Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

I'm pretty sure it's been resolved. The US is wrong and refuses to ever admit that and the rest of the world understands that. It's like a metaphor for our foreign policy or something.

Cid, you must have missed the resolution a few posts up. Here let me help you. And lol, you were the one talking about reading comprehension earlier...

I don't know, I think Armando made a beautiful point. I'd say he resolved it. Football vs futbol. Resolved.

[Armando]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

The resolution has always been calling it American Football. Having to distinguish one from the other based on slight pronunciation differences is silly.

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Having to distinguish one from the other based on slight pronunciation differences is silly.

Ok so let's just say linguistics is not in your wheelhouse. It's ok, but don't call it silly...

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Ok so let's just say linguistics is not in your wheelhouse. It's ok, but don't call it silly...

I'd argue it's more in his wheelhouse than either of ours.

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

I'd argue it's more in his wheelhouse than either of ours.

Yet I acknowledge linguistics isn't silly. Odd.

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Feba is the linguist of the group, we should ask him.

Feba,
Is "having to distinguish one (word) from (another) based on slight pronunciation differences silly?"

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

It is silly, because "fútbol estadounidense" is literally how you would say "American football" in Spanish. You're saying that Spanish-speaking countries should effectively call both sports "fútbol". Now can you see how that might lead to a couple of problems (that are already solved by using the "American" indicator)?

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

You're saying that Spanish-speaking countries should effectively call both sports "fútbol"

No I'm not... Please stop trying to put words in my mouth. Two different words as I stated before, football and fútbol.

[Armando]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Yet I acknowledge linguistics isn't silly. Odd.

If you're trying to defend your decision based on the English language, you can just quit while you're ahead because the English language is silly in any of its incarnations. I mean, just because the US uses imperial units it doesn't mean they're not retarded.

In other news, apparently someone rigged up an emulator to the Twitch TV chat. Twitch Plays Pokemon

[Aksannyi]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

It is silly, because "fútbol estadounidense" is literally how you would say "American football" in Spanish. You're saying that Spanish-speaking countries should effectively call both sports "fútbol". Now can you see how that might lead to a couple of problems (that are already solved by using the "American" indicator)?

I can't speak for the rest of the Spanish speaking world, but in Mexico, it's "futbol american," though most Mexicans really don't give a fuck about it.

Actually, I think that most non-American nations don't even consider football on their radar. It would never occur to them to even make the distinction between American football and football, because American football doesn't occur to them as anything at all, really. I'm sure that isn't true in every corner of the globe. But I highly doubt your average European, Asian, South American, or African is going to really consider the implications of which football because there's only one football. There doesn't need to be a distinction everywhere else. Just here.

So why should we impose our naming conventions on the rest of the world, a world who doesn't really even acknowledge its existence except when talking to the self-important Americans? And I say this as an American. We typically view ourselves as higher tier than the rest of the world and we expect the rest of the world to understand not only our naming conventions, but our measurement system, our government, our pop culture, and pretty much everything. It's highly self-righteous, when most of what happens in America doesn't even register on the typical non-American's radar.

So it's hard to sit here and say "the rest of the world should call it X" when the rest of the world doesn't know, give a fuck about, or even acknowledge it.

[Caspian]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

We typically view ourselves as higher tier than the rest of the world and we expect the rest of the world to understand not only our naming conventions, but our measurement system, our government, our pop culture, and pretty much everything.

Uh, yeah. It's called being better than everyone else....helloooo.

[Feba]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Feba is the linguist of the group, we should ask him.

Feba,
Is "having to distinguish one (word) from (another) based on slight pronunciation differences silly?"

of course not. This is pretty much the entire idea of homophones. All languages have them. Slight pronunciation differences are also extremely common; even in distinguishing different forms of the same word. "Get" and "got" are the same word, with different conjugations. Transitive and intransitive verbs are often given slightly different pronunciations in Japanese and Korean, such as "Aku" (Jp, Intrans., "to open", "to become open"; as in, "the door opened"); vs. Akeru (Trans., "To open"/"To be opened", as in, "I opened the door"). "Close" has the same thing, with Shimaru and Shimeru respectively. A great example of this, if you ever find yourself in Japan, is to listen closely to the train announcements. Different drivers and train lines use different scripts, with some saying "Doa wo shimemasu. Gochuui kudasai" ("I am closing the doors. Please be careful."), and others saying "Doa ga shimarimasu. Gochuui kudasai" ("The doors are closing. Please be careful"); or "Shimaru doa ni gochuui kudasai" (Please be careful of the closing doors). This is especially important, since it clarifies the otherwise unstated subject of the sentence.

Purely in English, and games, lately I've been playing Go again. Go, which is confusing in both English and it's apparently native Japanese; even in Japan, you're going to get people confused if all you say is "Go"; in reality, it's often referred to as Igo. Having multiple names for the same thing is another silly thing all languages do, including invented languages like Esperanto (especially since conlang communities will split over certain items of vocabulary). "Trash" and "Garbage" are pretty much the exact same thing, at least in North American English, and yet you would rarely hear someone say a "Trash Truck" or "Trash Dump", you wouldn't define the Kardashians as "Garbagey", etc. For more on this subject, consult your nearest thesaurus.

There are plenty of cases where a single word contains multiple meanings, even when we don't think of it that way. If I talk to you about a gaming convention, that's very different than if I talk to you about a legal convention. If I talk to you about a chance meeting in the park, it's different from a meeting with your boss, or the thing you do when you're done driving. Have you or will you read a book? Language does weird shit all the same, and minor pronunciation differences to set apart two relatively familiar games seems more than fair.

At the same time, there is absolutely no reason America should feel pressured to conform to any "world standard" of what the fucking game is called, considering it's not doing anyone any harm. The rest of the world knows perfect well what Americans mean when they talk about football. Americans know perfectly well what the rest of the world means. We're not seeing people spend millions of dollars setting up football contracts, only to find out it's the wrong kind of football. It's not causing any economic harm. If you want to standardize things, start with the shit that matters, like measurements, technical standards, etc.; vocabulary that causes real confusion in commerce and diplomacy, things of that nature. Frankly, given that the Americans that actually like soccer all call it football anyway, and those that don't are perfectly aware that that's a term used for it, the term is gradually being accepted into American English, and unless soccer loses momentum, could eventually replace gridiron football as the 'default' form of football in the states.

tl;dr Mezlo has no idea what he's talking about, there's no point in arguing over what to call something when language is fundamentally illogical (OR HOW ABOUT WE FUCKING FIX ANIONS AND CATIONS), and basketball is better than any of those sports.

[Malacite]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Uh, yeah. It's called having an inferiority complex.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

and basketball is better than any of those sports.

Agree with everything but this.

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

tl;dr Mezlo did a good job of getting everyone involved in a forum post on a day he was really bored at work.

Agreed.

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Anyone play Game of War on their phone?

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Or anyone watch that series on the History channel, "Vikings" ?

[Mezlo]

Re: Official Bored at Work / Off-Topic Chat Thread II

Do i need to start talking about football again to get you fuckers talking again?!?!?