Reminds me of of a line that always stuck with me from William Tenn’s “The Liberation of Earth”
And another, albeit smaller, group developed various forms of frustration hysteria—ranging from mild unhappiness to complete catatonic depression—over the difficulties presented by a language whose every verb was irregular, and whose myriads of prepositions were formed by noun-adjective combinations derived from the subject of the previous sentence. But, eventually, eleven human beings were released, to blink madly in the sunlight as certified interpreters of Troxxt.
I could almost always pick up just enough tourist-level of a local lingo for the basics, but Mongolian, Finnish and for some reason Portuguese escaped me. The first two… maybe Uralic ain’t my thing. Portuguese is going better these days, but that’s mostly due to a Portuguese neighbour and a really nice Portuguese bakery near the train station… but I digress…
I’m trying to find the quote. Something like “Portuguese is just Spanish spoken in French”.
Probably from here.
Well, I have no idea what is going on in here.
Yeah it’s sort of taken on a life of its own.
Goodness, almost 500 posts in the past 7 days.
Oh no, brown is like blue: there’s a shade for everyone!
Don’t like Crayola brown? There’s fawn, and mahogany, and burnt sienna, and cappuccino, and khaki, and coffee, and antique lace. Even the names are lovely!
Spoken in Catalan, with Brazilian Portuguese being Spanish spoken in Basque.
That’s my take on it, anyway!
(My daughter is a polyglot and learned Brazilian Portuguese. When the family went to Portugal we were looking forward to having that ace up our sleeve. Yeah, they might be called the same language, but they aren’t.)
I need to find this language thread I keep reading about at the bottom of all the recent comments!
Don’t get me started on blue…
Something, something, IKB…
Cobalt, cerulean, robin’s egg….
I mean, I’m basically your classic autumn type and look good in all kinds of reds and reddish hues, but blue just doesn’t work for me.
"Egyptian blue — a bright blue crystalline substance — is believed to be the first unnatural pigment in human history. Ancient Egyptians used a rare mineral, cuprorivaite, as inspiration for the color. Cuprorivaite was so rare searching and mining for it was impossible. Instead, using advanced chemistry for the time, Egyptians manufactured the color. It was made by mixing calcium compound (typically calcium carbonate), a copper-containing compound (metal filings or malachite), silica sand and soda or potash as a flux, then heating to between 850-950 C.
“Egyptian blue was widely used in ancient times as a pigment in painting, such as in wall paintings, tombs and mummies’ coffins, and as a ceramic glaze known as Egyptian faience. Its use spread throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and the far reaches of the Roman Empire. It was often used as a substitute for lapis lazuli, an extremely expensive and rare mineral sourced in Afghanistan. After the decline of the Roman Empire, though, Egyptian Blue quickly disappeared from use.”
My BFF says she can’t wear any shade of blue w/o looking utterly dreadful. Purples look great on her, tho.
The wrong shades of olive green drain what little color I have and make me look yellow-y gray. The right olive shades add a normally absent warmth to my skintone.