[blorpulous]

my turtle goes trick-r-treating

[will-write-for-food]

@edenfenixblogs

[unearthlycat]

[ID: photo of a turtle dressed up as the Great A'Tuin from Discworld. On the turtle’s back there stands four cutout elephants, and on the backs of the elephants is a cardboard Disc with a colored map of the Discworld on it. /end ID]

[thydungeongal]

Also shout-out to the Swedes for just borrowing the French "adieu" into their vocabulary and just spelling it "adjö"

[legov7]

German has borrowed the italian "Ciau", spelling it "Tschau" and only using it as a goodby instead of also a greeting.

[thydungeongal]

I had completely forgotten about this, this is fantastic.

[erlann]

If you enjoyed "ciao" becoming "tschau", you'll definitely want to hear where "tschüss" (German, also meaning "goodbye") comes from!

[thydungeongal]

Borrowed from German Low German tschüß from earlier adjüs, from Dutch adjuus, back-formation from adjuusjes, from French adieu.

We can't let the French keep getting away with this

[ospreyonthemoon]

I mean the french very much aren't getting away with it. Everyone else is taking their language and running off with it cackling with glee. We're all getting away with fucking up french words on purpose

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

#English loves french so much it steals the same fucking word a few centuries apart so it gets two words that have the same meaning#But different spellings -#Like guarantee/warranty#(aside: There was a w/g shift so you can see if the word showed up with the normans or got nicked later#Which is why for e.g. the english call it wales and the french call it pays de galls)#Catch/chase#Gender/genre

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[captainjonnitkessler]

The second you start talking about some mysterious "they" that are controlling society in some fashion, you are engaging in dangerous conspiratorial thinking even if you're being woke about it. "They" did not institute the 40 hour work week specifically so you would be too tired to revolt. "They" did not invent the sleek minimalist aesthetic in order to crush the spirit of art in the common people. "They" are not pushing mediocre media into the mainstream in order to poison people's critical thinking skills.

Your best case scenario after that is you talk to someone who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about and you get embarrassed because you can't answer basic questions about your own ideology because you never learned anything past "the ruling class/capitalists/politicians are making things bad and if we got rid of them the bad things would all go away!"

Your worst case scenario is obviously the woo-to-fascist pipeline and you end up believing Jews are poisoning American food supplies with GMOs in order to turn us all into beta cucks, so like . . . maybe just stop blaming "them" before you fall down that route.

Obligatory round of disclaimers: Yes, sometimes people do bad things. Be specific about exactly who is doing what instead of ascribing it to some vague group of shadowy elites. Yes, sometimes things in society are bad. Learn to identify the root causes of complex social issues instead of assuming that they're actually extremely simple to fix and we're just not doing it because of some vague group of shadowy elites. Yes, minimalism isn't for everyone. Learn that some people don't share your tastes and get the fuck over it for the love of god.

[hyperlexichypatia]

Also, before you blame a vague "they" for a contemporary social norm or law or policy you think is bad, look up what the norm was before it. What did it replace?

"They created the 40-hour workweek to --" QUERY: What was the average working-class person's weekly workload before the 40-hour workweek was standardized?

"They created credit scores to --" QUERY: How did banks determine who was and wasn't worthy of a loan before credit scores?

"They promote bad media to --" QUERY: What was the average working-class person's entertainment before this era of "bad" media?

"They invented schools to crush children's creativity and --" QUERY: What was the average working-class child's daily life like before universal public schooling?

To be clear. Before someone accuses me of pissing on the poor.

I AM NOT SAYING "Stop opposing current social practices because Things Used To Be Worse, stop complaining about a 40 hour workweek because great-grandpa worked 90 hours a week uphill both ways in the snow --"

We should advocate a shorter workweek, actually! We should advocate abolishing credit scores, actually! We should advocate non-authoritarian schooling, actually!

But we should do it from a place of informed historical perspective that doesn't quickly become romanticizing the past and perpetuating the idea that Things Were Great Until They Took Over.

[weaponwifer]

Proto-Indo-European phonology is second nature to us Indo-Europeanists that it's easy to forget that the average person proboably only knows about the rarity of Indo-European *b

[protoindoeuropean]

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[carrionhearted]

Sorry for infodumping about my special interest out of nowhere, you said a keyword and it activated my unskippable dialogue

[buddwyer]

even the top gets called a faggot

[estrogenesis-evangelion]

me explaining modern homophobia to aristotle

[pharahsgf]

i literally could not care about chappell roan when she was being hailed as the newly arisen white girl messiah of the pop industry but now that everyone seems to be turning against her for daring to demand basic respect for her humanity i cannot defend her hard enough. go tell those reporters to shut up queen you're so yas and slay

[laika-the-bitch]

in an interesting case of linguistic convergent evolution, the english words scale, scale, and scale are all false cognates of each other

[laika-the-bitch]

scale as in „to climb“ comes from the latin scala, for ladder.

scale as in the measuring device comes from the old norse skal, for a drinking vessel sometimes used as a weighing device

scale as in the dermal plating on the skin of some fish and reptiles comes from the old french escale, for shell or husk.

[lolotehe]

Three languages enter, one language leaves.

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[vinny-vox]

Why are you lgbtq+? wrong answers only GO

[mysteriouslyjellyfish]

currently obsessed with british murder mystery tv shows where all the murders happen in the same town in every episode and everyone's just like oh yep there goes another one, just another day in shirefordtonstead

[bailesu]

This is where the people who colonized Cabot Cove came from.

[hyperlexichypatia]

The absolutely essential aspect of these stories is complete, unbroken, total genre-blindness of all characters. If they, even momentarily, realize that their small town actually has a shockingly high murder rate, the effect is ruined. In an urban crime show like Law&Order or whatever, the cops can go to anybody on the street and say "We're investigating the murder of Jackknife Bob" and the witness is just like, "He got whacked? Oh well, I didn't do it." But in a Small Town Murder, it is absolutely imperative that everyone the detectives talked to is shocked that such a thing could happen! "Dear me, a murder? Right here in Shirefordtonstead? Good heavens!" Ma'am, it is season seven. You are the fifth proprietress of this quaint antique shop. The first three were murdered, and the fourth was the killer. In the normal, rational world, living among this high a murder rate would have a profound, dare I say traumatizing, effect on your worldview and your perception of your own safety. But you are not of the normal, rational world. Your unshakable and clearly counterfactual belief in the safety and stability in your surroundings is built into your character. And for this I love you. Never, ever change, Tiny Quaint Friendly Villages Full of Constant Murder.

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

I'm so fascinated by languages with different levels of formality built in because it immediately introduces such complex social dynamics. The social distance between people is palpable when it's built right into the language, in a way it's not really palpable in English.

So for example. I speak Spanish, and i was taught to address everyone formally unless specifically invited otherwise. People explained to me that "usted" was formal, for use with strangers, bosses, and other people you respect or are distant from, while "tú" is used most often between family and good friends.

That's pretty straightforward, but it gets interesting when you see people using "tú" as a form of address for flirting with strangers, or for picking a fight or intimidating someone. In other languages I've sometimes heard people switch to formal address with partners, friends or family to show when they are upset. That's just so interesting! You're indicating social and emotional space and hierarchy just in the words you choose to address the other person as "you"!!

Not to mention the "what form of address should I use for you...?" conversation which, idk how other people feel about it, but to me it always felt awkward as heck, like a DTR but with someone you're only just becoming comfortable with. "You can use tú with me" always felt... Weirdly intimate? Like, i am comfortable around you, i consider you a friend. Like what a vulnerable thing to say to a person. (That's probably also just a function of how i was strictly told to use formal address when i was learning. Maybe others don't feel so weird about it?)

And if you aren't going to have a conversation about it and you're just going to switch, how do you know when? If you switch too soon it might feel overly familiar and pushy but if you don't switch soon enough you might seem cold??? It's so interesting.

Anyway. As an English-speaking American (even if i can speak a bit of Spanish), i feel like i just don't have a sense for social distance and hierarchy, really, simply because there isn't really language for it in my mother tongue. The fact that others can be keenly aware of that all the time just because they have words to describe it blows my mind!

[kurganfilledwithbearbones]

But you do have it! because American English has titles and also hierarchical treatment of last names (if your name is Jeremy Jefferson, there's a huge semantic weight difference between Jerry, Jeremy, Mr. Jeremy, and Mr. Jefferson, for example). English marks hierarchy and familiarity even if it doesn't do it in more grammatical terms. Think of being a kid and your parents yelling your full name across the house when you were in trouble.

I speak Icelandic. Icelandic doesn't have titles or last names or everyday use of a formal plural or any other obvious markers of formality and intimacy. Formality is still marked, just in non-grammatical lexical terms...but because it's not marked in ways I as a L1 English speaker recognize, it's harder for me to reproduce.

The reason you feel like this doesn't exist in English to the point where it exists in Spanish is because it's easier to spot for a L2 learner who has to think about categorizing the new language in a way that makes sense in the L1, and unless you have some more in depth information about language registers and intimacy marking and whatever it's easy to consider this as a novel phenomenon in the L2. But a lot of this semantic stuff is pretty universal, just marked in different ways.

[lunalingua]

THANK YOU. This is a misconception. Speaking from my experience of living in Japan and studying Japanese while being a native speaker of American English:

1. For folks who don't know, Japanese words/grammar change depending on formality, the genders of the speaker and listener, the age of the speaker and listener, etc.

2. But English words/grammar ALSO change depending on the above contexts described. It's just not formalized in grammar books. Consider the differences:

A. "The honor of your presence is requested for dinner this evening."

B. "I would like to invite you to dinner."

C. "Do you want to get dinner together?"

D. "Wanna grab a bite to eat?"

E. "Yo, bro, you want a burger?"

Etc. People will be like "it's wild that Japanese has different words for 'meal' depending on formality!! Gohan? Omeshi? Crazy!!!" But ENGLISH IS THE SAME WAY.

And this actually makes it harder for speakers of languages like Japanese to learn natural English, because they've been taught that there's no difference in tone between telling a waiter "I'd like a coffee" and "I want coffee." Since one of those feels easier to learn, they'll choose the option that makes them sound weirdly dickish to the waitstaff.

In short: English has levels of formality! Conveniently, saying otherwise fits the stereotypes of rigidly hierarchal East Asians, refined and sophisticated Europeans, and lawless/casual Americans and Australians—but us not recognizing these differences makes it harder for ESL speakers to learn real English

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[magpie-to-the-morning]

I don’t WANT a career. I want to cuddle and sleep and eat and read and create and love and be loved.

[magpie-to-the-morning]

So uh, everyone’s also feeling totally normal about this, huh?

[lackofa]

Giraffe-taur drops a quarter: the crappy comic.

[en-shaedn]

okay but this is the purpose of the internet. I can look at a cute comic about a giraffe centaur who dropped his quarter trying to get a crappy vending machine snack. In no universe would I think of or make this myself. How awesome

[onyxbird]

[Image description: Five-panel comic of a giraffe-based centaur at a vending machine labeled “snacks or some shit”. In the first panel, they’re bending down with just their human torso to look at the bottom of the vending machine. The subsequent panels show them stooping lower and lower, reaching for something under the vending machine, first by splaying out their forelegs to the side and then going down on their knees so their human chest and arms are on the ground to peer under the machine. In the last panel, their whole body is lying flat on the floor looking exhausted.

The human torso of the “giraffe-taur” has short, curly black hair and brown skin and connects to the giraffe body with a short section of giraffe neck. The brown-spotted yellow giraffe fur pattern extends partway up the human torso and on their lower arms. /end description]

[thydungeongal]

Due to a misspelling on my part while writing down a wish I wanted the djinni to grant me, I have been transported back in time and turned into a servant of the king of England, Denmark, and Norway

[thydungeongal]

That's right, I am serving Cnut

[mjthefaeva]

I mean this so kindly, but I have this primordial urge to shove you into a locker.

[transfemmbeatrice]

beatrice muchadoaboutnothing is a trans woman: a brief treatise

thematically, i think in a play about the social vulnerability of women, having a character be a trans woman just makes sense as a way to provide depth to that idea. specifically, i love the concept of beatrice's view of men being informed by her own experiences as a closeted trans woman (it's amazing what people will say in front of you when they think you're one of them) and as someone later facing sexism and transmisgoyny.

usually when someone does a trans reading of this play/character, they look at beatrice's famous speech about wishing she was a man and interpret her as a trans man, which is perfectly valid! but this idea started for me with the simple thought that i wanted an out and accepted trans character to play with rather than a closeted one who cannot transition, just as a matter of personal preference at that particular time and with this particular text. but then i kept thinking.

as above, the concept of beatrice reading men for filth in the context of having lived among them is great. the "oh god that i were a man" speech is extremely disparaging of men and what they claim to be vs how they actually wield their power. what she wishes is that she had the power that men have automatically in her society--felt all the more keenly because there was a time when she was able to wield that power and she gave it up to be happy, to be herself, to be free in a different way. (here is where i sometimes imagine beatrice regretting ever transitioning, believing that her own happiness and health is less important than having the power to protect hero's happiness and health, because i love angst.) but now that the worst has happened, she is reduced to begging a man for help and it's demeaning and infuriating and tragic.

i also love turning on its head the line "i cannot be a man with wishing, therefore i will die a woman with grieving." being a trans person, dealing with internalized transphobia, knowing that transitioning will put a target on your back, wishing you could just be the gender you're born as--but no amount of wishing will make her not a woman. i think she loves herself and her gender but the play is focusing on points of conflict so that's what i'm talking about here.

in a play about misogyny, the vulnerability of women, and the hypocrisy of men, a trans woman has a unique perspective on both masculinity and femininity both as genders and places in society. (in the ideal version, i think john would be a trans man to mirror this experience, but that would require him to be rewritten to have actual depth and personality and all that is a different essay). there is also just a particular kind of strength that comes from having to carve out and defend your identity in that way which i think fits her very well.

lastly, a couple of other miscellaneous things from the text that can tie in:

beatrice recounting "a double heart for his single one" meaning both "i loved him twice as much as he loved me" and "i loved him as two people: [birthname] and beatrice"

benedick insisting he wouldn't marry her even if "she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed." Adam, not Eve. in MY illustrious opinion, this is benedick saying "i don't care HOW big her dick is i'm NOT gonna marry her."

[lumsel]

The funniest possible outcome to the climate crisis is we end up averting the worst because green energy turned out more profitable than coal by complete coincidence. Nothing was learned, we completely failed to come together for the greater good, and we were saved anyway, because the arc of history is a meaningless random walk and there is no cosmic justice to make it make sense in the end. That's the good shit. No satirist could ever come up with an ending as perfect as that, that's why they're all hacks.

[queer-as-city-folk]

They call it Chicago Union Station because there are Unions in Chicago and this is a train station

[queer-as-city-folk]

I think I made this joke before actually, fuck