How do we know Latin isn't just pieced together with words and stuff stolen from some ancient alien culture? Huh? Huh?
Damned Latin hacks.
What pet peeves do you have about trek books?
- Thread starter Garm Bel Iblis
- Start date
How do we know Latin isn't just pieced together with words and stuff stolen from some ancient alien culture? Huh? Huh?
Damned Latin hacks.
Or Celtic prefixes like the Caeliar. The thing is that there is enough linguistic diversity on this planet to use archaic obsolete prefixes or suffixes to make up alien cultures/planets/names but there tends to be a bias toward Western languages, whereas Eastern languages are actually far more diverse and may offer more interesting names.
Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
^^ Obviously more apostrophes is what's called for!
If I go to an Italian restaurant I can ask for a gelato, or an Italian gelato. I don't have to always say the word "Italian" in front of gelato, but it's often put there so people realise it's an Italian delicacy, not just a generic ice confection. Would an Andorian ask for "gelato", "Italian gelato" or "Terran gelato"?
Re Andorian food, Commander Benjamin Sisko recalls an incident involving Curzon Dax, Science Officer Kustanovich of the USS Livingston, and eight helpings of Andorian redbat. (If the script didn't call it Andorian redbat, you'd never know what planet "redbat" came from.) Lieutenant Jadzia Dax enjoys Andorian tuber root more than Sisko and he lets her steal some off his plate. Roasted flatroot, a brownish orange Andorian vegetable dish, and imparay redbat, a meat dish, go well with faridd, an Andorian beverage. Roasted Andorian flatroot is a delicacy popular with the Ops staff of DS9. This is also known by its Andorian term, hari. An Andorian stimulant beverage, katheka, is similar to Terran coffee.
Some of these have had the word "Andorian" tacked in front so we know where they're from. But not always.
Not to mention that often, in English, we get the attributions wrong. French fries, for instance, are variously claimed to have been invented in Belgium, France, or Spain.
Reality is always weirder than fiction. I think it would be hilarious if we got some complicated story explaining why "Andorian tuber root" is actually from Alpha Centauri, where they grew four new kinds of tuber root, one of which the Andorians particularly hated, so the guy running the company (whose girlfriend ran off with an Andorian) named it "Andorian tuber root" as a joke, and it stuck. Or something.
Reality is always weirder than fiction. I think it would be hilarious if we got some complicated story explaining why "Andorian tuber root" is actually from Alpha Centauri, where they grew four new kinds of tuber root, one of which the Andorians particularly hated, so the guy running the company (whose girlfriend ran off with an Andorian) named it "Andorian tuber root" as a joke, and it stuck. Or something.
Because it was a blue potato with antennae-like protuberances, perhaps?
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
Reading Precipice, the latest Vanguard novel and am enjoying the heck out of it. One thing though brought me right out of it like a slap to the face. Nymocks?? WTF? The editor should be slapped about the head for letting this one in. "Let's switch around a couple of letters and drop a Mynock into the story. It'll be cute." Sorry, didn't work for me at all. Was deep into the story and suddenly BAM! I'm in a space slug on some asteroid. Too obvious, too cute, too bad...
Only if you're an avid "Star Wars" fan. I've seen all six movies several times each, but I still had to Google the term - and found it on Wookieepedia.
Ah, c'mon. It's no worse than having Ensigns O'Halloran and Anderson arguing about random nonsense and having O'Halloran whining about how he wasn't even supposed to be on duty that day.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
Never seen Clerks so that one didn't catch me.
I saw Empire a number of times when it came out but haven't watched it for at least 10 years. I guess mynock is one of the things that stuck with me.
Have you ever been totally engrossed in something, really into it and enjoying being there and suddenly found yourself back in the real world? It was annoying but not a big deal in the long run. It just took me out of the story.
I saw Empire a number of times when it came out but haven't watched it for at least 10 years. I guess mynock is one of the things that stuck with me.
Have you ever been totally engrossed in something, really into it and enjoying being there and suddenly found yourself back in the real world? It was annoying but not a big deal in the long run. It just took me out of the story.
Sure, but a loud noise outside can do it, too.
The only way to attempt to ensure it never happens is to ban all in-jokes and asides. No more Tuckerisms, no references to the real world. And, even then, people will start complaining about accidental in-jokes and coincidences, that were never intended. (For example, an Aussie soap opera received hate mail because the storyline included a fatal car accident a few days after a real, horrific car accident, and yet the fictitious one had been taped months before and couldn't be delayed due to the unfolding storyline. Not long after, the show had someone with cholera - in the midst of a real cholera scare - and, again, the producers had to apologise. they also had a storyline on rampaging bikies that aired the week of some real bikie rampaging and they were accused of instigating it!)
For everyone who hates a particular in-joke, there'll be someone who loves it... and thousands who'll never notice it.
From context, I'd guess "bikies" is Australian slang for motorcycle gang members.
Ah, I'm pretty close:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bikie
Ah, I'm pretty close:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bikie
i loved O'Halloran and Anderson.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
I wouldn't mind the loss of the in-jokes. I know that many people enjoy them but to me, at least the ones that I see, they're like a character on a TV show winking at the camera. It breaks the fourth wall.
I wasn't too crazy about the sonic screwdriver either but it didn't pull me out of the story like the nymock did.
^Well, that's an in-joke that works in-universe, because it's entirely possible that someone could've created a holosuite program based on a classic 20th-century motion picture. It's no different from Data playing Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck.
Or somebody in the Peter David novels playing with the Marvel Universe characters on the holodeck.
