If We Devoiced Word Final Obstruents In English

Then that would be [bæt]. *pa dam dishoom*

[ironmyrmidon]

I love when Arabic loanwords get incorporated into other languages and they keep the al- suffix. I'm studying the gebra. It's a real the batross around my neck.

[official-linguistics-post]

uh oh

"etymologynerd" is at it again and this time i do feel i have to say something. the disability advocates have it covered on addressing the impact, but there's also a serious problem with the linguistics.

in a video shared on may 16, adam aleksic begins by saying: "i think we have to accept the fact that the 'r-word' [retard/retarded] is permanently coming back and it's functionally changed meanings to no longer directly refer to disabled people."

this first sentence alone betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of language change in several points.

this word never went away. what we're seeing now is an attempt at re-normalization by people who sense that they will not be socially punished by openly using this term.

we actually don't have to "accept" its return to mainstream use. for decades, disability advocates have worked to inform the public of the harm caused by casual use of this term. the harm has not disappeared, and neither will this advocacy and its impacts.

now i'm just mad. how tf does it NOT refer to disabled people? the entire point of a pejorative term is that it negatively invokes comparison to a person, group, etc. the assertion that the r-word has changed meanings is categorically false. at most, its primary context has changed from clinical to casually pejorative, but the insult fundamentally rests upon the original reference.

he goes on to refer to the "euphemism treadmill," another concept he misrepresents by extending the metaphor to say that terms which have been sufficiently distanced from their original reference are no longer pejorative. to quote: "...once we sufficiently distance a word from its historical usage, it stops taking on the same offensive power and just becomes colloquial instead."

which... what? what the fuck is he talking about? the words he uses as examples – idiot, imbecile, and moron – are definitely still offensive, if perhaps less impactful. "just becomes colloquial instead" is a nonsense phrase. are offensive words not colloquial? the only english word that comes to mind as having changed so much in definition as to no longer be offensive is "nice," which has been shifting in meaning for more than 700 years and was never a weaponized clinical term.

he ends by saying, "it is undeniably true that the people who are afraid to say the r-word right now are going to get old and die out, while younger generations keep saying it with no knowledge of where it came from." again, fundamentally misunderstanding language change in society over time. it rests on the assumption that we're all going to start or re-start using this slur and never have a conversation about its harms, which just completely ignores both the abovementioned disability advocacy and the fact that people tell each other not to use offensive words. you think i'm just not gonna teach my kids that using slurs is bad??

the whole video is devoid of both empathy and an understanding of long-term semantic change.

tl;dr etymologynerd is wrong, we do NOT "have to accept that the 'r-word' is coming back," and we all need to read more crip linguistics.

[just-shower-thoughts]

Wut-In-Tarnation is really What-In-The-Entire-Nation with southern accent

[aphony-cree]

It’s time for the fascinating history of the word tarnation, which has nothing to do with the word nation

In 18th century America there was a trend of finding nicer ways to say curse words so they could shout exclamations without committing blasphemy. “Heck” and “gosh” originated at this time. “What in Sam Hill” was just a censored way of saying “What the hell?”

Damn and damnation became darn and darnation

At the time the word eternal was mostly associated with God and heaven, so the slang term “tarnal” was created to speak about eternity without invoking God

The new soft-curse word darnation sounded a bit like the slang word tarnal so people mashed them into tarnation (source)

“What in tarnation” means “What in eternal damnation” which also means “What the hell” which also means “What in Sam Hill” thanks to a bunch of Americans in the 1700s wanting to say bad words without incurring the Lord’s wrath 

[natequarter]

nosferatu? non. VOSferatu. c'est pas mon problême

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Language 1: native

Language 2: fluent

Language 3: proficient-ish

Language 4: basic skills but it’s a signed language so it’s off minding its own business and staying out of it.

Languages 5 and 6: unfortunately the most common non-native languages in use in my current daily life, also have formed an unholy hodgepodged lexicon from hell that takes toddler-like glee in suppressing any sort of useful and meaningful communication in languages 2-3 and sometimes also language 1

[victusinveritas]

[razielim]

oh i'm going to misusle and straight up fuckle this knowledge so badly

[romancelangs]

This Twitter thread really spoke to me. I wanted to share it with anyone who hasn’t seen it. 

[love4languages]

This is very important to remember. While I want to be a translator, i know that I won’t be “fluent” in every single language or in very topic. there are some languages I just want to talk in, others to read in, and others just for hobby. That’s perfectly okay.

[corvidconventicle]

My new favourite idiom is 画蛇添足 basically meaning to ruin something by overdoing it

Quite literally ‘draw snake add feet’

Pinyin: Huàshé tiānzú

Traditional: 畫蛇添足

[love4languages]

HAHA OMG I LOVE THIS

[toast-tothe-moon]

language resources on the internet i love you. i cannot believe i can just start learning a language like that. i can lookup any word in seconds. i can find grammar explanations. there are teachers who put out whole videos for me to learn. amazing. i am so lucky.

[randomwordzard]

the ladies call me the subjunctive mood the way I express desire, wishes, uncertainty, doubt and fear

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Honestly, as a German I can not quite understand the obsession of the English speaking world with the question whether a word exists or not. If you have to express something for which there is no word, you have to make a new one, preferably by combining well-known words, and in the very same moment it starts to exist. Agree?

[latveriansnailmail]

Deutsche Freunde, could you please create for me a word for the extreme depression I feel when I bend down to pick up a piece of litter and discover two more pieces of litter?

[thatswhywelovegermany]

um = around

die Welt = world

die Umwelt = environment

ver = prefix to indicate something difficult or negative, a change that leads to deterioration or even destruction that is difficult to reverse or to undo, or a strong negative change of the mental state of a person

der Müll = garbage, trash, rubbish, litter

-ung = -ing

die Vermüllung = littering

ver- = see before

zweifeln = to doubt

-ung = see before

die Verzweiflung = despair, exasperation, desperation

die Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung = …

[serhumfreysbrokencollarbone]

This is a german compound on the spot master class and I am LIVING

[thatswhywelovegermany]

#my german is still too basic for this but I desperately want a compound word for how much these compound words piss me off

das Monster = monster

das Wort = word

der Groll = grudge, anger, malice, rancor

der Monsterwortgroll = …

[linguistikforum]

Monsterwortbildungsimitationsunfähigkeitsverzweiflungsgroll

[thatswhywelovegermany]

die Bildung = formation

die Imitation = imitation

un- = un-, in-

fähig = able

-keit = -ility

die Unfähigkeit = inability

der Monsterwortbildungsimitationsunfähigkeitsverzweiflungsgroll = anger about the inability to imitate the formation of monster words

[wildflower182]

Linguistikfehdenhandschuhwurf

[thatswhywelovegermany]

die Linguistik = linguistics

die Fehde = feud

der Handschuh = glove

der Fehdehandschuh = gauntlet

der Wurf = throw

der Linguistikfehdenhandschuhwurf = throwing down the linguistic gauntlet

[shiplocks-of-love]

*slowly backs in fear*

[meetinginsamarra]

@shiplocks-of-love, @thatswhywelovegermany

Monsterwortbildungsunfähigkeitsangstverzweiflungsrückzugsecke

Monster=monster // wort=word // bildung(s)=formation

unfähigkeit (s)=incabability  // angst=anxiety

verzweiflung(s)=desperation  // rückzug(s)=retreat // ecke=corner

=the corner in which you retreat when you´re desperate because of your fear when being unable to form monster words

[shiplocks-of-love]

*eye twitch*

But what I want to see now is two germans arguing over the construction of one of these monster words.

[melmey]

@shiplocks-of-love I don’t think that will happen. The words make perfect sense. I think if German is your mother tongue you get a feeling for combining words, like a 

Monsterwortbildungsgespür

Monster = monster 

Wort = word 

Bildung(s) = formation

Gespür = intuition

;-)

[a-german-learning-clown]

🤡

[dewdropbonnet]

Sprachirrgartenbelustigungsbeitrag

[thatswhywelovegermany]

die Sprache = language

• irren = to become lost (also: to err, to be mistaken; to wander, to stray)

• der Garten = garden

der Irrgarten = maze, knot garden

• be- = prefix with a variety of functions: ¹as part of a compound word, it denotes a processing or change of state; ²as part of a compound word, it denotes a touch; ³as part of a compound word, it denotes a more intensive preoccupation with or thematization of something; ⁴it forms from a noun an adjective with a pseudo-participle form because the corresponding verb does not exist; ⁵as a prefix, it forms a transitive verb from a previously intransitive verb; ⁶as a prefix of a verb, it shifts the focus and thus changes the sentence structure

• lustig = funny

• -ung = suffix turning an adjective/adverb into a noun

die Belustigung = amusement, entertainment, merriment

der Beitrag = contribution, article in a newspaper or magazine, posting on social media, input to a discussion

[linguistness]

Bloody love this language <3<3<3

[randomgerman]

The thing is, since in German you have to decline/conjugate many words in relation to the noun they are refering to those monster words actually serve a purpose of making the language simpler. A common example is a (as in any) red wine (ein roter Wein) as compaired to the compound a red wine (ein Rotwein). If rot is an adjective it has to be conjugated: der rote Wein - des roten Weins - die roten Weine - and many more. But it if rot is part of the noun you only have to decline Wein: der Rotwein - des Rotweins - die Rotweine. So, die Verzweiflung über die Vermüllung der Umwelt is way longer than Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung and you would have to know three grammatical genders and the words’ respective declinations. Whereas for Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung you only need to know that Verzweiflung is grammatically feminine (die) and its deklinations.

[what-even-is-thiss]

What they don’t tell you about speaking multiple languages is that your brain does not in fact have a box labeled Spanish and another one labeled German. Instead it has a box labeled “Not English” and sometimes when you’re talking or writing in one of the languages you speak it will just start pulling random words from that box.

[littlemizzlinguistics]

As an English-as-a-second language teacher, I would never ever ever tell my students that TikTok English isn’t a valid and legitimate use of the language. I tell them that it’s a register of English that has appropriate contexts and inappropriate context, and “here’s how you say ‘no wait, let him cook’” in formal, standard English, or “this phrase that you’re asking me about means this but it should only be used with friends in informal context, there’s a time and a place for TikTok English”, but I’d never tell them not to use it or that it’s not valid.

Today’s internet idioms might be next decade’s “perfectly fine in a business email” idioms and I’m not going to stop my students from learning and embracing all aspects of the language. My job is to teach them the appropriate contexts for different things, and to ready them to use English in different contexts and to be able to use it to their benefits. It’s not to be the arbiter of what parts of the language are “real” or “not real” or to say that they MUST only use certain dialects. That would be doing them a disservice and not fully preparing them for the increasingly English-speaking, rapidly-changing world they’re about to face.

Shakespeare was once written for the unwashed masses who spared a little coin to go see a play in a register of their language that made sense to them. Now it’s the height of sophistication. I’m not here to make those decisions. I’m just here to teach my students to move through the world and to know how to use the language in different situations. I’m not so arrogant as to say “that’s not REAL English” because obviously that’s not true. People are using it, so it’s real English.

I’m here to say stuff like “it’s rizz with your friends, that’s fine. But let’s stick to “style” in your essays for now”

[seimsisk]

spending a lot of time in Anglosphere tumblr always gets me thinking about linguistics and translation and categories today I was think about eggshells and the skin of fruits and the bark of trees. in Portuguese all these things are called "casca" (casca de ovo, casca de fruta, casca de árvore). Casca (subst. fem.) in a broad sense means a hard outer layer or outer shell. When someone keeps a wall around their innermost feelings, we sometimes call them "cascudo". In the masculine form "casco", it means a turtleshell (casco de tartaruga) or a boat's hull (casco do barco), but also the hoof of a horse or a cow (casco do cavalo, casco da vaca). In English those are all separate categories. Meanwhile "shell" also refers to such disparate things as the shells of bivalves (conchas) and the cartridges of shotguns (cartuchos). And the skin of fruit is the same word as the skin of people and animals (pele), which conjures the image of a fruit being like a parson, or perhaps, of taking a bite of a person as of an apple. I wonder if someone learning Portuguese would think of similar images, such as a tree covered in eggshells, or a fruit being like a boat. We also don't have a separate word for peel. A peel is "casca". The word for peeling is "descascar", and you may descascar eggs, fruits, vegetables, even shrimp. But human skin also may descascar, on its own, when it's terribly sunburnt. So in the end, the categories aren't all that separate, after all.

[littlemizzlinguistics]

French speakers need to chill out about how English speakers use French loanwords lmao. Like yes, I will use “vis a vis” to mean “regarding/concerning” because it’s a legitimate use of the phrase in English and that’s how semantic change works, babbbyyyyyy!

If the French don’t like it, they shouldn’t have done the Norman invasion 🤷🏼‍♀️

[littlemizzlinguistics]

I really do think that part of the reason that people resent language change (especially by young people/the next generation) is the same reason that they resent other sorts of societal change- it’s a sign that the world moves quickly and changes more quickly than we can keep up with, and it’s scary because it reminds us of our own mortality and how we’re getting older and our time is so relatively brief.

[littlemizzlinguistics]

My second language: I’ve studied this academically with a manic intensity for years. My goal is to get as close to native-like as possible, and I would be able to live and work in a country that speaks this language with no issues save for a bit of concentration fatigue.

My third language: this is a beautiful language that I appreciate for its merits and beauty. I’m not going as hard as with my L2, but I’ve achieved decent proficiency, good grammar and pronunciation, and hope to be able to eventually achieve higher-level communication skills that allow for deep, abstract and philosophical conversations, and to be able to read and appreciate classic literature in this language.

My fourth language: I don’t expect to achieve fluency with this language, but I would like to achieve proficiency, and good grammar is important to me. It’s on the back burner at the moment since I’ve moved away from where it is used

My fifth and sixth languages: I’m living as an expat in a country with two official languages, and I’ve shoved them together to double my output. My abilities with either language are far from pretty or grammatically correct but code-switching between them just about serves my basic daily needs and I can usually be understood for basic interactions. You can pry my Frankenpidgen out of my cold dead hands.