User talk:OtherGuy1

Welcome

Welcome to Wikipedia, the greatest encyclopedia on Earth! You seem to be off to a good start. Hopefully you will soon join the vast army of Wikipediholics!

You may wish to review the welcome page, tutorial, and stylebook, as well as the avoiding common mistakes and Wikipedia is not pages.

Here are some helpful links:

• Wikipedia:Merge, for information about merging, renaming and moving pages.
• Wikipedia directory is also quite useful.
• Meet other new users You may want to add yourself to the Wikipedia new user log.
• Assign edits to your username from before you registered.
• Be Bold!
• Don't let grumpy users scare you off.
• Play nice with others
• Contribute, Contribute, Contribute!
• Tell us about you
• How to upload files and image copyright tags.

By the way, an important tip: To sign comments on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automatically add your name and the time after your comments.

Hope to see you around the Wiki! If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page  :)

Joe I 02:09, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Allotropes

Hello, and welcome. Allotropy is an interesting phenomenon, However, Helium cannot be regarded as an allotrope of hydrogen, because allotropes are composed of the same elements. Read the article on allotropy carefully (although that article is has problems). Andreas 02:21, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Flamarande

I´m not mocking you (where did you get that idea?) and I certainly apprieciate the fact that you presented your case in the talk page. I am willing to replace the present map with a more acurate one (showing the tempory conquests of Octavian in Germania, and other temporary conquests like Scotland), but as far as I have seen, such a map simply doesn´t exist in Wikicommons (until now). Flamarande 15:14, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, now I understand. I wrote "Germania east of the Rhine and west of the Elbe" simply because I don´t know the proper name of that province. Notice that they were also two roman provinces with the names: Germania Inferior and Germania superior which by modern maps are only partially inside of Germany, adding to the confusion, one of the many reason why I am so sceptical and disapointed when ppl start to scream about ancient virtious "national" heroes like Arminius, Boudicca and Viriathus. As for the "eastern part of Caledonia" I am forced to tell you that I have read about the Hadrians Wall and the Antonine Wall but never about a "eastern part of Scottland", was it a temporary conquest by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, perhaps? Flamarande 18:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, read the articles Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Hadrians Wall and Antonine Wall and compare them with the history world atlas, perhaps the "eastern part" is featured in one of them. Flamarande 16:14, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I was a relativly "good" school but my History teacher talked about a "Emperor who took care of chickens" instead of ruling (making hard decisions). I don´t blame my teacher (I could feel that he wanted to explain the real reasons and the developments of the fall of the Roman Empire) but he had to follow the official program and to be really frank I believe that I was the only one! in my class who was interrested in History (instead of Mathematics, Physics, French and German - all reasons why I flunked).

The quality of education (and its single topics like History) is propotional to the importance, the students and in a more vast perspective the society, give to it.

History is considered simply "boring" and "unimportant" by the vast majority of the students and "futile and unmanly" by the larger part of society. I like to study History, people who don´t study History will always make the same mistakes blame everthing to the politicians and never understand why and how things (politics, economy, religion, warfare, etc) really work. (YES! I am a Nerd!) Flamarande 16:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thats a real personal question which I decline to answer (I take the 5th :) ). Let me offer you a challenge: See my contributions, and reach your own conclusions. I can give you a single clue: I am 29 years old. (what kind of clue is that?) Flamarande 16:45, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, I will not help you any more than with the following: I am male, I am straight, I am 29 years old and I love history, politics, religion and economy ( I am simply a Nerd ). More info only on my userpage. Flamarande 19:32, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi

Thank you for your message. I live in sweden, although i have strong roots.

I appreciate you recoqnizing that wikipedia gives all views the right of being represented, even going so far as demanding all views to be represented. Unfortunatly, many people seem to view that "all rights that i dont find offensive have the right to be represented". I am 100% sure there would be no lynch mob on my articles if they where about, yeah, pokemon. I guess people are not ready for, yeah ironicly, freedom of speech.

Thank you for comending me on my english, editing of wikipedia and having people remiding me 24/7 of how "sub-standard" my english is have helped me improve it. I even write "grammar" instead of "grama".

Have a good day/night and peace! --Striver 00:22, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Yo ablo un poco spanol, pero no e hablado "in" mucho anos. pero combrendo buen. I also talk Iranian, and are familiar with Arabic. Och sjävklart, pratar jag även svenka :)

Tell me if i can assisst you in any way --Striver 00:30, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Esperanto

Hello, I responded to your question about Esperanto in my talk page, but I'll post it here, too [timestamps reflect time of original posting]:

Well, I just don't like it

• I think the -oj and -aj sounds for plural nouns/adjectives are really ugly.
• The attempt to include sounds from many languages seems excessive, and not conducive to ease of communication of people from different language backgrounds as an international auxiliary language
• The inclusion of case is superfluous considering how many people just use the sentence order of their native language (SVO usually).
• Why do adjectives agree with the noun for number but the definite article La doesn't?
• The verb forms are hopelessly simple and yet the table of demonstrative/other pronouns seems to go on forever.
• Vocabulary seems to be derived randomly from either a Germanic or Romance base with no logic behind it.
• "Fake" language history (saying that "ci used to be in common use but now people just use vi" ... parallel to "thou"?) Come on, Zamenhof
• The flag looks like an Islamist-Communist organization's flag
• I would like to see people put more effort in learning natural languages than Esperanto. And just because some people are freaks and taught their children Esperanto as a native language doesn't make it a "natural language". Those people will creolize the language into some sort of Esperanglish... maybe. While an interesting experiment in the whole Whorf-Sapir thing, I just don't see a use for it.
• The whole philosophy of "one language for the world" is actually frightening to me and 1984-esque.

ni ez naiz aldatuko 06:05, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Also, my friend Joshua points out that a feminie suffix (-ino) is dumb. And stupid. ni ez naiz aldatuko 06:11, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Esperanto does have its share of problems. I like Lingua Franca Nova more. I don't see what's wrong with the flag for Esperanto, though. And as for natural languages, please name one that is easy to learn. I've tried learning Spanish and French, and they're not that easy. I'm in my fourth year of Japanese and I still don't think I would be comfortable speaking with a native. German looks fairly easy, but that's because it's a Germanic language, and has many similarities with English. The point of most all constructed international auxillary languages is to be easy to learn; we have yet to find a great language to adopt. Lastly, the goal of Esperantists (at least most) is not to replace all languages with just Esperanto, but to have Esperanto to be a universal second language; it does not remind me at all of Newspeak in 1984, whose goal was to limit the capacity to express dissent. --Kinghajj 02:28, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I think many Esperantists would actually argue that Esperanto should help preserve minority languages and that the main danger at the moment is the international adoption of languages that have a large number of native speakers behind them. I also disagree about the accusative case. To mark object unambiguously, you really need either case or word order rules. I don't see that either is inherently more difficult than the other, and choosing the former allows a great deal of flexibility in word order. As for the derivation of vocabulary: open class words were chosen from Romance and Germanic languages based on which root was likely to be familiar to the majority of (European) speakers, constrained by avoidance of ambiguity. So "alone" is translated with the root sol-, meaning that "sun" had to be sun-. My main problem with Esperanto is that it's got a strong European bias, although there is a certain logic to that inasmuch as a very large number of non-Europeans are (and were then) likely to be vaguely familiar with at least one European language. But a bias it remains. And I agree that to say "mother" by adding a feminine prefix to "father" is ridiculous, but cut him some slack: he was a Victorian, and we haven't quite managed to get rid of our feminine suffix in English either. garik 15:35, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Spelling reform

In answer to your question on my talk page, yes, I support spelling reform in English under certain conditions.

This does not mean that I support a strict one-sound/one-letter reform. English is a language community with considerable phonological diversity. Whether or not that notion of community should be preserved is a political choice: The political institutions of Chinese speakers have chosen to preserve the idea that they share a common language in the face of the transparent fact thet they don't; the political institutions of Serbo-Croation speakers have chosen to deny the existence of common language even though they have no difficulty understanding each other whatsoever. That choice is political, and while there are arguments both ways for English - some dating back to the American Revolution - English speakers seem to broadly favour linguistic unity, and they do it for reasons that on the whole seem sound to me.

However, the most grotesque failures of English spelling, like the incredibly inconsistent quality of written vowels and bugaboos like the silent "gh" constructions, strike me as utterly unnecessary and no modern dialect of English gives them any phonological value worthy of preserving. I think English could be made much easier to spell without causing any large disruption or new illiteracy.

For learning to read, these problems of English spelling are not awfully important. But for writing, they are essential. People perceive poor spelling as indicative of poor education, and they are less likely to take seriously proposals presented with poor spelling than those presented correctly. In this respect, English spelling is a social justice issue. Disadvanted classes in most countries (and especially in English speaking ones) generally receive a poorer education. Consequently, they have less mastery of the details of English spelling and have a harder time gaining access to good jobs or media attention. This further perpetuates their poverty.

Considering the degree to which the Internet has made fluent writing even more essential to people, I should think that the need for spelling reform is increasing rather than decreasing.

However, the social and institutional issues in spelling reform are the biggest trap. Most people do not even understand that such a thing is possible, much less that it's normal. This public prejudice has proven to be a problem even in countries that have experienced regular spelling reforms like Germany and France. Most radical spelling reforms have accompanied political turmoil, because the political leadership is usually the group that has best mastered the existing complicated spellings. Furthermore, the problem of democratic responsibility for language management organisations is rarely addressed. The public is strongly affected by language reforms, but is rarely informed, or even interested, in the logic behind them. Consequently, many reforms appear to the people who have to live with them to be autocratic and highly disruptive, no matter how necessary they might be. Also, there is a historical tendency for language management organisations to impose reforms in very authoritarian ways. This is not actually necessary or very helpful. Most people will spell in whatever way their spellcheckers tell them to. No penalty has to be imposed on anyone in order to promulgate new standards.

Until the 19th century in Europe and the Americas - and until the 20th century elsewhere - most people had little conception of correct usage, pronunciation or spelling outside of the idea that the rich and powerful speak and write a particular way. Now, almost everyone who speaks a standardised, politically supported language thinks that it has a correct way to be spelled and written that is intrinsic to it. Getting over this reification of language is the biggest real barrier to rational language management.

--Diderot 12:28, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• Yes, I would, but there'd be real complications that would need to be resolved to the vast difference in English dialects. --Revolución hablar ver 00:57, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Interlingua

Hi Cameron,

I learned about Interlingua from reading Usenet posts by a Swedish fellow named Kjell Rehnström. I was amazed by how well I could read it with a bit of practice. Then I browsed through a copy of Interlingua Grammar that I found at my local library, and found an online version of the Concise English-Interlingua dictionary. (There are links to web versions of both on the main Interlingua site: [1].) Then I started posting texts (original and translations) in the main Interlingua mailing list, INTRLNG. Before long I was connected to the world of Interlingua.--Chris 18:03, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Spelling reform

Hello. I don't think it's appropriate to replace the dictionary spellings of words in Wikipedia articles with reformed spellings. --Cam 23:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh. I'm just a little concerned.

Let me make a sort of analogy: Imagine if someone developed a "Rufbot" which replaced every instance of "rough" in Wikipedia with "ruf". Overnight all instances of "rough, roughly, roughness, roughed up" became "ruf, rufly, rufness, ruffed up". I can imagine such a bot would produce a negative reaction in the Wikipedia community. I can't imagine an outcome in which the community would come to accept all the "rufs". There would be some kind of revert process where all the "roughs" would be restored.

Well, if the community would be against such a bot, wouldn't be against someone making spelling reforms piecemeal by hand, article by article? If you yourself would be opposed to such a bot (or similar ones changing "through" to "thru" etc.), why are you not opposed to changes by hand a few words in an article at a time?

Lest you think I am some kind of kneejerk hater of spelling reform, I can tell you I have the pdfs of the 1948 book New Spelling (Nue Speling) on my computer, I have a photocopy of an entire Nue Speling dictionary, and I own a copy of the Shavian alphabet edition of Androcles and the Lion.

Well, anyway, consider what I've said above. I don't think Wikipedia should be a platform for introducing spelling reform (or any other reform).

Best regards, Cam 03:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

hello Cameron. thanks for your coment about speling reform on my userpage. by the way, i too basicaly agree with the above comentor, Cam, in that i dont think the wikipedia articles are a good place to start speling reform. i think the articles should be of the same quality as a printed encyclopedia and be formal, non-controversial, standard written english so that theyl be accepted and respected by a wide audience. however, the discusion and userpages are more informal and not realy intended for the 'general audience'. i feel they may be fair game, at least for some more moderate, less controversial speling simplifications. in informal writing, like emails and web message board postings, ive begun to incorporate simpler spelings. nobody's protested yet. however, ive realized that a lot of pepl are very strongly oposed to speling reform, like jumping-up-and-down, stompin-their-feet, red-in-the-face, 'gonna-kill-your-dog' oposed. you might like to visit freespeling.com. its a grass-roots efort to encorage pepl to use, in moderation, spelings that make sense to them, and then make a note of 'freespeling' so that pepl know theyr doing it deliberately. the site notes that major speling reforms from 'the top down' have not been succesful but that speling changes from the comon usage of the masses may be more succesful. thanks for the ofer of 'speling reform' template. best wishes. (i guess i forgot to sign in.) AnFu AnFu 01:11, 2 August 2006 (UTC) 01:08, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Cam, thanks for ur reply. in it u seemed concerned that i maybe had mistaken u for som hel-bent radical intent on reking havoc on the wiki's speling. altho i thank u for ur asurance, i didnt think u were out to create speling havoc. i perceived u as fairly level-heded. my position is that while i avoid ratling the cages of the traditional spelers, il actively try to update speling in an informal way - like this. it seems like a reasonable position. and i guess i was 'trying to spread the mesage' to u and others also. by the way, i admire ur convention of writing ur discusion posts in reformed speling. good luck on the administrator's position and i hope you get/got it. best wishes. AnFu 20:52, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Your spelling changes

You recently changed the spelling of International English. I'm a big fan of spelling reform myself! But Wikipedia has a policy about spelling that you should look at before you make any more spelling changes. You might also want to consider making a proposal about some version of reform spelling being an official policy! But until policy is changed, spelling should conform to the original spelling used in the article (unless the article is about a particular region with its own dialect, in which case, that dialect should be used). Best, BrianinStockholm 14:56, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

0.77

It just means that only 3/4ths of the populace has contributed. And that would be a bad thing, since 357,677 users have done absolutely nothing on the site. MOD 15:14, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Reform (in response)

Funny that you ask about spelling reform. I do like the idea, but i don't believe it's gonna happen soon. I'm also a speed reader, so it would take me a while to relearn how to do that if drastic spelling reform were implemented. However, i have no problm simplifying things a litl bit, as long as yu leeve the furst and last letrs the same, i can figure it out. J Riddy 05:13, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Interlingua like Spanish

Can you read this sample?:Le scholas del Arabia Saudi insenia le odio.

Secundo Osama bin Laden le societates del Europa occidental e del Statos Unite es decadente, e ille vole converter omne le mundo al islam e imponer sur omne nos le sharia, le systema islamic de "justicia". Ma como pote ille attraher tante adherentes a su systema barbaric?

Nos non debe oblidar que bin Ladin e multe membros de Al Qaeda es saudi, e lor philosophia superstitiose de intolerantia religiose activemente se insenia in le scholas pro infantes e juvenes de Saudi Arabia.

This is from a yahoo interlingua group I'm subscribed to. --Jondel 15:50, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

You might not believe me but it took me something like 4 days to figure out the langauge. There was nothing new to learn.--Jondel 15:53, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Pretty good! Your level of interlingua is the same as mine, believe me because there are words that I need to look up then , I say uh huh, that must be Italian or French etc. My vocabular increases. In Spanish (Segun)and Latin Secun is from second which in the above case is 'according to' (the second eye witness)..

Your translation might be better but this is my own. Le scholas del Arabia Saudi insenia le odio.

The schools of Saudi Arabia teach hate.

Secundo Osama bin Laden le societates del Europa occidental e del Statos Unite es decadente, e ille vole converter omne le mundo al islam e imponer sur omne nos le sharia, le systema islamic de "justicia". Ma como pote ille attraher tante adherentes a su systema barbaric?

According to Osama bin Laden, the societies of Western Europe and the United States are decaden and he would like to convert the whole world to Islam and impose Sharia, the islamic system of justice. But how could he attract such a system to his barbaric system.

Nos non debe oblidar que bin Ladin e multe membros de Al Qaeda es saudi, e lor philosophia superstitiose de intolerantia religiose activemente se insenia in le scholas pro infantes e juvenes de Saudi Arabia.

We should not forget that bin Ladin and many member of the Al Qaeda are Saudi's and their philosohpy of imposes(? I need to look up superstitiose) activities of religious intolerance is teaches taught to (infants)Kids and young people of Saudi Arabia. --Jondel 05:13, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Cameron, como sta? Tu va bon? Iste sito es multo ben.Que tu sia ben in interlingua.--Jondel 03:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Mexican-American War Bias

Saw your comment on bias in the article on Mexican-American War. I agree completely! I made a small change that I think helps, but a lot more work needs to be done.... --Cultural Freedom talk 09:27, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Interlingua lesson

Lege iste si ille vos placerea. --Jondel 09:20, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Global warming edits

hi -- just for reference, there's no compelling reason to switch from correct British spelling to correct American spelling for words like "localised". I won't revert, but there's no particular reason to make edits like that -- the version you changed was correct. best, bikeable (talk) 17:58, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Quite right! But in this case, the spelling used in the first versions of the article was American, so it never should have been changed away from American spelling. Policy makes this clear: 1) aim for consistency; 2) go by first version when an article isn't about an area with its own spelling. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-06-21 18:13 (UTC)

Medieval spelling

Why do you keep changing spellings of "medieval" to "mediaeval" with the ligature? It's kind of pointless... Adam Bishop 22:36, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

No it's not "right", and you can't even spell it properly on your own, so I don't know why I should be taking your advice about it. At best they are variant spellings, and it's just conventional to use "medieval" on Wikipedia, so stop changing it. Adam Bishop 22:44, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

No I mean I've seen you spell it "Midiæval" a bunch of times...but that's not really the point. You don't need to change every "ae" spelling to "æ", everywhere you are doing it. So please stop! Adam Bishop 02:36, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

How many times do I have to revert you before you stop? Do you want to get blocked? Adam Bishop 22:39, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

No but you keep replacing ligatures everywhere else! Adam Bishop 02:09, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

ghost

i am facinated that you saw a ghost.We must talk about this.what did it look like what was it doing.Facinating

Paranormal stuff...

I noticed on Wikiproject Paranormal you described a paranormal incident, I'd like if you tell me more. --Mahogany 18:23, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

K and W

Please check my discussion page.--Jondel 00:13, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Esperanto

I'm not a big fan of Esperanto for the following reasons"

• While I think the idea of an international language is a good idea, Esperanto doesn't really do that. It looks something like Spanish, and it is almost entirely dirived from western European languages. Sure, it may be easy to learn if you know Spanish, English, or German, and if you learn Esperanto first, you can more easily learn other western European leanguages, byt Esperanto wouldn't be as easy for Chinese or Arabs to learn. Plus, it uses the Latin script. It should only be a international language for Western Europeans, not the whole world. I also think it is more profitable to learn a natural language. Also, their flag looks like an Islamic Communist flag.

It's a lot better than Klingon though. :)--Fox Mccloud 19:49, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

I think Esperanto is only similar to Chinese because both are simple easy to understand the grammar languages. Despite it being somewhat similar to Chinese, I believe Esperanto is still much more similar to European languages and takes most of it's roots from European languages. Thanks for the link on Shavian alphabet, by the way. Also, you can contact me whenever you want, I don't mind.--Fox Mccloud 01:08, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

History of Latin letters I and J; U and V etc

Hi Cameron, You're quite welcome to ask me questions—I am happy to answer them. Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you, I've been on extended Wiki leave.

"The letters I and J and the letters U and V all were variants of the same letters, but became seperated to do different jobs."

Yes. Those derivations occurred as a result of the adaptation of the Latin alphabet from the ancient Latin language to serve the alphabets used by Old English and Old German (dark ages & medieval period). Ancient Latin did not have a U letter because ancient Latin word forms created the "u" sound with combinations of other letters, whereas Old English and Old German word forms required a separate U, so the Latin V letter was differentiated to produce U. Much the same evolutionary process occurred to I and J; that is, I was differentiated to form J as a new consonant due to differences in Latin word forms versus Old English and Old German.

"¿Why is it that long-s carloginian g and some other variants didnt become seperate letters?"

When moveable type printing came along, Italian typographers modified the Carolingian g by changing its shape into the familiar double story g seen in "roman" text/book fonts right up to the present. The Carolingian form was never abandoned altogether, but lives on as the so-called "single story" g which is standard in most sans serif text fonts. It helps to know that the Carolingian g evolved from the Roman majuscule G.

Long-s was a typographic convention that did not need to become a separate letter. Rather, typographers stopped using long-s in the middle of words because the long-s shape looked too much like "f" and caused readability problems, so it fell out of use for practical reasons.

Other variants (depends which letter forms you mean) fell out of use because their forms were not differentiated enough to withstand the homogenising force of uniformity in typeface design. From the 16th century up to the present, the general trend has been toward increasingly uniform type designs, in which letter forms to submit to a modular approach. The modernist movement of the early 20th century is perhaps the penultimate expression of this uniformity, rejecting even the smallest aberations wherever they exist, until "one size fits all".

To summarize, some letters split and differentiated to become new letters for linguistic reasons (the transition from Latin to Old English and Old German), while others were homogenised by the standardization wrought by moveable type printing and typography.

Arbo 17:58, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Userboxes

I fixed up the formatting of your userboxes. Hope this helps. — Nathan ^(talk) _{/ 00:16, 25 July 2006 (UTC)}

I've replied to your question on my talk. :) — Nathan ^(talk) _{/ 00:40, 25 July 2006 (UTC)}

Thank you for the barnstar; it has been moved to my talk page. If you need anything else, please feel free to give me a shout. — Nathan ^(talk) _{/ 01:00, 25 July 2006 (UTC)}

Sorry

Since anonymous IPs can go from one user to another, we don't block them for past vandalism - only for vandalism that's happening currently. Although a record of past vandalism definitely increases the likelihood that they'll get blocked the next time they try something. DS 01:13, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Your RfA

Cameron Nedland,

Could I respectfully suggest you withdraw your RfA. There is almost no chance it will pass as you don't have enough experience for us to adequaltey judge you. When you gain more experience, you may re-apply for adminship. I highly suggest you withdraw your nomination as soon as possible before you get too many opposed votes. It would also look better when you re-apply for adminship sometime in the future. Good luck. --Tuspm ^{(C | @)} 23:57, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

PS: I should also mention that the user who suggested you request adminship, The greatest man in the universe, was a confirmed sockpuppet of 1028.

Esperanto speaker count

The numbers you cited for estimates of Esperanto speakers are very interesting. Do you have a source for them? If so, would you please add it to the statement in the article? Thanks! Waitak 01:55, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but I didn't see the 10,000 to 40,000,000 numbers there. Am I missing something? Waitak 02:02, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Gratulojn

Gratulojn ke vi eklernas esperanton ! Vi neniam tion bedaŭros ! congratulations that you began to learn esperanto! You never will regreat it ! Arno Lagrange ✉ 07:58, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Hello! I saw your comments at Talk:Esperanto and came to take a peep! And what a coincidence, you're interested in social sciences — which I study — and you've just started to learn Esperanto — what I've done some years ago, just at your age! :) Well, hope your learning runs smoothly. Which books/courses/sites you're learning from? (Sorry for poor writting, I don't speak English very well.) --Raoni Sousa 03:07, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Ido word for young

Sure, it's yuna. Why do you ask? You might not have noticed however that the Ido Wiktionary is actually pretty huge - see here. Since we don't have a really good Ido dictionary besides the Dyer one, Wiktionary has been just perfect. It has an entry for young too. Mithridates 06:37, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Re:Amish Shooting

It seems that the vandal who kept adding porn links has stopped, so I have decided not to protect the page, since much of the material being added is done so by anonymous IP users. For future cases, please go to WP:RFPP and post your request for page protection there. Thanks. --Nishkid64 19:32, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

You shouldn't be apologizing for this. It's my personal duty as an administrator to help other users when they have problems. These sort of things help Wikipedia, not hurt. --Nishkid64 19:48, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Novial Lessons

Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (1) Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets.

   1. (You) interesa me multim, sinioro Watson. Vu
   2. E (you), doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me. Vus
   3. ( I ) sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Me
   4. (We) non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma. Nus
   5. (She) observa (my) bon amike. La, men
   6. Ob (he) renkontra les disdi? Lo
   7. Yes, (they) visita (his) bon amike, doktoro Mortimer. Les, lon

All correct

Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (2) Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets.

   1. Li hunde interesa nus: (it) nur sida e observa. Lu
   2. Li familie have problemes: (they, the problems) interesa sinioro Holmes. Lus
   3. (Their, male only) laboro sembla bon a me. Lon
   4. (They, female only) have autoritate in Europa. Las
   5. (Her) familie prefera non fuma. Lan
   6. Holmes e Watson, pro quu (your) problemes interesa me? Vun
   7. Ob vus sava ke lus es (my) problemes? Men 

3. "Their, male only" is "los" ("lo" (he) + "s").

6. Since "your" refers to Holmes and Watson, stricly it's plural, i.e. "vusen" ("vus", you(s) + "en" possessive/genitive.

I sometimes wonder whether the English habit of using only one word "you" whether singular or plural should be permitted. Of course this would suggest optional marking of plurals!

All others correct

You've made a good start. This course moves quickly. I studied IALA Interlingua, then Esperanto, then Novial in that order. I've also studied Ido and Occidental, but less so, just reading the grammars and reading not writing. I believe Novial is the easiest (and nicest, and best designed). Incidentally, you may have noticed that my screen name is a little word play: nov ialiste = nov international auxiliari linguiste = new IAList, not Novialist but close.

The answers to the exercises in the Novial Wikibook are in the lessons. If the exercise is in a special dropdown box, like in lesson 1, after clicking "Show" next to "Exercise" click "Show" in the "Solution" bar below the questions.

Keep it up! It is gratifying to see someone learn from the course. All feedback is welcome. I look forward to further checking of homework.

Salutos, Nov ialiste 16:31, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

   A. In the following sentences change the present tense into the past preterite (simple past) and translate the English in brackets into Novial.

   1. Li doktore tira li papere ek (his or her) poshe. (But not the doctor’s pocket.) Li doktore did tira li papere ek len poshe.

   2. La dona li hunda a (her own) amikes. La did dona li hunda a sen amikes.

   3. Li oldi homo mori in (their) chambre. Li oldi homo did mori in lesen chambre.

   4. Me envada (her) chambre. Me did envada lan chambre.

   5. Lo prisenta li fraudo a (my) amike. Lo did prisenta li fraudo a men amike.

   6. La parla ofte pri (our) malediktione. La did parla ofte pri nusen malediktione.

   7. Les pove ama nur (their own) filies. Les did pove ama nur sen filies.

   8. Li experte data (his) manuskrite. (Not the expert’s manuscript.) Li experte did data lon manuskrite.

   9. Las trakta me kom (their) amike. Las did trakta me kom sen amike.

   10. Nus non es expertes ma sava (our) dokumentes. Nus non did ese expertes ma did sava nusen dokumentes.

   11. Vus have laboro nur por (yourselves). Vus did have laboro nur por vus.

   12. Vu renkontra li bon doktore in (his) chambre. Vu did renkontra li bon doktore in lon chambre.

   13. Los non sava (themselves). Los non did sava sen.

   14. Les observa (their own) chambres. Les did observa sen chambres.

   15. Les ofense non li altres, ma (their own) familie. Les did ofense non li altres, ma sen familie.

   B. Use endings and affixes to convert the following Novial root words to the English words indicated.

   amike – female friend Amika
   praktikal – practicality Praktikaleso
   siniore – lady Siniora
   disi – this man Diso
   exakti – exactness, exactitude Exakteso

inteligenti – intelligence Ineligenteso

   nome – nominal Nomal
   experte – expertise Experteso
   mali – evil Maleso
   pluri – plurality Plureso
   ti – that woman Ta 

These are all correct except for a missing t in "inteligenteso". Remember that the simple past can also be formed by simply adding -d. Dona -> donad or did dona etc. If the verb ends in a consonant add -ed instead: es -> esed, was. As far as I am aware "es" is the only verb which ends in a consonant anyway. Well done. I think you'll be able to write decent Novial fairly soon.Nov ialiste 14:42, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Basque and Finnish

Ofcourse that's okay, that's what the userboxes are for :) Aecis ^{Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984.} 20:59, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Learning Finnish

Hi,

I have some knowledge of Finnish and will help if I can. Nov ialiste 17:44, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Stop!! 2

what i was getting at is that people need to know whats going on. you can't just leave them to die can you? I was sayin that the people need to evacuate as soon as possible. did you know that there were no animals found dead?? i take it you don't. no one knew why the dogs ran away. no one payed any attention. so they need notice! xx

Re: Esperanto et aliæ

I was just looking at Afrikaans earlier yesterday, and saw that its grammar was fairly simple. Swedish has a lot of vowels, so I'm avoiding it. I already know a bit of LFN--I've started making the article for it better--but I'm not that fluent. Ma, me scrive ja poca bon en LFN, donce me va aprende plu LFN con tu si tu vole. --Kinghajj 01:41, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

You are quite welcome! :)

I'm responding here so that it doesn't clutter the article talk page. You are very welcome. If you need any more assistance with navigating Wikipedia, feel free to leave me a message. Just click the "+" tab at the top (right next to 'history') and you'll start editing a new section. Enjoy! -Fsotrain⁰⁹ 22:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks four your help on my userpage

--Boris Johnson VC 22:06, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome!

It's even framed :) I did get a pretty good start. I didn't realize how much I had done until I checked the history page. Maybe I should wait a while and get people's reactions before I add much more. Matt 04:11, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Cameron, have a great day! – Matt 01:36, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Stop the missorting=

I have responded to your comments at Talk:Ångström.

Please stop messing with the sort keys so that the categories are missorted.

And stop removing spelling variants from the text. Gene Nygaard 08:44, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Linguistics

Hi Cameron. Don't worry too much if your school doesn't have many foreign languages on offer. Mine didn't have Latin, but I ended up teaching myself. And a lot of universities let you study languages from scratch - that's how I did Russian, and I speak it better than any language I learnt in school (with the exception of Welsh and English, of course). If you're really interested in linguistics, however, other things that are really worth getting a good grounding in are maths (especially, but not exclusively, statistics), computers, and psychology. I know quite a few linguists who started out as computer scientists, psychologists and mathmeticians. There are also more linguists than you'd think who don't speak a foreign langauge to a very high proficiency. garik 15:20, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your support dude. My current high school only has Spanish/Castillian and a not very good teacher at that. I plan on taking a couple of languages in college, I just wish I had an earlier start at it. As for the other subjects, Math: I am in calculus now and like it, Computers: I am typing you this message from my computer class, o well, and our high school doesn't have psychology, I wish it did. How did you teach yourself Latin, wikibooks? Give me holler whenever man.Cameron Nedland 21:12, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Real books:) There weren't any wikibooks then. It's always good to learn languages - have a look around and see if there are any courses on offer outside school (depending on how much time you've got!) - and it's amazing how much you can learn regardless of your teacher's ability, if you're really into it. Don't worry too much about psychology either - I mean I haven't got much of a background in psychology, computing or maths. I just often wish I did - though what I need I've generally managed to pick up one way or another. The main thing is that there are a lot of ways of approaching linguistics, but as with any subject, the main thing is how you approach it (and not having too many preconceptions). You seem to have a good view on things. Good luck with it! garik 22:05, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Ivory Coast move

Since you participated in previous discussions on Ivory Coast, you might be interested in the requested move at Talk:Côte_d'Ivoire#...Requested_move. —  AjaxSmack  05:50, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi

Here is Christoph from Germany. I was reading the article about our german language. Since the last two weeks I´m visiting the english version of wikipedia every day to read something real interesting about Germany and german persons from your sight (nearly the same I wrote in the discussion of german grammar). I think it´s real interesting and important to work together from nation to nation. I hope you will answer me... Auf Wiedersehen oder einfach Tschüss! Christoph Radtke (its my account in the german version)

PS: Please forgive me some vocabulary- or grammar mistakes... ;-)

I´m so glad to read your answer. Please be carefull with Deutschland über alles, you know...

But I think too, thats very important to say I´m proud to be a german without any ulterior motive (german: Hintergedanke, I dont know, if the phrase is right...). I´m very happy that you love my nation. I think there´re a lot of kinds for loving Germany. I read (or readed? please correct me) that you´re going to study german. If you´ve got any questions about Germany or german language I want to offer you: Ask me, I will try to give you an answer.

PS: I´m from Thüringen. Do you know the Tühringer Rostbratwurst? (By the way, the best in the world. I can eat it the whole day...) I would be happy to read your answer: (I hope you understand my english)

PPS: Maybe you want send an e-mail to me... You can find my adress on my discussion-site in german Wikipedia. I hope we can learn some interesting things from each other about our nations and languages. Christoph Radtke

Are you still alive? ;-)

Last week was the SUper Bowel right? Are you a football fan?. I guess American football is number one sport in the USA, like soccer in Germany. The ARD, one of our leading TV-Sender (I don´t know the english word...) is broadcasting the Superbowel (the first time was in the last year) I dont know any rules of this sport. I planed to watch it at ARD on Sunday, but I was to tired, I slept in front of the TV and woke up at 4:00 pm. The game was over.... As a result of it, I still don´t know anything about football. Maybe you can explain me a few important things?

Christoph Radtke

Thank you for explaining me the game. But there is still one question. Is it possible to kick the ballthrough the gap in the post at the end of the field during the game?. Not just after a Touchdown?

I will propose you a kind of game to learn something from our nations. We can ask each other one question about the other country/language alternately. For example you start to ask me something you want to know about Germany. I will give you an answer, and ask my question... and so on. Please answer me

PS: I really hope my english is nothing to bad... Christoph Radtke

Hello again

Here I'm, once again... ;-)

Thanks for explaining my latest question. Maybe I will watch a football-game sometimes. If you want you can tell me something about Kansas. Is it the"middle of nowere"? How do you live there? Please answer my offer I wrote a few lines upstairs.

Herzlich Grüße von Christoph Radtke aus "good old Germany" (but sometimes we're more modern than many people think...) 217.85.101.207 18:59, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

To answer your question: Ü and Y have the same sound just very seldom. In the most cases Y sounds like J. I will give you some excamples. Yak (an animal) [speak:Jak] or Ying/Yang [Jing und Jang] or Yacht (ship) [speak: Jacht]] It sounds like Ü in a few cases. I will give you some excamples too. Syndikat [speak: Sündikaat] or Syrien [speak: Sürienn]. As a result you can say the Y is a letter who is used very seldom in the german language. Mostley you can speak the Y like the J, sometimes like the Ü.

My question: What is your nearest city? Is your capital Kansas/City and have you ever been there? Gruß Christoph Radtke

Hays? Then you're living near smoky hills?

It's a difficult thing with the AMericans and the Germans. First of all: We Germans don't like your president G.W.Bush. I don't know if you like him, but nearly all german people doesn't like him. Generally you can't say that Germans love/hate all Americans. It is a very crazy thing. The America of the Eastcoast (NY, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia) mostley we don't like so much. I can't explain you the reasons... But the middle and the westcoast we like and Germans love the "wild west". American people of the middle or the west - we mostley love them! We Germans love the "easy" American way of live and we love the mentality of making less sorrows and waiting for everything there is coming (because we are not so). Amerika ist im deutschen oft das "Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten". You can say that the Germans today like the most Americans. An other reason to like your nation: You have many many potent people. Very good doctors, first of all researcher and scientists, famous singers and actors and other good musicans. You know we in Germany love culture. And we're glad to see, that you have some of the best worldwirde orchestras. We also love and please don't laugh)your skyscrapers. Some Germans love your big cities (we have some big and first of all beautiful cities in Germany too (Berlin, Hamburg, München, Köln, Frankfurt, Dresden, Rostock, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hannover and so on)).

Here are some things we Germans don't like or understand. In our eyes you're very prude concerning sex but open minded concerning violence. That is the most important thing we don't understand. I don't want forget to say, that most Germans weren't happy concerning the Iraq-war and that we in Germany don't like the president of the Iran too. I hope you're happy with my answer. If you want to know more, just ask!

And now: counterquestion: Do most Americans love Germany/Germans ?? Grüße von Christoph Radtke

Translation swe-->eng

Dear Cameron, the lines are from the poem "Vårt Fria Ord" (Our free word) by C. V. A. Strandberg and originally from the middle of the 19th century:

• Klingar icke modersmålet skönast - Isn't the mother tongue the most beautiful sounding?
• Binder ej ditt hem med dubbla garn - Isn't the tie to your home bound with double yarn?
• Lyser icke själfva gräset grönast - Doesn't the grass itself shine the greanest, (The original poem has the word ljungen (=the heather), not gräset)
• På den tufva där du lekt som barn - On the tuft where you played as a child?

It's a favorite for embroidered wall decorations of the Romantic nationalism period. Did you by any chance find it on an old piece of tapestry from Sweden? Best wishes, Pia 01:41, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Chris

Hello again! Today I have the time to answer you. Up to yesterday I had no time, because I had to learn for my maths-exam. I hate maths (by the way). Do you know german musicers, politicans and so on? PS: Did you understand what I wrote about your last question. Maybe you know why germans don't like the East-coast like the West-coast? Gruß --217.85.93.89 19:08, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Hello Cameron!

Dutch is a language, sounding sometimes like german. We've got friends in Utrcht (a city in the netherlands) and if they speak very slow, I can understand them well. Some words and some phrases are very similar. But if they speak dutch in normal or quick speed, I haven't a chance to understand them. But it's right, as a german person you can understand dutch quite good. They have just to speak slowly ;-)

Do you know in Kansas Formula one (Michael Schumacher). Are you a fan of Wrestling? I am a Wrestlingfan of the WWE.

Viele Grüße aus Deutschland von Christoph 217.85.97.3 20:39, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

k in sound shifts

Hi Cameron—I'm sorry I've taken so long to get back to you, I'm actually going to be on a long-term wikibreak. Regarding /k/, I would have it switch to /tɕ/ (which becomes /tʃ/) if the k is near a front vowel, such as /y/, /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ø/, etc. If it is near a back vowel, have it degrade into /kx/ or /x/. If I remember correctly, a lot of cognates between Old Norse and Old English exhibit a /tʃ/-/k/ contrast respectively. Cheers, The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 18:06, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Religiosity and Intelligence

Hi Cameron. One of your edits of this article, saying a citation is required, has confused me. One of the paragraphs in question refers to the wikipedia article about intelligence. Isn't this sufficient, or should we also specify the sources of the intelligence quotient article directly in the R&I article? I can't see a policy telling me either way is better, but I'm inclined to leave the more comprehensive link to the full discussion rather than links to individual studies. Any suggestions/ thoughts? WotherspoonSmith 10:52, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of Category:Esperantists up for review

The category Esperantists was deleted recently, and the deletion is up for review. In case you'd like to chime in, go here. --Orange Mike 18:35, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Inukshuk

I changed this back because the reference is to the Inuktitut spelling followed by the English and Inuinnaqtun. Take a look at Talk:Inukshuk for some info on this. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:39, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

no problems. I think it ended up that way because it was the best solution we could come up with. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 20:28, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:36, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, Cameron Nedland. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Triple parentheses

Please don't tag names with triple parentheses like you did in edit. The computer you are using may have software installed to tag the names automatically, if so you may want to disable the software while editing Wikipedia. — Strongjam (talk) 16:11, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, OtherGuy1. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)