Search for Spakr, P-P-P-Powerbook, and Turing Machines

[aelfgyfu_mead]

All these items are absolutely trivial to any of our lives (except maybe the third) and yet must be shared.

First, I'm taking a few minutes a day to learn Old Norse (shouldn't everyone?). I'd like to say I'm good at languages, but in reality, I have to work really hard at them. So I was staring at vocabulary this afternoon, repeating each new word and its definition five times, trying to make visual associations for each, until I came to "spakr".

At this point, I nearly dropped the book to make my post, because I just had to share with y'all.

spakr: wise, learned; quiet

Keep in mind that this is a pure, short "a" (think German). Keep in mind too that that 'r' is the masculine nominative ending. It changes. And a lot of ON words have vowel changes, not all of which I totally understand at this point.

So that word is pronounced "spahk" or "spok." So we revise our definition:
spakr: wise, learned; quiet; Vulcan science officer on the original Enterprise.

And, because I just don't know when to quit, here it is fully declined, in all its glory (hope I got it right). I've put my favorite forms in all caps; hope you don't mind. (If we're going to get technical, the "o" should have a little hook on the bottom, in modern graphics, but I don't want to mess up everyone's computer trying to do that. Especially mine. And I've just spent ten minutes trying and can't get tabs or even insert spaces to make the table line up right. Sorry.)

Masc. Fem. Neu.
Sg nom. spakr SPOK spakt
acc. spakan spaka spakt
gen. spaks spakrar spaks
dat. spokum spakri spoku

Pl. nom SPAKIR spakar SPOK
acc spaka spakar SPOK
gen spakra spakra spakra
dat SPOKUM SPOKUM SPOKUM

Yes, that's right: the masculine plural nominative would be pronounced (roughly speaking, of course): "Spock ear."

And yes, this is probably the most completely useless thing you will see on LJ today. Well, at least I entertain myself pretty darned well.

2. ETA: I first posted without credit and then realized how I got there: from a comment by suitablyemoname on a comment to a post by delphia2000: The Powerbook Prank, a saga in four parts. I recommend it highly. All of it. Most of us can only dream of such exploits!

3. Oh, and before I forget: the 2,3 Turing Machine proof has been done, the prize has been won. Just don't ask me to explain what it means. Apparently, it's really cool, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around some of it.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

OMGILOVEYOU!!!

Spock - wise - Spock ear - love!!

*hugs!!*

[or-mabinogi.livejournal.com]

Isn't language a beautiful thing. :-)

I looked into that Turing Machine proof. I'll admit it's a little over my head at the moment. For now I'm going to blame tiredness and general distraction. When i look at it again and still can't get it, well, that's the most likely scenario. I might have better luck with quantum physics.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Oh, and before I forget: the 2,3 Turing Machine proof has been done, the prize has been won. Just don't ask me to explain what it means. Apparently, it's really cool, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around some of it.

Oh, cool. Back in my junior year of college when I was taking Theory of Computation and proving things about Turing Machines I could maybe have explained it. now I just...can say "oh, COOL!" and vaguely remember it being important.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

The Pwerbook Prank = awesome. The Turing Machine, however, is totally confounding me!?!?!

Also. You should have mail. *g*