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Language

A 13-post collection

Challenge #03641-I353: Communication Barrier

They cannot speak Galactic Standard or Galactic Simple, the translator is broken. Fortunately, the human has learned to speak, and understand, their whistling language. -- Anon Guest

Translator units were never entirely reliable. It was why most of the Alliance relied upon JOATS, polyglots, and stunt linguists to assist in negotiations. Make no mistake, translator units do an excellent job of translating the words. However... idioms, slang, and cultural references often slip through the cracks.

Translation software is always updating in an attempt to keep the metaphorical finger on the pulse of ever-changing language.

And then there's the Rennijym. A species of Avian Havenworlder who communicate exclusively in clicks and whistles. Most species can at least imitate the sounds necessary to handle GalSimple, even with some difficulty, but the Rennijym are not made that way.

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Challenge #02762-G205: My What Big Ears...

"OW! [Fornication] [excrement]! What the [undesirable afterlife] did I just step on?!" -- Anon Guest

Some toys were made to be weaponised into anti-personnel measures. One has, by logic and design, a set of small, modular, interlocking bricks designed to be parts of a creativity toy for children. Children are renowned for not putting away their toys, or not being very vigilant at doing so. There are, to children, much better things to do than looking for tiny building blocks.

Most adults

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Challenge #02479-F289: What in a Name

A small movement has cropped up amongst the Vorax. People who would rather try to live quiet, peaceful, lives instead of piracy and war. When the government goes to make an example out of them, they take the only ship they can get their hands on and flee. They find an uninhabited haven world that's suitable for them to live on and settle down to live quiet lives as farmers, raising their meat animals, hunting wild game, fishing, growing crops, and just

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Challenge #02475-F285: Dismantling Babel

Humans may not be able to recreate the visual cacophony of many species in the Allegiance due to a lack of chromatophoric organs,

(though the "body art" some inflict upon themselves both temporarily with chemical compounds on the Dermis, as well as via repeated and what they call "minor" puncturing of said dermal tissue coupled with the injection of colouring chemicals)

But what they can do with their vocal and pneumonic systems in mimetic creation and improvisation is incredible, and now it

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Challenge #02179-E350: Use Freedom Responsibly

"Do you beeep realize that they beeep wired my voicebox with a digital censor ! Under the beeep pretext that it might shock some Havenworlder. So now I can't say beeep like beeep, beeep, beeep beeep, beeep or even beeep! That's half my beeep vocabulary ! It's goddam beeep." -- Anon Guest

"You can still say 'goddam'," said Human Pel.

"Not beeep helpful, Pel," sighed Ioli, resident AI. "I've been hacked. This is a beeep violation of my freedom of beeep speech!"

Pel took

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Challenge #01869-E045: Say What You Mean

Trades and hobbies have specialist language often the same word can mean completely different things. "Galley", a type of ship, a pre-publishing book or article, a place where Artwork is displayed. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Nonny, you have confused "galley" with "gallery" there]

From the Dictionary of Confusing Slang on the free infonet:

Face: (n)
1. Application of stage makeup for a performance (theatrical)
2. Application of makeup for business (civilian human female, pre-Shattering)
3. Painting on protective boards to make a

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Challenge #01583-D122: The Word Escapes

English is also a loose cannon cop-on-the-edge who doesn't play by the rules and will do horrible, horrible things if it solves the short-term problem in front of him. -- RecklessPrudence

There are moments when words escape the speaker. Rational thought, too, takes a temporary holiday and necessity mothers a great deal of illogical invention.

"I need a new..." the next word fled to the furthest reaches of Kathmandu. "...um..." What was the dang word for it? People were staring. She needed

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Challenge #00996-B265: Miss Communication

That thing where your words get all tangled up and you can't speak your own language until you stop and spit out the bad sounds, then suddenly you can talk again. -- Anon Guest

[AN: You might appreciate this vid from Red Dwarf. There's also a more polished official version IDK I rather prefer the original...]

Shayde was in the middle of Explaining Physics. Some of the expositions she had were still years ahead of current technology. Right now, she was examining

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Challenge #00995-B264: One Stuffy Hour in a Remote Meeting Hall

SPOEn get confronted with this http://xkcd.com/1576/ (a personal failure at panel 6, where I guessed wrong and upset someone was what made me send the prompt that became SPOEn - I didn't articulate myself well in the prompt) -- RecklessPrudence

"Wait," said the noob at the meeting. "I thought this was for analysis of language drift, trying to find the origins. I mean, in so far as anyone can find any origins..."

"What did you think it meant when

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Start using support levels instead of functioning labels!

a-spoon-is-born:

soradiesinkh3:

butterflyinthewell:

For the uninformed, functioning labels are terms like high functioning autism, low functioning autism, mild autism, severe autism. Other words like moderate or level 1, level 2, etc may be used too.

Functioning labels are extremely offensive because they’re placed on autistic people based on observation from the outside. This is problematic for three reasons.

  • Functioning labels determine how autistic people are treated. People associate “low functioning/severe” with incompetence or infancy and they end up treating the
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thisisnotharmless: Speaking of linguistics, there's one particular linguistic tick that I think clearly separates Baby Boomers from...

thisisnotharmless:

Speaking of linguistics, there’s one particular linguistic tick that I think clearly separates Baby Boomers from Millennials: how we reply when someone says “thank you.”

You almost never hear a Millennial say “you’re welcome.” At least not when someone thanks them. It just isn’t done. Not because Millenials are ingrates lacking all manners, but because the polite response is “No problem.” Millennials only use “you’re welcome” sarcastically when they haven’t been thanked or when something has

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sportsketball: i wish there were words like "girl" and "boy" and "man" "guy" "lady" etc to refer to nonbinary people besides just "person"...

sportsketball:

i wish there were words like “girl” and “boy” and “man” “guy” “lady” etc to refer to nonbinary people besides just “person” bc sometimes i dont feel like gendering myself when i want to say stuff like “guess who just slipped and fell in the mud while walking the dogs. this girl/guy.” because “guess who slipped in the mud while walking the dogs. this person” makes me feel like i am a robot or an alien trying to integrate into

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What? Me Racist?

All my life [that’s 39 years and counting] I have used the word “piker” to mean “someone mean with money”. Usually in the following situation:

::self finds 5 cent coin::
“Wealth beyond the dreams of Avarice!” (beat) “Avarice was a piker.”

It’s a routine I inherited from my parents and it used to be a bit of harmless fun. Something funny to say.

I have since learned via an internet

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