#language rant

[afriendlylittlehobbit]

I used to be such a grammar bitch. And then I grew up.

Is it “grammatically correct” to start a sentence with “and”? Technically, no. Does it make the pacing of my story better? Absolutely. Not to mention all of the racist, classist, and ableist implications that enforcing Standard English entails.

Start your sentences with a conjunction. I don’t care. We made language up. We continue to make language up.

[stories-i-guess]

I. HATE IT. When people make a werewolf sort of thing, but the character isn’t a human, so they go with stuff like “werehog” or whatever.

Why?

BECAUSE A WEREHOG WOULD BE A MAN THAT TURNS INTO A HEDGEHOG EVERY FULL MOON

A WERESPIDER IS A PERSON WHO BECOMES A GIANT SPIDER

AND YOUR WERECAT OR WHATEVER THE FUCK IS NOT A CAT THAT IS SOMEHOW A LYCANTHROPE!!!

How do I know this?

WERE means MAN. WOLF means WOLF.

MAN. WOLF.

SO.

THE PROPER TERMS HERE

ARE HEDGEWOLF, SPIDERWOLF, AND CATWOLF!!!

THERE IS NO WERE INCLUDED

[niedosyt555]

Youtube is so useful for language learning but also it needs to shut the fuck up sometimes because I'm learning my fifth language I don't need a hundred different videos about ''how to become a polyglot in 6 easy steps'' or about how I'm ''learning russian wrong! do this instead" thanks

[the-elusive-soleil]

Okay, all I wanted to know what which Quenya words originally had þ instead of s, and instead I stumbled on this thing, and now I need to make it other people's problem.

So I knew a large part of why Feanor was so...twitchy about the þ vs. s thing was because of his mom's name, Miriel þerinde. What I did not know was that, while the verb þer- means "to sew", which means that "þerinde" is "seamstress", there was also a verb ser- before the þer- verb changed.

The original ser- means "to rest". So after the pronunciation shift, "Serinde" could mean either "seamstress" or "she who rests".

Considering that Feanor lost his mom because giving birth to him took so much out of her that she essentially had to permanently rest...I can see why this would be such an incredibly sore point with him.

It's not just about "hey, quit mispronouncing my mom's name", it's about "quit calling my mom 'the one who couldn't hack it and had to go away forever' and use the name that describes her as a craftswoman, you complete troglodytes".

[lansiosa]

I think watching media in your native tongue with someone who speaks English as their mothertongue, having used said English to communicate because "universal language" and all that, truly makes you come face to face with the fundamental, structural differences that exist between the two.

Not only that, but it does give you a whole other appreciation about your own language because damn, lines like "Io sono niente, tu vera" ("I am nothing, you are real"), "Vedi, non c'è fede in me, vedrò sul corpo di Esmeralda se ce n'è" ("See, there is no faith in me, I'll see if there is some on Esmeralda's body"), "Io vedo un orlo di gonna e vedo abissi di donna" ("I look at a skirt's hem and see the depths of a woman"), "La mia anima è il tuo fiato" ("My soul is your breath") go so. Fucking. Hard. Like, damn. UGH.

[littlerobinwriter]

it never ceases to amaze me how some people are so fervently against any kind of scottish identity, that they can just... delude themselves into believing an entire language doesn’t exist? like imagine saying ‘i do not speak this language and do not know this word therefore you must have made it up’ as if that means it?? isn’t a language?? imagine claiming a language that has existed in a written form for centuries doesn’t exist because... you don’t recognise it? sorry lads french isn’t a real language i don’t know what the fuck bouillabaisse is. they’re all liars.

[transmasc-menace]

It's kinda weird that I'm better at English than my native language (which is Polish). But I guess you can understand it because Polish is hard. Like we have around 50+ versions of one verb, which is dependent on gender and time. Also we have special letters like ó or ą and this makes Polish language hard, because you have to remember that a certain word has a letter ó in it not u (which are the same when you say them).

So yeah no wonder I'm failing my Polish class.

[ian-with-a-t]

Languages

Okay tiny rant!

I roughly can speak 3 languages right? I'm tested on those 3 languages. They sometimes overlap example: So when we're learning about conversation starters in Chinese we're also reviewing them in Spanish. Do you know how hard it is to take a test with three languages spinning in your head?

(Spanish)Q: how do you say "what is your name?"

Me: Nì jiao shénme míngzì? Hold up that's Chinese... frick frick. Uhhhhhh Què es tù nombré? Wait a minute... isn't nombre French for number? No no it's also name in Spanish... right?

Ya see my problem here every question is a word scrabble and it makes no sense!