On April 16 2011 10:22 ahx wrote: You created an account to discuss pronunciation of words..
In case you didnt notice ... language is the key for many things in life. Do you think people running around and greeting everyone with "Yo dude, whats up?" will ever get a highly visible job where you need to communicate with / to people?
Yes.
It's called using different sets of language around different groups of people.
On a side note, we could also assume that this creature, Blizzard's "Colossus", does not necessarily abide by the rules of Latin (or any particular rules other than what Blizzard dictates). Yeah, it matches a pre-existing word, but it now exists in a new universe (the SC2 one), and so it may be the case that it runs under new linguistic rules and axioms.
Whew, so we don't necessarily have to memorize all those? xD
Yes.
It's called using different sets of language around different groups of people.
I think the example he used was meant to imply that the example character knows only that kind of language.
I prefer the Day[9]-ish "imbaimbaimbaimba". It's easy to remember and can be used anywhere. I might start using the Colossorum though, that is just sick.
As much as i usually appreciate things like this, as i love understanding grammar and such, i would like to point out that Latin as a language has been dead for a very long time, and thus we actually do not know how many things are supposed to be pronounced. Hence the common question: Weeny weedy weechy? Veeny veedy veechy? Weeny weedy weeky? etc
That said, it has always been clear to me that Collosus is 1. Collosi is 2 or 3. Colloxin is more than 3.
Seriously though, i think it is nice to know what the gemitive and the accusitive are in latin. Good post.
I've thought about the same seeing has I have had Greek and Latin for multiple years in high school. The thing is when I started to look it up and saw the declensions, while awesome for me to get a quick refresher and dream about how that could be applied to Starcraft and a word like Colossi. It's not realistic, it's not how English works. I'd settle for everyone doing it correct in the english way, with only the singular and the plural. However it would be really cool if some caster started doing this but it wouldn't catch on anyway. That said unfortunately language is dynamic. I'm afraid it can be just as acceptable for someone to say it wrong in the English way as for someone to say it wrong in the Latin way.
Edit: Fun fitting song
Rosa Rosa Rosam Rosae Rosae Rosa Rosae Rosae Rosas Rosarum Rosis Rosis
My brain exploded that people care this much about a word people say. Colossuses is annoying, I'll give you that, but that's as far as I'll go with you.
Colossus - 5 dictionary results co·los·sus /kəˈlɒsəs/ Show Spelled[kuh-los-uhs] Show IPA –noun, plural -los·si /-ˈlɒsaɪ/ show+spelled">Show Spelled[-los-ahy] Show IPA, -los·sus·es. 1. ( initial capital letter ) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes. Compare Seven Wonders of the World. 2. any statue of gigantic size. 3. anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful.
Even though "Colossus" has Latin as it's root, that doesn't mean that it is correct to treat it as a latin word. It has been adopted into English and therefore follows English grammar rules. Words borrowed from French don't follow French grammar rules, for example. If you look it up in a dictionary, it will tell you that Colossi and Colossuses are both correct in the English language (even as I type this, both Colossi and Colossuses are considered as words by spell-check). For example, the genitive case for "colossus" is "colossus's" The genitive case for "colossuses" would be "colossuses's." (note that only certain historical figures traditionally drop the "s" after the apostrophe. I don't particularly like this convention, but I'll stick with it for now). Unless you are casting games in Latin, Latin grammar rules just don't apply.
I bitched and moaned about having to decline nouns in Latin class; I would never expect anyone who doesn't have a grade on the line to bother with this crap zz
EPT
