Isn’t that like, the definition of a Romance language?
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For comparison: RP English is E tier, Scottish C.
Yes. Yes, it is.
I’m surprised English got anything higher than F tier, unless E is the lowest you go. 
There’s a reason Anglish exists instead of Inglés. 
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I can go very low, the scale is quite fine-grained. If you take two steps back, the Romance languages are just one lump at the very top. There is plenty of space for Danish, Saxon or St. Galler-Rheintal-Swiss German for example.
Fair enough. So what does it take to make F-tier? Japanese?
Hmm, so if British English is E, F would need to be something I don’t really like to hear, but still more than the Swiss dialects from the eastern area. I think I like Japanese more than English, though. But I dont dislike English, I just don’t like it as much as others. Texan English might be a candidate for F.
The lowest tier has got to be one where I would seriously think about saying to that person “please, for the love of gods, stop talking.” And that would be two tiers below those eastern Swiss dialects where I would only jokingly think about saying that.
Damn, the programmers beat us to it!
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Careful on this subject! You might get accused of being racist!
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Thank you for the warning. I truly love every language and every good-willed user of language. But there are some that I find also very pleasant to listen to, and some less.
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Now that I think of it, in my culture we roast each others dialects all the time and some media make ratings of which is the “sexiest” (the ones from Bern and Grisons). That’s probably not the case elsewhere…
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This is the Occitan channel, by the way. What I like in particular are the R’s, the occasional tz, and the [y]-sound. [y]s are something I find attractive, I guess.
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I think we all have impressions that the sounds of various languages give us, some positive, some negative, and I think most people understand that an opinion about a language is not the same as an opinion about the people speaking the language.
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Thank you. Or that an opinion about the sound of language is also not the same as an opinion about the possibilities in expression or about the literature and culture of that language.
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True. And some things about the latter can be close to objective, such as saying that while in English it’s easier to hide the gender of the main character before a reveal by writing in the first person, in Japanese it’s easier to do so by writing in the third person.
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Continuing the regnal names series, let’s study English and British kings and queens.
Information sourced from List of English monarchs - Wikipedia
| Monarch | (I) | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alfred | 886-99 | |||||||
| Edward | 899–924 | |||||||
| Ælfweard | 924 | |||||||
| Æthelstan | 924–39 | |||||||
| Edmund | 939-46 | 1016 | ||||||
| Eadred | 946-55 | |||||||
| Eadwig | 955-69 | |||||||
| Edgar | 959-75 | |||||||
| Edward (Saxon) | 975-78 | 1042-66 | ||||||
| Æthelred | 978–1016 1 | |||||||
| Cnut | 1016-35 | |||||||
| Harold | 1035-40 | 1066 | ||||||
| Harthacnut | 1040-42 | |||||||
| Norman Conquest | ||||||||
| William | 1066-87 | 1087-1100 | 1689-1702 | 1830-37 | ||||
| Henry | 1100-35 | 1154-89 | 1216-72 | 1399–1419 | 1419-22 | 1422-71 2 | 1485-1509 | 1509-47 |
| Stephen | 1135-54 | |||||||
| Richard | 1154-89 | 1377-99 | 1483-85 | |||||
| John | 1199-1216 | |||||||
| Edward (Norman) | 1272–1307 | 1307-27 | 1327-77 | 1461-83 3 | 1483 | 1547-53 | 1901-10 | 1936 |
| Mary | 1553-58 | 1689-94 | ||||||
| Elizabeth | 1558-1603 | 1952- | ||||||
| James | 1603-25 | 1685-88 | ||||||
| Charles | 1625-49 | 1660-85 | ||||||
| Interregnum | ||||||||
| Anne | 1702-14 | |||||||
| Act of Union (1707) | ||||||||
| George | 1714-27 | 1727-80 | 1760–1820 | 1820-30 | 1910-36 | 1936-52 | ||
| Victoria | 1837–1901 |
1 Æthelred was usurped by the Dane Sweyn Forkbeard for a short time in 1013.
2 Henry VI was usurped by Edward IV from 1461 to 1470.
3 Edward IV was usurped by Henry VI from 1470 to 1471.
Time for another go at using Minecraft to practice Latin vocabulary.
Here is a translation of Minecraft blocks from English to Latin, as derived from Block – Official Minecraft Wiki
| English | Latin |
|---|---|
| acacia | acacia |
| " " button | – boto |
| " " door | – porta |
| " " fence | – sēpēs |
| " " fence gate | – sēpis jānua |
| " " leaves | – folia |
| " " log | – sudis |
| " " plank | – axēs |
| " " pressure plate | – pressa lāmina (?) |
| " " sapling | – arbuscula |
| " " sign | – signum |
| " " stairs | – ascēnsiō |
| " " slab | – lāmina |
| " " trapdoor | ??? – “portacunīculus”? |
| " " wood | – māteria |
| activator rail | agēns trāmes (?) |
| allium | allium |
| amethyst | amethystus |
| " " cluster | – acervus |
| ancient debris | fragmina antīqua |
| andesite | “andesītum” |
| " " wall | – mūrus |
| anvil | incūs |
| azalea | azalea |
| bamboo | bambusa |
| beetroots | bētae |
| barrel | cūpa |
| barrier | claustra |
| basalt | basaltēs |
| beacon | signale |
| bedrock | fundāmentum |
| beehive | alvus |
| bee nest | apium nīdus |
| bell | campāna (note this is a large bell) |
| black | āter / niger |
| " " banner | – vēxillum |
| " " bed | – lectus |
| " " candle | – candēla |
| " " carpet | – tapēs |
| " " concrete | – concrētum |
| " " concrete powder | – concrētīnum pulvis |
| " " glazed terracotta | – “vitrea terracotta” |
| " " stained glass | – colōrātus hyalus |
| " " wool | – lāna |
| " " furnace | – fornāx |
| coal | carbo |
| diamond | adamas |
| emerald | smaragdus |
| gold | aurum |
| iron | ferrum |
| netherite | “netherītum” |
| quartz | “quarzeus” (?) |
| redstone | “cruentusaxum” |
| bone | os |
| bookshelf | pēgma |
| brain coral | cerebrīnum corallium |
| " " fan | – flābellum (?) |
| brewing stand | ??? (can’t use tripūs, not a tripod) |
| bricks | laterēs |
| brown | brunneus |
| " " mushroom | – fungus |
| cactus | cactus |
| cake | crustulum |
| calcite | calx |
| campfire | (castrī) ardor |
| carrots | carōtae |
| cartography table | chartographiae mēnsa |
| carved pumpkin | diatetrus pepo |
| cauldron | aēnum |
| cave vines | cavīnum vītēs |
| chain | vinculum |
| chest | arca |
… tired now ~w~
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Let’s see what the Lexicon Recentis latinitatis has to say about these things…
The LRL has otiolum pensile, n. Synonyma: caduca ianua; ianua pensilis; versatile ostiolum.
A brewery, according to the LRL is an ergasterium cervisiae coquendae, a ‘Workshop where beer is cooked’.
How about scriptorium tabularum or scriptorium chartographicum? I don’t know Minecraft, but I suppose this is a table where maps are drawn?
Or boletus. Depens on the species.
LRL: quarzum; silex quarziferus.
LRL: repagulum; obex; saepimentum. Obex seems to be a more general term for anything that makes a way impassable.
According to the LRL, “rails” as in “railway tracks” are binae orbitae.
I don’t like this, but I can’t find anything in the LRL. An electrical switch is an interruptor.
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Would you say most of these discrepancies are mistranslations proper, or are they justifiable as pragmatic translations in a context where enabling the play of Minecraft in Latin is of greater importance than maintaining the original English meaning?
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I’d say mistranslations proper. There are ressources available to describe a modern world in good Latin, such as the LRL. Yes, one really needs to look for them, but they are there. Then, there are ways to make new words and expression in Latin that just work different from those of English or even French, and these must be studied carefully. How do I make an adjective from a noun, or should I rather use this noun’s genitive case?
Then, the same word in English does not cover the same ideas as the Latin translation. A table is more than a mensa, which is just for eating, if not otherwise stated.
Oh, and
catena. A vinculum can be anything that ties together, but a catena has links.
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