I linguist every day

linguistics posting, acespec posting, general goofposting. she/her

[hamyilton]

Sentiments like this (from the New Yorker review of “How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words” by Sophia Smith Galer, review by Nikhil Krishinan) quite irk me because it implies that bigoted or discriminatory language is the cause of these cultural attitudes, rather than the other way around.

For example, many words in English have no negative connotation when applied to men, but do for women, see ‘bitch’ and female dog, ‘sow’ for an old woman etc. Is English a uniquely sexist language? Or is it spoken in patriarchal societies that devalue women and thus express these attitudes in their languages? Languages are morally neutral and reflect the culture of the people that speak them, that is why language preservation is so vital.

Another issue I have with this quote is it contradicts an earlier line in the review, the author states that it’s a “fallacy” to think of languages as unchanging, yet they use the term “baked” to imply that things like gender and honorifics cannot ever be modified. As a linguist, this is evidently not true-and you don’t have to be a linguist to see why this is the case. The advent of gender-neutral language is a huge example, the increase in self-identifying with they/them pronouns as well as neopronouns. Honorifics also change as well, just ask any Japanese sociolinguist.

My final problem with this quote is the very end, the implication that linguists would not “be eager” to preserve an aspect of linguistic heritage; that runs counter to everything I’ve ever been taught as a linguist. We know and acknowledge constantly our cultural limitations and our goal is always description not prescription, to describe how a language is used judgement-free because we are scientists, not moral arbiters or philosophers. By saying this, the author reveals their own lack of understanding of what linguistics fundamentally is, which definitely colors my whole perception of their review.

Finally, to argue that language death in the 21st century is in any way “natural” or comparable to species extinction is quite frankly, deeply insulting, and stems from a misunderstanding of what language is and why it is important. Language is so much more than a means of communication, which is why it is always targeted as a means of control and censorship.

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

imagine wanting to participate in The Discourse.

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

Like, this is both obvious and revelatory: The people who create and participate in The Discourse are people who look at twitter/threads/whatever and say, "This Discourse seems healthy and productive. I shall participate."

So the only people we end up hearing from on twitter are people who want to post to twitter. which is to say they are definitionally weird.

[blumineck]

Be yourself as best you can whenever you can.

[expressions-of-nature]

Ashikaga, Japan by ajpscs

[archeogeist]

This new broom craze is sweeping the nation

[archeogeist]

I said it's SWEEPING the NATION

[archeogeist]

You know, I'm taking a big risk here. Every note is an entry into a contest and if this post flops I won't win. The sweepstakes are high.

[teaboot]

Hi man! Geniune question. I think I saw one of your posts talking about being aro and like as an aro person myself I wanted to ask how do you work on accepting yourself for how you are? Like idk mb you've got some tips or life philosophies for that specific thing. I'm kinda struggling with this at the moment, would appreciate some advice. If you do find a desire to share thanks in advance

Man, that's a difficult question. I'm not even sure I have a concrete answer, just *my* answer?

The thing is... yeah, I'm not immune to being lonely. All my friends and family and coworkers and everyone seems to have a partner, and I... don't. And I envy that, a little. They get to wake up next to someone, and sit quietly with someone, and *know* someone- and not just surface-level stuff, but... hopes, dreams, fears, insecurities, likes and dislikes. Behaviours and patterns, habits, preferences.

And I KNOW it's not perfect, nothing ever is, but it's that mutual support and understanding I can only imagine must be... satisfying, I guess. Having someone you know you're improving life for, who doesn't need you to live, but for some reason or another prefers to live with your proximity like it's some kind of luxury one might enjoy experiencing.

I want those things. But for a lot of people- most of the world- those things mean other things too, like "having sex" and "being married" and "producing children", "splitting one bedroom", "having a partner at all", and all kinds of other stuff I don't especially need, want, or think about.

So like... I try to imagine what the perfect "standard" partnership or relationship or whatever would be for ME, if I just woke up one day and had one. And it doesn't have those things. So I figure, you know. *Why* I feel this way doesn't really matter, right? Whether I was born like this or not, or if it's normal or not, or if I COULD put up with those things for the sake of having the good parts I DO want.... it doesn't matter, kind of?

It's just another boundary, or limit, or preference, like any other deal breaker. Like refusing to date someone who chain-smokes or having a severe dog allergy or something.

I'm not a freak, or a "cold fish", or broken or anything. It's just that the ideal partner/s for ME is someone/s who *also* wants what I want. My ideal relationship is someone or someoneS who are okay with never fucking, or maybe not living together, or maybe nobody at all, and if I happen to make a friend or meet a person who is perfect in every OTHER area but that, then it isn't that it's my fault- it's that we weren't *actually* a good match to begin with. They were a ten, but they chain-smoked. They were a ten, but they wanted a dog really bad. They were a ten, but I couldn't deal with them chewing with their mouth open all the time.

So when I boil everything down, I don't ACTUALLY wish I could experience a powerful singular romance the way everyone else does- I just want strong relationships, people I trust, emotional intimacy, and cohabitation.

And there's no reason why I can't HAVE those things exactly the way I am.

Do I feel like I'm missing out sometimes? That it would be easier to develop these relationships if I was the same as the majority? Sure I do. That's just a numbers game. Bigger ocean means more fish.

But I also know that a traditional experience isn't what I WANT, and it wouldn't make me happy.

And if the point is to find people who you can be happy with, why wish for that?

At this point, wishing I enjoyed traditional romance or traditional sex is like wishing I enjoyed the taste of dirt so I could enjoy the experience of eating dirt, when I could just... not eat dirt?

Lke. I already don't eat dirt

There are already so many things I like eating that AREN'T dirt

Seems pretty straightforward

[seraphim-eternal]

I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed.

2 Timothy 1:12

[stillgotscars]

SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION SEVERANCE S3 IS OFFICIALLY IN PRODUCTION

[nordsea-horizons]

🍊little garden details in summer🌱

[ellora-borealis]

[was-once-somewhere-else]

I just saw a video title on YouTube that said something like “Why is glass transparent?” And that’s an interesting question and I’m sure it’s great that the video exists but my first thought was like “Because glass is terrible, obviously.” Because it’s unwieldy and let’s out warmth and needs to be heated to hundreds of degrees to be shaped and turns into hundreds of tiny daggers if you drop it. Why the hell would we bother with that if it didn’t have some magical quality like being totally transparent despite being solid? Glass is transparent because if it weren’t, we’d use something else.

[was-once-somewhere-else]

looking through my “me” tag and this is apparently what I was thinking 3 years ago

[totally-a-wizard]

If you’re still curious we did not start working glass for its transparency.  It was most likely started as a sanitary concern.  Glass is easy to clean with soap and water, once it’s cleaned out you can use it again for anything and no germs or flavor from the previous meal or drink will remain.

Other materials at the time, namely clay, would absorb flavors and germs meaning that if you ate beef off a clay plate your next meal with that plate could have beef flavor and microbes common on cow meat on it.  That would leak out seemingly at random no less.  Heck imagine a sick person coughing into their soup bowl and then months later their germs hiding in the clay would pop out to infect whole new people.

Also the earliest human use of glass we know of is for its sharpness.  Pre-historic people would use volcanic glass as sharp knives for food preparation.  Also beads.  Pretty much any new substance humans get their hands on for most of our history we immediately try to make into beads.

The fact that it could become see through was a side benefit.

[was-once-somewhere-else]

this is amazing and I’m really glad I reblogged that old bullshit post because I got to learn this

[real-language-facts]

important how do we feel about the fact that it’s not heli and copter but helico and pter

i feel very normal about this fact actually

[dogpuppy]

[pineberry-princess]

[fruityshirts]

#ranibow sprimkle

[dogpuppy]

[background-character-341]

For all its faults Tumblr has truly ruined all other social media for me because my friends all have Instagram and are all trying to get me on Instagram more but every time I open Instagram there are like fifteen things screaming for my attention and when I get over myself long enough to start scrolling it's like. Where is my chronological dash. Where is the following-only option. Who are these people. Why are there so many videos. Everyone is screaming at me. And then before I know it I'm thirty minutes into scrolling and I haven't seen a single thing that I actually care about. At least on Tumblr when I see stuff I don't care about I know someone I follow has found a new interest.

[paranormal-taters]

"i feel besquintled", said no one ever. because that's not a word.

[paranormal-taters]

okay nevermind it IS a word now and this is exactly what it means.

[paranormal-taters]

EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LOOK AT THIS NEW AND BETTER WORD

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

in hindsight, growing up as an aromantic person who didn't know aromanticism was a thing...it woulda been really easy for me to assume that something was wrong with me, that I was "broken" or "missing" some piece of humanity.

luckily I was autistic, oblivious, and had a huge ego. it literally never occurred to me to frame it as a "me" problem. i just thought every single person i knew was a dumbass

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

not trying to be mean, that was just the natural conclusion of a judgemental aspec teenager forcibly surrounded by other teenagers. classmates would go on and on about their Longings and Yearnings and id be like. girl u r fifteen