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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: William Monroe Ashe <wma6617@******.TAMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: STOP IT! ... eh, and more on languages
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 08:33:08 -0600
First;
I also found the difference in languages thread very interesting. I
thought I might expand upon it a little. For example if your character
has a "city speak" skill and you are in Seattle, If you move to, say Dallas
would the city speak be the same? I would argue, no. There are
considerable differences now in the slang between the east coast and west
coast.

Second;
Canadians call "Canadian Bacon", "Back Bacon". Do Canadians call
"American Cheese", "Back Cheese"?
Message no. 2
From: Kevin White <kevw@*****.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: STOP IT! ... eh, and more on languages
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 15:09:17 -0600
William Monroe Ashe wrote:
> For example if your character
> has a "city speak" skill and you are in Seattle, If you move to, say Dallas
> would the city speak be the same? I would argue, no. There are
> considerable differences now in the slang between the east coast and west
> coast.

I would have argued the other way. I think of city speak as being more
of mis-mash of languages - something like Esperanto but probably with a
more Japanese bent. Given this interpretation, an individual from east
coast should be able to understand someone from the west coast.

Of course, this does not take into account local dialect or accent which
could cause confusion. This I know from experience since I still have to
sometimes talk slowly to some people at work, etc.!

Diamond
Message no. 3
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: STOP IT! ... eh, and more on languages
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 22:27:58 +0100
William Monroe Ashe said on 8:33/ 5 Feb 97...

> I also found the difference in languages thread very interesting. I
> thought I might expand upon it a little. For example if your character
> has a "city speak" skill and you are in Seattle, If you move to, say Dallas
> would the city speak be the same? I would argue, no. There are
> considerable differences now in the slang between the east coast and west
> coast.

IMHO City Speak would be unique to each city, and it's highly likely you
have a hard time understanding someone from a different area of the same
city. Someone knowing Redmond City Speak, for example, might have to make
language rolls to understand the City Speak variant of Snohomish.

> Canadians call "Canadian Bacon", "Back Bacon". Do Canadians call
> "American Cheese", "Back Cheese"?

Shouldn't that be 'Do Americans call "American Cheese", "Back
Cheese"?'?

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Some bald fanatics try to make me buy their books.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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Message no. 4
From: Brett Borger <bxb121@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: STOP IT! ... eh, and more on languages
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 21:21:41 -0500
>I would have argued the other way. I think of city speak as being more
>of mis-mash of languages - something like Esperanto but probably with a
>more Japanese bent. Given this interpretation, an individual from east
>coast should be able to understand someone from the west coast.

I disagree. Since it is a mish-mash of languages, but not the _whole_
languages, it is heavily dependant on what parts are borrowed from what
languages....and that is heavily dependant on area.

City Speak is an extreme dialect, and thus subject to such things on a scale
not comparable to most languages. Consider it a collection of a large
amount of slang....slang is mis-mashed languages, and heavily variable, both
over time and space....City Speak in five years is far different from City
Speak now. To users, it just flows....to outsiders, it makes no sense.

PErsonally, I always disallowed City Speak....it spoke too heavily of
"Common" from a game that shall remain nameless. Since Seattle is the
center of several cultures clashing, I wanted that to be evident in the many
languages.

-=SwiftOne=-

Further Reading

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