User talk:TheCzechDuck

Hi, welcome to Mass Effect Wiki! Thanks for your edit to the Tali'Zorah nar Rayya page.

Be sure to check out our Style Guide and Community Guidelines to help you get started, and please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- Tullis (Talk) 21:16, February 1, 2010

Quick Language Note
Hello! Just saw your recent additions concerning American and British English on your user page and, taking somewhat of an interest in languages myself, thought I'd point something out real quick. A statement you made leapt out at me, specifically "British English stays truer to its roots in the French language". I feel compelled to point out that, linguistically speaking, British English (or any English, for that matter) does not have roots in French. English (in all it's forms) is a Western Germanic language, Western Germanic being a subset of the Germanic family of languages. French, on the other hand, is a Romance language, being descended from Latin, with Romance languages being a subset of the Italic family of languages. Italic and Germanic are two totally separate families of languages within the Indo-European linguistic phylum. So, linguistically speaking, English is much more closely related to Dutch, Afrikaans, and German than it is to Romance languages like French, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian. So, while French may have influenced English somewhat thanks to the Norman conquest of England, English does not have any roots in French, it's roots actually lying with Old Frisian. Just a little gee-whiz info for you! SpartHawg948 00:58, February 3, 2010 (UTC)
 * Greetings. Thank you very much for your comment. I noticed on Tali's page that you contribute quite often. Glad to see another fan of Tali ! I am rather new to this wiki, but, as I say on my main page, not to the Mass Effect universe. Anyway, to the point: although English is grammatically more similar to Germanic languages, French strongly influences its vocabulary. As you no doubt know, the 1066 CE Conquest of England by William the Conqueror (or Guillaume le Conquerant in French) forever changed English society, language included. I think it a little hard to downplay French's effect on English vocabulary. Thank you again for your comment. Additionally, which do you prefer using: British or American English ? One last thing: I am considering adding a section entitled 'Quarian Architecture' to the 'Quarian' page. What do you think ? Is it worth the effort ? TheCzechDuck 01:07, February 3, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well hello! I must say, I do appreciate the response, both prompt and polite! I'm one of the three admins of this site, so yes, you could say that I contribute quite often! :) You are correct that English is strongly influenced by French, largely due to the Norman conquest, but the cruz of the point I was making was that you cited the "French roots" of the English language, when no such roots exist. The roots of the English language are solidly Germanic. French does influence the English language, but so do a number of other languages that are in no way tied into the "roots" of the language. I was in no way downplaying the French language's effect on English vocabulary, I was merely pointing out that the English language itself evolved independently from French, and the language itself belongs to an entirely separate family of language. If we're going to stick with the tree analogy, the roots of the English language are German, with French being one of the main fertilizers used to promote growth.
 * Personally, as an American I prefer American English spellings, especially when the American spelling is more concise (armor instead of armour, color instead of colour, meter instead of meter and metre, etc.) but I strictly uphold the spelling policy of the site. If I see an edit being made for the sole purpose of changing a British English word to its American English equivalent, I undo it immediately. Finally, I don't think there is any need for a "quarian architecture" section for two reasons (and remember, it's quarian, not Quarian). 1) No other race has an architecture section (not even the Reapers, Protheans, or asari, about whom we have many more architectural examples then the quarians), and we like to keep the articles consistent, and 2) We don't really have any idea what quarian architecture actually looks like. All we've seen is one facility on one planet. Hardly enough to draw any conclusions from. And that, I believe, about wraps my comments up! SpartHawg948 06:49, February 3, 2010 (UTC)
 * I see. Thank you very much for your insightful comments. I misspoke in calling French the 'roots' of the English language. However, I stand by the claim that it has been instrumental in forming English as it is known today. In concerning 'Quarian Architecture', I agree with you (by the way, 'quarian' was capitalised in that case because it would have been a section heading !). Indeed, you are right: one can hardly judge an entire species' architecture from one planet. Such would be equivalent to adding a section under 'Humans' about 'Human Architecture' from the one picture of Earth from the Codex in Mass Effect 1. Thank you again for your insight. One last thing: not trying to suck up to you or anything, but how much does one have to do for this wiki to be considered for administrator status ? TheCzechDuck 22:36, February 3, 2010 (UTC)