Randallteal posted:

In Day-Month-Year countries, when you guys pronounce a date out loud, do you always say "twelfth of September"? Just curious. It would make sense that you would never say "September twelfth," but it's hard for me to imagine.

As in most things where the USA is all by itself (Fahrenheit, Imperial etc.), you still see dates written the other way pretty often here I find, or written both ways.

Jehde posted:

I grew up being taught MM/DD/YY in elementary school but I've long given that up since it's terrible. I still do 'Month Day, Year' if writing out formally, but big-endian is where it's at.

YYYY/MM/DD is bulletproof for millennia.

My Imaginary GF posted:

If everyone used our system, it would be universally understood that all dates are reported as month-day-year. In fact, thats how all official communications with American government must be conducted. Don't want to? Don't conduct business with US.

khwarezm posted:

Why do Americans get so defensive about stuff like the metric system or this.

My Imaginary GF posted:

'Hey, when was the last time you were at the gym?'

'Oh, about 2014 August twelfth.'

Sounds a bit clunky, don't it?

My Imaginary GF posted:

'Hey, when was the last time you were at the gym?'

'Oh, about 2014 August twelfth.'

Sounds a bit clunky, don't it?

Phlegmish posted:

I had heard about the successful revival of Welsh, but according to the map it's still in decline. But maybe it's just due to old Welsh speakers dying off and no longer compensating for Anglicized boomers or something.

For a language to effectively survive in today's world, it needs to be dominant or at least present in its area's administration, media and/or educational system. I'm not sure to what extent that's the case in Wales. In any case, Irish is doomed to irrelevance unless the government is willing to take radical, Israel-style measures. Individual people, no matter how nationalistic, are not going to switch to speaking an unfamiliar language unless they are either somehow forced to by their environment or they perceive it as having some kind of sociological advantage. Often both mechanisms are simultaneously are at play, as in 19th-century Brussels.

a pipe smoking dog posted:

One thing I've noticed with Welsh people is how many of us (both welsh and non-welsh speaking) watched welsh language TV and listened to welsh radio growing up. I think S4C and BBC Radio Cymru have had a huge impact in keeping the language going. S4C especially has had a lot of good children's programming and sports which means a it reaches an audience that might otherwise be missed.

Torrannor posted:

Why would a person that cannot understand Welsh listen to Welsh radio?

Torrannor posted:

Why would a person that cannot understand Welsh listen to Welsh radio?

Torrannor posted:

Why would a person that cannot understand Welsh listen to Welsh radio?

khwarezm posted:

Why do Americans get so defensive about stuff like the metric system or this.

khwarezm posted:

Why do Americans get so defensive about stuff like the metric system or this.

sweek0 posted:

Have there been any massive gently caress ups because of the different date-writing systems before? Have important people shown up to a meeting on the wrong date and such? I know Celcius/Fahrenheit definitely has lead to some big mistakes in the past.

I like to just use the first three letters of the month instead of a number to make it unambiguous. And when it comes to file and folder names it's always YYYYMMDD for sorting purposes.

Wikipedia posted:

The primary cause of this discrepancy was that one piece of ground software produced results in a United States customary unit ("English"), while a second system that used those results expected them to be in metric units. Software that calculated the total impulse produced by thruster firings calculated results in pound-seconds. The trajectory calculation used these results to correct the predicted position of the spacecraft for the effects of thruster firings. This software expected its inputs to be in newton-seconds.[16]

The discrepancy between calculated and measured position, resulting in the discrepancy between desired and actual orbit insertion altitude, had been noticed earlier by at least two navigators, whose concerns were dismissed. A meeting of trajectory software engineers, trajectory software operators (navigators), propulsion engineers, and managers, was convened to consider the possibility of executing Trajectory Correction Maneuver-5, which was in the schedule. Attendees of the meeting recall an agreement to conduct TCM-5, but it was ultimately not done.

Boiled Water posted:

If that's the case then why not write 12/9?

Pakled posted:

Because the majority of the time, we vocalize dates like "September 12th" rather than "The 12th of September" or whatever. So MDY matches the order in which we actually say the dates. In languages like Spanish where dates are almost always vocalized Day-Month, DMY is the most logical system, but in the US we could have gone either way. I just write out the month when I can to avoid ambiguity, at any rate.

Torrannor posted:

So how do the Brits say it when they use D/M/Y?

My Imaginary GF posted:

We really couldn't have. We were a nation founded through smuggling financing and with a major shipping industry; we had to know the month when to expect an arrival, and to discount the ship if it was over a month rate because sometimes Neptune sends a white whale after your rum-laden hold.

Tl:dr: at founding, the months matter more for precision than days in our major commercial industries.

computer parts posted:

Just in general months matter more than days because it tells you what season you're in.

My Imaginary GF posted:

Yup.

'The British are coming! The British are coming!'

'When?'

'Oh, about the end of October, once harvest season is finishing up.'

computer parts posted:

I'd think the correct answer would be "from Boston".

Peanut President posted:

Seriously anytime people bring this poo poo up just remember: America won. We can write the dates/measure things/spell words however we like.

edit:

A map of where England's opinion matters. (Blue = very much/yellow = a little/light blue = basically the gospel)

Mike the TV posted:

Today is 09/12/2014.

That's progression from smallest to largest.

Phlegmish posted:

I had heard about the successful revival of Welsh, but according to the map it's still in decline. But maybe it's just due to old Welsh speakers dying off and no longer compensating for Anglicized boomers or something.

For a language to effectively survive in today's world, it needs to be dominant or at least present in its area's administration, media and/or educational system. I'm not sure to what extent that's the case in Wales. In any case, Irish is doomed to irrelevance unless the government is willing to take radical, Israel-style measures. Individual people, no matter how nationalistic, are not going to switch to speaking an unfamiliar language unless they are either somehow forced to by their environment or they perceive it as having some kind of sociological advantage. Often both mechanisms are simultaneously are at play, as in 19th-century Brussels.

Peanut President posted:

Tuxedo Gin posted:

Europe's oldest indigenous language

made of bees posted:

uh wouldn't that be Basque?

made of bees posted:

uh wouldn't that be Basque?