Grrl Power #1139 - Anti-concision
Added 2023-03-27 10:01:00 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
Sydney uses "ADHD wall of text." It's super effective. Exactly what it's effective at is another matter.
I assume that most languages have acronyms. Not like, Chinese, probably. Or even Japanese for that matter. I know Japan knows what they are for sure, (Evangelion's N.E.R.V., etc.) but I think they have to use Romanized alphabets to achieve it. But yeah, probably most written languages with non-ideogram based writing systems probably would. No idea about Korean, which is non-ideogram and phonetic AFAIK, but each Korean... syllable (?) is consonant-vowel-consonant (except the ones that aren't) but that would leave most Korean acronyms looking like something Iceland would name a volcano, or the noise Klingon would make when he got a bat'leth to the groin. KLKTKTK! German seems like a language that would benefit from acronyms.
I enjoy writing Sydney's stream of consciousness manner of speaking, cause it gives me the chance to do a lot of googling about topics I know nothing about. Writing this page taught me what the standard unit of currency is in Senegal, its general exchange rate (it's closer to 600-1 at the moment, but I have to keep reminding myself that less than a year has progressed since the beginning of the comic) and that xylophone is indeed a word in the French dictionary, but isn't French in origin. Oh, and also Bissap. I wanna try it.
Comments
That is exactly it. I'm amused that the line I used actually has a quotable origin.
Eric Loken
2023-04-02 01:33:33 +0000 UTCMy favorite quote to that effect is: "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary." - James D. Nicoll
Kevin Wright
2023-03-31 03:32:15 +0000 UTCOf *course* there's a word for it. :P
Kevin Wright
2023-03-31 03:27:14 +0000 UTCJust a quick point: NERV isn't an acronym. It's simply the German word for nerve, as SEELE is German for soul. Why they decided to capitalize all of the letters, I don't know. I do believe Japanese does in fact use acronyms, but they are imported from English. Japanese seems fond of tossing random bits of English in all over. Which is only fair as English has stolen words from most every other major language on the planet. And by 'stolen' I mean 'ambushed them in a dark alley, knocked them out with a sap, gone through their pockets and taken their shoes for good measure'.
Eric Loken
2023-03-30 19:47:02 +0000 UTCAs a german myself, i can confirm that you are indeed not (or at least not far) off. A rather prominent example might be the word "DonauDampfSchiffFahrtsKaptänsKayütenHutStänderHalteSchraube" (I used CamelCase here to highlight how many words were strung together here - usually only the first letter would be capitalized.) For all non-german-speakers: That word describes one of the screws which hold the hook on which the captains hat is hung in the captain's cabin on a steampowered ship on the river "Donau". (Those are rather rare nowadays but a few still exist.) This is not used very often of course, but it highlights very well the principle of so called "Bandwurmwörter" - very long words which are stitched together from smaller words (yes - there is a word for that in german and it ist stitched together from multiple words as well). Fun fact: Those words usually are constructed "from big to small" - as in "Donau" defines the River and is the beginning of the word and "Schraube" means "screw" and is the very detail the word is aiming for. Also you are correct in the way that sometimes shorter english words tend to replace long german words in younger generations more and more. For example the german word for "download" would be "aus dem Internet heruntergeladene Datei" (file which was downloaded from the internet). Thus "Download" is even found in german dictionaries already.
Rick S.
2023-03-30 03:55:45 +0000 UTCGerman absolutely could and does use acronyms, since like half the words are long strings of *other* words, (to the point where the common man sometimes just uses the English word...) but there seems to be a certain zeal for using the entire word sometimes. Goes along with all that precision and technical engineering stuff. Disclosure: not a German, not an expert on German, but of German descent, interested in the culture, and took a few classes on it. So my take may be wildly off.
Kevin Wright
2023-03-28 05:42:30 +0000 UTCI like how Hiro lumps Dabbler and Sydney together in the "Things that drive Max crazy by remote control".
eddi_TBH
2023-03-28 03:39:38 +0000 UTCI must respectfully disagree. The most Sydney way possible involves throwing someone by their tongue.
akrasia
2023-03-27 14:36:10 +0000 UTCXylophone oubliette fromage needs to be a thing. I don't care what kind of thing, it just needs to exist.
akrasia
2023-03-27 14:31:59 +0000 UTCSydney: [notices she hasn't been featured in the comic for a hot minute] Sydney: [makes her presence known in the most Sydney way possible]
J. Kevin Carrier
2023-03-27 14:11:12 +0000 UTC
