4 ms·

Hmm... * Your weekend newspaper would come out on Wednesday. * There would be new editions many times daily... not with new stories, just corrections of the f

by dash2 12y ago

Hmm... * Your weekend newspaper would come out on Wednesday. * There would be new editions many times daily... not with new stories, just corrections of the first edition, which was blatantly inaccurate and partly written in Moldovan. * Every day, the newspaper would be in a different format which didn't fit the newspaper rack you just bought. * Every week, the newspaper would get bigger, but contain no more content (just a new font). You would regularly be forced to buy a new newspaper rack. * Also, once a week the paper boy would break into your house and steal your old papers. He would offer to sell them back for you in the new format, for a higher price. * Also, the newspaper rack sellers would not let you store newspapers of which they disapproved. * Rather than telling you about the world, the paper would track your behaviour and tell the world about you. * Once a week, the front page would be 404 NEWS NOT FOUND. * Reporters would be paid high six-figure salaries, but would be unable to relate or talk to anyone but other reporters. * Many journalists would consider themselves brilliant, world-changing geniuses, with plans not just to report on government, but to replace it. * At the same time, they would have secret deals with those governments to report people who read "subversive" news. * et cetera...

lucian1900 12y ago
Nitpick: I don't think Moldovan is a language. If you mean the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova, that's just Romanian.
- a-priori 12y ago
  Believe it or not, this topic has come up on Hacker News before. To paraphrase my comment from then (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897): while Moldovans speak a language that's very similar to Romanian, in a 2004 census 60% self-identified their primary language as 'Moldovan', as compared to 16.5% who say they speak 'Romanian'. As linguists say, a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Whether 'Moldovan' is its own language or simply a regional dialect of 'Romanian' is entirely a question of politics.
  - devindotcom 12y ago
    I learned something interesting today from both you guys.
    - a-priori 12y ago
      Glad to help!
  - spiritplumber 12y ago
    Sounds like Italy Italian and Switzerland Italian - I can go to Switzerland and understand what they say, but some turns of phrases are weird (imagine calling a sale "Action!", or saying "I mailed myself to Geneve" when you mean taking the bus).
  - simi_ 12y ago
    > Believe it or not, this topic has come up on Hacker News before. To paraphrase my comment from then (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897): while Moldovans speak a language that's very similar to Romanian, in a 2004 census 60% self-identified their primary language as 'Moldovan', as compared to 16.5% who say they speak 'Romanian'. You've been refuted in the very comment thread you've linked to, lol. Romania has existed as 4 smaller states [0] for a very long time, inhabited mainly by a people descendant from the native Dacians[1,2] and the colonising Romans. Moldova, the geographical region, was one of these states. Romania's steps towards unification: * in 1601 Michael the Brave manages to unify all Romanian principates, albeit very briefly * in 1881 Walachia and Moldova unify by electing the same leader * Transylvania is added to the mix after WWI * because of our initial German allegiance in WWII, we lose half of Moldova (now the Republic of Moldova) to Russia The point of my short, not that accurate history lesson is that Romanians and Moldavians are the same friggin' people, that had the same language for many, many centuries. Even if the language in the Republic of Moldova would've diverged significantly since WWII (which it has certainly not), it would still be merely a dialect as opposed to a different language. Romanian and Moldavian are less different today than e.g. German and its Austrian dialect are (hence why Moldavian is called a subdialect [3]). > As linguists say, a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Whether 'Moldovan' is its own language or simply a regional dialect of 'Romanian' is entirely a question of politics. Don't believe most elections/referendums from Moldova. There's an acute Russian influence in the Republic of Moldavia, manifested as both systemic brainwashing of older/poorer people, and control over politics and economy, and that's corroborated by the systemic electoral fraud (also present in Romania today [4,5] – sigh). (Moreover, rumour has it that Russia has armed forces conveniently stationed not too far from the border with Moldova.) 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Romania#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Romania#History 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia 2: http://www.daciagroup.com/en http://www.daciagroup.com/en you might have heard of this (don't buy them though, they're cheap for a reason) 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavian_subdialect_of_Romanian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavian_subdialect_of_Romania... 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_presidential_election,_2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_presidential_election,... 5: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ro&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpsnews.ro%2F20-de-metode-de-frauda-la-vot-ce-tehnici-se-folosesc%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ro&tl=en&js=y&prev... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavia bonus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Romania_and_Moldova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Romania_and_Mold...

by dash2 12y ago

lucian1900 12y ago

Nitpick: I don't think Moldovan is a language. If you mean the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova, that's just Romanian.

a-priori 12y ago
Believe it or not, this topic has come up on Hacker News before. To paraphrase my comment from then (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897): while Moldovans speak a language that's very similar to Romanian, in a 2004 census 60% self-identified their primary language as 'Moldovan', as compared to 16.5% who say they speak 'Romanian'. As linguists say, a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Whether 'Moldovan' is its own language or simply a regional dialect of 'Romanian' is entirely a question of politics.
- devindotcom 12y ago
  I learned something interesting today from both you guys.
  - a-priori 12y ago
    Glad to help!
- spiritplumber 12y ago
  Sounds like Italy Italian and Switzerland Italian - I can go to Switzerland and understand what they say, but some turns of phrases are weird (imagine calling a sale "Action!", or saying "I mailed myself to Geneve" when you mean taking the bus).
- simi_ 12y ago
  > Believe it or not, this topic has come up on Hacker News before. To paraphrase my comment from then (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7324897): while Moldovans speak a language that's very similar to Romanian, in a 2004 census 60% self-identified their primary language as 'Moldovan', as compared to 16.5% who say they speak 'Romanian'. You've been refuted in the very comment thread you've linked to, lol. Romania has existed as 4 smaller states [0] for a very long time, inhabited mainly by a people descendant from the native Dacians[1,2] and the colonising Romans. Moldova, the geographical region, was one of these states. Romania's steps towards unification: * in 1601 Michael the Brave manages to unify all Romanian principates, albeit very briefly * in 1881 Walachia and Moldova unify by electing the same leader * Transylvania is added to the mix after WWI * because of our initial German allegiance in WWII, we lose half of Moldova (now the Republic of Moldova) to Russia The point of my short, not that accurate history lesson is that Romanians and Moldavians are the same friggin' people, that had the same language for many, many centuries. Even if the language in the Republic of Moldova would've diverged significantly since WWII (which it has certainly not), it would still be merely a dialect as opposed to a different language. Romanian and Moldavian are less different today than e.g. German and its Austrian dialect are (hence why Moldavian is called a subdialect [3]). > As linguists say, a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Whether 'Moldovan' is its own language or simply a regional dialect of 'Romanian' is entirely a question of politics. Don't believe most elections/referendums from Moldova. There's an acute Russian influence in the Republic of Moldavia, manifested as both systemic brainwashing of older/poorer people, and control over politics and economy, and that's corroborated by the systemic electoral fraud (also present in Romania today [4,5] – sigh). (Moreover, rumour has it that Russia has armed forces conveniently stationed not too far from the border with Moldova.) 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Romania#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Romania#History 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia 2: http://www.daciagroup.com/en http://www.daciagroup.com/en you might have heard of this (don't buy them though, they're cheap for a reason) 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavian_subdialect_of_Romanian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavian_subdialect_of_Romania... 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_presidential_election,_2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_presidential_election,... 5: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ro&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpsnews.ro%2F20-de-metode-de-frauda-la-vot-ce-tehnici-se-folosesc%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ro&tl=en&js=y&prev... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavia bonus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Romania_and_Moldova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Romania_and_Mold...