Where in the world are you from?

[Giovanna Clairval]

Aluminum is spelled “Aelj’ minïem” (I haven't got the phonetic alphabet here, so bear with me).

Don’t the Americans spell it "Aluminum" and pronounce it
“E’ lumïnem”?

[Sephiroth]

Yes they do, and it annoys the crap out of me.

*should have read the last page of the thread before posting*

I read that "fash" comes from the French "fâche" and "fâcher" (being mad at someone/something). It's the Normans' fault, this French corruption of pure Anglo/Celtic speech.
It's funny how the meaning has changed.

That is really interesting. Don't worry, don't be mad...you can see how the connotation shifted slightly.

Don't you have the most beautiful language in the world, la belle français?

[pyan]

Aluminum is the original form, coined in 1812 by its British isolator, Humphry Davy - aluminium came later......

[Sephiroth]

Hmm, well maybe I stand corrected, but I still hate the sound of it. I like words that end in -ium.

[Giovanna Clairval]

Yeah, it comes from "alum", a name for several minerals.

Moi, ce que j'aime a lot, c'est "aluminous", meaning "of alumina", in the Latin "alumen" (a mineral that never tarnishes).

Pedantic, but, oh, so useful!

Let us imagine a clever application of this concept in the beginning of a story:

"The aluminous Sephirot descended from the stormy sky, wreathed in roiling flames".
or

"It was a stormy, starless night, when the aluminous..."

[Sephiroth]

I like pedantry.

Do you study linguistics, or is it just an interest?

"It was a stormy, starless night, when the aluminous Sephirot descended from the stormy sky, wreathed in roiling flames".

How appropriate. Great imagery.

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval

From french whaaat?

Explain, prithee, o Helvetian Brit,
Oh, thou, o mighty knight,
Who prowl your mountains in the night
and kill with sword and wit.

Bien trop épais pour une épée,
With wit a dwindling ember
I tend to play where I'm au fait,
At least while I remember.
The "introduce" reflects a moment queer
When je suis servi de "s'introduire"
In place of "se presenter"
But put it down to jealousy
From one who has à peine his mother tongue écrit
Pour une qui peut en autre langue inventer.

So please forgive my jeux de maux de tête
My muse is fickle, if productive.
I'm forced to write in English now, and yet
rather than be creative, I'm deductive
In admiration of a being who
conceives a concept in a foreign toungue; then follows through.

[Giovanna Clairval]

Thanks for the kind words, Chris.

Playing with words runs in the family.

I mesel am the dimwit o' me kin: me little brother speaks ten languages, including strange ones like Hungarian, Turk... Anglish.

And no, I'm no linguist, Sephirot, just obsessive (it runs in the Forum), but thanks as well.
I'm so proud now that no one will be allowed to address me today without saying: "This and that, Mrs. Linguist"; "Thank you so much, Mrs. Linguist!"; "Do you think so, Mrs. Linguist?"

What d'ye think? Could I have everyone doing that, today?

[Sephiroth]

Hungarian, ooh, I'm jealous.......really wish I knew Hungarian...Hungary is one of my favourite places, and the language is beautiful. Nothing else sounds like Hungarian (even Finnish).

Anyway, I think it's tomorrow, now...or maybe even the next day, Mrs. Linguist. Does it still count?

[BakaTensai]

Hi everyone; I'm from Wyoming, USA. Anyone else here from Wyoming? Anyone ever heard of Wyoming? Yeah, there are only about 500,000 people in the entire state so I don't expect anyone else to be from there... but if you are let me know!

[Sephiroth]

Wyoming, hmmm. Isn't the Devil's Tower in Wyoming?

Not many people, but what an incredible landscape!

[BakaTensai]

Wow Sephi, you're everywhere! You're the posting madman!

And yes, Devil's tower is in Wyoming. A lot of the state is desert, but there are some mountains and forests there that rival anything I have ever seen.

[Sephiroth]

I travel the Lifestream, popping-up wherever a post is required.

Your landscape is on a whole different scale to what I'm used to here in Scotland. Don't get me wrong, it's very beautiful here, but the sheer vastness of both the Great Plains and the Rockies would take my breath away.

[BakaTensai]

That may be true, but in Scotland you have history and castles and... dragons, right? That's where they're from - Scotland? I thought that I read that somewhere.........

[Sephiroth]

There are many, different forms of dragon in the Old World.

Here, we have McDragons and MacDragons (you can't buy them in McDonald's), and Loch Ness Monsters. The latter are thought to be plesiosaurs, but they're actually Water Dragons (Leviathans).

You have history, too! We just call it prehistory because we don't have any written evidence! (Well, and because those poor sods kind of don't exist any more, thanks to us...)

I see your point on the castles, though. Some wonderful castles here.