Humor Random Comments Thread

[kamaz]

Czech is a weird word. Czech is actually Tchèque in French, and it is pronounced the same way as in English. However, in English, the z is suddenly transformed into an h in order to form the ʃ (ch) sound. In French, the ch is there, and the t prevents from pronouncing like chèque, with a soft ch. The z is meaningless and should be replaced by h, no?

As Linguofreak noted, it makes perfect sense if you are Polish :thumbup:

You want to write /tʃɛx/. In Polish, we use cz for /tʃ/ and ch for /x/, which gives you Czech.

It's the French spelling which actually makes sense, not English one. Again, you want to write /tʃɛx/. One problem is that French has no /x/ sound, so it becomes /k/, thus /tʃɛk/. But after this point, it is just a simple transliteration:
/t/ = T
/ʃ/ = ch
/ɛ/ = e
/k/ = que.

In English, if you were writing phonetically, you should be writing Check.

(Now, why the French still use baroque spellings like que instead of simply k is beyond me, but on the other hand I must admit that it gives the language some charm. I mean, Qu'est-ce que, definitely looks better than keske, n'est-ce pas?)

Seriously, consistent pronounciation rules are almost nonexistant in english when compared to other languages.

Indeed. Polish spelling is considered very difficult, but it's only because certain sounds can be written in two ways, i.e.

/x/ = ch or h (well, technically, h is for /:/ but modern Poles tend to say /x/ everywhere)
/ʐ/ = rz or ż
/ɲ/ = ni or ń
etc.

This makes writing difficult unless you know more detailed rules, or you have just learned which word is spelled which way.

But reading is very straightforward.

 

[Linguofreak]

Woah.

But yes, in most fictional settings (BSG for example, but also Star Wars and Star Trek) "fighters" tend to be strangely small to real examples, such as that P-47 (not sure though, was it that big?) or this Su-33:

The P-47 was fairly big for its era. Sci-fi fighters tend to be in the same size range as WWII fighters. Modern real life fighters tend to have the same wingspan as a WWII fighter, but are proportioned differently, and tend to have the length and weight of a WWII bomber.

 

[Bibi Uncle]

That was a great post kamaz. It is always impressive to see the differences in the national words. Another great example is Montreal, which is pronounced as it is in English, while in French, we remove the t ("Monréal").

Seriously, consistent pronounciation rules are almost nonexistant in english when compared to other languages.

Pronounciation is definitely the biggest challenge in English. French is also sometimes hard on this one...

 

[statickid]

Woah.

But yes, in most fictional settings (BSG for example, but also Star Wars and Star Trek) "fighters" tend to be strangely small to real examples, such as that P-47 (not sure though, was it that big?) or this Su-33:

HMmmmm
Nah, I disagree. I mean sometimes, but I wouldn't just say MOST.
X wings and related craft are about the same as typical present day combat aircraft

Tie-bomber

Even the miniscule tie fighter is pretty big

Some things like the Jedi interceptor are rediculously tiny, but they are specialty fighters, common in the movie but rare in the universe.

Last starfighter:

This thing looks pretty big

Stargate fighter, not tiny either

Personally I think starfighters typically just look small compared to all the gigantic sci-fi ships that frankly would dwarf even an aircraft carrier

 

[kamaz]

Pronounciation is definitely the biggest challenge in English.

I had 7 semesters of English in high school, and in that time we went through 9 English teachers. (1990s in Poland -- functional English was enough to get you a management job in a Western corp, hence the rotation). Anyway, the hard part was that each one of them had a different view on the correct pronounciation of the word schedule. Literally, it sometimes happened that the pronounciation correct one month would be wrong next month. Per Webster:

schedule
noun sched·ule \ˈske-(ˌ)jül, -jəl, Canada also ˈshe-, British usually ˈshe-(ˌ)dyül\

...take your pick.

I completely stopped caring what is the "correct" English pronounciation after finding this map: http://imgur.com/a/28S4v

 

[Urwumpe]

Personally I think starfighters typically just look small compared to all the gigantic sci-fi ships that frankly would dwarf even an aircraft carrier

True, but the Aurora Starfury from Babylon 5 is really a rather small one, with just about 10 meters length. The larger Thunderbolt fighter is about the size of a concurrent fighter aircraft.

 

[Linguofreak]

HMmmmm
Nah, I disagree. I mean sometimes, but I wouldn't just say MOST.
X wings and related craft are about the same as typical present day combat aircraft

I think the X-Wing is something like 15 meters long, and by eyeballing it, about the same wingspan. That's small for a modern fighter, big for WWII. The TIEs are generally in the WWII size range.

 

[TMac3000]

Agreed, I think that's why the QA manager likes that I'm on his team. I spent 10 years working on Naval Aircaft. The mindset carried over to the power industry nicely.

Unless you happen to be a bean counting manager who's annoyed that I'm in between him and a job completion.

In my job, the best way to avoid trouble is April 16

 

[n122vu]

Our work management processes have been heading downhill over the past few years.

I miss my friend

She's been gone for almost three weeks, getting a new paint job. As I understand it, she'll be painted to match the rest of their fleet:

and be re-registered with a similar N number, N***JE .

 

[statickid]

Does Starfleet even HAVE a starfighter???? :blink:

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I think they had 3 or 4 that the Borg cube blew up as it passed by Mars.

 

[kamaz]

But yes, in most fictional settings (BSG for example, but also Star Wars and Star Trek) "fighters" tend to be strangely small to real examples]

But a modern plane is mostly fuel tank(s). If you have fusion or whatever magic energy source, then you can scale it down considerably.

 

[statickid]

I think they had 3 or 4 that the Borg cube blew up as it passed by Mars.

... and then... that was it? Starfleet had 3 or 4 fighters? and the Borg cube blew them up? wow! I didn't even know the Borg cube came to the solar system. I'll have to look that up

 

[Loru]

Federation attack fighter

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Federation_attack_fighter

 

[Nikogori]

Is there a "your favorite space movie" thread? I'd like to know what people think about Gagarin: First in space (one of my favorite).

 

[jedidia]

There is one somewhere around, yes, but I don't know where.

 

[PenguinMan94]

I found some music that would fit with anything even orbiter and make it slightly funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guIaCocnNaw

Its from a game called "The Stanley Parable".

 

[fsci123]

http://www.businessinsider.com/valery-spiridonov-head-transplant-2015-4

Really want to see how this would work out.

 

[Artlav]

Really want to see how this would work out.

A fate worse than death...
He is already experiencing it, being in a wheelchair with a defunct body, almost no muscles that work and not much of life left ahead of him.

There isn't much of what is worse than that, but a whole lot of what is better.

Unfortunately, the operation won't happen for years, if at all - the doctor failed to secure the funding so far, and even best case scenario is targeting 2016.

But yes, i really wish to see how this would work out.

 

[Andy44]

Is there a "your favorite space movie" thread? I'd like to know what people think about Gagarin: First in space (one of my favorite).

If you can't find one in a search, go ahead and start a new one. That's a subject that needs a fresh start every now and then, anyway, and nobody really wants to read through 10 pages of 5-year-old posts to see if their favorite movie was mentioned by a forum member nobody has heard from in ages.