Stop Combining Words in RPGs! - Let English prevail

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yeah, I tried giving him some XP for that, but apparently I already beat myself to it. Can someone donate to him for me, please?
-blarg

I would, but I can't. I want to give it myself first.

 

[Istar]

I may be just irritable today but I'm ticked at the stupid combined words the game seems to be filled with. eg Greataxe instead of Great Axe.

It happens all over where two perfectly good words that work together by time honoured rules of english get pushed into one new word for no good reason I can think of. Someone in the legal department might like that you make a whole new word from a combination but it's terrible language.


There is nothing wrong with Great Club, Great Axe etc.... I've also seen it creep into other parts of the game.


I now have a new house rule. Stupidly spelled english weapons etc receive a -1 penalty. Better get them spelled right.


Sigurd

I agree with you wholeheartedly on this Sig Urd

 

[Maggan]

There is nothing wrong with Great Club, Great Axe etc.... I've also seen it creep into other parts of the game.

This might be a stupid question from a non-native english speaker, but shouldn't that be "Great club" and "Great axe"?

Are there any hard rules for capitalisation of words?

/M

 

[rounser]

Are there any hard rules for capitalisation of words?

Proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, I think. People on messageboards regularly misuse capitalisation for Emphasis when perhaps they should be using bold, italics,"quotes" or exclamation points!!!

In the above example, the poster should probably have written great axe or "great axe" (rather than capitalising) to indicate that they're discussing the nature of the words themselves, rather than what they symbolise. The term great axe is not a proper noun, and therefore should not be capitalised unless the first word of it is starting a sentence. "Great axes are not used on trees" is an example of a sentence where this would be the case.

 

[Henrix]

...when perhaps they should be using bold, italics,"quotes" or exclamation points!!!

"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind." - Terry Pratchett, Eric

 

[Mark]

I won't argue with P. Iratecat.

 

[Jack7]

Personally I like Denglish (D&D English), so I have no combatification with thissue.

Denglish is a little bit like whadoobah mo fhizzle and a little bit like Medieval pidginpeasant. For instance:

"Avast ye rogues, this Paladin comes hither in earnest!"

It ain't the Queen's gude Anglishe, but it scares the chaoticalneutrals.

For example, Dr. Seuss is filled with incorrect language. Most of it is not words in English, or any other established language. I daresay that making his language more correct would have ruined his creative work, and ability to get his point across. Thus, more correct language would not have been better language.

Excellent point. Hamlet is filled with bad Olde English, but some pretty good Shakespeare.

Bill Bryson points out that addiing compound words to the english language is a particularly American trait.

That's a good one too I reckon.
You just never can figgur what'll show up next.

heywhydon'twesaveevenmorespaceandjustrunALLtheword stogether!!

I can read it backwards and it says that "Paul is the Walrus."

Our language has already changed from times far back. Why should we think now that that process should halt? Would halt?

It's the Lawecat, that's why!

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

That's right. Pope luvs him sum yardbird!
He's been in Italy too long.

Darned cultural imperialism!

And don't forget the Vikings. Nobody much likes the Vikings either.

Actually, it's the same in German - or was, right now, it's all the range to use English words nonsensically.

That sounds a lot like what we do in the round these parts. Sumbody says, "Hey, you gonna head down to the south range this afternoon and look into that missing gate?"

"That's nonsense Bob. You know I don't speak no Spanish."

Yeah, I tried giving him some XP for that, but apparently I already beat myself to it.

Not that I don't believe ya Blarg, but I'd like to see that in slow motion.
Just so I'd know it's not some kinda camera trick.

 

[Hussar]

You don't split a trailing consonant double blend when breaking a word into syllables, do you?

warm: rm is a consonant blend.
So we have warm/er and warm/est and warm/ing, not war/mer and war/mest and war/ming.

That's actually incorrect. It's not warm/er - it's war/mer. Same with war/ming, and war/mest.

And there are any number of words in English that have syllables that start with a vowel. fin/ish, for example.

Makes perfect sense to me that someone would read "warmage" the same way they'd read "carnage".

-Hyp.

Yup, totally agree. car/nage. Just like War/mage.

Btw, how does fin/nish start with a vowel? But, the point is, when you put a word that starts with a vowel in a spoken sentence, you run it together with the consonant ending word behind it. If the two words have vowels, then you actually add a consonant sound in between to break them up.

What really screws me up is in Japanese, you actually do have double vowel sounds with no consonants in between. Makes it really hard to hear properly. The word for house (ee eh) and the word for "no" (ee ee eh) are about half a sound apart.

On the plus side, they never liase their words together.

 

[Mark]

So the opposite of Iceage is Warmage?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Yeah, I tried giving him some XP for that, but apparently I already beat myself to it. Can someone donate to him for me, please?
-blarg

Gotcha covered. (Now there's a word!)