Today's words.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Monday, December 18, 2023
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Hello, we would like some curry
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Quick con report
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Monday, January 9, 2023
Complete Course of Volapük: Pronounciation and Orthography
Eight vowels and nineteen consonants.
English sounds:
a — a in task, e.g. ta, against.
e — a in mate, e.g. te, only.
i — ee in meet, e.g. ti, nearly.
o — o in note, e.g. po, behind.
u — oo in soon, e.g. nu, now.
German sounds:
ä — ä, e.g. lä; at, near.
ö — ö, e.g. fö, in front.
ü — ü, e.g. büfü, before.
English sounds:
c — j in jet, e.g. cen, change.
g — g hard as in got, e.g. gad, garden.
j — sh in shame, e.g. jip, sheep.
h — fully aspirated, e.g. hap, harp.
x — ks as in expect, e.g. xil, exile.
y — y in yes, e.g. ya, already.
z — ts, e.g. zif, town.
Our hard c is rendered by k: kad, card.
The remaining consonants.
ba, da, fa, ka, la, ma, na, pa, ra, sa, ta, va.
The letter a, in the name of the consonants, is of course the English a in name.
The letters q and w are only used in proper names.
There are not diphtongs; two vowels in the same syllable are pronounced separately: laud, la-ud, a lark.
All the vowels are long.
Accentuation
The accent always falls on the last syllable, as in tikelè, to the thinker.
Proper Names
For languages with the Latin alphabet the spelling is preserved; for instance, we should write John, Jean, Johann, according to the nationality, and London, Rome, Köln.
Some geographical names are arbitrary, as Flent, France, Deut, Germany, and Nelij, England, and they are declined. (See next chapter).
A Reading Lesson
Plofed de literat äliladom vöno in klad funapükati fa Flëchier su Turenne.
Mayed stüla e subim tikas älegäloms julelis velik, e bal de oms äsagom kofiko nilele omik: "Kiüp okanol mekön pükati sümik?"—"Ven obinol Turenne," voik ägesagom.
Translation
A professor of literature read one day in (his) class a funeral oration by Fléchier on Turenne. The majesty of the style and the elevation of the thoughts delighted all the pupuls, and one of them said ironically to his neighbour: "When shall you be able to make a similar discourse?"—"When you are Turenne," replied the other.
Monday, November 21, 2022
As of writing this quick bit, I'm still not sure how long till I can chew decently. I had a molar taken out, in one of the most painful operations I've had yet.
Said molar had long lost its filling and eventually its top cracked. Dealing with a cracked tooth is one thing, but add that to the long-suffering pain said tooth has been causing me. It wasn't until a month later till I finally had this thing taken out. I have chosen to lose the tooth rather than trying to save such a heavily cracked piece of bone (it's also before a sideways wisdom tooth so keeping it isn't viable).
Once there, though, it was a doozy. The dentist had maxed out the anesthesia but I still felt a lot of hurt, screaming all the way to make it feel less painful. Everyone in the clinic heard it; the place is small and the path from the front desk to the chair is wide open for sound waves.
Chewing is still a chore, but I'm slowly recovering, all it would take is for this void to fill nicely.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Philippine Stamp Overprints in the Context of Surcharges
A notable era of stamps in the Philippines is the time of heavy reliance on overprinting previous issues. These usually come either as provisional surcharge overprints or commemorative overprints, which may or may not include a surcharge. The practice has more or less stopped in the 90's, where most overprints are done on souvenir sheets, generally in regards to a philatelic exhibition (some surcharges did occasionally happen, a notable one in 2000). Still, during the 70's-80's a year would not pass without an overprinted issue.
This essay will not cover early pre-cancellations of stamps for official purposes.
Overprints are usually done as a cheap means of issuing postage for a specific purpose. Rather than designing and printing an entirely new stamp issue, it's costs less to take existing stock and slapping something on top of it. There's also the need to put to use old stock, may it be surplus definitives or commemoratives that are no longer relevant. For collectors can become a headache as overprints are categorically different for the purposes of collecting.