Just scroll till you see the name Worms Sci Fi Haven and click
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon/razz.gif)
http://www.arwz.com/award.php#vote
www.wormsscifi.com
Thanks all!
DonePardot Kynes wrote:Click on the Worm's Sci Fi Haven name in the list of who you can vote for.
Wow. The average Japanese cell phone is faster than your computer.SandChigger wrote:No, ISDN, but it still takes forever.
I mean, I really like the look, and know that most of the component image files are really small, it's just the total package.
I just realized I've never looked to see if he offers a lightweight default theme....hmm.
Aw come on man, the stoneage rocks dudePardot Kynes wrote:Theres a bare bones skin for all you people stuck in the stone age.
I ain't seen hide nor hair of her there in months. I get the feeling something happened over there and Worm ran her off, but I'm not entirely sure. Worm sent me some cryptic PM's about it, but if you read between the lines, she has been made unwelcome there.SandChigger wrote:Thanks. I'll pop over by later and change my settings!
(Then again, do I really want to become more active on another site where than loon can PM me? Why does she do that?)
So that is working for you. Which skin are you using here, Mandy? How is that working?Mandy wrote:Hey Chig, Worm made subsilver an option without any extra images.. so no banner or anything, but it's much faster!
You should send me thoseOmphalos wrote:I ain't seen hide nor hair of her there in months. I get the feeling something happened over there and Worm ran her off, but I'm not entirely sure. Worm sent me some cryptic PM's about it, but if you read between the lines, she has been made unwelcome there.SandChigger wrote:Thanks. I'll pop over by later and change my settings!
(Then again, do I really want to become more active on another site where than loon can PM me? Why does she do that?)
I'm using subsilver here too. I don't have problems with other skins if they haven't had a lot of stuff added to them, though.Omphalos wrote:So that is working for you. Which skin are you using here, Mandy? How is that working?Mandy wrote:Hey Chig, Worm made subsilver an option without any extra images.. so no banner or anything, but it's much faster!
Other than the magical dissapearing vowels (which quite a few languages do) I don't know that it's much different from reading english. Helps a bit if you speak the language.Worm wrote:whoa![]()
that's some wild stuff. I'll never understand how people can read that and Chinese.
Chig, you might know this - are Hebrew and Arabic (and Tibetan while I'm on the subject) descended from Sanskrit? Obviously modern Indian languages like Hindi, Punjabi, etc are related to Sanskrit, but I've been told that Arabic Hebrew and Tibetan are not. I always assumed that they were because A: they all leave out vowels and B: they all look related to Sanskrit to me (I know, that's weak). I'm pretty sure Sanskrit is older than all 3, but I may have this backwards and inside out.SandChigger wrote:
Although you can spell out the vowels of every word in the Arabic alphabet (using those marks above and below the line), they usually just include the vowels whn thr s th pssblty f ambgty (r th wrtr uss n uncmmn wrd...lk ambgty?). Hebrew also uses a system of points and lines, mostly below line, but there was an older system of using certain of the consonantal letters to indicate vowels that remains in the spelling and that maybe makes Hebrew a wee bit easier to read than Arabic...??? (I defer to the expertise of the native on that, of course.)
Clears it up quite a bit. Thank you. I'll take your word on the subject (matches up with some of what I've heard/read before too) though it seems weird that a country all the way over in South Asia has the same roots as mediterranean languages, while languages from countries inbetween have roots in Africa. The Hebrew/Arabic from Egypt makes sense geographically, I'm curious as to why the Indian sub continent has European ties... Anyways... I'm sure that gets a hell of a lot more complicated and I should probably send some time at the library or searching the internet and stop bugging you with my crazy questions.SandChigger wrote:Yes.
And could you grab me a bagel and some baklava while you're out?
Um...let's see...if you mean the languages and not the writing systems...]
Sanskrit is one of the Elder Tongues, up there with Latin and Greek...and actually related to both and, ultimately, English as well: it's Indo-European. What puts the "Indo-" in Indo-European, in fact!
Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic, related to Ancient Egyptian and Aramaic, Phoenician, Akkadian, etc. They're originally unrelated to the IE languages above.
Tibetan is now classed as Tibeto-Burman evidently; used to see the term Sino-Tibetan as well. Unrelated to anything above.
I'd have to drag out the books to figure out which is oldest. (Were the Indians writing Sanskrit before the Hebrews were writing their scriptures? I forget!)
As for writing systems, the Hebrew (and our alphabet...alpha and beta from aleph and beth!) comes originally from Egyptian hieroglyphics via Phoenician; the Hebrew is older than the Arabic. (It probably ultimately derives from the same source.)
I'm drawing a blank on the origins of the Sanskrit devanagari. I think it was taught to the Indians by whale-toting Sirians. (Not Syrians, mind you!)
From a quick tool around da WP it looks like the Sanskrit system may have also developed from a Semitic script.
Don't quote me on this, but I think the places where writing has arisen completely independently are Egypt (hieroglyphics), Sumer (cuneiform) and China (Hanzi/Chinese characters). Oh, and Central America?
Hope that clears things up a bit...even if it is rather foggy.
The Hittites (in Turkey; their empire clashed with the Egyptian) and the Persians were also Indo-Europeans.Indo-European expansion 4000–1000 BC, according to the Kurgan hypothesis.
Even within the Kurgan hypothesis, there is considerable uncertainty, mainly depending on assumptions about the Tocharians, the Corded Ware culture and the Beaker culture.
The central purple area is supposed to show early Yamna culture (4000–3500 BC); the dark red area could show expansion to about 2500 BC, and the lighter red area expansion to about 1000 BC.
I think it was because of Marco Polo, but I'm not entirely sure.though it seems weird that a country all the way over in South Asia has the same roots as mediterranean languages, while languages from countries inbetween have roots in Africa.
I was under the impression that was about 25K years ago.Omphalos wrote:Actually, I meant that I thought 60K years ago was when dem ancient homo types crossed the land bridge. I took a while to get to Maine and Tierra del Fuego. Proably not 30K+ years, but I think there was not just one wave.
Well, that's what I did(unless you meant Worm's image), since they're supposed to connect.SandChigger wrote:This is why I love my Mac:
(Maybe link the yaa' and daal?)
Yes. I for instance can't read any Arabic(well, the little I actually can) if it doesn't have Harakat(?), that system of vowel dots and lines.Although you can spell out the vowels of every word in the Arabic alphabet (using those marks above and below the line), they usually just include the vowels whn thr s th pssblty f ambgty (r th wrtr uss n uncmmn wrd...lk ambgty?). Hebrew also uses a system of points and lines, mostly below line, but there was an older system of using certain of the consonantal letters to indicate vowels that remains in the spelling and that maybe makes Hebrew a wee bit easier to read than Arabic...??? (I defer to the expertise of the native on that, of course.)
You're right, you did connect them. But you used a form of yaa' that doesn't exist.orald wrote:Well, that's what I did(unless you meant Worm's image), since they're supposed to connect.SandChigger wrote:(Maybe link the yaa' and daal?)
That's the Fremen usage of the alphabet from The Dune Encyclopedia. Alif is used for 'a' and there is only one form variant for each of the letters.I got rid of the Alif since I don't really see any elongation of the movement thingy...it's a short "ra", not "rah".
Right. Take it up with the font maker, not me. However, neither waaw nor raa' join to following letters, so even if they touch and appear to join, no one familiar with the writing system would mistake them for something else.I must say though that your image is a bit misleading, Chig.
First, the "waw" and "ra" seem to be connected due to their curvature, and second, the "m" letter(forgot the name for it) should actually be a closed circle/elipse with a line dropping, not so open at the end like that.
I blame the font...kinda the official "print" font though.
Yes. I was referring to the old, pre-nikud system whereby aleph, yodh and wau were used to indicate approximate vowel qualities, as mnemonics of a sort.Yes. I for instance can't read any Arabic(well, the little I actually can) if it doesn't have Harakat(?), that system of vowel dots and lines.Although you can spell out the vowels of every word in the Arabic alphabet (using those marks above and below the line), they usually just include the vowels whn thr s th pssblty f ambgty (r th wrtr uss n uncmmn wrd...lk ambgty?). Hebrew also uses a system of points and lines, mostly below line, but there was an older system of using certain of the consonantal letters to indicate vowels that remains in the spelling and that maybe makes Hebrew a wee bit easier to read than Arabic...??? (I defer to the expertise of the native on that, of course.)
In Hebrew(as the Wiki' page also explains...search for "nikud") we can either use similar dots and lines(mostly for kids/books where there's a foreign term/name, like in Dune, then the word would have it the first time it appears then without it), but for practical writing you do it without, just add vowels in some words(chtiv ma-le, as they would call it in Wiki' I believe).
I don't know what it is here the last few days, Orald, but I'm not finding you very amusing at all. I mean, I don't know what this silly example of attempted innuendo is supposed to achieve, seeing as you know nothing at all about my college years or how my education was paid for.orald wrote:Better and cleaner than what you did to get the money for your uni/collage.SandChigger wrote:No, your job is pumping gas.
I had a look at the "Fremen Language" article in The Dune Encyclopedia. On p. 237 in the section entitled Graphemics there's a table of the modified Arabic alphabet used by the Fremen and an example of Fremen writing (Innama nishuf...the words used in that one song, perhaps?).Worm wrote:So... I'm confused. How should the Fremen writing in my sig look?
I was trying to think of the right way to word that sentiment.SandChigger wrote: And, um, by the way: learning the languages of superstitious, vindictive racists is something I do FOR FUN. Hebrew, for example.
That is awefully nice of you. If I have time, I'll give it a whirl too. Thanks for the info, now that I know what it should look like, that makes it all the more easier.SandChigger wrote:Ahem. Sorry...seems I have a low patience level today for idiocy.
I had a look at the "Fremen Language" article in The Dune Encyclopedia. On p. 237 in the section entitled Graphemics there's a table of the modified Arabic alphabet used by the Fremen and an example of Fremen writing (Innama nishuf...the words used in that one song, perhaps?).Worm wrote:So... I'm confused. How should the Fremen writing in my sig look?
The script is still written right-to-left, so basically, Worm, the letters in your sig image need to be rearranged in the reverse order of what they are now.
(If my mood improves and I feel frisky later, I may try giving editing your image a whirl. No promises at the moment, though.)
**Insert evil Emperor accent here** "Excellent!"Nekhrun wrote:Looks like I'm a member at Worm's now.That could be fun.
And Japanese?Chig wrote:And, um, by the way: learning the languages of superstitious, vindictive racists is something I do FOR FUN. Hebrew, for example.
chanilover wrote:Or American English.SandChigger wrote:And, um, by the way: learning the languages of superstitious, vindictive racists is something I do FOR FUN. Hebrew, for example.