go out or they get ahead two versions, none of this will even be legible. <<

Ah yes, castles made of silicon.

jwf

You'll forgive me if this has been said in the voluminous vbacklog somewhere already, but;

'Language? It's a virus, from outer space.'

The Burroughs boy answers the age old quandry - did one caveman connvince all the others to speak his language or did entire groups of cave men sudden;y develop language skills at the sam etime?

Either is a mind boggling proposition, if you think about it...

Language evolved because humans form breeding colonies, sometimes called tribes, like many other creatures. Language facilitates breeding and raising children plus the children then pickup the language, especially if it's gestures. The gestures then facilitate picking up the spoken language.

This is also why spoken languages are frequently referred to as mother tongues. It wasn't cave men at all doing it separately or at once. It was women, not necessarily so dense as to be residing in caves all the time, who taught men how to talk and sometimes talk sweetly it seems.

>> It wasn't cave men ... It was women, who taught men how to talk ... <<

Which is why most men prefer not to.

Communication between real men can be done with grunts, bellows, gestures, winks, faces.

But the smart ones know that women can be had if one learns the sweet talk.


~jwf~