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That doesn't change the fact that 'vesa means drone.

So humans are a kind of drone that has a rank structure. So to vespid. Mal'kor is the word for Vespid, but in military ToE, they'll be referred to as 'alien auxiliaries [Vespid]', although whether that's written as Gue'vesa/Mal'kor or Mal'kor'vesa depends on the writer.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
That doesn't change the fact that 'vesa means drone.

So humans are a kind of drone that has a rank structure. So to vespid. Mal'kor is the word for Vespid, but in military ToE, they'll be referred to as 'alien auxiliaries [Vespid]', although whether that's written as Gue'vesa/Mal'kor or Mal'kor'vesa depends on the writer.

... actually, I've never seen anything but the Mal'kor for vespid.

Vesa doesn't mean drone. It means helper. It's not a mark of rank. It's a descriptor, much like kor isn't a sign of rank. If it were a rank, 'la would replace it, rather than being tacked onto the end for human troops.


Do you speak any languages other than English? As I understand, Japanese and Chinese do the same sort of thing- words will be made of smaller words, and the new compound word will be only vaguely described by the two together. Even Chinese written language works like that. You're looking at a design choice to make the Tau more asian and not seeing that that's what is going on.

Yes, actually, I am familiar with Japanese, in fact.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Yes, actually, I am familiar with Japanese, in fact.

Then how are you not understanding this?

As a species humanity must be VERY careful when dealing with XENO species, and should keep them at arms length for as long as possible.

TBH if we have the practical ability to destroy a foreign alien species that could one day rival us we should do so.

If we are currently incapable of accomplishing that, then we should feign loyalty and friendship long enough until we can destroy them.

Humanity above all.

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
As a species humanity must be VERY careful when dealing with XENO species, and should keep them at arms length for as long as possible.

TBH if we have the practical ability to destroy a foreign alien species that could one day rival us we should do so.

If we are currently incapable of accomplishing that, then we should feign loyalty and friendship long enough until we can destroy them.

Humanity above all.

QFT

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Yes, actually, I am familiar with Japanese, in fact.

Then how are you not understanding this?

Because the people who wrote the Tau language almost certainly don't speak Japanese, and even if they did, their first language is English and so their language experiments will be primarily based on English language construction.

In any case, even the fact that you're comparing Chinese and Japanese at the same time is silly. Japanese is utterly unique among East-Asian languages to the point where it's actually one of Linguistics' biggest mysteries. They stole some of their writing from the Chinese, but even then the way its used is just plain weird.

There's no real correlation between Japanese and Tau, in any case, linguistically speaking. The closest you have is honourifics... in Tau, each word fragment has a defined meaning. In Japanese, each word fragment can have five or six different meanings and the only way to tell which one is intended is by its context in the rest of the sentence.

In Tau, Kais always means 'skilled'. Shi always means 'victory' ('triumph' is a synonym for victory).

In Japanese, Shi can mean death, master (as in mastering a skill) or even four depending on the context. This is why the Japanese have such a pun-based sense of humour (for example, "Arumikannoueniarumikan" - 'there's an orange on the can' works because arumikan means 'aluminium can', but aru mikan as two separate words means 'mikan orange').

In contrast, Tau have no sense of humour.

Also, Tau are alien scumbag who gave humanity an ultimatum to join the scumbag alien empire or die. Pretty clear they aren't out to make friends if you threaten people in order to join your cause.

You can't make that argument against Norton, he's American. "World peace through superior firepower" has been their modus operandi since 1945.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
You can't make that argument against Norton, he's American. "World peace through superior firepower" has been their modus operandi since 1945.

Personally I have no issue with that. Logically speaking, if no one can fight back, there'd be no wars. Not ideal but still, no wars is no wars, right? But if USA started up and tried world domination, it would all come down to where Britain stood. If Uk stood with USA, I'll stand with them too. But if US tried to take on UK, stand against. You always support your own.

As a species humanity must be VERY careful when dealing with XENO species, and should keep them at arms length for as long as possible.

TBH if we have the practical ability to destroy a foreign alien species that could one day rival us we should do so.

If we are currently incapable of accomplishing that, then we should feign loyalty and friendship long enough until we can destroy them.

Humanity above all.

Yes, I would not have said better. All this debate is very interesting, but, in the end, it is something only humans like us in our modern times could have. In the 40k setting, none of the most well known xenos species is wondering the same about Mankind. I mean, do Tau, Necrons, Eldar of all kinds, or other less famous races like Slaugh or Rak'Gol even wonder if they can coexist with us?

Certainly not; they either despise us or want to exterminate us. Tau are quite different because they believe in the Greater Good but we all know that they would conquer us than let us live freely if they could. 40k universe seems too harsh for interspecies diplomacy and if we start to hesitate about what we should do against them, we get weaker because they would never do the same.

I may sound a little harsh, but I play Ordo Xenos for a reason =D