Month: March 2018

The Road Runs

By Simon

Today I learnt that one way to say goodbye or farewell in Romanian is drum bun. This came up in a Duolingo lesson, and I translated it as “good road”, which is what it means literally. However that’s not how it’s used.

Drum (road) comes from the Greek δρόμος (drómos – road, track), from the Ancient Greek δρόμος (drómos – roadway, road, street, way; journey), from the Proto-Indo-European *drem- (to run) + -ος (-os).

*Drem- is also the root of the English drome, as in hippodrome, aerodrome, velodrome, anadrome, syndrome and palindrome.

In case you’re wondering, an anadrome is a word which forms a different word when spelled backwards, such as desserts and stressed. They are also known as volvograms, reversgrams, heteropalindromes, backwords, semordnilap or emordnilaps, or semordnilaps [source].

Other anadromes in English include spar / raps, star / rats, bus / sub, nip / pin, and so on.

Can you think of others in English or other languages?

Creating fonts

By Simon

I have tried various apps for creating fonts, such as FontStruct and Fonty with mixed results. Some work better than others. FontStruct works well, though I find it tricky to make letters with lots of curves. Fonty works well, though when I tried to use the fonts on my computer, the letters do not display at all.

Yesterday I found Glyphr Studio, a free, web-based font design tool that works well and produces usable fonts. I worked out how to import graphics, which is easier than making all the letters from scratch, though a little convoluted, as you have to save each letter as a separate image, convert the images to SVG files, then import them and tweak them. Strangely they are inverted when they appear in Glyphr.

Anyway, I make a rough font for Laala, which requires more tweaking, but looks okay.

One language is never enough (Zo alu laala nuuna teete) in Laala

If you make fonts, what software, apps or websites do you use?

Naming names

By Simon

When you talk to someone, do you use their name in the conversation?

Obviously this depends on whether you know their name, but if you do, how often would you use it?

For example, if you bump into a friend or acquaintence in the street, would you greet them with their name, (“Hi [Insert name here]”)?

If you have then have a chat with them, would you continue to drop their name into the conversation every so often?

I rarely use people’s names in conversations, unless there are several people involved and I want to say something particularly to one of them. This is just a habit, and also because I don’t always remember their name – I’m much better at remembering faces.

I’ve noticed that sales and marketing people tend to use your name a lot when they’re talking to you. I find this a bit annoying, especially when they mispronounce it – I know who I am, and there’s no need to keep showing that you do. On the other hand, it does make you feel a bit special, which is probably the point.

In other languages is it normal or necessary to use people’s names in conversation? Or is it just personal preference?