menino posted:

So does Bulgarian have some kind of sprachbund thing going on? Why is it the only Slavic language with articles?

twoot posted:

Economist map showing UK constituencies as equal size to better depict the geographical party split which isn't visible on regular party mapping.



http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/04/mapping-britain

Dusseldorf posted:

I'm amazed that someone finally figured out how to make a population representative map that didn't look like a malignant tumor. Also why does the map leave off the northern Irish?

eSports Chaebol posted:

It's believed that at one point more Yoopers spoke Cornish than people in Cornwall.

twoot posted:

I'd assume because NI doesn't conform to the Labour/Conservative/Liberal split which occurs on the mainland. It has lots of its own smaller parties.

The Monkey Man posted:

A map showing penetration of West German TV signals into East Germany.

The Monkey Man posted:

A map showing penetration of West German TV signals into East Germany.

Dusseldorf posted:

Did off the shelf East German TVs pick up West German broadcasts?


Edit: Besides Radio Free Europe type broadcasts specifically for Eastern audiences.

Angiepants posted:

The end result of the Berlin Conference.

The Monkey Man posted:

Yeah, the three major parties don't run candidates at all there.

Soviet Commubot posted:

I just learned that a couple of months ago at a Celtic language conference here in Brittany. poo poo blew my mind because the Cornish dude who told me that and I were speaking Breton and in Breton I don't really have an identifiably American accent despite being born and raised in Michigan, but at first I thought he was just kinda loving with me.

Shbobdb posted:

To be fair, it is easy not to have an identifiable accent in a language no one speaks. I mean, no one hears my American accent when I speak Kemetic.

quote:

DIRECTIONS for PLAYING

Two or more Ladies or Gentlemen having agreed to make an elegant and instructive tour of EUROPE, are represented by Pillars and play the Game according to the following Rules:

• Take the Totum and mark it on the sides from 1 to 8.
  
• Every Traveller is to have one Pillar, and four Counters of the same colour.
  
• Each Person is to spin the Totum once, observing who has the highest number, as that determines who is to play fist.
  
• Begin play by spinning the Totum; if it turns up 4, place your Pillar on that number, Orleans; when it is your turn to spin again, if it comes up 6, then add 6 to 4, and travel to 10, Rochfort.
  
• Read the description of each place you arrive at, and follow the directors there given.
  
• When you are directed to play one or more turns, lay down so many Counters, as memorandums thereof, taking up one of them again every time you omit spinning, till they are all got back, and they spin again in your turn.
  
• When you arrive at a station occupied by another, you are to go forward to the next vacant one.
  
• As often as you exceed 102 you must go back to 81 Bergen and spin again in turn, till some one is so fortunate as to arrive at London (the GAME) and consequently become entitled to the applause of the company and honor of being esteemed the best instructed and speediest traveler in EUROPE.

ENTERED AT STATIONER’s HALL
1. CALAIS, the key of France, lost by the bigoted Queen Mary.
2. ROUEN, capital of Normandy, where the famous Maid of Orleans was burnt in 1430.
3. PARIS, capital of France; stay 2 turns to contemplate the New French Constitution, to view the Palace of Versailles, and site the Bastille demolished in 1789.
4. ORLEANS, capital of the Orleanois; here the traveler will be shown a brazen statue of the famous Maid of Orleans.
5. BLOIS, a pleasant town upon the Loire; here flay two turns, and learn to speak the French language in its purity.
6. RENNES, the capital of Britany
7. ST. MALO, a sea-port town of Britany; in war time a nest of privateers.
8. BRES, the principal sea-port of France; stay one turn to view its fortifications and dock yards.
9. NANTES, a sea-port town of Britany, famous for its brandy trade, and the edict of Henry IV. For establishing the Protestant religion, repealed by Lewis XIV
10. ROCHFORT, a sea-port town in Guienne.
11 BOURDEAUX, a capital of Guienne, where the traveler stays one turn to regale himself with good claret.
12. BAYONNE, a sea-port town in Gascony, famous for its hams.
13. BURGOS, the capital of Old Castile
14. MADRID, capital of Spain; here you must be imprisoned for four turns in the Inquisition, if before your arrival it should not have shared the fate of the Bastile.
15. SALAMANCA, a town in Spain, famous for its university.
16. OPORTO, a sea-port town in Portugal; noted for its wine trade
17. LISBON, capital of Portugal; stay one turn to talk with Count D’Oyeras, on the subject of Portuguese gratitude.
18. SEVILLE, capital of Andalusia, noted for oranged.
19. CADIZ, key of the Spanish commerce; land to see the king’s dock yards, but when you put to sea again beware of the bilboes.
20. GIBRALTAR, a sea-port in Andalusia, taken by the English in 1704; on account of the late gallant defense of this garrison by the brave Eliot, lord Heathfield of glorious memory, the traveler may step forward to Turin, 37.
21. MALAGA, a sea-port town in Spain, famous for its wine trade
22. GRANADA, the capital of a province of that name.
23. CARTHEGENA, a sea-port in Spain.
24. VALENCIA, the capital of a province of that name in Spain; stay one turn to examine into the state of the silk manufactures.
25. MINORCA, an island in the Mediterranean, famous for its excellent harbor, and fine honey.
26. BARCELONA, the capital of Catalonia.
27. PERPIGNAN, the capital of Rousillon, the subject to France.
28. NARBONNE, a city in Languedoc; stay one turn to view the antiquities of this place, and the royal canal.
29. MONTEPELIER, noted for falubrity of air and cheapness of provisions, will not doubt induce the traveler to flop two turns, to repair his constitution and restore finance.
30. MARSEILLES, a sea-port town of Provence, and principal of the French trade to the Levant.
31. TOULON, a sea-port town of Provence; stay one turn to see its fine harbour and the royal dock yards.
32. LYONS, capital of the Lyonnois.
33. DIJON, the capital of Burgandy, famous for its excellent wines.
34. BASIL, a town in Switzerland; stay one turn to view the library of the great Erasmus, who died here, in 1536.
35. BERN, capital of the largest canton in Switzerland.
36. GENEVA, the birth place and residence of the learned John Calvin.
37. TURIN, capital of the kingdom of Sardinia; stay two turns to visit the court, and the university.
38. MILAN, capital of the duchy of that name; famous for the church and library of St. Ambrose.
39. MANTUA, the capital of the duchy of that name; stay one turn in honour of the Mantuan poet, Baptista Mantana.
40. VENICE; the capital of the republic of that name, furnamed the rich; stay three turns to partake the diversions of the carnival, and congratulate the Doge on his nuptials with the Adriatic sea.
41. FERRARA, once a flourishing city, but greatly on the decline, since it became subject to the pope. This being so unfortunate a place, the traveler must turn back to 7. St. Malo.
42. PARMA, the capital of the ducky of that name, is possessed of the finest theatre in Italy.
43. GENOA, capital of the republic of that name; surnamed the proud, from its grand buildings; here the traveler must stay four turns, and then go back to Rouen, 3. On account of the cruelty of the Genoese to the Corsicians.
44. LEGHORN, a sea-port town of great trade in Tuscany.
45. CORSICA, an Island in the Mediterranean, celebrated for its long struggle with the Genoese, in the glorious cause of liberty.
46. FLORENCE, surnamed the fair, capital of the grand dukedom of Tuscany.
47. SIENNA, a town in Tuscany; stay two turns and learn to speak pure Italian.
48. VITERBO, a handsome town in the pope’s territories.
49. ROME, once mistress of the world, but now only capital of the Pope’s dominions; stay two turns to view its curiosities, and reflect on the abuses of papal government.
50. NAPLES, a capital of the kingdom of that name, beware of the Lava of mount Vesuvius
51. SCYLLA, a famous rock on the Calabrian shore, where the traveler being shipwrecked, loses the chance of the game.
52. MESSINA, a sea-port town in Sicily, lately destroyed by an earthquake.
53. PALERMO, capital of the island of Sicily; on your way to Syracuse, see the famous volcano, mount Etna.
54. SYRACUSE, a very ancient town, once a flourishing state in Sicily; stay one turn to see the cave of Dionysus the tyrant the burying-place of Archimedes and the fountain Arethusa.
55. MALTA, a famous island, residence of the grand matter of the kings of St. John on Jerusalem.
56. ATHENS, a town in Greece; stay two turns to view the antiquities of this once celebrated feat of learning.
57. SALONICHI, formerly Thessalonica, the capital of Macedon, a town of good trade; where the traveler will pay a visit to the English consul.
58. CONSTANTINOPLE, the capital of the Turkish empire, and the residence of grand seigniors stay one turn to see Santa Sophia.
59. ADRIANOPLE, a large city of Turkey in Europe.
60. BELGRADE, a town in Servia, subjected to the Turks.
61. BUDA, capital of lower Hungary
62. PRESBURG, capital of Hungary
63. VIENNA, capital of Austria and residence of the emperor of Germany; stay one turn to view the fortications.
64. MUNICH, capital of the electorate of Bavaria.
65. AUSBURG, an imperial city in Swabia, where the protestant princes presented their consession of faith in 1530.
66. RATISBON, a town in Bavaria, and feat of the imperial diet.
67. NUREMBERG, an imperial city in Franconia; stay one turn to see the regalia of the emperor.
68. PRAGUE, capital of Bohemia; stay one turn to see its rich cathedral and fine bridge.
69. BRESLAW, capital of Silesia.
70. CRACOW, a large city in Poland.
71. WARSAW, capital of Poland; here the traveler must stay two turns and go back to Cadiz, 19, on account of the Poles calling in the Turks, and persecuting the Dissidents.
72. DANTZICK, a sea-port of great trade in Poland.
73. KONIGBERG, capital of the Kingdom of Prussia.
74. MITTAU, capital of Courland
75. MOSCOW, second city of Russia.
76. ST PETERSBURGH, capital of Russia; stay one turn to view this city, founded by Peter the Great.
77. ARCHANGEL, a sea-port of Russia, on the White Sea.
78. STORNEA, a town in Swedish Lapland, where the French Mathematicians measured a degree of the Arctic circle.
79. STOCKHOLM, capital of Sweden.
80. FREDERICKSHALL, a town in Norway; stay one turn to lament the fate of Charles XII of Sweden, killed here by a cannon ball in 1717.
81. BERGEN, capital of Norway.
82. COPENHAGEN, capital of Denmark.
83. HAMBURG, an imperial city, famous for its extensive commerce.
84. STRELITZ; stay two turns to view the duke’s fine palace, and the pretty town of Mirow, where her Majesty Queen Charolette was born.
85. BERLIN, capital of the king of Prussia’s German dominions.
86. DRESDEN, capital of the electorate of Saxony; stay one turn to view the cabinet of curiosities, called Kunst Kammer.
87. LEIPSICK, a town in Saxony, famous for its two annual fairs; stay one turn to view the field of battle where the great Guslavus Adolphus was slain in 1632.
88. HANOVER, capital of the British king’s German dominions: this being a fortunate number, the traveler will be moved to Brussels, 99.
89. OSNABRUCK, capital of the bishopric of Westphalia; stay one turn to view the palace of his Royal Highness Frederick Duke of York, present bishop of that see.
90. CASSEL, capital of the land-graviate of Hesse: remarkable for its palace and the cascade at Weissen Stein.
91. FRANKFORT, an imperial city on the river Maine: famous for its two annual fairs.
92. MENTZ, capital of the electorate of that name, and birth place of John Guttenberg, who invented the art of printing in 1450.
93. COLOGNE, capital of the electorate of that name.
94. DUSSELDORP, town subject to the elector Palatine.
95. AMSTERDAM, capital of Holland; stay three turns to view that stadthouse, the arsenal, and the sardom.
96. HAGUE, the finest village in the world, and feat of the States General; stay one turn to see Scheveling and the house in the wood.
97. ROTTERDAM, the second city in Holland. The traveler must go back to Naples, 50 least his modals be corrupted by the smugglers of this place.
98. ANTWERP, a fine city in the Austrian Netherlands.
99. BRUSSELS, capital of the Austrian Netherlands; stay one turn to see Charles’s curious cabinet.
100. LISLE, capital of French Flanders.
101. OSTEND, a sea-port town in Austrian Flanders; from hence a packet boat to Dover.
102. LONDON, capital of England, THE GAME.

QuoProQuid posted:

BOWLES'S EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHICAL AMUSEMENT (or a Game of Geoography)
Designed 1795.

withak posted:

http://robertspage.com/dialects.html

Panas posted:

Follow up on the east germany talk. Guess what city this is...

Kurtofan posted:

43. GENOA, capital of the republic of that name; surnamed the proud, from its grand buildings; here the traveler must stay four turns, and then go back to Rouen, 3. On account of the cruelty of the Genoese to the Corsicians.

45. CORSICA, an Island in the Mediterranean, celebrated for its long struggle with the Genoese, in the glorious cause of liberty.

Genoa

withak posted:

http://robertspage.com/dialects.html

quote:

They sometimes call doughnuts cymbals, simballs, and boil cakes.

Pyromancer posted:

Some things soviet block did right - sodium vapor lamps of the east are superior to mercury lamps of the west

Soviet Commubot posted:

quote:

The United States of Greater Austria (German: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was a proposal, conceived by a group of scholars surrounding the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, that never came to pass. This specific proposal was conceived by Aurel Popovici in 1906.

As the twentieth century started to unfold, the greatest problem facing the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was that it consisted of about a dozen distinctly different ethnic groups, of which only two, the Germans and Hungarians (who together accounted for about 44% of the total population), wielded any power or control. The other ethnic groups, which were not involved in the state affairs, were consisted of Italians, Romanians and a group of Slavic peoples (Croatians, Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians). Among them, only Croats had limited autonomy in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. The idea of the Dual Monarchy system of 1867 had been to split the previous Austrian Empire into two realms, one German-dominated, the other Hungarian-dominated. However, after various demonstrations, uprisings and acts of terrorism, it became readily apparent that the notion of two ethnic groups dominating the other ten could not survive in perpetuum.

Franz Ferdinand had planned to redraw the map of Austria-Hungary radically, creating a number of ethnically and linguistically dominated semi-autonomous "states" which would all be part of a larger confederation renamed the United States of Greater Austria. Under this plan, language and cultural identification was encouraged, and the disproportionate balance of power would be corrected. The idea was set to encounter heavy opposition from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy, since a direct result of the reform would have been a significant territorial loss for Hungary.

However, the Archduke was assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914, triggering the outbreak of the First World War. After the war Austria-Hungary was dismantled and several new nation states were created, and various Austro-Hungarian territories were ceded to neighbouring countries by the victorious Entente powers.

Panas posted:

Follow up on the east germany talk. Guess what city this is...

Guavanaut posted:

A lot of that warm yellow glow over East Berlin is gas lighting, not sodium vapor.

There's an ongoing plan to get them replaced with more efficient lighting, like LEDs specifically designed to mirror the color of the old gas lamps.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16017872-warm-glow-of-berlins-beautiful-gas-streetlights-set-to-fade

Soviet Commubot posted:

I know you're just shitposting here because you're mad about moonspeak or whatever, but there are about 200,000 people who speak Breton and I speak Breton more often than I speak either French or English.

Soviet Commubot posted:

I know you're just shitposting here because you're mad about moonspeak or whatever, but there are about 200,000 people who speak Breton and I speak Breton more often than I speak either French or English.

Guavanaut posted:

A lot of that warm yellow glow over East Berlin is gas lighting, not sodium vapor.

There's an ongoing plan to get them replaced with more efficient lighting, like LEDs specifically designed to mirror the color of the old gas lamps.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16017872-warm-glow-of-berlins-beautiful-gas-streetlights-set-to-fade

HighClassSwankyTime posted:

The question's been asked before but I'm really curious what an American is doing in France who identifies with Breton nationalists and is also a socialist. How to people react when you're being an activist for the Breton cause, as a friend or unwanted interference?

duodenum posted:

He's not talking about sodium vapor in the air, he's referring to the gas used in the lamp. Yellow street lights are almost always high pressure sodium lamps, old school low pressure sodium lamps are yellower and larger. The white-ish light is produced by mercury vapor lamps or newer metal halide lamps that you might see lighting parking lots in the US. HPS lamps are brighter per watt than metal halide or mercury vapor because they don't try to put out a full(er) spectrum of light.

Konstantin posted:

A lot of European-Americans try to make an active effort to understand and preserve their heritage. If you're British or French or whatever you probably know in a general sense where your ancestors came from, but many Americans have no idea where they came from beyond "I'm white, and all my grandparents were born here". People want to know where they came from and want to preserve that heritage, and when you are far away from where your ancestors were, you need to make an active effort to do that. A corollary issue is the fact that it's almost impossible to trace the heritage of an African-American beyond "Well, your ancestor may have been owned by John Smith, who ran a plantation in South Carolina."

Guavanaut posted:

I'm not implying that there's any sodium vapor in the air, just that a large amount of street lighting in Berlin is gaslight due to the Soviet reillumination program post-WW2, and that there has been opposition to them being replaced even though they're inefficient and have high CO2 emissions. One of the suggested solutions is an LED replacement with a similar color to the gaslights.