History questions not worth their own thread V

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Are you agreeing with me/confirming what I said, or are you disagreeing with how I say they are pronounced? I don't comprehend ivory tower English pronunciation guides.

Agreeing with you 100%.
 
You probably did it wrong anyway; toilet is pronounced "turlet" in Real America.

I was really hoping that book was going to attempt to make heads or tails of that miserable excuse for a language they call cajun.
 
I was really hoping that book was going to attempt to make heads or tails of that miserable excuse for a language they call cajun.
There's New Orleans, and there's the rest of Louisiana. Sometimes, if they're being charitable (lol), they'll include Metairie and maybe the North Shore in "NOLA", but that's it.
 
I'm with you, VR. I actually heard a Brit call a geyser a "gay-zer" once.

He must have had a weird regional accent then, because "geyser" is usually pronounced "gee-zer" if you're British.

Also, a "geezer" isn't necessarily old, but he might be a little bit waay.
 
I'm not sure what is worse, Plotinus - that you linked to a terrible 90s show or that I recognised the reference. :)
 
Terrible?

For people of my age, it's pretty much our sole cultural reference point.

The Thick of It said:
Malcolm Tucker: Ok, this is what we're doing: I'm putting about through a number of cronies that Hewitt's piece was a packet of bollocks, he did it as a favor to Cliff.

Oliver Reeder: Cliff being...

Glenn Cullen: Cliff Lawton.

Malcolm Tucker: Hugh's predesessor. He and Hewitt are as tight as arse cheeks.

Hugh Abbott: [surprised] Are they now?

Malcolm Tucker: Who knows, but that's what we're saying, ok? It's personal, it's backslapping, it's borderline homoerotic, and you are the innocent victim of a nasty media stitch-up. I'm fixing you up with a "Me and My Media" piece with

[points to Ollie]

Malcolm Tucker: your ex Angela Heaney. But, this is a perfect opportunity to show just how clued-up you are, actually! Hughey Abbot, the in-touch guy! You're on the ball! You know the price for a pint of milk! You love HBO imports, VH1, Pixar, you dig the Streets.

Hugh Abbott: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're all great.

Malcolm Tucker: You've got absolutely no [copulating] idea what I'm talking about, do you?

Hugh Abbott: Yes, I do.

Malcolm Tucker: Who's the only gay in the village?

Hugh Abbott: Eddie Grundy. I dunno... No, he has children. Mind you, alot of them do these days! Ben at the Foreign Office...

Malcolm Tucker: What's a chav?

Hugh Abbott: Ch... erm...

Malcolm Tucker: Hugh, what is a chav?

Oliver Reeder: Come on, you must know this!

Glenn Cullen: Chav!

Malcolm Tucker: Chav!

Hugh Abbott: Just saying "chav" isn't really helpful!

Malcolm Tucker: This is important stuff, Hugh! Right, we do a weekly digest for the Prime Minister, we boil down the week's television, cinema, music, so on.

Oliver Reeder: The Zeitgeist tapes.

Malcolm Tucker: Exactly, the Zeitgest tapes. EastEnders highlights, choice bits from all the reality shows, 10 seconds of music videos, that kind of thing.

Hugh Abbott: That's why the PM always looks so clued-up! I always thought he was genuinely quite with it.

Malcolm Tucker: No, no, he's as bad as you, he uses phrases like "with it" as well. Right, I'm gonna bike that over to Terri, watch it, ok? And listen, when you talk to Angela Heaney, remember to stick the boot into Hewitt. I'm putting it about that Cliff offered him two free weeks at his Toscan villa for that piece, ok?

Hugh Abbott: Ten-four, daddy-o!

Malcolm Tucker: Hey, hey, hey, this is serious! You've got 24 hours to sort out your policy on EastEnders, right? Or you're for the halal butchers!

[Ollie does an imitation of the EastEnders opening music]

Malcolm Tucker: Even he knows.

I really wish they still had the youtube clip up :(
 
Most of these questions are worth their own thread.

I would like to ask Plotinus or any other WH expert which book or books would you say are the most accurate about Carthage/ Hamilcar/ Hannibal.
 
What distinguishes the rank of "king", exactly? Most European noble ranks seem to be used in a fairly consistent manner across the Early Medieval, Medieval and Early Modern periods, so that between between, e.g. 1000 and 1800, "Duke" tends to indicate somebody of relatively similar status within their respective societies. But "king" seems to vacillate pretty hysterically, so that in 800 a "kingdom" can be granted so lightly that Britain alone has a dozen kings generally recognised as such, and dozens more petty rulers claiming the title, but by the Late Middle Ages it seems to be a relatively rarefied title, with most monarchs settling for "Duke", "Grand Duke" and "Prince". But, by the early 19th century, it seems to have ended up somewhere in between, so that relative tiddlers like Greece, Sardinia or Hanover get to be sovereign "kingdoms", which a couple of centuries earlier they would have appeared quite unsuited for.

So what gives? Am I misreading the evidence? Has "king" always been applied this inconsistently, and other titles not applied as consistently as I suggest? Or are people just nuts?
 
I think the title of king really amounted to the ability to get other people to call you king, and no one powerful enough to say 'you ain't no king'. So in that sense, it would apply to anyone who grabbed the title, made others accept it, and was not in any means subservient to any greater power. Unless someone who called himself emperor allowed a subordinate to call himself a king. So a politically fractured region could have many kings, where a unified region would only have one.
 
That point applies to any title, though. My guess is that 'king' is really a Northern European word, with 'prince', descended from princeps, or 'duke', descended from dux, usually preferred in Italy. Imperial titles usually implied a strongly provincialised multinational country, such as Austria-Hungary or one of the Roman successor states - one which could be clearly identified as a collection of defined provinces. Obviously, one could not be a king and subject to an emperor (as distinct from a client-king), which explains why the realms of Germany were never kingdoms while the authority of the HRE was strong. The other anomaly is Russia, where 'Grand Duke' survived: as far as I know, the original Grand Dukes were the rulers of cities, which may have been nominally subject to a great power. Kings in general existed in Britain, Scandinavia, France and Iberia, all of which can be explained by the principles above.
 
one could not be a king and subject to an emperor (as distinct from a client-king), which explains why the realms of Germany were never kingdoms while the authority of the HRE was strong.

Bohemia was a kindgom from 1198 onwards and still subject of the empire.
 
Prussia wasn't an Imperial Kingdom; it's rulers were princes as Electors of Brandenburg.
 
Prussia wasn't an Imperial Kingdom; it's rulers were princes as Electors of Brandenburg.
That changed in the eighteenth century. In 1701 the Hohenzollerns were permitted to use the title "King in Prussia"; in 1772 this was modified to "King of Prussia", unequivocally making Prussia the second kingdom of the Empire. Yet Friedrich II and his two successors continued to employ the title of elector until the Empire's disestablishment.
 
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