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SPOENs

A 5-post collection

Challenge #04366-K348: Communications Breakthrough

SPOENS are considered a mostly harmless nuisance until one of them teaches all the cogniscents who communicate with light, Morse Code and it caught on. -- Anon Guest

[AN: There's a few things to consider here. First - SPOEns are the Society for the Preservation of Original English and permanently in argument about what Original English is. Second - Morse Code is only a means of codification of language. It's right there on the tin. Third... there's more than a few cogniscents who communicate with light. It's a little much for just one SPOEn]

Never underestimate a Human with an obsession. Those with a laser focus on one obscure thing have a power that few can understand. Most of the time it's the power to infodump for the entirety of their waking hours, but occasionally it branches out to... cultural cross-contamination.

Sort of.

There's more than a few cogniscent species within the Alliance who rely on Melil telepaths because they can't communicate in the average way. The H'nuffruff gained some advantage from semaphore, and so did other insectoid species. There were other low-gravvers for whom communication is... technical.

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Challenge #01548-D087: The Good Word

We all know "Abracadabra," or, "Hocus Pocus," and sometimes, "Just Like That! Just Like That!" Then of course there's, "Please," "Excuse Me," and, "Thank You," which might stop you getting hit by someone. -- Knitnan

There was one door in the Vault that had not been opened. The SPOEns had been at it for almost a year. And it wasn't often that Shayde took her Ambassadorial Yacht anywhere at all, because she didn't like to travel without Rael by her side. And

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Challenge #01465-D004: The Wrong Question

English is... well... it's a Germanic language where sixty percent of it is based on Latin. That should tell you everything you need to know about how awful a language English is. -- RecklessPrudence

The current meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Original English wound to a cold halt. "Who let the linguist in?" demanded someone in the assembly hall.

"Uh," said the unexpected linguist. "This isn't a language study group?"

The Chair-being took a deep breath. "This is the

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Challenge #01095-B363: But What Does it Mean?

Another sentence for SPoE(n): “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” And other words that exemplify the "superiority" and "purity" of English: http://mentalfloss.com/article/57032/25-words-are-their-own-opposites -- RecklessPrudence

They had given Shayde a piece of paper preserved under glass. In a special room with careful lighting. Between the half-words on either side, an innocuous sentence.

Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.

It was news print. The other side

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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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