Stop Combining Words in RPGs! - Let English prevail

[Piratecat]

You know what I find absurd? Insistence on a language remaining in one form. Our language has already changed from times far back. Why should we think now that that process should halt? Would halt?

Spoken like a person with a 5-part compound username!

 

[Doug McCrae]

I got a good one:

roleplaying

 

[Ariosto]

Wizbro has the adectivenoun and nounnoun (and adjectiveadjective?) thing down cold, but seems to be slacking in the apostrophe department. It's just not a proper fantasy without words like Mi'ihen, B'Nargan and of course "Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl ftaghn" (extra points for the hyphen).

 

[Shadowslayer]

You know, I'd believe you if it weren't for your user name.

Har!

 

[The Grackle]

Myunderstanding is that this actually has precedent in that Germanic languages often make compoundwords. Ithink it's a holdover from the Germanic roots of the Englishlanguage.

Likewise, in Dutch they call it "the English Disease" when people needlessly chop up their nice, big, Dutchy compound words.

Furthermore, we all have our pet peeves, but nevertheless, we should remember we are probably just being peevish.

Unless that word is spoken by itself with no preceeding words, you would be correct.
...
In any case, it is very rare to start a word with a pure vowel sound. Ye sit can be done. But very rare. And certainly would not be done with the word "warmage".

Does this mean I'm correct when I read the "PopeyesChicken" sign as "Pope-yes Chicken?"

 

[Rolflyn]

I would think that Warmage is halfway between Iceage and Hotage.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Darksun.

This one is actually Dark Sun (two words).

heywhydon'twesaveevenmorespaceandjustrunALLthewordstogether!!


Everybody CAN read that, right?

You all realize that this is exactly how tinker gnomes talk, right?


By the way, I have a complaint about one of the advertisers on this site. The ad says something about "Pwn better." I can't believe they let that typo go! They totally forgot the A in there. It should read "Pawn better." Of course, why folks want to base a game on going to the pawn shop, I don't know.

 

[rounser]

Obeying the rules of "real English", you ALWAYS split syllables between consonants and never afterwards. That word splits to either war MAGE or WAR mage, but never WARM age. You simply cannot start a syllable with a vowel sound in English.

Can’t be bothered arguing over this, but I know intuitively that in this case your rule is wrong. Mage isn’t modern english, whereas warm is, and "age" an acceptable addition to it for a contrived word. Warmage is no Knightsbridge. If it were a town, people would be saying it my way.

 

[Echohawk]

Owlbears are just fine. They don't need to be owl bears, or owl-bears.

Except of course that in Supplement I: Greyhawk, where they first appeared, and in almost all of the BECMI D&D products, owlbears were actually "owl bears"

 

[arscott]

But that makes them sound like merely a variety of bear. Owlbear, I think, is superior.

I also prefer greataxe to great axe (but war mage to warmage).

I don't say "Great Axe", I say "Greataxe" regardless of how the thing is spelled (punctuated?). Likewise, I'd say "Bastard Sword" even if the weapon sheet called it a "Bastardsword". I think, in general, the spelling should be reflective of the pronunciation.