Talk:Language in the Twelve Colonies/Archive3

Radio Alphabet

Discussions moved to Talk:Colonial Wireless Alphabet by Joe Beaudoin at 20:07, 10 October 2005 (EDT).

Racetrack

Is it just me or does Racetrack have a vaguely Canadian accent in her scene on the Raptor early in Final Cut? --Peter Farago 02:10, 10 September 2005 (EDT)

Stating the obvious

Mister (Mr), Miss, and Doctor have all been used, but Missus {Mrs} has not.

The concision fairy frowns in disapproval. Why is this interesting? --Peter Farago 02:26, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

Nothing much since we haven't seen anyone married. Given the gender equality in BSG, however, it may well be that "Mrs" is not used. --Redwall 17:20, 17 September 2005 (EDT)

General American

On a somewhat smaller matter, there is no linguistically accepted version of English called "General English," with a capital G. I am willing to accept a lower case g, "general English," to indicate "common sense" notions about the accent/group of accents. --BlueResistance

You are correct. The article previously referred to Standard American English (SAE), which I have encountered in contrast to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in sociolinguistics. As I'm sure you can tell, I intend to refer to the mid-western "newscaster accent" used throughout the entertainment industry.

As for Wikipedia, they referred to this accent as Standard Midwestern until last February. It was then moved to General American based on User:Angr's statement that "the accent is not standard in any official sense, nor is it limited to the Midwest."

Since they are serving as our primary reference, I am inclined to follow their conventions on the matter. Perhaps you could take up your point with them? I realize that we are not powerless to employ our own terminology, but consistency strikes me as a self-evident virtue. --Peter Farago 02:31, 19 October 2005 (EDT)

Sigh. General American bothers me. I'd much prefer Standard American English. I mean--that's a term that linguists use when discussing American accents. I wish Wikipedia had a page entitled that, but I don't want to get into a land war there (or, really anything there as time is finite). A few things have to be understood about SAE (or, as it stands, General English):

1) It doesn't really exist as a spoken dialect. No one grows up learning SAE the way one can grow up speaking Texan English or any of the various sub-dialects of AAVE or whatever. However, Americans seem to be able to sense what it is. This is still under research.

2) When used in a non-scholastic setting (like this wiki), saying someone speaks SAE generally means that the region they learned English in is not identifiable by the way they speak. Apollo speaks SAE, for instance. However, Jamie Baber or however it's spelt, is British and really speaks some form of British English dialect (I've not heard him speak myself).

With these two things in mind, using a term like SAE to refer to dialects of characters is perfectly fine. I mean--the dialect is a kind of mental construct and so doesn't really exist and the characters, likewise, don't really exist. ;) OK. That was a joke. My problem with the term "General American" is that I've never seen it before in a linguistic context. "Standard American English" is a term used in all caps like that in many texts by various authors. I'm tired and I think I'm losing coherency. Does my point about, for lack of a better word, officialness come across clearly? I sure hope so. --Day 03:04, 19 October 2005 (EDT)

I would be happy to have the relevant links marked as Standard American English and go to Wiki's General American article through pipes. The term General American was introduced on October 8th by Troyian - I'd like to know if he is personally in favor of the term, or was just matching wikipedia's terminology. --Peter Farago 03:09, 19 October 2005 (EDT)

Commander-in-chief

With regard to the recent edit by OTW, I feel its a bit obvious that she is in a capacity of being a commander-in-chief. After all, she is the one who promotes Adama to admiral. Also, Adama is later ordered by then-President Baltar to settle New Caprica; so, yes, the President is a commander-in-chief, and does have ultimate command of the military.

As to the issue of her not exercising her control over Adama, not to mention Cain later on, it's because she needs the military as much as the military needs the civilian fleet. They're really dependent on each other, and tied at the hip. -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Sanctuary Wiki — New} 17:32, 22 August 2007 (CDT)

The issue arises over Roslin and Adama's relationship in the Miniseries. It's that not Roslin had to compromise and make a deal with Adama, but he barely recognized her authority and thus she agreed to share power with him for the time being. Similar to Cain. Theoretically she could order Cain around, but Cain wouldn't listen. She is similar to early Adama there. --Serenity 17:42, 22 August 2007 (CDT)

Another indication comes from the mini-series when Lee Adama, aboard Colonial One, defers to Laura Roslin's authority as president, rather than his father's orders. As for the real-politik power-sharing between Adama & Roslin at the beginning, as time passes and they come to understand and have greater confidence in each other, it appears the office of president as head of government and military has been restored and re-asserted in preservation and continuation of the Articles of Colonization and pre-attack Colonial society (a theme echoed in the mini-series, and episodes such as Dirty Hands). --Fredmdbud 02:30, 23 August 2007 (CDT)