Babel Planet

A vlog about languages and how awesome they are

[sxpositive]

has america tried turning itself on and off again?

[inkbomberfghjk-deactivated20230]

yes

[babelplanetvlog]

Isn’t that what got us into this mess in the first place though?

[i-polyglot-this]

So there is this idea that when you’re bilingual you like to show off and use foreign words on purpose but tbh when I can’t remember a word in French but know it in English I just feel completely stupid, like come on brain it’s our mother tongue, don’t tell me you can’t remember, I’m going to sound like an idiot now

[sauerskaut-deactivated20180217]

So a thing that I wish Russia would get more credit for is its literacy rate and just how much people here read in general. On buses and the metro people of all ages read rather than just listen to music and often even people with headphones on are listening to audiobooks. Everyone memorizes poetry in school and authors’ birthdays are celebrated. Many Russians don’t even realize this is so. I noticed it instantly when I first came here 3 years ago because I compared it to my own country. The public transport thing is especially noticeable.

There are many reasons, cultural and historical, that reading is loved and appreciated in Russia. But my friend recently pointed out a simple one that I didn’t even think about– Books are cheap. Cheap in rubles. Cheap for a Russian salary. Cheaper than a chocolate bar or a pack of cigarettes. They’re accessible. Even people who aren’t in love with classic literature read for pleasure. Historians and waiters and cloakroom assistants and petroleum engineers alike.

So the next time you imitate a Russian accent and make jokes about someone simple living in a Russian village, remember that person you’re stereotyping has probably read more books than you.

[thevowels-pt2]

uh thanks for being sweet but books are not as cheap as you say they are (chocolate or cigarettes stopped being cheap a long time ago too, for that matter), and if they are most of the time they’re pulp. and people on the subway read mostly pulp fiction (not all of them, of course)

[sauerskaut-deactivated20180217]

Literally nothing in love is cheap but for the love of god look at the comparison of a book to an average salary in various countries and you’ll see what I mean.

Also I didn’t say “read literature.” I said read. I know what people read is sometimes pulp fiction. Doesn’t matter. I was talking about reading.

[haxyr3]

I second @sauerkaut statement: compared to the North America, books are cheap in Russia. It doesn’t make much sense to compare cost of living in two completely different economies (here in the north America expences, the structure of expences is completely different), but just yesterday, we bought 20+ books at Ozon, and together with shipping to Canada, it costed us about $200. Here I wouldn’t buy that many books for $200.

By the way, among the books we’ve bought yesterday was this one: Когнитивный Синтаксис Русского Языка. Can’t wait …

[iteachpsych]

The basics of Research Methods. There’s so much to learn in AS and more is added in the second year. In an exam you could be asked to state which hypothesis is being used in an example, which experimental method would be best for a situation, or to create your own research plan.

[babelplanetvlog]

Thanks, I neeed this!

[liminalhorror-deactivated201812]

What is an adjective? Nouns name the world. Verbs activate the names. Adjectives come from somewhere else. The word adjective (epitheton in Greek) is itself an adjective meaning “placed on top,” “added,” “appended,” “imported,” “foreign.” Adjectives seem fairly innocent additions but look again. These small imported mechanisms are in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity. They are the latches of being.

Anne Carson, from Autobiography of Red  (via writingletterstoshakespeare)

[les-langues-sont-ma-vie]

Helpful Books To Learn Languages

French

50 Ways To Improve Your French

Barron’s French Idioms

Learn French: The Fast And Fun Way (This book has tons of great worksheets and everything. It’s great for learning French!)

2,001 Most Useful French Words

Say It Right in French: The Easy Way to Pronounce Correctly 

Streetwise French

Berlitz Hide This French Phrase Book

Italian

50 Ways To Improve Your Italian

Berlitz Self-Teacher Italian (Personally, I don’t really care for these types of books, mainly because I don’t the things you learn in the first few chapters. Unless you have a base in the language, I don’t think this book will work for you.)

Learn Italian: The Fast And Fun Way (This book has tons of great worksheets and everything. It’s great for learning Italian!)

Barron’s Italian Idioms 

Easy Italian Phrase Book: 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use 

Correct Your Italian Blunders

Spanish

50 Ways To Improve Your Spanish

Correct Your Spanish Blunders 

Just Enough Spanish

Dirty Spanish - Warning: This is really vulgar.

Barron’s Complete Spanish Grammar Review 

Making Out in Spanish (I think this title is great. I’ve never read this book, but if you’re looking for slang/everyday Spanish, this seems like a pretty good book.)

Ven Conmigo! Grammar and Vocabulary Workbook: Level 1 (This is the actual workbook I use in my Spanish 1 class. It is great and I love it. If you want to teach yourself Spanish, I highly recommend getting a workbook like this.)

Hide This Spanish Book (This has a lot for a small book. Mainly just some basic phrases, along with some that are more vulgar.)

Hide This Spanish Book for Lovers (The title speaks for itself…)  

Mierda! The Real Spanish You Were Never Taught In School

Say It Right In Spanish

German

50 Ways To Improve Your German

Dirty German - Warning: This is really vulgar.

Say It Right In German: The Easy Way to Pronounce Correctly

Easy Way to Enlarge Your German Vocabulary

Barron’s German Idioms

The Tell-Tale Heart - If you want to read in German, this seems like a pretty good book to get. 

German-English Visual Dictionary

Scheisse!: The Real German You Were Never Taught In School - I love all these books. They have them in every language (The title means “Shit”). Although it doesn’t have the pronunciations, its still pretty great for the vocabulary it has. It’s a bit vulgar though, but not too bad.

Portuguese 

Just Enough Portuguese: How to Get by and Be Easily Understood

Portuguese Verb and Essentials of Grammar

Berlitz Portuguese Phrase Books & Dictionary

51 Portuguese Idioms - Speak Like a Brazilian 

Arabic

Arabic-English Visual Dictionary

The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It

First 100 Words In Arabic

Learn Arabic: The Fast and Fun Way

Making Out In Arabic  

Instant Arabic!

Japanese

Berlitz Concise Dictionary

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters

Colloquial Kansai Japanese: The Dialects and Culture of the Kansai Region

Speak Japanese Today 

Making Out In Japanese - I just bought this book, and it seems pretty great. 

More Making Out In Japanese 

Korean

Say It Right In Korean 

Korean Made Easy

Instant Korean

First 100 Words In Korean

Making Out In Korean

More Making Out In Korean

Korean For Travelers - I think this might only be a Nook book, which kind of sucks.

Dirty Korean -  Warning: This is really vulgar.  

Basic Korean: Workbook

Intermediate Korean: Workbook - I’m not sure if this is worth getting because of the price, but it seems like a helpful book

Korean At A Glance

Teach Me Everyday Korean

Chinese

Making Out In Chinese (I think this title is great. I’ve never read this book, but if you’re looking for slang/everyday Chinese, this seems like a pretty good book.)

Mandarin Chinese - English Visual Dictionary

Survival Chinese 

Get Talking Chinese - This book is so great. It’s kind of like a children’s book, but for learning basic Chinese, it’s great.

Hide This Mandarin Chinese Phrase Book 

Instant Chinese!

Polish

Say It In Polish 

Berlitz Polish Concise Dictionary

Berlitz Polish Phrasebook and Dictionary

Polish: An Essential Grammar

Russian

Learn Russian: The Fast and Fun Way

Say It Right In Russian

Russian Vocabulary

Dermo!: The Real Russian Tolstoy Never Used

Russian At A Glance

Just Enough Russian

General Language Books

Barron’s 501 Verbs (comes in French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Latin, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, English and German)

Note: I love Berlitz and Barron books for learning languages. Most are just reference books for verbs, grammar, or basic phrases instead of textbooks. But once you have a base in the language, they help you improve so much. I highly recommend buying any Berlitz or Barron language books. I love the 50 Ways To Improve Your books. They are the best grammar/vocab/correction language books ever. I use the Spanish one to help teach myself Spanish, and I absolutely love it. And it isn’t very expensive either!

[yetanotherlanguage]

期待 -> to look forward to

[deafaq]

How can I explain what sign language is and how it works linguistically to someone who doesn't know what it is ?

Hi,

you mean, has never encountered sign language before? 

Well, explain that language in general isn’t “those things that come from our mouths”, but a system in our heads. In the past, the easiest way to communicate was by sounds, since we were hunters running around in tall grass and we needed to cooperate to hunt down the mammoths. :D But for some people who can’t hear sound, the system still needs to get out! So they started using hands instead of sounds to form words.

All sign languages work similar to spoken languages. There are small particles (in spoken language, vowels) which are composed into bigger articles. In sign language, its movement, the “shape” of the hand, where the hand is located, etc. Those all form a word - a sign. More signs signed in succesion form a sentence.

Sign language have their own grammar, word order and rules. Some signs looks like exisiting things, just like some spoken words sound like existing sounds (think “meow” for example).

If you want more indepth explanation, ask for something specific or you can do some self-study. I recommend the book “The Signs of Language” by Edward Klima and Ursula Bellugi. ;)

Mod T

[minddpalaces]

it will forever confuse me that the german tumblr app now says “… hat deinen Eintrag gelikt” and not “… hat deinen Eintrag als Favorit markiert” which is just shortened and very nice but I don’t read gelikt as [gelaikd] but as [gelikt] and that sounds as if someone licked my post and i really wish i could unread/unhear that

[steegeschnoeber]

Man nennt mich Kuh In tiefster Nacht Liegt all zur Ruh Ich trapse sacht Auf deinen Blog Den Hals gestreckt Und habe schon Den post geleckt

[salparadisewasright-deactivated]

@amandavonpanda

[torstai-kilpikonna]

my name’s tumblr and when you peek upon your blog where stuff you keep I’ll tell you what you like the most - a friend came by

and licked your post

[babelplanetvlog]

Researching for my dissertation

Book: Orality and Literacy, WJ Ong, 2013.

Book: Literacy and Orality, R Finnegan, 2014. Well ain't that fucking fantastic, Finnegan, you really showed off your writing there. Take Bob Dylan's Nobel and give it to this brave author right here.

[cthulhu-with-a-fez]

atla linguistics headcanons

being the Avatar basically gives you All-Speak, so Aang would sound a little antiquated but still perfectly understandable

as the chief’s kids, Katara and Sokka would have learned a few basic trade dialects/the one universal one, which pretty much everyone would be able to understand

Toph grew up in a high-profile family so she probably had formal language tutoring/lessons, likely in formal Earth Kingdom, common trade languages, and maybe even some Fire Nation for practicality

fighting in the Earth Rumbles would have taught her Earth Kingdom swears 

Zuko would have learned High Court Fire Nation as a prince as well as formal Earth Kingdom, probably

post-exile, he would have learned the trade language as well as several regional dialects, but could get by with speaking low Fire Nation when traveling through Fire Nation-occupied parts of the Earth Kingdom

most of the Fire Nation soldiers are passably bilingual at this point, and between them and the townspeople they’ve probably evolved a whole new kind of language (in the same way that Yiddish evolved from German and Slavic influences along with Hebrew). 

Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors would speak a really, really mutated form of archaic Earth Kingdom, since they sort of noped off of the mainland several hundred years back and have been doing the whole isolationism thing for an indeterminate period of time

the Northern and Southern Water Tribe probably shares some vague basal similarities, but differ as wildly as European French and Louisiana Creole

The southern tribe at this point probably has more similarity to the Earth Kingdom trade dialect in which they most frequently communicate than it does with the Northern tribe’s language. They’re still close enough to be mutually understandable, but different enough to essentially be two different languages. 

[ladysparklefists]

idk I just love how we Young People Today use ~improper~ punctuation/grammar in actually really defined ways to express tone without having to explicitly state tone like that’s just really fucking cool, like

no    =    “No,” she said. 

no.    =    "No,” she said sharply.

No    =    “No,” she stated firmly.

No.    =    “No,” she snapped.

NO    =    “No!” she shouted.

noooooo    =    “No,” she moaned.

no~    =    “No,” she said with a drawn-out sing-song.

~no~    =    “No,” she drawled sarcastically.

NOOOOO    =    “No!” she screamed dramatically.

no?!    =    “No,” she said incredulously.

[allthingslinguistic]

I’ve been calling this “typographical nuance” and I have a few more to add: 

*no* = “No,” she said emphatically. 

*nopes on out of here* = “No,” she said of herself in the third person, with a touch of humorous emphasis.

~*~noooo~*~ = “No,” she moaned in stylized pseudo-desperation.

#no = “No,” she added as a side comment.

“no” = “No,” she scare-quoted.

wtf are you kidding no = “No,” she said flatly. “And I can’t believe I have to say this.”

no no No No NO NO NO NO = "No,” she repeated over and over again, growing louder and more emphatic. 

nooOOOO = “No,” she said, starting out quietly and turning into a scream.

*no = “Oops, I meant ‘no,’” she corrected, “Sorry for the typo in my previous message.”

[whenimgod]

I cannot express how strongly I absolutely love language and writing and communication but if anyone asks why I will be showing them this post from now on

[babelplanetvlog]

@allthingslinguistic would you  mind forwarding me a link with anything you have on typographical nuance? I think I found my thesis topic and some sources would really help.

[copperbooms]

when did tumblr collectively decide not to use punctuation like when did this happen why is this a thing

[rodimuss]

it just looks so smooth I mean look at this sentence flow like a jungle river

[prismatic-bell]

ACTUALLY

This is really exciting, linguistically speaking.

Because it’s not true that Tumblr never uses punctuation. But it is true that lack of punctuation has become, itself, a form of punctuation. On Tumblr the lack of punctuation in multisentence-long posts creates the function of rhetorical speech, or speech that is not intended to have an answer, usually in the form of a question. Consider the following two potential posts. Each individual line should be taken as a post:

ugh is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use like god put that back we have to pay for that stuff

Ugh. Is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use? Like god, put that back. We have to pay for that stuff.

In your head, those two potential posts sound totally different. In the first one I’m ranting about work, and this requires no answer. The second may actually engage you to give an answer about hoarding sauce packets. And if you answer the first post, you will likely do so in the same style. 

Here’s what makes this exciting: the English language has no actual punctuation for rhetorical speech–that is, there are no special marks that specifically indicate “this speech is in the abstract, and requires no answer.” Not only that, it never has. The first written record of English (actually proto-English, predating even Old English) dates to the 400s CE, so we’re talking about 1600 years of having absolutely no marker whatsoever for rhetorical speech.

A group of teens and young adults on a blogging website literally reshaped a deficit a millennium and a half old in our language to fit their language needs. More! This group has agreed on a more or less universal standard for these new rules, which fits the definition of “language.” Which is to say Tumblr English is its own actual, real, separate dialect of the English language, and because it is spoken by people worldwide who have introduced concepts from their own languages into it, it may qualify as a written form of pidgin. 

Tumblr English should literally be treated as its own language, because it does not follow the rules of any form of formal written English, and yet it does have its own consistent internal rules. If you don’t think that’s cool as fuck then I don’t even know what to tell you.

[babelplanetvlog]

@prismatic-bell do you have a link to the lingusitics paper you mention? I’m planning on doing my thesis on this and I’m looking for sources, I’d thank you lots for anything you could provide me.

[andreashettle]

Sometimes I want to find the person who first came up with the idea that it is “ableist” or a form of “cultural appropriation” for hearing people to want to learn sign language

and give them a really blistering lecture about how they are completely abusing the concept of “ableism” and “appropriation”.

No, it is not ableist for ANYone to want to learn sign language.

No, it is not appropriation for ANYone to want to learn sign language.

Deaf people WANT for more people to learn sign language so we can have more people to communicate with.

So please, *please* don’t ever tell anyone that their wanting to learn or use sign language is in any way ableist or “appropriation”. Because it is *not*.

If you are a person with auditory processing issues, then we WANT for you to learn sign language if it might make communication easier for you.

If you are a person who is non-verbal, then we WANT for you to learn sign language if it might make communication easier or more accurate for you.

Yes, we still want you to learn sign language even if your auditory processing issues, or your loss of speech, only happens sometimes and not all the time. Part time need for sign language is still *need for sign language*.

Yes, we still hope you will consider learning sign language even if you have no personal need for sign language at all. Your learning sign language can give *us* more people to communicate with, and therefore still benefits *us*. It is not ableist for you to want to learn sign language to benefit other people. In fact, it’s basically the *opposite* of ableist because it makes it easier for us to be fully included in society.

A more detailed response for people wanting to learn sign language, particularly for people with auditory processing issues.

(Resources for people with APD in general)

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

My Français langue teacher found and played a playlist that was just a bunch of slightly different versions of canon in d during a test, and after the third version me and a bunch of other band kids whispered "god fucking dammit" or something like that and our teacher, without even looking up, just said "en Français si vous plaît" (also i don't think he's ever put on a playlist without canon in d and fur elise send help)

jesus christ ok memorise these for next time

putain

nom de dieu

bon sang

cette fichue merde encore

va t’enculer professeur j’en ai carrément mar de cette merde je m’en bas les couilles va te faire foutre

[haxyr3]

Hi there. What does 'К балеринам я собеседовался' mean? I cannot find a translation for the latter word anywhere. The context is, this guy was bragging he will meet with ballerinas. It's the next day and I'm wondering if he got lucky or not. I'm too shy to ask.

Hi! This verb is built according to the norms of the Russian word formation, but it is not a real word. Собеседование is an interview, colloquy. Now let’s take a look at the word formation chain: 

Беседовать - to have a talk, to converse. Собеседник - Someone with whom one’s having a talk. Со - means ‘together’, –бесед- means ‘talk’, -ник means an agent, doer (similar to -er in English). The verb собеседовать - to have a talk together with smb with a purpose to  test one’s skills, knowledge etc. means to interview smb; This verb is not very common but it exists in Russian dictionaries. Собеседоваться - adds a reflexive verb -ся, which here means indirect-reflexive action, i.e. an action that is conducted to benefit the agent. 

In other words, the guy said that he communicated with ballerinas pursuing his own interests (I’m leaving it to you to guess what interests were in his mind). There is some humor here, because the focus in the verb собеседовать(ся) is on the verbal communication, while the bragging was apparently about something more material.  

[kalesbug]

Trying to find something to motivate myself and I found this little line from Van Gogh