Discover Top Posts Tagged with #neologisms

"For a while he abode with them and aided them in the making of language; for that was their first work of craft upon Earth, and ever most dear to their hearts, and the fair Elvish speech was sweet in the ears of the Valar." - J.R.R. Tolkien, Morgoth's Ring, "Of the Coming of the Elves"

QUENYA NEOLOGISMS by @outofangband

[ID: an edit comprised of seven horizontal banners, each bearing a word in more ornate white script, and its definition and etymology in smaller serif font below. Top to bottom, the images show:

1: Iridescent feathers. Text reads "Calilqua," and below it "iridescence" and in italics "'cal-' (shine, light) + 'ilqua' (oily)" / 2: Sun shining through the green canopies of trees. Text reads "Narollasë," and below it "the smell of leaves" and "'nar-' (relating to smell) + 'ollassë' (foliage) / 3: Ocean waves on a clear day. Text reads "Ëarwesta," and below it "sea breeze" and "'ëar' (sea) + 'hwesta' (breeze)' / 4: A pearl forming in a pale nacreous shell. Text reads "Marilquilëa," and below "pearlescence" and "'marilla' (pearl) + '-quilëa' (hued)" / 5: Tree branches bearing white flowers at night. Text reads "Lómelótë," and below "night-blooming flower" and "'lómë' (twilight) + 'lótë' (flower) / 6: Bare branches covered with snow. Text reads "Minyalossë," and below "first snow" and "'minya' (first) + 'lossë' (snow) / 7: Moss and small plants growing on the surface of a rock. Text reads "Taurecaila," and below "moss" and "'taurë' (forest) + 'kaila' (bed) //End ID]

Attention everyone! I've discovered the best English-language category page on all of Wiktionary:

"Slang is the only form of poetry which is continuously flowing." — G. K. Chesterton

#linguistics #poetry #neologisms

I'm all for the use of non-gendered language and options for non-binary people, I just want them to make linguistic sense. "Nibling" sounds dumb. If you want a gender-neutral word for niece/nephew, it should share etymology with them. They both descend from the Proto-Indo-European root *nepot-, so there are a ton of plausible sounding options for derivations that don't call attention to themselves as neologisms.

Nepot is too visually similar to nephew, and sounds too much like the derivative nepotism, so maybe drop the p like Spanish did and go with something like nete or niete. Niete is too close to niece; nite, maybe? Or neti? Neit, neiti, neite, nit. These all look like real words, not clumsy 21st century portmanteaus like "nibling." If p and t are no good, we can go with another unvoiced stop like k. Nik, neik, nike (probably not that one), niki, neki, neke, nekie, so many possibilities, anything but "nibling."

Same thing with aunt/uncle. I've never heard a non-gendered term that sounds like something a layperson would use.

Hewhos became ewos, became avus, became avunculus, became uncle. Aunt is derived from words that mean mother; amma, amita, ante, aunt. I thought the word parent derived from the same root as paternal meaning father, but no, it's from the PIE root *pere-, mening to bring forth or produce. Sibling ultimately derives from the PIE root for self/oneself (*swe-), literally meaning same blood, related to myself, kin. "Parent's sibling" could be derived from swepere, swepar, suepar, supar, maybe something like sempar, "same parent/same source," simpar (maybe avoid anything with simp in it). Or "one source," onpar, honpar, paron, paroin, peron, peroine (from PIE *hoinom for one). I'm not thinking of germanic soundshifts, how these roots would evolve directly into English, I'm thinking broader, like how they would evolve in Latin or French to be loaned into English. If you want a neutral word that looks like it belongs with aunt and uncle, maybe something like umpar, umper, ompar, onpar, onper, onter, anything like that.

#gendered language #nibling #neologisms #etymology #linguistics #proto indo european #words words words

Hey, I’m doing a design project based around the Welsh language as was wondering if you knew if there was any word for ‘welsh person’. Like Welshman being Cymro and Welshwoman being Cymraes. Do you know if there’s (even if not official) any gender neutral version?

Apologies for only just answering this ask!

You're probably already aware of Cymry (Welsh people) the plural of Cymro - which is unfortunately plural and not singular. But Cymro/Cymry are interesting in that they aren't suffixed with an -o or a -y - they're both derived from kömroɣ* - the (reconstructed) Common Brittonic word for compatriot. Whereas Cymraes takes Cymro and swaps in-aes/-es, the feminine suffix. Similarly, you have athro (male teacher) and athrawes (female teacher), brenin (king) and brenhines (queen), actor (male actor) and actores (female actor), Norwyad (Norwegian man), Norwyes (Norwegian woman) etc. Each time, the masculine form is treated as the default and only modified with a feminine ending -es/aes when a woman is being referred to. Which is a feature shared with many other gendered European languages *sigh*. It's frustrating but it leaves us with 2 choices:

Simply adopt the masculine form as the sole term and use it for everyone, regardless of gender. E.g. many women refuse to use athrawes for themselves and will say athro to refer to a female teacher. Ditto actor instead of actores (a similar process has occurred in English with many gendered words such as actress and waitress being phased out in favour of simply using actor, waiter for everyone regardless of gender).

Use an additional suffix which denotes gender neutrality. I am a (very rusty) Spanish speaker and there is a movement in Spanish to use gender neutral -e in places where masculine -o or feminine -a are used. E.g. Latine instead of Latino/Latina. There have been attempts to do this in Welsh but they haven't had much traction (I know of attempts dating back at least a decade. But there isn't a consensus on what a suitable gender neutral suffix might be (a problem also shared with Spanish speakers, some of whom have used -x instead of -o/-a, e.g. Latinx. The use of -x has been more controversial than -e, however). In Welsh, I have only seen propositions for gender neutral pronouns, rather than suffixes. Which have not yet been addressed.

On solution 2., there are issues which haven't really been worked out (hence why I think the first gender neutral movement in Welsh (largely online) ran out of steam). But mayhaps this ask is a springboard to opening this discussion up to other Welsh speakers.

My 2 cents are that we're going to need a sound - ideally a vowel which isn't already in use as a suffix denoting something specific. My gut instinct is to go to -y, but we cannot use -y due to Cymry already existing. -W sounds great in theory but is clunky on its own when attempting to form neologisms with it. E.g. Cymrw, Athrw, Norwyw etc. If -es is taken by the feminine, that leaves -a, and -i to play with - both of which already exist as suffixes in other contexts (but that isn't a complete dealbreaker).

Theoretically one could take a leaf out of the book of the feminine suffix -es and add an 's'. Which might lead to things like -ws to help with flow. -Ws already exists but is very colloquial and low frequency, which could be a goer (no promises - I'm a descriptivist not a prscriptivist!). E.g. you could have Cymrws, Athrws, Norwyws (greater development needed imo). which helps with the flow.

"Ydy'r athrawes wedi mynd? (Has the (female) teacher gone?) -> "Ydy'r athrws wedi mynd?" (Has the teacher (gender neutral) gone?).

Buuuuut the problem with -ws is that depending on accent, it might get mistaken as -es/aes in speech, particularly fast speech.

Another alternative might be -a or -i. E.g. Cymra, Athra, Norwya (though -a is often gendered feminine in other European languages and may be misleading on that front). Or Cymri, Athri, Norwyi (has immediate problems due to similarity in sound to Cymry and clunkiness with other words).

Cymraes differs to most other words suffixed with -es (for complicated historical reasons [See section § 65 in A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative (1913)]. In principle, -es becomes -aes in only this case. Which is why we have Norwyes (or Eidales, Ffrances etc.) and Cymraes rather that Cymres. Based on this, for any neologism to work, it has to mimic this sound change in a way which seems natural, despite being a new addition to the language. "ae" is a dipthong in Welsh and for historical reasons,-es -> -aes in this case. Therefore a gender neutral replacement for -aes must also include a dipthong to preserve flow as best as possible and resemble the sound changes which Cymraes went through to get to where it is now. In other words we're getting into queer space-time territory because we have to be present in both the past and the present (linguistically speaking) simultaneously. In effect, we're conlanging for gender neutrality in a living language. Because the stem we're using (Cymr-) is so old (roughly 2500 years old but I am simplifying things here for brevity), we have to play by the old rules if that makes sense? Or it won't look or sound right. Ergo, I think using a dipthong containing "w" would be the best bet. E.g. Cymruws (Cymr- + -uw- + s).

But this is all conjecture and theorising from one person (me) so huge pinch of salt this is my 2 cents and nothing more. But, having said that I'd appreciate any other Welsh speakers weighing in with opinions (even if it's to say certain words sound clunky etc.).

#welsh #cymraeg #neologisms #conlang #last tag not really but it's adjacent #wales #cymblr #cymru

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