Re:Antidepressants or Tolkien
by jltsiren on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @11:41PM
(#38186885)
None of the drug names sounded like Tolkien characters to me. I guess native English speakers are at a disadvantage, because they are more likely to consider the names as they would be pronounced in English. The intended pronunciation is usually close to Classical Latin, which means that pronouncing the names in any other European language is likely closer to the truth. And when you pronounce the names in that language, Tolkien characters and drugs tend to sound different.
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I'm European and I studied Latin for 6 years in high school and yet I found the test very challenging.
Re:Antidepressants or Tolkien
by dawatchusay on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @12:08AM
(#38187025)
So you were 100% correct on the test?
I got 23/24 this time, as I guessed one Tolkien character wrong. The last time I saw this test, maybe a couple of years ago, I got 24/24.
You got me interested, could you say more about how are doing this? What exactly sounds different to you, and maybe what is your first language too. I am European but my first language is polish so in this context it is useless :P
My first language is Finnish, which has a very straightforward correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.
I would divide the drug names into four categories based on how they sound:
Obviously a substance: Amantidine, Sildenafil
Generic fantasy names / pronounceable strings with no meaning: Azafen, Clédial, Cymbalta, Desyrel, Edronax, Luvox
Could be Tolkienian, but it's spelled wrong: Sintamil
Could be Tolkienian, but the final syllable is wrong: Elronon, Eskalith, Nardil
Additionally, the two Tolkien characters I had to guess were both kings of Gondor: Minalcar and Narmacil. Their names are in Quenya, while the commonly used names for elves etc. are in Sindarin, which sounds different.
Re:Antidepressants or Tolkien
by User3456335 on Thursday November 09, 2023 @10:49AM
(#38206513)
It sounds like you got by more on thorough knowledge of Tolkien than your knowledge of Finnish. I'm going to guess there's more speakers of non-English languages here than of Quenya and Sindarin (which may have been pharmaceutical names for all I know).