"Black Hawk Down"? That was a case of mis-allocation of resources: DON'T send your troops in the harm's way, without proper support!
Soomaaliya?
I see three redundant letter/sounds here.
"Somalia" is clear enough for me. :)
Every language in the world, including English, Esperanto, etc., is too imperfect, not phonetic enough, not optimized. None is 100% "what-you-read-is-what-you-pronounce".
There are thousands of languages and dialects, and about 26 (?) major languages.
Every language has a lot of unnecessary complications and other problems, I think.
Or, do you have a counterexample? :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
Do you have a gazelle species named after you?
I bet you don't.
But some people do:
Speke's Gazelle, G. spekei
Cuvier's Gazelle, G. cuvieri
Thomson's Gazelle, E. thomsoni
Soemmerring's Gazelle, N. soemmerringii
Grant's Gazelle, N. granti
"Speke's Gazelle (Gazella spekei) is the smallest of the gazelle species. Partially sympatric withG. gazella pelzini, it is confined to the horn of Africa where it inhabits stony brush, grass steppes, and semi deserts (Kingdom 1982, 1997). "
"This Gazelle is currently (2008) classified as endangered under the IUCN Red List."
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Temporarily territorial:"The Soemmerring's Gazelle is a tall gazelle with tan flanks, gradually turning to white on the belly, and long black horns. They are approximately 0.6-0.9 m (2-3 ft.) at the shoulder, and they weigh 35-45 kg (77-99 lb). The diet of the gazelle consists of acacia and bush leaves, grasses, and herbs. They inhabit open steppes with brush and acacia, as well as steppes with few trees, and scientists suggest that male Soemmerring's are temporarily territorial."
From the gazelles' perspective, there's no such thing as an O.K. Corral; no corral is OK:
"In many parts of North Africa and the Middle East, large stone corrals were constructed to drive herds of gazelle into, making for an easy ambush. This method of hunting started in prehistoric time and continued into the early part of the twentieth century. One interesting fact is that at some point in history, a Soemmerring's gazelle population became isolated on Kebir Island in the Dahlak archipelago where the gazelle actually developed a dwarf form of the larger mainland races."
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ReplyDeleteInteresting how the different gazelles got their names. I only know of one Speke, and that's a Tudor stately home near Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful animals! And if I ever do get another bear card, I will let you have it! :-) Carol
ReplyDeleteSuch BEAUTIFUL creatures!! Too bad one has to travel so far from home to see one ...
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and for leaving a comment so I know you stopped! I so appreciate them and YOU!
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