Tag: languages

GoT Languages

this is pretty fascinating to think how much effort is being put into this. not just to avoid sounding like dumb gibberish, but to actually have different dialects of the same artificial language for different cities.

Peterson created the grammar and vocabulary for all of the languages in HBO’s Game Of Thrones, using material from George R.R. Martin’s books and filling in the substantial gaps on his own. The A.V. Club sat down with Peterson to ask him about the process of creating Dothraki and Valyrian, as well as Grey Worm’s particularly wonderful Low Valyrian accent

Fossilized ideas

The recurrence of ideas over the course of history is something that Jung or Pauli would have attributed to archetypes in the collective unconscious. An alternative would be the finiteness of human imagination, and susceptibility to cultural influence. While scientific theories can become increasingly technical and abstract, the brains that struggle to interpret their meaning haven’t evolved much in the past 50 ka. If our own brain is a kind of living fossil, it’s hardly surprising that so much of what we do with it is metaphorically fossilised too.

Learning languages via chat

i wrote about this ages ago. there is still huge, untapped potential to make the retired feel valued again, while continuing to build out wikipedia, teach the next generation, etc etc etc.

It’s such a great, simple idea: Young Brazilians want to learn English. Elderly Americans living in retirement homes just want someone to talk to. Why not connect them? FCB Brazil did just that with its “Speaking Exchange” project for CNA language schools. As seen in the touching case study below, the young Brazilians and older Americans connect via Web chats, and they not only begin to share a language—they develop relationships that enrich both sides culturally and emotionally. The differences in age and background combine to make the interactions remarkable to watch. And the participants clearly grow close to one another, to the point where they end up speaking from the heart in a more universal language than English.

Bible translation is hard

Many bible thumper crusades are due to mistranslations. When they talk about ‘sexual immorality’ they are really translating πορνεία which means forced prostitution. Translation is also risky:

In 1631, Barker pounded out another poorly edited King James Bible. Unfortunately for him, it would prove to be his last. Smack dab in the middle of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:14) — one of the Bible’s most integral passages — the publisher omitted one crucial word: “not.”

Vocabulary Test

Ghent University in Belgium has created an online, almost arcade-game-like test of word knowledge which is almost BS-proof. Know the word? Press J. Don’t? Press F. But don’t lie! You will be punished.

You said yes to 76% of the existing words. You said yes to 0% of the nonwords. This gives you a corrected score of 76% – 0% = 76%. This is a high level for a native speaker.
On a different test, I’m in the 75% for native speakers who took the test, but allegedly 3x the vocab of ESL speakers. which seems ridiculous.