what do you call the son of a duke?

[D+1]

The misplaced Viscount is kind of obvious, though. Why should the deputy of the Count (Vice-Count) have a higher rank than the Count himself ?

Who says that Viscount has to be a contraction of vice-count? Maybe in my world it comes from Viceroy-count?

How about this: It actually stems from a time when a Count served as a Viceroy and was addressed as "The Viceroy, Count Monte Cristo". The position of Viceroy-Count was passed to heirs for a generation or two and came to be shortened as Viscount. Shortly after that the viceregal duties and priveleges of the office were removed and it was worked into the peerage/social standings at a level lower than a Viceroy but well above that of a Count. I have now added a new, interesting point of history for my campaign because of the "mistake" of Viscount being listed as superior to Count in social level.

 

[Klaus]

I got prince for son of a king, baronet for son of a baron, what about the son of a duke?

Bo or Luke.



Unless it's a girl. Then you call her Daisy.

Yee-HAAAAA!

 

[Agback]

Who says that Viscount has to be a contraction of vice-count?

No-one says that it has to be. But a lot of people know that it is. And more just understand that a viscount is lowlier than a count then way they understand that a priest is lowlier than a bishop. Sure, you could dream up some 'why-not' rationalisation for 'archbishop' being lowlier than 'deacon', but all that would achieve would be to make players do a double-take every time the titles were used.

Maybe in my world it comes from Viceroy-count?

And maybe in my campaign the common weapon with a two-edged metal blade about 75-90 centimetres long, designed for use in one hand, is called a 'mace', because it was invented by a smith called 'May'.

Why risk confusion? It only forces the artificiality of the game world into prominence, and inhibits players from suspending disbelief.

 

[Agback]

Unless it's a girl.

Umm. Under what conditions is a son a girl?

 

[Agback]

Baronetcies are independent hereditary titles, so far as I know never used as courtesy titles for eldest sons.

I have confirmed this belief. Baronets rank in precedence after the sons of barons, so the barons' sons' courtesy title of "the honourable" is a higher rank than the baronets' "Sir". So even if some baron held a baronetcy as a minor title, his eldest son would not use it as a courtesy title.

This relates to an interesting piece of history. When James I ruled that a baronet ranked after the son of a baron, baron's sons stopped buying baronetcies, and a significant source of royal revenue dried up. So in 1616 the king introduced a rule that the eldest son of a baronet (being of age) had the right to be knighted on request. This rule was rescinded by George IV in 1827.

 

[ydirbut]

Unless it's a girl.

Umm. Under what conditions is a son a girl?

Well, you see there are certain operations...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Gender. Tense is a quality of verbs.

Living things have sexes, such as male, female, neuter, and hermaphrodite.

Nouns have genders, such as masculine, feminine, and neuter, or animate and inanimate.

Verbs and verbal phrases have tenses, such as past, present, future, past perfect, past imperfect, pluperfect, present continuous, present perfect….

No offense, but tense probably works better as the word here. Gender would indicate to most non-technical users not so much a linguistic as a social category. To most speakers both nouns and living things have gender. Though only living things should have sex. At least according to the State of Texas.

Tense, on the other hand, is a term that is only used to refer to linguistic constructs, and while I recognize that it most often refers in English to an indication of a verb clause's temporal reference and the speaker's focus on the event I also recognize that that broad capability makes it far more effective word for describing any form of linguistice aspect than the term aspect itself.

Sure, I'm playing fast and loose with grammar, but it's a game played by everyone but the grammarians. I have to admit I'm still not happy with trusting them with actual language. I mean they can protest all they want that the 'Nazi' connection came from Latin grammar and now they're all happy and accomodating, but I won't buy it till I see some actual recognition of the real presence of technological context in grammatic propriety. I will go to my grave before I can believe that written French grammar has anything to do with the spoken form.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Umm. Under what conditions is a son a girl?

There are a number of situations under which son is used simply as the term of descent. Under some of those it is convenient to classify a daughter as a son.

Sometimes you just need a woman to do a man's job.

Would you suggest that when a man or woman speaks of the sons of liberty he or she discounts all the daughters?

 

[Turjan]

No offense, but tense probably works better as the word here.

Tense, on the other hand, is a term that is only used to refer to linguistic constructs, and while I recognize that it most often refers in English to an indication of a verb clause's temporal reference and the speaker's focus on the event I also recognize that that broad capability makes it far more effective word for describing any form of linguistice aspect than the term aspect itself.

Sorry, but tense is only applicable to verbs. Tense is Old English for "time". Where do you see the applicability of "time" to nouns?

I will go to my grave before I can believe that written French grammar has anything to do with the spoken form.

Well, of course there are differences. But keep in mind that France has laws to enforce the use of proper language on radio and TV, which keeps the language - somewhat - in check .

Edit: I didn't quite get though what you meant with the 'Nazi' connection?

 

[JackGiantkiller]

The son of a Duke is a Prince. The son of a King is a Royal Prince. Dukes are very nearly kings, after all. There were plenty of Duke's in the Dark Ages with no feudal overlord. Doge (an italian title) means Duke, and the Doge' of venice (though elected) was a monarch.