----- Original Message ----- From: "Maximilian Wilson" <wilson.max at gmail.com> To: "Dragaera List" <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 6:56 PM Subject: Re: (Orca spoiler) On 1/5/06, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > There's a bit in _Issola_ where V mutters to himself in F, so perhaps > he's fully bilingual or that's his milk tongue. Well, he's been to Fenarr, and it's some sort of soldier's curse. Oddly enough, cursing seems to be one of the first things people pick up in a new language; perhaps because the grammar of expletives is so basic, and expletives are disproportionately likely to be curses. So it could be a phrase learned in adulthood, even. Max Wilson -- Be pretty if you are, Be witty if you can, But be cheerful if it kills you. Actually, I usually try to learn useful phrases like "Could I have another beer please?" and "Where is the bathroom?" first. After that my time is split between learning swear words and pickup lines. Jeff -Can still order beer in most of the major European languages.