Why did English survive?

[Ed Anger]

If anyone wants to talk about Spartan latrine procedures, I'm game.

DAMN IT PEOPLE SHARE MY INTEREST IN SPARTAN TURDS!

[PDH]

*takes a drink*

[Malthus]

Naw. When Ed mentions bowl movements, you have to vomit up a drink previously taken. 

[katmai]

This games has too many rules.

[Queequeg]

Quite a bit of the German influence in Spanish is explained through the Frankish presence in the north-east in the Hispanic Marche. Catalan is way more germanized than Spanish, and a lot of the words present in Spanish can be traced back to Catalan/Occitan and French, entering Spanish centuries after the Goth domination.

You sure about Catalan?  I thought the Langue d'Oc dialects and Catalan were famous for being conservative. 

[celedhring]

I'm pretty sure. Besides speaking it I work with Catalan filologists almost daily, they have boring conversation topics 

Catalan is the surviving Iberian language with biggest German influence. Castillian was relatively isolated, which allowed it to evolve a bit more on its own and receive less external influence (besides Arab, etc...), while Catalan, sitting on the border, was heavily affected by Frankish and Occitan.

[Queequeg]

That's awesome.

I've been really interested in Spain for a while, tbh.  It's kind of the photo-negative of Turkey in a lot of respects.

[Queequeg]

Weren't Catalan and Occitan pretty much the same for a long time?  Barcelona was under loose Frankish control for the early Middle Ages, and I always assumed that most of Catalonia functioned similarly to other marches; a place where entrepreneurial or especially zealous sorts, or second or third sons, went to change their fortunes, fight the infidel, something it would have in common with Turkey.  I think I might be filling in my gaps on Spanish history with Turkish history, though.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Holy Shit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alano


Awesome.  It's a Caucasian Shepherd.  I've seen breeds like this on the streets in eastern Turkey. 

Not really. Caucasian Shepherds are 90% hair.

[Queequeg]

Not really. Caucasian Shepherds are 90% hair.

There's variety.  It's a general kind of Pontic proto-Mastiff that might date back to the Scythians.  Also, that hair would be fucking lethal in Spanish heat.  Probably a lot more useful in the extraordinary cold of the high Caucasus.   

[Admiral Yi]

What do they look like when they're not being jerked off?

[Queequeg]

This is more what I was thinking of-the Anatolian Shepherd.  You see them on the streets, they're a big genetic influence on the urban dog population of most of the mid to small sized Turkish cities, while Istanbul is a lot more mixed. 

[The Brain]

If anyone wants to talk about Spartan latrine procedures, I'm game.

DAMN IT PEOPLE SHARE MY INTEREST IN SPARTAN TURDS!

Go cull a helot or something.

[celedhring]

Weren't Catalan and Occitan pretty much the same for a long time?  Barcelona was under loose Frankish control for the early Middle Ages, and I always assumed that most of Catalonia functioned similarly to other marches; a place where entrepreneurial or especially zealous sorts, or second or third sons, went to change their fortunes, fight the infidel, something it would have in common with Turkey.  I think I might be filling in my gaps on Spanish history with Turkish history, though.

It's an open debate. We don't have consistent written testimony from that time and the fact that for long time Occitan remained the prestige language of the Catalan nobility (who had heavy territorial interests in South-Eastern France) further complicates things. It certainly is the closest language to Catalan. One of my professors used to say that "French and Spanish are our cousins, but Occitan is our sister".

[Admiral Yi]

So you can fuck French and Spanish, but not Occitan.