Net-Riddle

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7x6andchg: But..but...

it's THE Monkees.

I didn't know there were translations sites that did Dutch! Tott666 - you're exactly right...you think you can understand it because it looks both familiar and strange at the same time.  WAAAAY too many vowels.  Guess we know why they don't have Wheel of Fortune in the Netherlands - you'd never win anything.

"I'd like to buy a vowel, an A"
"There are 47 A's!"
<The Dutch Vanna White nearly collapses in exhaustion>

Thanks for the tip Sammygirly - I'll try the T less sequence...see if that works. Any of our English posters want to find this Net Riddler for me and wring his neck?

Onward!
Paul
7x6&C

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

Dutch is easy for a native speaker of English to learn because Dutch and Anglo-Saxon were in origin both dialects of Low German. Modern English has a lot of words of Latin and Anglo-Norman derivation, but Dutch is still its closest relative.

 

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7x6andchg: But there's so many vowels! The errant A, the pointless O..but yes...English, you are right, is basically a Germanic language with a lot of borrowed words.

If only I could find a French message board about the Net Riddle I'd be in business.

By the way - sammygirly - the T-less sequence didn't seem to work.

7x6&C

 

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sammygirly: http://www.languid.net/nr/water/wow/wow/wow/bwlbmmmmmmtmmmmx.htm

 

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tott666: [quote author=DoubleMeatWhopper link=board=99;num=1051724066;start=36#41 date=05/07/03 at 09:25:50]Dutch is easy for a native speaker of English to learn because Dutch and Anglo-Saxon were in origin both dialects of Low German. Modern English has a lot of words of Latin and Anglo-Norman derivation, but Dutch is still its closest relative.[/quote]

Well, whaddayaknow. I always thought of it as a mixture of English/German with a fair bit of Latin thrown in for good measure.

Dutch is somewhat similar to Swedish in some respects as well, a lot of words seem awfully familiar. Swedish has borrowed extensively from (mainly) German, Latin, French and Dutch during the centuries. Not to mention English during the last few decades. Dutch borrows from English. It's really sort of incestuos, this cross-pollination.  

;D

But what I think is really cool, being a Swede, is that Swedish has also influenced other languages at times. We're located in the far North and are so relatively few. Sweden has a population of only 9 million, used to be considerably less. While the vikings were wreaking havoc across Europe they also left some contributions to English!

In more recent times, "ombudsman" has been integrated into English. I had no idea, I almost fell off my chair when I heard someone on a US show use the word...

I'm rambling, I'll shut up now.

 

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awellhungboi: I once wrote a song with lyrics in Dutch--by taking phrases from a 'Dutch for Travellers' book. Called, 'Where are the tulips,' it failed to catch on . . .

I'm taking a few days off from Net Riddler . . . stage 2 is hard . . . there were several times in stage 1 when I was like, "That's it! I give up! No freakin way!" and I kind of feel that way now.

I just want my life back, Net Riddler!

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

I'm rambling, too ... but what the hell; most people here know I'm into language!
High German, Low German, Dutch, English, Frisian, Flemish, Schwytzertüütsch, Alsacien, Danish, Swedish, Nynorsk, Boksmål, Icelandic, Faeroese, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Gullah ... the Germanic family of languages is not as small a group as any people think!

 

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7x6andchg: @ sammygirly -

Thanks again. I owe you a Labatt's (or other beverage)....on to 1.14 after a few days break.

@ DMW-
I prefer the Romance languages myself. I find Germanic languages, even my native English, to be ugly-sounding. Infinitely useful and very adaptable, perhaps, but ugly-sounding.

 

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Rayolin: arggg.. i think i got the answer for 1.5 but everytime i type the address in i get "The page cannot be found" crap... so i dunno if that means im not doin it right or somethin is wrong.

***Potential Spoiler for 1.5*** (If I'm right that is )

It seems to be a pretty simple problem, you can cross them in any order so long as the the boy makes every trip, including the return trips. I've made sure i dont have a return trip for the last person he crosses and im positive im entering the address correctly. Soooo, does anyone see a mistake in my thought process? Or is this right? and my comp, or the page is just fucked up?

 

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awellhungboi: Hi Rayolin,

Actually the boy *doesn't* make every trip.  

Good luck!

I'm on 2.27, last one before 3.1.  It's something about ginger beards, phone calls, spiders, gad, it's all just swirling around my brain.  Need to sleep on it.  

How bad has it gotten?  Last night I was chatting on AIM with a friend, making plans for her to come visit next weekend, and during the middle of our flirtatious conversation I was like, "I hate to change the subject, but are you any good at riddles?"

 

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Rayolin: Thanks for the reply but I actually didnt need the help! After I posted, I went to do some reading and i couldnt stop thinkin about it and i found my flaw... all by me lonesome too. Thanks anyway though!

 

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awellhungboi: Excellent!

Cheers,
Peter

 

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Rayolin: bah.. cant figure out the relation between the last order of numbers in 1.8 now.

 

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Rayolin: on 1.11 now... Found all the answers but it isnt working, i dunno if im not puttin them in right or what... any help would be great, if ya dont want to post it here just pm me. Thanks.

 

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sammygirly: You go wellhungboi!! You're farther than I am...

Back to the language thing (and Ray, I'll get you some help in IM in a second)...I love languages, fluent french, passable Italian and...well German. Problem is, when I was learning german, my teacher was also my french teacher. I excelled at french but my german was lacking and he was determined to make me get it right. He would get incredibly frustrated at my stellar written technique and HORRIBLE oral technique (hold your puns, he was old and crotchety and those are visuals I dont need).

Anyway, he kept beating into me that german was not as pretty as french and I needed to spit more LOL - eventually, one day he brought in one of those pouches of Big League bubblegum and made me load up before speaking. I was practically drooling and garbling...but for the first and only time, my pretty voice was gutteral and german!

Hard to pick up hot foreign guys with bubblegum juice running down your chin...I'll stick to the pretty tongues...

 

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7x6andchg: @ Sammygirly/DMW-

There's an old saying:

English is the language to conduct business in.

French in the language to conduct spirited arguments in.

Spanish is the language to talk to your friends in.

Italian is the language to talk to your lover in.

German is the language to yell at disobedient pigs in.



By the way - no offense intended to anyone who speaks German or is German - but it, like English, is a language of utility, not beauty.

By the way - the colors are making me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!
(I always like to finish my posts by getting BACK on the ole topic horse)

Paul
7x6&C

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

German may not be as pretty as French, but in my opinion, French itself is not all that pretty. The uvular 'r', nasal vowels, funky vowels like 'eu' and 'u', and lack of true stress all add up to a rather aesthetically unpleasant sound. French's saving grace is its written form. For beauty in sound, it's hard to beat Italian or Catalán, though Spanish and Portuguese are not far behind. And despite its bizarre phonology, Welsh has an eerie beauty all its own. Again, those are just my opinions. De gustibus non est disputandum. (Translation: 'Concerning tastes there can be no dispute.')

 

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7x6andchg: DMW:

You are right, there can be no dispute in taste...

That said, I agree with you on Welsh and Italian.

But..c'mon, French? It's a BEAUTIFUL language.

 

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awellhungboi: Thanks, Sammygirly! I have you to blame uh, I mean thank. Sent off my email with what I feel pretty comfortable is the answer to 2.27. Some of stage 2 is really hard, some is unbelievably easy.

Did you get thru the colors one 7x6? That one almost made me quit.

As for language, I agree that it is all a matter of taste, of sensibility. But that's what poetry is for, the melding of sound and meaning, (I believe, anyway. ) I mean there's a big difference between the German/English/French etc. of bureaucrats and bill-collectors and Rilke's

"und lassen dir (unsäglich zu entwirrn)
dein Leben bang und riesenhaft und reifend,
so daß es, bald begrenzt und bald begreifend,
abwechselnd Stein in dir wird und Gestirn."

 

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7x6andchg: Now, if your answer is wrong, do you get to try again, or is that it? That's one thing I don't understand with the end-stages.

7x6&C