Talk:2421: Tower of Babel

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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So is Gretchen McCulloch xkcd's resident linguist now? Is there going to be character page for her like Cory Doctorow? 172.68.129.136 23:00, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm hoping so! We could call it "Gretchen McComics." 172.69.34.74 23:24, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
That's probably not in compliance with whatever stylebook we have here but I love it. Captain Video (talk) 04:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
Could it really be the same Gretchen? The time periods of the two comics are thousands of years apart. And the title text of "True Name of the Bear" says she was devoured. Barmar (talk) 06:31, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Wait, how could a linguist exist before there were languages to study and compare? Is this the omphalos hypothesis popping up again? GreatWyrmGold (talk) 02:36, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

They have one language. Presumably, she attempts to thoroughly study that one. This would technically make her a grammarian, but since they don't have contact with any other language, this proto-language wouldn't need make any distinction between grammarians and linguists, so "linguist" would be an appropriate translation. --162.158.79.49 05:55, 6 February 2021 (UTC)


Defining "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" {

   "colorless green ideas" existing is 0 .
   List of all existing "colorless green ideas"  that don't "dream furiously" contains 0 elements.
   True.

} 141.101.77.60 06:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Defining "more people have been to Russia than I have" {

   if(Have "I" ever been to Russia?){
       "More than 1 people have been to Russia.".
   } else {
       "More than 0 people have been to Russia.".
   }

}, so something like {

   "At least 1 person that is not me has been to Russia.".

}. 141.101.77.60 06:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

"I possess a number of people as chattel", i.e. servants and/or slaves. (That number could be zero?) "The number of people who have gone to Russia exceeds this value." 141.101.77.168 10:29, 6 February 2021 (UTC)