Talk:2421: Tower of Babel

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)

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)