justawordnerd

[justawordnerd]

yes. source: asian lingblr i can confirm geoff lindsey's claim that the diphthongs in english aren't actual diphthongs, they're glides. actually going from /a/ to /i/ sounds different from gliding from /a/ to /j/. mandarin transcribes it as /ai/, because mandarin doesn't glide. i can certainly feel the difference between english /aj/ versus mandarin /ai/: mandarin's is a very straight transition, whilst english does a natural curve.

Lingblr, is there any actual difference between 'ai', 'ou' and 'aj', 'ow'?

I know that sometimes languages make a distinction between diphthongs and sequences of a vowel and semi-vowel. I'm not concerned about that.

But when I'm doing comparative research, various languages will have different conventions for describing their vowels. Nêhinawêwin (Cree) tends to use 'aj', 'aw', 'iːw', etc. Mandarin is described in a million ways, but is more likely to use 'ai', 'au', 'ow', etc. Are there articulatory differences?

Khmer linguists make a distinction between diphthongs like 'ei' and 'ou', which can be followed by a final consonant, and 'uj', 'aw', etc. which cannot be followed by a final consonant. But are there phonetic distinctions at play, or just morphological ones?

I've been wondering this for a while. Every once in a while, I'll read a passionate paper angrily complaining about how using two vowel symbols, rather than a vowel and semi-vowel, disguises what's actually going on in a specific language. And Dr. Lindsey's video about teaching British dialects is enjoyably disgruntled. But is this a case-by-case problem, or more general?

I just want to know if I'm losing something if I equate Nêhinawêwin 'aj' with Mandarin 'ai'.

[justawordnerd]

pretty late, but a vowel is when: it is voiced (touch your throat and it should Move) it is the nucleus of a syllable (the bit in the middle) your mouth doesn't use the funny top parts of the mouth (the airflow isn't restricted) now, /w/ follows two of these. since it's not the nucleus (as in you can put it at the start of a syllable), it's not a vowel. but, since it only breaks that rule, we call it a semivowel [like y (/j/ {ipa}) or r].

Linguists of tumblr! How do you define vowels as distinct from consonants? And is W ever considered a vowel? I am trying to settle a Dispute

[justawordnerd]

new favourite words

au chaurant

cognizance

minutiae

paraphernalia

sylph

warbler

[justawordnerd]

oh this is a great time to pull out the linguistics major speedrun - yes, past tense of 'pet' is 'petted'. if you're thinking about 'pat', consider that those two are completely different words, one of them being rubbing and the latter being small taps. colon three - yeah i love the british. still don't get why america changed the spelling to 'gray' but kept 'obey', 'survey', 'they', etc. wholly unnecessary. just make everyone angry by using græy - there is no correct way to write titles in 'formal writing' because it's not standardised amongst style guides - ah, silent letters. whether it's language tokyo drifting or some ass nerds changing words, i confirm that they suck. however considering different accents pronounce phonemes differently i still think they at least have a smidge of a reason to exist - my accent differentiates those. it's really not a problem, when was the last time those homophones actually conflicted and confused a sentence without intent? - tbf people will still get what letter you are talking about either way. the world is converging on 'zee' nowadays however - we all hate that rhyme. every part of that rhyme is wrong. especially the except after c. the iciest glaciers make idiocies out of the conceit of except after c. i've told many teachers that you should not teach this rule, because it will cause more confusion than if you just thought the words. - yeah no. english hates hiatus (pure pauses between vowels), and this is one of the ways it shows it. when japanese (a more hiatus-tolerating language) gave english 'karaoke', english added a /ij/ sound to replace one of the /a/s, because english hates hiatus. to stop 'a adder', english adds n's, giving us 'an adder'

Random English things that give me heart burn (from a former English major, journalism minor, linguistics minor, current library sciences student, and writer)

Past tense of "pet" is "petted?" I'd rather die than say, "I petted the dog last night."

Why are there two spellings of gray? Gray and grey? No reason. Hate it.

All the different ways you have to write out titles in formal writing. Is it italicized? Is it in quotations? WHICH WORDS DO I CAPITALIZE?

Silent letters are actually the devil. I know where they all are, but when a child is confused why "phone" is spelled like THAT. They're right and I wish I could tell them that they're right.

"There, their, and they're" is just unnecessary. I think we could've figured something else out at least for ONE of those.

The fact that Americans say "zee" and other English speaking countries say "zed." Nothing is wrong with either of them but the "zee" thing rhymes and that might explain it?

"I before E except after C, or else as an A as in neighbor or weigh" is FAKE. It's a dirty lie. "Weird?" "Heist?!" "CONSCIENCE?!"

"A" and "An" is just superfluous. Like come on. Choose one.

Contranyms up the wazoo (words with two opposite meanings: dust, cleave, etc.)

I have more but I think this rant has gone on long enough. English, you're my beautiful disaster.

[justawordnerd]

science side of tumblr here! for linguistic science, oops. i will have to refer you to biology side of science side of tumblr later i can confirm that in english the arm is a limb not on the ground, whilst the leg is the limb that touches the ground i mean for bears, cats, otters, and other critters that are standing i have seen people referring to the limbs not on the ground as arms. if they are on the ground they are legs. however this is not true for humans, which i believe is just because our brain knows how walking works most of the time

anyways it's time for the referral, @organicmatter can you take this one up? thanks

What makes something an arm instead of a leg? Like dogs have 4 legs and people have 2 legs and 2 arms. But do monkeys have arms? Do bears? Or otters? Like are bears and otters just good with their “front legs” or are those arms? When does a limb become and arm instead of a leg?

[justawordnerd]

"Mac" or "Mc" stems from Gaelic "mac", meaning son, and is a prefix to signify who you are a son of. John McDonald -> John, Son of Donald

Ok but which of you are going to tell me wtf does the "Mc" in your surnames mean

Like, I got the "son" one. Like Johnson. Son of John. Jackson. Son of Jack. Even Odinson. Son of Odin. I assume that kind of surname is origined from waaaaay back in time when people would refer to others by like, their father or main man in the family or something

But Mc? McDonald, McBride, McGraw, McGonnagal? Bro what does that mean

[justawordnerd]

what if we all agreed collectively to start pronouncing clipboard in the same way we pronounce cupboard

clibbard

[justawordnerd]

there's a word for that: polysemy vs. monosemy

"why does this word mean multiple things in this language" vs. "why can't i use this word for all these different contexts it's so much more simple that way"

[justawordnerd]

a guide to formatting dialogue (it's harder than you'd think!)

a request from instagram that i'm posting here. buckle up, because this is a long one!

if a spoken sentence ends in a period, don’t use a dialogue tag. either replace the period with a comma or replace the dialogue tag with a separate sentence indicating a related action or description.

incorrect: “I need to go.” he said.

even more incorrect: “I need to go.” He said.

correct: “I need to go,” he said. or “I need to go.” He pushed back his chair and stood.

this rule does not apply to other types of punctuation such as question marks or exclamation points.

leave the dialogue tag lowercase, no matter what. (proper nouns remain capitalized)

incorrect: “When are we leaving?” She asked. ("She asked" is not a complete sentence)

correct: “When are we leaving?” she asked. (the line of dialogue is included in the complete sentence)

when formatting dialogue, you can add natural pauses by breaking up a spoken line with a dialogue tag or an action.

correct: “Wait,” they said. “I feel like this is getting overly complicated.” (within the lines of dialogue, ‘wait’ is its own sentence, so you use a period after ‘they said.’ you can remove the dialogue tag and it would be written like this: “Wait. I feel like this is getting overly complicated.”)

also correct: “I’m running out of sentence ideas,” they muttered, shifting in place, “but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” (if you wrote the dialogue without the tag and action, it would look like this: “I’m running out of sentence ideas, but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” adding the dialogue tag lengthens the natural pause created by the comma. also it’s 3am while i’m writing this. “go to sleep,” you say. to which i say, “did you not read my example sentence?”)

still correct i think (probably but english grammar is a total bitch): “I am going to stop now—” Here, she began rummaging through her bag, before producing a slender vial filled with shimmering liquid, “—and show you something of great importance.” (if you removed the interrupting action, the sentence would be written like this: “I am going to stop now and show you something of great importance.” there is no comma, so the pause being added is for effect, rather than for grammatical purposes. use an em dash (two hyphens, formats like: —) or ellipses (...). additionally, the action is its own separate sentence, rather than being attached to the dialogue as a tag, so it is capitalized.)

an additional note on em dashes: if they are used in a sentence, be it for an interjection, an interruption, a pause, or a secret fourth thing, there is no space before or after the dash. here’s an example from my wip: “Now, though—and overnight, it seemed—the two were acting as a unit, leaving her on the outside.”

if, for whatever reason, a character is speaking in paragraphs, the formatting gets a bit wonky.

“This is going to be the shortest example paragraph ever, but here goes. I am going to write three sentences so this qualifies as a paragraph. Two sentences might also qualify, but I am nothing if not committed to the bit. “New paragraph,” she continued, “same speaker. Wow, look, I incorporated an earlier concept to demonstrate it in a different context. How cool is that? You should totally follow whoever is posting such great writing advice.”

there is no end quote after the first paragraph, but there is a start quote at the beginning of the second paragraph. the end quote comes whenever the speaker is finished. why? i have no idea; i didn’t invent the english language, i just work here.

you can use colons and semicolons in dialogue. it gets a bit awkward, but we’ve just covered paragraph formatting, so how hard can it be?

correct: He asked: “What on earth are you talking about?” (colon in place of a comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

also correct: They said, “It’s getting late, isn't it?” (comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

incorrect: “What on earth are you talking about?”: he asked. (the question mark functions as a comma and eliminates the need for a colon. also, as a rule of thumb, the ending punctuation does not get placed outside of the quotation marks)

still incorrect: He asked; “What on earth are you talking about?” (use a comma)

you can also use colons and semicolons within lines of dialogue (as you would in a normal sentence)

stylistic choices

you do not have to use quotation marks in dialogue, but whatever you choose to do, do it consistently.

For example, some writers format their dialogue in italics, they said. But grammatical and punctuation rules still apply.

Others don’t use italics and just hope people can spot the dialogue or action tags, she supplied. This can get a bit confusing, but I think that’s the point.

— Some use dashes to indicate the start of a line of dialogue, and, of course, the standard varies from place to place and language to language.

‘Still more use single quotes,’ he offered, ‘though I’m not sure why. Maybe it looks better.’

that's it for now! really, you could probably write a book on this topic alone, and cover every minute detail of grammar within dialogue (how would one format an interrobang, i wonder?), but here's a kind-of-basic-but-still-dense guide :)

buy me a ko-fi | what's the deal with radio apocalypse?

[justawordnerd]

astrophysics? aisthbtrheauffeuhiucqusthi.

ai sth bt rh eau ffe u h i u cqu sth i æ s    t   r   oʊ   f   ɪ  z   ɪ   k     s ᴘʟᴀɪᴅ / ᴀsᴛʜᴍᴀ / ᴅᴏᴜʙᴛ / ʀʜᴜʙᴀʀʙ / ᴘʟᴀᴛᴇᴀᴜ / ᴄʜᴀᴜғғᴇᴜʀ / ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss / ᴇxʜɪʙɪᴛ / ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss / ʀᴀᴄᴏ̨ᴜᴇᴛ / ᴀsᴛʜᴍᴀ i love english spelling. there are no rules, only vibes.

[justawordnerd]

“tumbler”

tumbler  1. Noun. Mid-1400s, acrobat. Feminine word tumblester.  2. Noun. 1660s, drinking glass (specifically one that would tumble when filled, so you had to drink everything to set the glass down, cheeky!) 3. Noun. 1670s, part of a locking mechanism.  tumbler comes from tumble tumble  1. Verb. 1300s, to perform acrobatics 2. Verb. 1300s, to trip and fall 3. Noun. 1630, confusion, disorder 4. Noun. 1716, accidental fall Relatives of tumbler: tumbleweed, tombola, tumbrel That’s the end of the word tree; this one isn’t very big. Despite that, I’d say that this is a very accurate depiction of tumblr users: Drunk, mentally-acrobatic, confused, and locked inside for eternity.

[justawordnerd]

You should know these words are still related! They both are grandchildren of the Latin crux meaning cross. Cruciferous comes from cruciferae, it’s cruc- (cross) + -fer (bearing) + -ae (plural). It’s the plants that are cross-bearing. Crucify comes from Old French crucifier which is from Latin crucifigere, meaning cruc- (cross) + figere (fix). To fix on a cross. However, I give you sanguinary, baneful, castigate, vituperate, and  anathematize. All of them very old and fancy.

well cruciferous did not end up meaning anything close to what i thought it meant

[justawordnerd]

LISTEN UP WRITERS

to ALLUDE (verb) is to indirectly hint at, as in: “She was alluding towards the unsatisfactory vibe of the office place.” an ALLUSION (noun) is a reference that indirectly hints at something. “His jokes are always an allusion towards the perils of capitalism.” something that is ALLUSIVE (adjective) is indirectly hinting at something. “His allusive body language is disturbing.”

to ELUDE (verb) is to escape in a cunning way. “The robber eludes the cops once more.”

to be ELUSIVE (adjective) is to be difficult to find, catch or achieve. “Truly unique art seems to be more elusive by the day.” ELUSIVE (adjective) also means to be difficult to remember, as in: “My dreams are always elusive.” an ILLUSION (noun) is something that makes a wrong perception of something. “Moving both your hands together on a tennis racket creates the illusion of velvet.” something that is ILLUSIVE (adjective) is deceptive. “His speeches are fiery and illusive.”

YOU CAN STOP LISTENING  READING NOW

[justawordnerd]

can

can a cannily-canned can can-can and scan a can's candid candied camps? cannily-canned cans can can-can but can't scan a can's candid candied camps because the can's cannily-canned cans canceled the can's candid candied camps.

[justawordnerd]

hey. you’re a scrimshanker.

scrimshank /’skrɪmʃaŋk/ [SCRIM-shank, as in SCRIMmage and SHANK], Informal British English

- to intentionally leave work unexplainably, shirk one’s duty “tbh scrimshanker sounds like a tumblr word but it’s from the 1880s“

[justawordnerd]

*mic feedback*

is this thing working????