PSA: Kerbals Not Kerbins

[Javster]

I seem to recall someone making a chart of common spelling mistakes in the tutorials section, i'll link it if I can find it.

(also, no mention of "minimus"?)

EDIT: Here ya go, credit to GregroxMun: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104282-How-to-refer-to-things-correctly?highlight=kerbin+kerbol

Cries inside as my abbreviations tutorial with that message is not mentioned

[Frank_G]

Those who constantly get details like that wrong or mixed will never be programmers or scientists. Its a difference in the way people think.

The problem that it annoys so many people here, is that there are so many scientists and programmers around

@Tank Buddy - Mün is (if the ü is pronounced like an ü) not at all sounding like moon.

Scott Manleys has got it incredibly correct for a non german or turkish guy. Just watch one of his videos on youtube.

[xrayfishx]

Also, PSA: what's with the "PSA" thing lately? It seems like everything requires to be announced now, otherwise people will notice it's not important.

I looked it up shortly after it started and apparently it means "Public Service Announcement".

[Capt. Hunt]

Personally, I don't really care what other people use, and I've been known to make up terms. Anything relating to The Mun is Munar, I use Apokerb or ApoKee because it's easier then saying Apoapsis all the time (likewise I use different terms for each object's apsis, just like real astronomers, eg. Apojool, Apodun, Apelo).

[Asharad]

The little green guys who (Might) go to space (Or their Graves) are called kerbals, not Kerbins or Kermins.

I reject your reality..... I will always call then Kerbans.

[NecroBones]

Now although I do notice this, it doesn't bother me so much as the annoying convention of using decimal notation for a system that isn't actually decimal, so to anybody used to math but not software development, "zero point ninety" looks like it should be equal to "zero point nine."

I know, I know, it's a well-established system and we're stuck with it, and I'm pretty much used to it myself anyway, but I can't help but wish we used a different character there instead of a period (or comma). 1-0-2 or 1|0|2 or 1~0~2 or 1x0x2 or 1+0+2 or something instead of 1.0.2 that looks like it should be the same as 1.02. (Not sure how you'd pronounce them though, hard to beat the convenience of "point.")

Yeah, this version numbering convention has caught on quite strongly over the years. 20+ years ago, a lot of software treated it as true decimals. Somewhere along the way, people started using the dot as a separator instead.

[xtoro]

PSA shouldn't be thrown around by just anybody.... And I don't see what the big deal is. As long as the reader knows what the writer is talking about then who cares?

[Zild]

Some of these sound a bit harsh... Most notably Kearth and the SAS / reaction wheels confusion, which I imagine both stem from the early days (or early demos) when Kerbin was unnamed and there was no difference between SAS and reaction wheels.

Criticising people for playing the demo, or for playing back in the early days, seems a little unfair to me.

[Robotengineer]

PSA shouldn't be thrown around by just anybody.... And I don't see what the big deal is. As long as the reader knows what the writer is talking about then who cares?

That's the whole point, if you were to post "I sent some Kerbins to The Moon" in the 'What Did You Do in KSP Today' thread, I wouldn't understand, are you playing RSS with The Moon or is it just an error, and how did you send Kerbins?

[Streetwind]

Something that I see a lot of people get really confused about is the umlaut in "Mun", as this thread handily demonstrates.

There is no umlaut in "Mun". Nowhere in the game does it have an umlaut. Nowhere in official Squad blogs, devnotes, press releases etc. is it written with an umlaut. The KSP dev team does not pronounce it with an umlaut, Scott Manley doesn't pronounce it with an umlaut, and you shouldn't either!

So why is there a big fat umlaut painted on the rocket on the start screen, so obviously paraded in everyone's faces?

Because it's a stylistic element called a "metal umlaut". Yes, amusingly enough, this is a real thing that exists. It comes from the tendency of heavy metal bands to randomly place umlauts into their band names to make them seem more badass. However they are not meant to change the pronunciation of the letter, as opposed to real umlauts.

And that's exactly why there's "Mun" with an umlaut written on that rocket at the start screen: to make it more badass. The kerbonauts are psyching themselves up by scrawling this grafitti onto the spacecraft, believing it will bring it good luck and mission success. And you know, technically, it worked...

Edited June 9, 2015 by Streetwind

[J.Random]

"0.91" not "1.0.2".

FTFY.

[Evanitis]

"minimus"

Only playing this game since 0.24... Never noticed that this isn't the correct spelling. Thanks, I guess.

EDIT:

Minus

Ok, that's even better.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Evanitis

[OddFunction]

Something that I see a lot of people get really confused about is the umlaut in "Mun", as this thread handily demonstrates.

There is no umlaut in "Mun". Nowhere in the game does it have an umlaut. Nowhere in official Squad blogs, devnotes, press releases etc. is it written with an umlaut. The KSP dev team does not pronounce it with an umlaut, Scott Manley doesn't pronounce it with an umlaut, and you shouldn't either!

So why is there a big fat umlaut painted on the rocket on the start screen, so obviously paraded in everyone's faces?

Because it's a stylistic element called a "metal umlaut". Yes, amusingly enough, this is a real thing that exists. It comes from the tendency of heavy metal bands to randomly place umlauts into their band names to make them seem more badass. However they are not meant to change the pronunciation of the letter, as opposed to real umlauts.

And that's exactly why there's "Mun" with an umlaut written on that rocket at the start screen: to make it more badass. The kerbonauts are psyching themselves up by scrawling this grafitti onto the spacecraft, believing it will bring it good luck and mission success. And you know, technically, it worked...

Of everything I read, this makes the most sense and fits in with the Kerman Universe best.

...See what I did there?

[Coam]

I propose we create a new naming system for Kerbals based on the planet they are located on/orbiting.

For example:

Kerbals on Kerbin will be called Kerbins.

Kerbals on the Mun will be called Kuns.

Kerbals on Duna will be called Kunas.

Kerbals on Eve will be called Keves.

Kerbals on Eeloo will be called Keloos.

Kerbals on Moho will be called Kohos.

Kerbals on Jool will be called Fools.

[Rath]

I propose we create a new naming system for Kerbals based on the planet they are located on/orbiting.

For example:

Kerbals on Kerbin will be called Kerbins.

Kerbals on the Mun will be called Kuns.

Kerbals on Duna will be called Kunas.

Kerbals on Eve will be called Keves.

Kerbals on Eeloo will be called Keloos.

Kerbals on Moho will be called Kohos.

Kerbals on Jool will be called Fools.

Ack! Ack! K-syndrome!

[Scotius]

I'm surprised no one mentioned a dreadful "asteriod"

[Alshain]

I'm surprised no one mentioned a dreadful "asteriod"

That's just a typo. Swapping the two vowels is easy to do accidentally.

If you want to get technical, they aren't Asteroids at all because Asteroid is a proper name and can only come from the Asteroid belt in the Sol system... except that is what the game calls them.

[Columbia]

Kerbals on Jool will be called Fools

This is hilarious

[NecroBones]

Earlier in the thread there was some discussion about whether the little green dudes should be called Kerbals, Kermans, Kerbins, etc. I just noticed that there actually is an in-game reference that calls them "kerbals" (lower-case "K") specifically. The deployable ladders have descriptions that list their maximum recommended load this way. For instance, the "Telus Mobility Enhancer" has a recommended load of "0.5 kerbals". lol

[Red Iron Crown]

Earlier in the thread there was some discussion about whether the little green dudes should be called Kerbals, Kermans, Kerbins, etc. I just noticed that there actually is an in-game reference that calls them "kerbals" (lower-case "K") specifically. The deployable ladders have descriptions that list their maximum recommended load this way. For instance, the "Telus Mobility Enhancer" has a recommended load of "0.5 kerbals". lol

"Kerbal" might be a mass unit.

[NecroBones]

"Kerbal" might be a mass unit.

So what happens if the mass of one Kerbal is not one kerbal?

[KerikBalm]

Something that I see a lot of people get really confused about is the umlaut in "Mun", as this thread handily demonstrates.

I don't think this is as clear-cut as you make it out to be.

There is no umlaut in "Mun". Nowhere in the game does it have an umlaut.

Nowhere in official Squad blogs, devnotes, press releases etc. is it written with an umlaut. The KSP dev team does not pronounce it with an umlaut, Scott Manley doesn't pronounce it with an umlaut, and you shouldn't either!

There are multiple examples in the english language of a word having more than 1 accepted pronounciation.

There are also multiple examples (in multiple languages) of words and names with more than 1 accepted spelling.

So why is there a big fat umlaut painted on the rocket on the start screen, so obviously paraded in everyone's faces?

Oh.... so there is an umlaut over the u in the game after all....

Because it's a stylistic element called a "metal umlaut".

And you asked all the developers and they told you that?

"Mün" would be pronounced nearly the same as "Moon"

Also worth noting is that the developers mostly speak spanish.... type Mün in google translate, and have it say the word as if it was icelandic (I tried German, but it just said the individual letters for some reason, and in English, it didn't change with or without the umlaut)

Now try "Mun" and have google translate speak it as if it were spanish... notice anything?

Its clearly the analogue of the Moon.

Mun is clearly a reference to the Moon.

Mün is a clearer reference to the Moon for those people that know what an umlaut means...

[Streetwind]

There are multiple examples in the english language of a word having more than 1 accepted pronounciation.

There are also multiple examples (in multiple languages) of words and names with more than 1 accepted spelling.

That is completely true.

But for that to be relevant, there would need to be examples of the Mun being referred to in multiple different spellings interchangably in the same situations. However, there are none.

None except a single piece of grafitti that (aside from not even being of the same linguistic veracity as a source from for example an ingame contract text) might as well have read "Jebz0r wuz here" for all the difference it makes. In which case there would not be any argument whatsoever over Jeb's nickname, because it is implicitly understood that you add "-z0r" as a stylistic element to the back of a name as a cool-sounding (if nonsensical) embellishment that makes no claim to be a correct spelling of the name itself.

And for what it's worth, there is not a single English language dictionary anywhere that accepts "wuz" as a valid spelling of "was". People still use it though - as a piece of slang, a deliberate misspelling for stylistic reasons. Seeing "Mün" in a piece of grafitti is of the same quality. It's a deliberate misspelling for stylistic reasons (specifically, a metal umlaut), and it's acceptable because it's slang, it's grafitti. It doesn't make it a proper spelling any more than it makes "wuz" a proper spelling.

"Mün" would be pronounced nearly the same as "Moon"

*snip*

Mün is a clearer reference to the Moon for those people that know what an umlaut means...

As a German, who uses umlauts extensively every hour of my life, I'm going to have to dispute that claim.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Streetwind

[lajoswinkler]

I cringe when people say "the Mun" and pronounce it as "the Moon". That gray ball is called Mun and it's pronounced short. Also, Kerbin is Kerbin and not the Kerbin. I don't care what some think and when they point at the error in the game. It's Mun.

Also, massive cringe when people refer to the game as "Kerbal". "Hey, I've played Kerbal." No, you were not. You were playing KSP.

[serolrom]

As a Spanish speaker myself, I can say "Mun" is pronounced in Spanish pretty much (almost) like "Moon" is pronounced in English. Being the developer from Mexico (Spanish speakers as well), it made sense to me.

About the umlaut, let me call it 'diéresis', which is the name of the symbol in Spanish. And I will do that just because, again, the developer is Mexican.

The diéresis has the function, in Spanish, to reinforce the way this letter sounds, in the exceptions in which the 'u' sounds different. Although in Spanish it is not allowed to use the diéresis like that (it is wrong to write 'Mün'), to me it's the Kerbal way to make sure the 'u' sounds in the Spanish way (like "Moon" in English), but of course this is a very personal opinion.

I love talking about language, and couldn't help throwing my two cents here.

EDIT: Ninja correction

Edited June 12, 2015 by serolrom