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@languageleo
bonjour!
i am leo, welcome to my blog!
my main blog is @butchdazai
spanish native, english fluent, french B2, german beginner, japanese beginner, hebrew beginner
future target languages -> LSQ, nahuatl, kanienʼkéha, mandarin chinese, arabic
once again needing to remind some people that mispronouncing foreign words isn't just about not knowing how to say it; if your language doesn't have that sound, in many cases you can't hear it properly. You won't be able to hear yourself say it wrong because you probably can't distinguish between the sounds a native speaker can. It will sound right to you and you will be wrong.
Most languages use relatively similar sound inventories overall, but make distinctions others don't. And the way the our language centers work is they group these sounds together, allowing us to recognize that things within a given range constitute a recognizable phoneme. If your languages groups together sounds another language makes a distinction between, your brain cannot tell.
So everyone on those posts congratulating themselves for looking up pronunciation and saying "It's Not That Hard?" Surprise, you might have still got it wrong and can't even tell. You can look up the IPA chart and still flub it completely because what sounds right to your brain and what a native speaker will understand are totally different things!
"I might have butchered that, please let me know" is sometimes an excuse for lack of research, but it is, unfortunately, also a much more accurate self-assessment than confidently fucking it up after mouthing along to a wav file a few times.
This is one of the reasons that, historically, many people would take on or be granted new names if they stayed any length of time in another culture; it's very common for the names from one language to simply not map to the sounds of another!
Individual language sounds are called phonemes by the way! Most languages have 20-50 different phonemes, though some have as few as 10 and some people count tonal languages like Mandarin as having over 200. English has 44.
The human brain learns to differentiate between phonemes in childhood, so if you weren't exposed to stuff like retroflex consonants as a kid you literally can't hear them yet! It's not your fault but it will take work to teach yourself how to hear and speak them. Foreign music, radio, and film are great for learning to hear new phonemes.
Additionally: marking what phonemes are distinct in a language is called "minimal pairs". Meaning, if you changed this phoneme for another, would the meaning of the word change? Generally, if your language doesn't include the phoneme as a minimal pair, you will have significant trouble being able to hear or make that sound. Like anything else, it can be trained, but it is not so simple as "just do it"/"just look it up".
For example, in English, you don't use the sound ɐ̃ (as in pão). I have yet to meet a native English speaker who can make that sound, usually they just default to a plain a. Even though, in Portuguese, pau (pau) and pão (pɐ̃ũ) are completely different words.
The name of the country Kiribati (kɪrɪbæs) is derived from the surname Gilberts. As in, it is literally the Gilbertese pronunciation of Gilberts. Because their language lacks phonemes for G/L, the name uses the best approximation possible.
Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't try, but just be aware that your Nguyen is probably not the way that it's actually pronounced, and an effort/your best shot is worth a lot. And if someone wants to use a different or 'Westernized' name just fucking go with it.
I forgot to mention in that first reblog: there are over 800 phonemes worldwide! Humans can pronounce around 600 different consonant sounds and 200 different vowel sounds.
Also, the reason English is such a nightmare to pronounce/spell phonetically is because we have 44 phonemes but only 26 letters. Most languages with a written alphabet have one specific letter or letter combination for each phoneme but we don't.
For any given language combination, there's likely to only be a couple sounds that you will never be able to hear, but there are often countless that you can't hear yet. There are countless phenomic rules in your language that contradict with the other language. "Why is that so hard?? [Your native language] has that sound!" Yes, but it cannot put it at the end of a word with no vowel behind it. Yes, but it cannot be combined with that next consonant. You can't hear these well enough to reproduce them either, until you can. And that will take a lot more familiarity than the time it takes to look up a pronunciation, and training of your mouth to reproduce it.
And that's if you can actually, accurately find consistent answers when you do look it up. My own home county and its towns are mispronounced frequently on the local news and weather. They're getting that shit wrong one single county away.
If you're listening to someone mispronounce your native language, you might not even be able to accurately diagnose what the other person did wrong. Sometimes people will claim some phoneme was mispronounced when the problem was the stress was so wildly incorrect that that part of the word sounded wrong, so you assumed it was the phoneme itself. If a native speaker can't correct it, how is are people supposed to figure out the correct pronunciation themselves?
When people act like this is an English speaker only problem, they're telling on themselves. You're either not noticing when this happens in other languages, or you're not listening to other languages at all. Which isn't something to be ashamed of, until you're shaming people for being monolingual. I promise people are pulling the same "I hope I'm saying that right" in other languages. Are adding sounds they don't even hear themselves adding. Are saying something almost correct and then correcting themselves to something wildly wrong.
Here on Tumblr specifically people like to pretend it's a monolingual English speaker only problem. But they're still perpetuating ideas that it's simply a matter of effort and intellect, and you know who that hurts most in the English speaking world? People who speak English as a second language.
I wonder why the word for reptiles は虫類 has the kanji for insect 虫 in it?
Oooh, pick me! *raises hand*
Because in ancient China they grouped everything like snakes and insects into 虫 without it really meaning "insect" but rather a garbage can term for anything not mammal, bird, or fish. So this has carried on through many other words, such as 爬虫類.
That's why you can write octopus (たこ) as 蛸 with the 虫 radical.
Some more info: https://bestiary.japanesewithanime.com/animals/mushi
Bonjour! How do I figure out what level I am in French? I've only studied independently.
Hello,
A1 is the basic level: can you ask for my name? Give me your age? Tell me that you’re hungry? Ask for help?
A2 is a bit higher: do you understand the cashier's usual questions? Which tense to pick? Use basic prepositions? Describe your outfit? Tell me about your family?
B1 is the first step towards independence: can you write about the things you love? Review a book or a movie? Follow a lesson at school? Call the tax people to ask something?
B2 is when you’re getting there: can you watch a movie? Follow, through both knowledge and educated guesses, a conversation between natives? Defend an opinion? Understand slang?
C1 is the proficient level: can you write an academic paper about a specific topic? Fully understand a Youtube video or follow a podcast? Fool a native with your writing? Lead a work meeting?
C2 is, essentially, nearly perfect fluency.
If you’re unsure, give it a try: watch this and see how much you understand without using the subtitles or reading the comments. Here's the council of Europe's version:
Hope this helps! x
shoutout to the words "overmorrow" and "ereyesterday". english losing these words was stupid. "the day after tomorrow" "the day before yesterday" clunky-ass constructions. revolting. i'm bringing overmorrow and ereyesterday back in my idiolect and there is nothing you can do about it
one may think "language" is french or spinach for "the nguage". this is a folk etymology myth, it is actually more like mile -> mileage. "How much language are you getting out ofthose words"
I regret to inform everyone that this is actually not that far off the real etymology. The 'langue' part of language comes from the latin 'lingua', meaning 'tongue', and the '-age' suffix is something the word picked up in old french as a suffix of action (like how a 'pilgrimage' is 'that thing pilgrims do'). So really it's more like 'what that tongue do'
Well, that's upsetting.
East & west
The French words est and ouest look a lot like English east and west.
That’s because they were borrowed from Old English, along with other nautical terms, which points to naval contacts. French then passed on est and ouest, as well as nord and sud, to the other Romance languages.
My new graphic tells you how we know Old English was the donor language, how east is related to aurora, and why west may have orignally meant ‘where the sun sets’.
If you’re looking for the stories of north and south, please see Friday’s post.
North & south
The French words nord and sud look a lot like English north and south.
That’s not a coincidence: it’s because Old French borrowed these words from Old English norþ and sūþ – along with est and ouest, which come from ēast and west. The other Romance languages later adopted these words from French.
My new infographic tells you all about the fascinating theories about the history of north, south and their cognates.
Next time: east and west.
idioms are always funnier in languages you do not understand, especially when a native speaker is struggling to explain and actively digesting how ridiculous it is in real time
Notation of the /y/ sound in the European languages using the latin alphabet
As somebody whose name contains an Umlaut, it always makes me mad when Americans people who don’t use a German keyboard layout just leave out the dots. That is not my name. :(
correct: ä = ae ö = oe ü = ue (and ß = ss)
INCORRECT: ä = a ö = o ü = u
Leaving out the dots can actually change the meaning of words. Examples:
schwül: muggy, sticky schwul: gay [homosexual] ächten: to outlaw achten: to regard/respect sb./sth. schön: beautiful schon: already, yet
Respect the Umlaute :(
there is no amount of language learning that is useless. I think it obviously scales up in wonderfulness as you learn more, but even just being at the point where you can recognize what language is being spoken or written is still a more useful thing than not knowing that. it is lovely to say hi to people in their language! any attempt to learn is important. you don't get fluent overnight. and you don't have to get fluent overnight. more knowledge is better than none. it isn't just all or nothing.
it's meee I'm your guardian angel hiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 so. in about six months, you're gonna die of starvation. 🥺 and if I don't protect you, I will get: #fired! 🫢 and that is No Good 🙅♀️ hahaaa So. 🙏 I looked into causes of starvation, and it turns out: Your death is totally preventable! 😯 Uh oh! 😆 There's more than enough food to sustain you without interfering with anyone else's survival, but you're not allowed to have it! 🤨 Whaaat? 🤷♀️ Apparently, your death is premeditated by thousands of things called "shareholders." So. 🙏 I've been killing people,
soy yooo tu ángel de la guarda holiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 bueno. en como seis meses, vas a morir de hambre. 🥺 y si no te protejo, me van a: #¡despedir! 🫢 y eso No esta Chido 🙅♀️jajaaa Entonces. 🙏investigue acerca del tema y resulta que: ¡puedo prevenir tu muerte al 100%! 😯 ¡Uh oh! 😆 Hay más que suficiente comida para que sobrevivas sin que interfieras con la supervivencia de los demás, ¡pero no puedes teneral! 🤨 ¿Queeeé? 🤷♀️ Al parecer, tu muerte fue premeditada por miles de cosas llamadas "accionistas." Y bueno. 🙏 empeze a matar personas,
c'est moooi ton ange gardien coucooou 😇 bon 🙏 alors. dans genre six mois, tu vas mourir de faim. 🥺 et si je te protège pas, je vais me faire: #virer ! 🫢 et ça c'est pas Pas Super 🙅♀️ hahaaa Donc. 🙏 j'ai fait mes recherches sur les causes de famine et devine quoi: Ta mort est 100% évitable ! 😯 Oh-oh ! 😆 Il y a largement assez de ressources pour te nourrir sans interférer avec la survie d'autrui, mais tu n'y as pas accès ! 🤨 Quoooi ? 🤷♀️ Apparemment ta mort a été préméditée par des milliers de trucs appelées des "actionnaires". Du coup.🙏 j'ai tué pas mal de monde,
hiiiiii 😇 我是亲的守护小天使！okay🙏 嗯。您在差不多半年会饿死哈🥺 若我不能救您我会被#炒鱿鱼！🫢 那可不行哦🙅♀️ 哈哈。所以昵🙏我查了一下人类饿死的原因，然后发现：诶呀呀😯亲的死是可以避免哒！😆 这世上有足够食物给亲吃，一点儿也不需要影响别人的生存率哒！但不给亲！🤨 怎么会这样昵？ 🤷♀️ 原来，亲的死是被一帮叫“股东”的东西计算好滴！ 所以昵🙏 我杀了一些人，
y'all are doing some rosetta stone shit to me
Ich bin's, dein Schutzengel hiiii 😇 okay 🙏 also, in ungefähr 6 Monaten verhungerst du🥺 und wenn ich dich nicht beschütze, werde ich wohl #gefeuert 🫢 und das wäre nicht gut 🙅🏼♀️ hahaaa also. 🙏 Ich habe mich mit den Ursachen vom Verhungern auseinander gesetzt, und stellt sich raus: Dein Tod ist absolut abwendbar 😯 ohoh 😆 Es gibt mehr als genug Nahrung, um dich durchzufüttern, ohne dass das das Überleben andere beeinträchtigt, aber die kannst du leider nicht bekommen 🤨 hääää? 🤷🏼♀️So wie's scheint wurde dein Tod schon von tausenden Dingen namens "Anteilseigner" beschlossen. Also. 🙏 Ich hab angefangen Menschen zu töten,
դա ես եմ, ես քո պահապան հրեշտակն եմ, ողջույն, 😇 լավ 🙏, այնպես որ: Մոտ վեց ամսից սովից կմեռնես։ 🥺 եւ եթե ես քեզ չպաշտպանեմ, կստանամ. 🫢 եւ դա լավ չէ։ 🙅♀️ Ես 🙏 ուսումնասիրեցի սովի պատճառները, եւ պարզվում է. 😯 Հա՜հ։ 😆 Կա ավելի քան բավարար սնունդ ձեզ պահելու համար՝ առանց որեւէ մեկի գոյատեւմանը խանգարելու, բայց ձեզ թույլ չի տրվում ունենալ այն: 🤨 Ինչպե՞ս։ 🤷♀️ Ըստ երեւույթին, ձեր մահը կանխամտածված է հազարավոր բաների կողմից, որոնք կոչվում են «բաժնետերեր»: Այսպիսով: 🙏 Ես սպանում եմ մարդկանց,
jIH'e' 'angbogh Da QanwI'lI' jIH luq 😇🙏. qaSpu'DI' jav jar, ghungmo' bIHegh. 🥺 'ej qaQanbe'chugh, vaj vISuq: #fired! 🫢 vaj QaQbe 🙅 ♀️' ghu'vam. 🙏 ghungmo' meqmey vInuD, 'ej SIbI' HeghlIj toDlu'chu'! 😯 HIja'! 😆 DutaHmoHmeH yapbej Soj 'ej latlh taHtaHghach nISbe'lu', 'ach Daghaj net chaw'be'! 🤨 nuqjatlh? 🤷 ♀️ HeghlIj 'e' HeSlaw' SaD lang
niiii naiz zure aingeru guardako iiiiepa 😇 ongi🙏 ea. sei hilabete barru edo, goseak hilko zara. 🥺 eta ez bazaitut babesten, #kaleratu egingo naute! 🫢 ta hori Ez Dago Ongi 🙅♀️ karkaaar Beraz. 🙏 Goseak hiltzearen arrazoiak ikertu ditut, eta antza denez: Zure heriotza guztiz saihesgarria da! 😯 Hara! 😆 Beste inoren biziraupena oztopatu gabe bizi ahal izateko nahikoa janari dago, baina ez duzu hartzeko baimenik! 🤨 Zeeer? 🤷♀️ Antza denez, zure heriotza "akziodun" deitzen diren milaka izakik planifikatu dute. Beraz. 🙏 Jendea hiltzen ibili naiz,
dekho main aapke guardian angel hoon namasteeee 😇 theek 🙏 tohh. kuch chhe mahene mein, aap bhook se mar jao ge 🥺 aur if main aapke rakshe nahi karta, main ho jaungi: fired!! 🫢 aur woh bahut Achha Nahi Hai 🙅♀️ hahaaa Toh. 🙏 Maine bhook se marne ki vajat shogh kari, aur yeh sun: Aapke marna pure navarey hai 😯 Arey ma! 😆 Aap ke liye kaafi se aur bhi khana hai kisi aur se lene ki bina, par aap le nahi sakte! 🤨 Ye kya baat hai? 🤷♀️ Sun ye, aapka marna hazaaron se cheezein se pehle se vichaarit hai, ye cheez hain "shareholders." Toh. 🙏 Mai logon ko thora hatya kari vi hoon,
あたしだよぉ〜♡ アンタの守護天使でぇ〜す☆ ハーイ😇 ってゆーかぁ🙏 アンタさぁ、あと半年くらいで餓死しちゃうんだケド〜🥺 でぇ、あたしがアンタのコト守んないと、あたしマジで【#クビ】決定じゃん!?🫢 そんなんアリエナクナイ?🙅♀️ ウケるんですケド〜 あははっ んでぇ🙏 餓死の原因チョー調べてみたらさぁ? アンタの死、フツーに防げんじゃん!?😯 ヤバッ!😆 ってか、アンタが生きてくのに十分すぎるくらい食べ物あんのに、他の人の邪魔もしないのに、アンタにはダメなんだってぇ!?🤨 意味わかんないんですケドぉ〜?🤷♀️ なんかぁ、アンタの死ってぇ、「株主」とかゆー何千もの連中にあらかじめ決められてるらしーよ?ってコトで🙏 あたしさぁ、ずっと人殺しまくってるワケ、
I think the "pre" and "post" parts in "preposterous" should cancel each other out but everyone else seems to find my idea completely erous
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so this is how i can learn polish orthography
thanks, I hate it
THANKS I LOVE IT
official linguistics post
a moment of silence for my roommate who has to endure me doing linguistics homework. out loud. making sounds with parts of my mouth and throat I didn’t even realise I could use to make sounds. repeatedly and with passion
i think the moment of silence needs to come directly from you on this one
