Visitor1980
07-01-2018, 12:35 AM
(this should probably be moved to "European Culture")
These are probably controversial and a bit random, but I came up with three specific differences that firmly separate Western Europe from Eastern Europe.
The following map gives a rough estimate of these differences, and I may have made some mistakes, but these are differences that could have interesting correlations. To me, the red areas are a different civilization from the "blue" civilization.
1) The use of the letter "J" to denote the Y-sound in English (either in the native Latin alphabet or in their Standard Cyrillic Latin transliteration, which Cyrillic Slavic languages also use)
2) Popularity of non-bus electric overground public transportation -- i.e. trams, as well as (in Eastern Europe) trolley buses
3) Popularity of Eurodance, a genre of techno pop music with minor chords (sadness) and fast cheesy melodies
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/10/11/4Y1UXllS_t.jpg
As you can see, most countries in the "blue" civilization are Central and Eastern Europe, but the Netherlands is actually part of Central Europe culturally.
The "red" civilization is what we consider Western Europe. The UK, France, Spain, but not Germany and not the Netherlands. These turn out to be non-Western in my criteria.
There are some exceptions that I colored yellow: Romania is a culturally Eastern-Euro country with non-bus public transport, but uses the letter "J" similar to Western Europe. Italy sort of has non-bus public transport but doesn't use the letter "J" at all.
My understanding is this:
- Western European countries don't use the letter "J" to represent the Y-sound.
- Western European countries don't like public transport all that much. Sure, they have buses and trains and metro, but they don't have non-bus overground transport such as trams. Paris, a cosmopolitan European city, did away with trams long ago and never reinstituted them. London is a surprisingly sprawly city (and Anglos seem to prefer sprawl generally -- America doesn't have much city transport), so they don't have much elaborate public transport.
- Western European countries don't like Eurodance. For example, the UK gave the world Rock and Rock'n'Roll (e.g. the Beatles, Rolling Stones) which is totally different from Techno. Spain, Italy, Portugal are Mediterranean countries that prefer slow music such as House, Blues, etc.
Thoughts?
These are probably controversial and a bit random, but I came up with three specific differences that firmly separate Western Europe from Eastern Europe.
The following map gives a rough estimate of these differences, and I may have made some mistakes, but these are differences that could have interesting correlations. To me, the red areas are a different civilization from the "blue" civilization.
1) The use of the letter "J" to denote the Y-sound in English (either in the native Latin alphabet or in their Standard Cyrillic Latin transliteration, which Cyrillic Slavic languages also use)
2) Popularity of non-bus electric overground public transportation -- i.e. trams, as well as (in Eastern Europe) trolley buses
3) Popularity of Eurodance, a genre of techno pop music with minor chords (sadness) and fast cheesy melodies
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/10/11/4Y1UXllS_t.jpg
As you can see, most countries in the "blue" civilization are Central and Eastern Europe, but the Netherlands is actually part of Central Europe culturally.
The "red" civilization is what we consider Western Europe. The UK, France, Spain, but not Germany and not the Netherlands. These turn out to be non-Western in my criteria.
There are some exceptions that I colored yellow: Romania is a culturally Eastern-Euro country with non-bus public transport, but uses the letter "J" similar to Western Europe. Italy sort of has non-bus public transport but doesn't use the letter "J" at all.
My understanding is this:
- Western European countries don't use the letter "J" to represent the Y-sound.
- Western European countries don't like public transport all that much. Sure, they have buses and trains and metro, but they don't have non-bus overground transport such as trams. Paris, a cosmopolitan European city, did away with trams long ago and never reinstituted them. London is a surprisingly sprawly city (and Anglos seem to prefer sprawl generally -- America doesn't have much city transport), so they don't have much elaborate public transport.
- Western European countries don't like Eurodance. For example, the UK gave the world Rock and Rock'n'Roll (e.g. the Beatles, Rolling Stones) which is totally different from Techno. Spain, Italy, Portugal are Mediterranean countries that prefer slow music such as House, Blues, etc.
Thoughts?