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[servalphias]

Me, reading a textbook about my target language : Today, we are going to learn a new word : the word "ABC ". A-B-C Me : Cool, an easy word. A comment on a language forum from 2013 : Actually, no one pronounces it that way, in the north, people will say "ABB " and in the south, "ABCD " and young people used to say "CBA " (because it sounds cooler) but now it has turned into "CB " and with the spread of the internet and text messages, people just say "C " to go faster but actually we don't really use it anymore, you should say "HJK " instead, unless you're in the south west where "HJK " means something completly different and potentially offensive.

[servalphias]

this is definitely not the link to a google drive with free mandarin chinese practice books, definitely not

[servalphias]

Language Rant

The thing that really gets me about monolinguals/people uninterested in linguistics is the strange need to label languages as objectively/inherently difficult.

Any linguistic feature that may seem, at the surface level, to be a challenge, is often that much of a challenge to not have. When learners complain that German/Russian/Greek cases are superfluously complicated, they seem to forget that for those who speak using cases natively, it seems like such a limitation to not have them. Suddenly the precision of who is doing what to whom is murky, and word order is now strictly confined to the chains of SVO.

Many are quick to label the tones of east Asian languages as a nonsensical or a confusing system. For those who use tones natively, it would seem absurd not to have them. To avoid them, many languages are required to make use of an extremely vast phonology, and words become quite lengthy to compensate for this diversity. Imagine having this skill for intonation and having to power it down until the occasional tone used for a question arises.

People are quick to label the verbs of romance languages as pesky and convoluted. It is these seemingly daunting conjugations that allow listeners to know precise specifics about who is doing what, in addition to the time and manner, all in a single word. For speakers of other languages, this would require additional mentioning of subject pronouns, grammatical particles, and time/location words, in order to achieve the same clarity.

In the end, it is the absence of features that can be just as irksome, complicated, or intimidating. Language has been created for humans by humans.

If there were a language so inherently difficult that a native speaker couldn’t easily tackle it before puberty, it would probably be quickly replaced, as soon as a language more suitable for humans came into play.

The takeaway here is that these man-made tools are just that. The only meaningful comparison to judge innate difficultly is a comparison to one’s native tongue. Hard for you? Perhaps. So intrinsically difficult that a native-speaking toddler still couldn’t babble in it? Doubtful.

[servalphias]

truth is stranger than fiction

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[servalphias]

Immersion is the best way to learn a language, because when you absorb grammar rules subconsciously via linguistic osmosis, your brain doesn't waste valuable time and energy getting ANGERY over how nonsensical the grammar rules are.

[servalphias]

Saturn and its moon Tethys

[servalphias]

*nerd mode activated* another thing that heavily influenced the english language and the development from middle english to early modern english was that from 1066 to the beginning of the 15th century, england was ruled by french speakers. the nobility spoke french pretty much exclusively--almost all writing was done in latin or french. middle english was the language of the common people and thus seen as inferior, not worthy of preserving in writing. during this time period, english was extremely heavily influenced by french, and this is also where all those synonyms come from that other languages don't really have, at least not to that degree. note that usually, the word with the latin root is considered very formal (eg "regal"), the word with the french root is considered respectful/normal (eg "royal"), and the word with the old english root is considered low-brow or derogatory (eg "kingly").

I feel like I’ve made my blog a red light district for language history nerds and I am VERY PLEASED ABOUT THIS.

This is v intriguing and I would love to see more examples in particular of etymology & connotation correlations across Latin/French/OE.

[servalphias]

Started Hindi a week ago and the Duolingo course seems... lacking. I'm almost through their rapid fire tour of the Hindi writing system and I don't feel like I've really learned much. I have a writing practice book I'm about to start using, bit I'm hoping it will pick up when I start learning phrases and sentences.

I dunno, it just seems like after being on their Chinese course and the way that's paced their approach to the Hindi writing system seems very haphazard in comparison.

[servalphias]

Language-learning can be a hobby. If striving for perfect fluency is sucking the fun out of it, then fluency doesn’t need to be the goal

[servalphias]

I started studying on Memrise and I really like it so far.

The video examples are great. I really like that I get to see people's facial expressions as they're speaking the example sentences.

It focuses much more heavily on colloquial spoken Mandarin than any of the other apps/courses I've tried.

I was expecting to skip all the beginner level stuff and jump straight to upper intermediate, but it turns out that even at the beginner level there are a lot of colloquial expressions I'm unfamiliar with.

It's not like the beginner content is incomprehensible. I recognize all the individual words in the example expressions. It's not hard to figure out what the expressions mean based on my understanding of the individual words.

But knowing all the individual vocabulary words isn't enough to carry on a rapid conversation in realtime.

I think this app will help me finally get over my listening comprehension plateau, since it focuses on teaching learners to recognizes complete expressions, instead of individual words.

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I went ahead and bought a lifetime plan. Early Christmas present to myself. Shockingly affordable for a one time payment, and I even found a 15% off coupon with a quick websearch for: "memrise discount code"

[servalphias]

The worst thing in the entire world is when you’re sweeping a big pile of dirt into a dustpan and it leaves that little coke line of grit behind. No matter how you position your pan or your broom and no matter how many times you sweep over it your outcome cannot change. As immovable as fate. I hate it so

[servalphias]

Orion and the Ocean of Storms via NASA https://ift.tt/NDGeZFp

[servalphias]

I've been wondering since I got here but was too afraid to ask... what does BLR mean at the end of all these tags (like studyblr or langblr or mandarin studyblr, etc.)?

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just a little something i made last night

[servalphias]

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[servalphias]

Why is all of this making so much sense?