i'm a languageologist

i like changes in language and make memes about it // archive at wordfully-archive.tumblr.com

[yandere-angela]

i love finding out the meaning of slangs for “attractive woman” in various languages

chick (english) - baby chicken Schnecke (german) - snail/slug sild (danish) - herring fıstık (turkish) - pistachio тёлочка (russian) - heifer ծիտ (armenian) - sparrow

[yandere-angela]

[jheselbraum]

Girls night

[wordfully]

ok so who can infect me with polls i want to become insufferable here

[culmaer]

Fill in the blank: "There are two _____."

wugs

wug

wuggen

wiggen

wuggies

weeg

wūg

wugī

wūgēs

other (in the tags/notes)

Voting ended onFeb 10, 2023

[quantifierrasing]

Polls are

Bouba

Kiki

Voting ended onFeb 13, 2023

[minglana]

how many languages do you speak?

1. english is not my native language (and i dont know english)

2. english is not my native language

3. english is not my native language

4+. english is not my native language

1. english is my native language

2. english is my native language

3. english is my native language

4+. english is my native language

Voting ended onFeb 12, 2023

thank you @jabalinya for the idea!

[minglana]

i just wanted to adress two things that have been brought up in the notes of this post. first of all, i consider "speaking the language" as "i can get by well enough". in european terms i would say a b2 level or so, but i didnt want to use those gradings because not everyone uses or knows those terms.

second of all, im completely aware of the irony of the first option! i included it because i felt it would be misrepresentative, in a way, to not include it. using an online translator is completely possible, plus, someone might be able to understand what it says without considering themselves fluent in english. i tried to be considerate of those options too

[natalieironside]

A protagonist is someone who manufactures protagons.

[juniepops]

So is there a mister gendering?

[lunalolligo]

noticing as I learn different languages I tend to think using the shortest word from any of those languages, so for example instead of "this is" or "dette er", I'll just automatically think "c'est"

So my proposal is a creole of every language in which we find the shortest syllabic way to say every single word and speak at maximum efficiency

[watermelonmountaindew]

i need to know every language immediately

[luntfontanne]

[academicssay]

[rewordfully]

A coworker of mine just sent me some teaching materials where he consistently uses ‘your’ instead of 'you’re’ and if that’s not proof enough that untrained native speakers aren’t good language teachers idk what is

[shogikappa]

“what are your aspirations?”

pʰ tʰ kʰ tsʰ

[rewordfully]

shit centered Polish idioms I love:

1. Kręcić się jak gówno w przeręblu - lit. to spin like shit in an ice hole - to not be able to find a place for yourself, hang around with no purpose (and possibly thereby annoy others). Used in context: wyjdź z kuchni, bo kręcisz się jak gówno w przeręblu (get out of the kitchen, you're spinning like shit in an ice hole) - my grandma to me and my cousins, multiple times

2. Stać jak grabie w gówno wbite - lit. to stand like a rake stuck in shit - to stand and do nothing, be useless. Used in context: nie stój jak grabie w gówno wbite, zabierz się do roboty (don't just stand there like a rake stuck in shit, get to work) - also my grandma when she decides she could use some help after all

3. Gówno prawda - lit. shit truth - a lie. Used in context: gówno prawda, że polski jest jednym z najtrudniejszych języków (it's shit truth that Polish is one of the most difficult languages) - me to everyone who claims so

Note: gówno can be used as a negative particle*. Eg, gówno zrobisz (you'll do shit) - you can do nothing/nothing can be done; gówno ci powie (they'll tell you shit) - they won't tell you anything, etc. The verb can change, but gówno has to come first for the phrase to be interpreted as idiomatic.

* gówno as negation seems to take care of the obligatory double negation in Polish when a negative object is present (eg. indefinite pronuns such as 'nic' 'nikt' etc). I don't want to go into too much detail here but there's definitely something interesting going on here.

[dsm-wannabe-linguist]

No one:

14th Century Middle English:

[dsm-wannabe-linguist]

[dedalvs]