Linguistics - Tumblr Posts
Fairy, infantry & professor
The word fairy is related to infantry and professor. And that's not all: these words are also related to fate, fatal, fame, fable, and to confess. They all come from Latin words derived from a stem meaning 'to speak'. Click the infographic to learn how.
currently thinking about how the Tower of Babel actually happened. but it wasn’t a curse from a god, we didn’t do anything to earn it, it’s just a process that happened and continues to happen slowly and steadily across time.
the real Tower of Babel is the sharing of culture, of conversation and companionship. each connection made changes both sides just a little, until it becomes unclear whether there was any sides to begin with. our ways of speaking are composites of the expressions of everyone we’ve ever known and loved. to be known and loved is to be changed irrevocably, and to bring about change.
and i think that’s beautiful.
the japanese “-ne?” particle and the british slang term “innit” serve the same function
So what you’re saying that ????? is its own word
Like, it has a meaning similar to “Huh?” or just a noise of confusion, but it’s got its own distinct spelling and stuff. It’s a word on its own
One of these is accurate for me, plz tell me I'm not alone
Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books that I try to update regularly
kind of obsessed with the conlang invented by 12th century composer and mystic hildegard von bingen. she called it lingua ignota and just sort of never explained why it exists or what it’s for? like. girl. why did you do this
in case you’re wondering what was up with her, like, in general, she was an abbess who was (1) politically influential, (2) chronically ill, and (3) plagued by visions.
but like seriously girl WHAT was the conlang for. TELL ME
"OP" functions like a new pronoun between the third and second person. Think about it, when you write a comment and you mention OP you are giving people in the comments your opinion about someone else, that is third person, but you are also aware OP themselves could see it, so you are also talking to OP directly. This is why there are comments that use OP with third person and second person constructions, for example "OP this is hilarious" or "OP knows how to draw" As technology changes how we interact, it only makes sense language would adapt to it I think the next development should be a way to address people differently if they occupy the same physical space that you do than if they are far away
What do you think would be the most practical if there were an official common language for global travel? Like, alphabetically, phonetically and grammatically speaking?
Mmmm... I'm afraid this is a question that people have been struggling to answer for well over a few centuries.
What you're asking is to create a universal Lingua Franca. A language that is simple to learn, easy for most people to pronounce, and has the potential of making global communication easier.
Well, the issue is that... asking that question is kinda like asking the question "Which color is the most universal color?"
I'm not asking for a witty reply here, so hold your horses before you type 'ultraviolet' or 'magenta, because it doesn't exist'.
The fact of the matter is, color (and language) exists on a spectrum much like this ever-looping ring of hues. They all have their specific properties, grammars, pronunciations, etc... but none of them are 'average', you know? It's not really a useful way to think about language.
In fact, people have been TRYING to invent this type of language forever - check out Esperanto, the one that has been around since 1887, and the other 500-some documented attempts (source).
But despite all these apparently 'universal' languages existing, they've universally never gotten very far. I bet you've never heard of most of them!
Why?
Well, for one thing, creating a 'common' or 'practical' language is a matter of subjective opinion. Practical for whom?
Esperanto is meant to be universal, but it's primarily based on Latin, and other European languages - romance languages, with some Germanic and Slavic words mixed in. That is to say - for someone who is a native speaker of a Bantu language like Swahili, it will be just as difficult to acquire as any other given European language. Similarly, no matter how 'universal' your southasian-based language is, someone who only speaks, say, Arabic, will still struggle to immediately communicate with it.
Just look at this list and you'll get a very quick sense of what language families these 'universal' languages tend to favor.
Now, I'm not saying 'wow, universal languages are bad, because people are using only western languages'. It's common sense, when you create a language, to draw on your own experience.
But it's very clearly not a 'universal' language if you lean too hard one way or another. *If you want to learn more about this, I HEAVILY recommend the book In The Land of Invented Languages by Annika Okrent, which goes much deeper into this topic.
So can we meet in the middle?
With the way languages work, by and large, no.
There is no 'central' grammar - all languages are on a spinning ring of agglutinative or fusion languages, and recent research suggests that languages become more one or another naturally over time. Similarly, phonetics doesn't have a 'standard' phoneme set. Most languages tend to have a specific set of common vowels, but consonants are more tricky, and you cannot guarantee a set that'll please everyone.
And the problem is, because it's all on a gradient, there is no 'middle' to work towards. A universal language would be no language at all.
So... in conclusion... is there a practical language for global travel?
Yes! It's English.
Is it practical because it's easy to learn?
No.
Is it practical because it is 'phonetically accessible'?
Not at all. In fact, the opposite might be true.
But the fact of the matter is, English is a lingua franca because it's attached to political and corporate and economic power. And that, more than any practicality, moves it to the forefront.
..............
Anyway, actually there IS a somewhat universal language, but it's not one you can read. The most universal thing in the world would probably be this.
Conlanger: technical, cringe, gives people actual information about what you do, "So you're like Tolkien?", only specific people know you're queer
Child of Babel: cool, mysterious, sinister, sounds like you're in a cult, what do you do? speak in tongues + do orgies probably, makes the right angry, "Do you worship Satan?", aura of gay homosex
I'm fascinated by how the formatting of different social media sites affect how text is read.
For instance, a line break on Tumblr indicates a new idea.
Reminder that the largest documentation of world languages (used by researchers and pretty much anyone with an interest in linguistics) is done by an American evangelical Christian religious group. Make of that what you will in relation to Hawai'ian history.
You’ve probably wondered what the title of this blog means. I probably should’ve gotten around to explaining it to you a while ago.
“Avere grill per la testa” literally translates to “to have a head full of crickets” in Italian.
Sometime in the late spring of 2017, I was in a gift shop somewhere. I found a small, rectangular book called “The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from around the World.” It was published by Ella Frances Sanders, in 2016. I really wanted this book, because it was around this time I was developing a passion for linguistics, words, and the all-around coolness of language. Either way, the book was charming, and I borrowed some money from my dad.
“Avere grilli per la testa.” To have a head full of crickets.
What struck me about this phrase, when I stumbled upon its entry, was it’s compelling word choice. Apparently, whoever came up with it didn’t think it was enough to say that someone is dreamy, or has a short attention span. Nope - there are jumpy insects inside their head, and that’s what makes them so imaginative. Welcome to Italy, m-effers.
This describes me perfectly: dreamy, distracted, creative, semi-ADD. I’m prone to flights of fancy, so much that I struggle to cool down or get myself organized. There’s a whole lot of fluff and bulls*t in my head (f you’ll pardon my French); my thoughts jump all over the place. Maybe that explains the boxes of filled notebooks in my closet. Good traits, since I strive to be a good writer; bad traits, since I have a mother.
In another way, it captures the content on this blog - my endless thoughts, opinions, and ideas, all thrown together in one place. My varied interests and passions, channeled into the mini-essays you see here. There are many things I’d like to talk and write about, to organize in a constructive way. After all, if there’s that much going on up here, why not share it with all of you?
Also, it’s linguistic trivia. I love me some linguistic trivia.
Dans la soupe- weird local expression in my area for being in eliminated in a game and made to sit in the middle of the circle and I’m pretty sure it’s just people in my city who use it and that it comes from French daycares.
See also soup of shame/souprifice, specific to the bilingual theatre camps I work at developed as micro expressions by us returning camp councillors based on a literal translation slowly spreading through local French and English school theatre programs participants attending the camp are also part of. Note that these preteens should not be considered a highly reliable source as most of them are quite prone to hyperbole and might interpret "I talked about it with a friend in the school play once and we started making jokes about being carrots when we get out in the theatre game" as widespread adaptation and report it as such.
That said, is there a linguist out there who can explain what this phenomenon would be? A highly local expression getting an inside joke translation potentially being adopted by the dominant and dominated linguistic groups in a highly bilingual area with a lessening degree of tension between linguistic communities seems like a thing someone would have studied somewhere before. Like I dunno but it seems like this might be interesting to someone who knows more about linguistics than me. If we pretend my sketchy observations are accurate, what’s going on here? Is there a word for it? Is this common in bilingual communities?
soup de jour: soup of the day
soup de jure: soup the government wants you to eat
soup de facto: the soup everyone actually eats
you know how mathematicians have the journal of recreational mathematics, right? where they publish stuff like, ‘oh i found this cool property of this one seemingly boring number’, or, ‘this is literally nonsense but it sounds ~scientific~’ and it’s all great fun to read?
well
behold, the journal of recreational linguistics
with such delightful papers as ‘tennis puns’, ‘animals in different languages’, and ‘gifts from a homonymous benefactor’
excuse me while i go read all 50 volumes in one sitting
What do you think Jin Yans pet names are for his significant others?
Thanks for asking this question! 😺 It’s very interesting to think about, especially for Jin Yan. Words are incredibly important to him; the Yan part of his name, 言，literally means word. He uses his name as a pun numerous times while speaking, and the tagline at the top of his official poster means something along the lines of: “Be careful in your words and walk on thin ice.”
For the most part, when speaking directly to a person, Jin Yan will exclusively use their title or one of the versions of “you” (你/您). When talking about people who aren’t present, he’ll use their name (and, sometimes, their title in addition to their name). There are only two occasions that I could find as exceptions to these general rules: once in episode thirteen to Jin Xian and once in episode thirty-five with Jin Xuan, where Jin Yan directly calls them by their names—both for specific purposes.
So, regarding pet names for significant others, I believe he would most often simply use their title in a flirtatious manner. For Jin Xuan, that would be Director. For Ye Xiaoying, General.
Interestingly, despite Jin Xian referring to Jin Yan numerous times as his shidi, Jin Yan never calls him shixiong. Perhaps that’s because for Jin Yan to do so would be to claim a relationship he may not feel entitled to claim, given how he grew up separately from the other eunuchs and under a different shifu. In theory, then, Jin Yan would call Jin Xian and Jin Wei, Director of Incense and Director of Sword, respectively. However, given that they’re of an equal ranking and Jin Yan’s characteristic submissiveness doesn’t play as much of a role in their interactions, Jin Yan would probably mostly stick with an informal you. In addition, there is the fact that Jin Yan only ever used Jin Xian’s Director of Incense title out of anger.
Jin Yan does have a penchant for flattery, however, and in the occasions which he lacks a sufficient title to call someone, he surely could find and invent some clever pet names to lift up whoever he’s trying to flirt with.
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!
This is really interesting.
English has 711,378 words (according to wikipedia)
That's a LOT.
Compared to that, Danish has about 200,000 words (according to same wikipedia article)
The biggest difference between English and Danish is that Danish has a lot reused words. They are more like puzzle pieces.
So for example a word like "memoir" is "erindringsbog" in Danish (directly translated to "memory-book") You meet the same words all the time. That makes it easier and harder to understand the language.
If you wanna talk about complicated languages, Danish is one of them!
Does that mean I am smarter than a native English speaker? Would be cool if that was all it took :)
I often struggle with English. I do not write in the language on the internet, because it's "easy". I do it, because then I can communicate with people. Which is the whole purpose of languages.
This was so interesting I love yuval