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Poll

What's your primary language?

American English.
[ 2 ] (28.6%)
British English South-East England.
[ 0 ] (0%)
British English South-West England.
[ 0 ] (0%)
British English West Midlands/Merseyside.
[ 0 ] (0%)
British English Northern England.
[ 0 ] (0%)
British English Southern Scotland.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Scottish English.
[ 1 ] (14.3%)
Cornish, Welsh, Gaelic.
[ 0 ] (0%)
SA English, Aussie English.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Other English.
[ 1 ] (14.3%)
German.
[ 1 ] (14.3%)
French, Dutch.
[ 1 ] (14.3%)
Portuguese, Spanish.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Chinese, Japanese, Korean.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Other Asian language.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Estonian.
[ 0 ] (0%)
One of Scandinavian languages. Or other Baltic language.
[ 0 ] (0%)
A Slavic language.
[ 1 ] (14.3%)
Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Italian, Greek.
[ 0 ] (0%)
One of indigenous African languages.
[ 0 ] (0%)
C++.
[ 0 ] (0%)
Other.
[ 0 ] (0%)

Total Members Voted: 5

Topic: Toponyms (Read 6914 times)

Toponyms

The poll and the topic may intersect, being not exactly the same.

What is the thread about? Toponyms.
Linguistically, toponyms usually root from much more ancient times than the rest of the local language's lexicon, and often even root from another language - e.g. that of the people inhabiting your area long before your tribe came to settle.
Also, we can just share interesting etymologies not so "prehistoric":)
For example, who knows if Slough in Berkshire (England) was named so because the place was actually boggy?:)

Re: Toponyms

Reply #1 –
I'm not sure what I think of your groupings… or the extreme emphasis on a certain island west of here.

Re: Toponyms

Reply #3 –
A rather idiosyncratic organisation.  This is wrong by the way: "One of [the] Scandinavian languages. Or other Baltic language."

The Scandinavian languages are not Baltic (or the other way around for that matter).

Re: Toponyms

Reply #4 –
Quote from: jax on
The Scandinavian languages are not Baltic (or the other way around for that matter).

It would be linguistically wrong, but geographically one might defend Baltic as all of those places bordering the Baltic Sea. And besides bordering the North Sea, what do Dutch and French have in common, anyway? :P

I might use this opportunity to insert a map of the primary human language families:

Re: Toponyms

Reply #5 –
You damn freak(s), heed punctuation and context! (Can you try to make your English better?)
Quote from: Frenzie on
I'm not sure what I think of your groupings…
There were 3 aspects.
1, my own specialty; 2, I tried to group them locally, and 3 - at the same time I had sunavobichiz, sorry. There are us here, and everyone is accounted for, so there were certain certainties to fill. ...

Re: Toponyms

Reply #6 –
This one with a few more subdivisions looks a tad more interesting:

About the poll

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Josh on
Estonian.

One of Scandinavian languages. Or other Baltic language.


Quote from: Frenzie on
I'm not sure what I think of your groupings… or the extreme emphasis on a certain island west of here.


Quote from: jax on
A rather idiosyncratic organisation...

O'k, let's sort it out...
When I approached the poll, there occurred 3 circumstances:

  • There are a limited number of members here, who represent certain languages, and I had to jut them out. Other languages were either added to them acc.to p.2, or grouped more generally and separately (p.2).

  • Generally (regarding p.1) I considered grouping the languages by 2 parameters: 1) political closeness/locality, and 2) (less prominent and sporadic) linguistical kindred.

  • As my specialty is within the British field, and we have a handful of guys from there, I decided to employ a more fractioned division for British English (besides, England is the motherland of English).

A propos, there's a fucking SEPARATE choice for PERSONALLY Ersi, while I'm not aware of any other guys from the region here.

Re: Toponyms

Reply #8 –
Pssht, the s in à propos may be silent, but it's still written. :D

Re: Toponyms

Reply #10 –
Mais oui. Au fait, véracité English mots are facile to distinguish from imported French and Latin words. They have just the most delicious je ne sais quoi, très souvent absente from French.

Re: Toponyms

Reply #11 –
Estonian is a Uralic language. So is Finnish. This thread belongs to the Central board. And I'm not debating.

Re: Toponyms

Reply #12 –
Welcome to the Lounge, Ersi!:cheers: And if you undertake a step up - to the board, you'll find not only this thread, but at least 8 worthy of your participation! :hail:

Re: Toponyms

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
It would be linguistically wrong, but geographically one might defend Baltic as all of those places bordering the Baltic Sea. And besides bordering the North Sea, what do Dutch and French have in common, anyway? :P

I might use this opportunity to insert a map
The whole list would have been technically correct if confusing if the "other" in front of Baltic had been dropped. Not only here I've wondered how contextual "other" is.


  • Chinese, Japanese, Korean.

  • Other Asian language.

  • ...

  • Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian.



If you spoke Arabic, an Asian language that is neither Chinese, Japanese, or Korean you would check Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian, but you have two chances, could you also check Other Asian language? In other words, is "other" referring to the options above "other", or to the whole list? After all Arabic isn't an Asian language other than Arabic.

Anyway, there is a map so everything is forgiven.

Re: Toponyms

Reply #14 –
Jax, are you friends with sequences?
Yes, in the case of Yurop the criterion of locality prevails (besides, considering language groups proper, Yurop is a mess (as is Asia sometimes), and I forgot that stuff, mostly; thanks to Ersi - he has reminded us all about the Uralic family (this area is a tough place)).

Re: Toponyms

Reply #15 –
Incidentally, I note that English has retained the traditional name for the North Sea, but it doesn't seem to have retained the East Sea name.

Quote from: Josh on

Jax, are you friends with sequences?
thanks to Ersi - he has reminded us all about the Uralic family (this area is a tough place)).

It's also clearly demarcated on two maps. :whistle:

Re: Toponyms

Reply #18 –
So I am a little difficult to please. "Other" refers to preceding objects. List order matters. Take this list:


  • One thing

  • Another thing

  • None of the above

  • All of the above


The first option is "One thing", the second option is "Another thing", the third option is NOT "One thing" AND NOT "Another thing", while the fourth would be "One thing" AND "Another thing" AND NOT "One thing" AND NOT "Another thing", which is kind of awkward. Better put this list as

  • One thing

  • Another thing

  • All of the above

  • None of the above

which is not awkward at all.