[40k] 5th Ed soon to be released?

"Doctor Rock" <malafex.DeleteThis@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:dqPjj.1840$xm1.209@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
>
> "MJB" <mrtinj.DeleteThis@OLDsguy.com> wrote in message
> news:fmnssm01qg8@news3.newsguy.com...
>>
>> "The Cheshire Cat" <Roknese.DeleteThis@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:9YWdnaYrn4Sy3hLanZ2dnUVZ_r2nnZ2d@comcast.com...
>>>
>>>
>>> i never liked how you were completely incapable of ever understanding
>>> the other factions words. seriously. in every war known to man they had
>>> people who could speak the other sides language. i think anyway.
>>> probably wrong about that. any history nazi's up here want to back me up
>>> or put it to bed?
>>
>> At the higher levels - the commanders of any european army could probably
>> communicate with the other side's commanders directly. And call each
>> other 'cousin' to boot. But at the grunt level? I doubt if a Roman
>> legionaire who spoke 'latin' could understand or communicate with a
>> Macedonian phalangist who spoke 'greek' at all.
>
> may I take a moment to nitpick? thanks, cos I do so love to:
>
> most roman soldiers (or sailors for that matter) would've been able to get
> by in greek. it was certainly far more widely used amongst citizens of
> the empire than latin - even if they didn't speak it already, anyone
> posted to the eastern empire would've picked up the basics very quickly,
> or gotten extremely hungry, cold and pissed off. it was also probably
> well established in the west, since the bulk of the roman empire's
> merchant class was, in fact, comprised of greeks and native speakers from
> the eastern islands. in nearly all of the mediterranean territories,
> roman officials and the majority of their subjects wouldn't have been
> fluent in each other's languages, but they both spoke greek and
> consequently most everyday business would've been conducted in greek.
>
> ahhhh, that's better (cue comical rubbery noise of sphincter unclenching)

thats been very informative. i realize now that the knowlege was in the back
of my mind and i only accessed that memory when reading these posts. now im
sure it will be at the forfront of my mind whenever these conversations may
come back up in the future.

thanks!