Your culture, not mine. I’m not French but picture me much closer to French than almost anything else.
I actually investigated that bit when I saw written 666 as “six hundred three score six” (? from memory), wich was perplexing to me because I thought “score” only applied to sports, maybe to dating by analogy. However it is a fine word, we’d say it the same in Basque: “seirehun hirurogei ta sei”, vigesimal counting is a very old European tradition, even the French and the Danish preserve some of it.
As a Dane I may add that we also use the Danish word for score (‘snes’) quite a lot – where an English speaker would say ‘dozens of so-and-so’, we would say ‘scores of’ (‘snesevis’)
I wonder how many modern Americans actually know what “score” means in that context. Even to those that do know the definition, I think it would be considered archaic or poetic language; I hardly ever hear it used that way except when someone is quoting the Gettysberg Address.
Out of curiosity, what is your culture that’s “not French but… much closer to French than almost anything else”? Belgian? Swiss? Monegasque? (Had to look that last one up to find the correct adjective.)
Basque. Southern Basque so more Spanish-influenced than French in terms of language but I think that psychologically we’re much closer to the French than to the Spanish, same for Catalans surely.
Among other details we’re the three more atheist countries in Europe, maybe with exception of Albania (not very clear, the cultural revolution did have a strong impact there AFAIK but I don’t know that country enough). We also have embraced some “French” ideas for example in national identity (inclusiveness, assimilation, although it works worse for us for lack of sovereign state). We’re also very combative in terms of social struggles, like the French.
I put “French” in quotations here because there’s a this weird story about one of the Southern Basque statelets, Gipuzkoa, voting for being annexed to France after the French Revolution on the grounds of finally being another country with laws like the Basque ones (guess they did not know about Switzerland, surely a closer match). They were totally ignored by Paris.
Also the effects of the French Revolution in the Northern Basque Country were very disruptive of the social fabric because of unifying everything mindlessly. What was probably great improvements for the French, were steps back for the Basques. A friend of mine, about the only US linguist who speaks Basque fluently, uploaded something about that, specifically about the role of women in Labourd across the French Revolution divide, at her Academia[dot]edu profile, she’s named Roslyn Frank, look her up if interested.
PS- There was also this interesting character, which I and many others deem the true “founding father” of Basque nationalism, a very romantic figure from Soule (which we call Zuberoa), who did not only made up curious neo-legends but was actually fighting for the Carlists in the South in the 1830s (and wrote a book about that as well, of great historical interest) but then, later on, he was a republican dissident in French context, strongly persecuted by Napoleon III. His name is Agosti Xaho in Basque or Augustin Chaho in French.
We’ve got this difficult relation with the French even since the Franks, who invaded us several times already in the Middle Ages, were also fought against several times, with some success (notably the famous battle of Roncevaux Pass, which we call Orreaga, the only serious defeat of Charlemagne). Even there was this time later on when a Navarrese Huguenot King became King of France (and thereafter the schuteons of both nations were used together by the French Bourbons until their final dethroning).
With the Spanish, even if Castilian (Spanish) language is clearly a Basque-influenced romance, we don’t have the same kind of connection because they’ve never made a revolution of any sort, at least not one that succeded like those of France or Switzerland. They’re still somewhat medieval in many aspects.
K.A. were my first wife’s initials, for her first and middle names. My last name is Boom. So KA-BOOM obviously a reference to her. She died almost 50 years ago. Thanks for the memory. I still miss her.
I mean, the remains found at Cro-Magnon were anatomically modern humans anyway, while these ones seem more inspired by Neanderthals (which were apparently discovered in 1856 – still too late for our comic, and even more too late for the Frenchman who has been away from civilization for quite some time now). But it’s an alternate history setting with a giant drill falling into underground caves and encountering monsters and lizardmen, so I don’t really see an issue. Etymologically, Cro-Magnon is from the owner of the land the cave was found on (Magnon) and a word for hole (Cro), so maybe Neanderthal remains were found earlier in this setting, in a hole on the land of a different fellow with the surname Magnon.
I’m well aware of the anachronisms that permeate Unearth. Without anachronisms there would be NO Unearth. I went with “Cro-Magnons” because that seems to be closest thing to “caveman” in French. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Oops, that was meant to be a standalone comment, not a reply. Anyway, regarding “cro-magnon””: I didn’t know it was an anachronism, but I was going to point out (before I saw that someone beat me to it) that Cro-Magnons were anatomically modern humans, and also that it should technically be capitalized.
If you’re looking for a word that means caveman, “troglodyte” isn’t specifically a French word, but I’m sure it would be understood by a Frenchman.
The term cromagnon, cro-magnon, etc. (from Crô-Magnon, the name of the eponymous cave, where “crô” is a dialectal version of “grotte” = cave, Magnon may be a surname, unsure) was in fashion especially in the 20th century, especially to contrast with Neanderthals (again a cave toponym) but later also became a label in racialist terminology to tentatively identify a particular subpopulation of ancient Homo sapiens in Europe and North Africa, in contrast to others that were claimed to be different in appearance, all based in the “hard science” of measuring skulls and such (also lots of imagination at times). They were particularly associated to the Gravettian culture all the way to the advent of paleogenetics, when things changed on light of further evidence.
Recently it became evident that North African Paleolithic people (of the Oranian or Iberomaurusian culture notably, until recently claimed to be in the “racial” grouping of Cromagnons, OK, I’ll capitalize it) were not directly related to Paleoeuropeans of any sort (only via the old common origin in West Asia) and thus today the term has decayed into irrelevance, although it’s still sometimes used to mean Homo sapiens of the wider West Eurasian type, especially in contrast to Neanderthals.
Good point re. troglodyte, it is a perfectly good French word, written exactly the same as in English even if pronounced differently (trogloDIT vs TROglodeyt).
Fair enough. You’re the Master of Brushes and Crayons.
I don’t speak but a modicum of French but in Spanish it’d be “cavernícola”, which is a funny slur in common parlance (which I however dislike when talking more seriously because I strongly respect Paleolithic people and lifestyle… but whatever). Per Wikitionary “caveman” is “homme des cavernes”, which is admittedly a bit too long.
Other Spanish form is “troglodita” (troglodyte), which certainly has a French version written identical to the English one. It also means “caveman” or “caveperson” but from a Greek root (troglos = hole).
Of course use whatever language you prefer, I just happened to realize the slight and irrelevant contradiction to spice your day.
Sorry for posting twice. The second post was meant to be an edit on the first one. Please delete the first one, retain the second, and delete this one. May I suggest an edit button?
Thanks for posting! I can configure the comments with user edit functions… BUT that would require all users to create password login accounts in order to comment. When I tried this in the past, the number of commentors plummeted.
Ka-something? Sounds ominous.
Also scores = vigintaines, two dozens minus four (not everyone knows that, I didn’t just some years ago).
“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation…” –Abraham Lincoln/Gettysburg address, 1863
Your culture, not mine. I’m not French but picture me much closer to French than almost anything else.
I actually investigated that bit when I saw written 666 as “six hundred three score six” (? from memory), wich was perplexing to me because I thought “score” only applied to sports, maybe to dating by analogy. However it is a fine word, we’d say it the same in Basque: “seirehun hirurogei ta sei”, vigesimal counting is a very old European tradition, even the French and the Danish preserve some of it.
Also, “Scores” rhymes with “yours” which bookends the dialogue nicely.
As a Dane I may add that we also use the Danish word for score (‘snes’) quite a lot – where an English speaker would say ‘dozens of so-and-so’, we would say ‘scores of’ (‘snesevis’)
Welsh does too.
In some counties in England, sheep are counted in a specific numbering system that goes from 1 to 20.
So, yeah, we have a word for a group of 20. I put it in my app.
I wonder how many modern Americans actually know what “score” means in that context. Even to those that do know the definition, I think it would be considered archaic or poetic language; I hardly ever hear it used that way except when someone is quoting the Gettysberg Address.
Out of curiosity, what is your culture that’s “not French but… much closer to French than almost anything else”? Belgian? Swiss? Monegasque? (Had to look that last one up to find the correct adjective.)
Basque. Southern Basque so more Spanish-influenced than French in terms of language but I think that psychologically we’re much closer to the French than to the Spanish, same for Catalans surely.
Among other details we’re the three more atheist countries in Europe, maybe with exception of Albania (not very clear, the cultural revolution did have a strong impact there AFAIK but I don’t know that country enough). We also have embraced some “French” ideas for example in national identity (inclusiveness, assimilation, although it works worse for us for lack of sovereign state). We’re also very combative in terms of social struggles, like the French.
I put “French” in quotations here because there’s a this weird story about one of the Southern Basque statelets, Gipuzkoa, voting for being annexed to France after the French Revolution on the grounds of finally being another country with laws like the Basque ones (guess they did not know about Switzerland, surely a closer match). They were totally ignored by Paris.
Also the effects of the French Revolution in the Northern Basque Country were very disruptive of the social fabric because of unifying everything mindlessly. What was probably great improvements for the French, were steps back for the Basques. A friend of mine, about the only US linguist who speaks Basque fluently, uploaded something about that, specifically about the role of women in Labourd across the French Revolution divide, at her Academia[dot]edu profile, she’s named Roslyn Frank, look her up if interested.
PS- There was also this interesting character, which I and many others deem the true “founding father” of Basque nationalism, a very romantic figure from Soule (which we call Zuberoa), who did not only made up curious neo-legends but was actually fighting for the Carlists in the South in the 1830s (and wrote a book about that as well, of great historical interest) but then, later on, he was a republican dissident in French context, strongly persecuted by Napoleon III. His name is Agosti Xaho in Basque or Augustin Chaho in French.
We’ve got this difficult relation with the French even since the Franks, who invaded us several times already in the Middle Ages, were also fought against several times, with some success (notably the famous battle of Roncevaux Pass, which we call Orreaga, the only serious defeat of Charlemagne). Even there was this time later on when a Navarrese Huguenot King became King of France (and thereafter the schuteons of both nations were used together by the French Bourbons until their final dethroning).
With the Spanish, even if Castilian (Spanish) language is clearly a Basque-influenced romance, we don’t have the same kind of connection because they’ve never made a revolution of any sort, at least not one that succeded like those of France or Switzerland. They’re still somewhat medieval in many aspects.
Yes. And yes. The Author can’t argue with any of this.
K.A. were my first wife’s initials, for her first and middle names. My last name is Boom. So KA-BOOM obviously a reference to her. She died almost 50 years ago. Thanks for the memory. I still miss her.
He’s gonna try an steal the driller, calling it now!
Scorpinac knows all? I will say this: This story is not done with The Driller.
Yeah, they were abandoned, weren’t they? Poor guys.
Hi Ogg!
That’s not as bad as a Gate failing, but still not a good noise.
Oh, mon dieu!, I just found an anachronism: Crô-Magnon cave was not excavated until 1868. There was no concept of cromagnons before that.
Sorry to bring the bad news, master of brushes and crayons. 🙁
I mean, the remains found at Cro-Magnon were anatomically modern humans anyway, while these ones seem more inspired by Neanderthals (which were apparently discovered in 1856 – still too late for our comic, and even more too late for the Frenchman who has been away from civilization for quite some time now). But it’s an alternate history setting with a giant drill falling into underground caves and encountering monsters and lizardmen, so I don’t really see an issue. Etymologically, Cro-Magnon is from the owner of the land the cave was found on (Magnon) and a word for hole (Cro), so maybe Neanderthal remains were found earlier in this setting, in a hole on the land of a different fellow with the surname Magnon.
I’m well aware of the anachronisms that permeate Unearth. Without anachronisms there would be NO Unearth. I went with “Cro-Magnons” because that seems to be closest thing to “caveman” in French. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Typo alert: there’s no “e” in “monstrous”. Also, see my comments elsewhere on “cro-magnon”.
Oops, that was meant to be a standalone comment, not a reply. Anyway, regarding “cro-magnon””: I didn’t know it was an anachronism, but I was going to point out (before I saw that someone beat me to it) that Cro-Magnons were anatomically modern humans, and also that it should technically be capitalized.
If you’re looking for a word that means caveman, “troglodyte” isn’t specifically a French word, but I’m sure it would be understood by a Frenchman.
The term cromagnon, cro-magnon, etc. (from Crô-Magnon, the name of the eponymous cave, where “crô” is a dialectal version of “grotte” = cave, Magnon may be a surname, unsure) was in fashion especially in the 20th century, especially to contrast with Neanderthals (again a cave toponym) but later also became a label in racialist terminology to tentatively identify a particular subpopulation of ancient Homo sapiens in Europe and North Africa, in contrast to others that were claimed to be different in appearance, all based in the “hard science” of measuring skulls and such (also lots of imagination at times). They were particularly associated to the Gravettian culture all the way to the advent of paleogenetics, when things changed on light of further evidence.
Recently it became evident that North African Paleolithic people (of the Oranian or Iberomaurusian culture notably, until recently claimed to be in the “racial” grouping of Cromagnons, OK, I’ll capitalize it) were not directly related to Paleoeuropeans of any sort (only via the old common origin in West Asia) and thus today the term has decayed into irrelevance, although it’s still sometimes used to mean Homo sapiens of the wider West Eurasian type, especially in contrast to Neanderthals.
Good point re. troglodyte, it is a perfectly good French word, written exactly the same as in English even if pronounced differently (trogloDIT vs TROglodeyt).
FIXED thanks to Wyvern, King of The Proof Readers!
Fair enough. You’re the Master of Brushes and Crayons.
I don’t speak but a modicum of French but in Spanish it’d be “cavernícola”, which is a funny slur in common parlance (which I however dislike when talking more seriously because I strongly respect Paleolithic people and lifestyle… but whatever). Per Wikitionary “caveman” is “homme des cavernes”, which is admittedly a bit too long.
Other Spanish form is “troglodita” (troglodyte), which certainly has a French version written identical to the English one. It also means “caveman” or “caveperson” but from a Greek root (troglos = hole).
Of course use whatever language you prefer, I just happened to realize the slight and irrelevant contradiction to spice your day.
Sorry for posting twice. The second post was meant to be an edit on the first one. Please delete the first one, retain the second, and delete this one. May I suggest an edit button?
Hi Hendrik!
Thanks for posting! I can configure the comments with user edit functions… BUT that would require all users to create password login accounts in order to comment. When I tried this in the past, the number of commentors plummeted.