#Diversity in language

[doyouknowyoudothatoutloud]

I just saw a post about dogwhisteling and a term about noticing patterns being used by nazis. I can sort of see it.

I don't know if it's that big a deal though.

I think policing language is worse than having some people use it harmfully.

I think try to be a good person with the bigger stuff and probably let dogwhistelling go.

I do not mean to say it does not create harm. But rather than policing the use of the words what if we use those words to educate how facts really work. That when looking at statistics there are hardly ever any patterns.

People of different religious groups can, and often do, have more in common in their daily life than people of the same one. If you make about the same amount of money your lives tend to look very similar.

I think it is a more effective use of your time to build up good things in the world than to spend it tearing down the bad ones. Sometimes you have to tear down some bad, but without having built up good to replace it with it is not nearly as effective.

So is it bad that words and phrases are being used as dogwhistelling? Yes.

But is the best way to build a good world to fight them? Probably not.

I think you can ask yourself who you are laughing at when you make a joke. That in itself is a good foundation.

Rarely you might reblog a joke you think is harmless but it is pointed out to you it has been used as a dogwhistelling phrase. Explain what you thought was funny about it and how you saw it differently.

The post was talking about how bad it is to have dogwhistelling be hidden in the middle of a bunch of other phrases and just become ordinary and sometimes that is true. But if people don't stop using the term it can also become meaningless as a dogwhistelling tactic. If the phrase is mostly used for a different purpose it no longer does the thing it was made to do or at least it does it less effectively.

I am not saying this is what you should do. I am however saying that it is not all gloom and doom. I think diversity in how it is used is far from a bad thing. When it comes to dogwhistelling phrases.

Noticing patterns is how our brain works. But the world is far too complex for something as simple as patterns accurately explaining how it works. Our brains think the world works in patterns, but our brains are wrong.

We go in with certain assumptions into topics. How you learn is to try to dissprove the assumptions you go into it with. If you believe the world is just a repeated pattern, you are wrong.

That is how litterature works because it is our imagination put on paper. But reality is made by different people's imagination, by animals, by stuff from the universe etc. Reality is far too complex to be accurately described by one thing being in control of everything or even most things. Actually think of it. What a boring and predictable world that would actually look like. There are so many things around you in your every day life that disproves that.

Take note of them, think what do I belive about them and look into it by trying to dissprove what you belive about them. Use creadible sources. Know who these sources are payed by. What are they likely to promote or avoid talking about because of who they are payed by?

The world is complex and therefor the methods and answers are probably that too. At least more complex than our brains assume they are.

[useless-catalanfacts]

A day in the life of someone who posts on the internet in Catalan *cue dozens of Spanish people asking "what's wrong with your mouth", ordering him to speak in Spanish or "in Christian", saying he's rude for speaking in Catalan, calling him "polaco" (derogatory Spanish word to mean a Catalan person), calling the Catalan language a dialect, saying he is possessed because he's speaking Catalan, etc*

This is a video by Sergi Mas showing some of the comments he gets on YouTube. He makes videos about mountain biking that he posts on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. And the first comment he got on his first YouTube video was already someone telling him he should do it in Spanish.

Some days ago, another creator who posts his videos in Catalan (Joan Sendra, find him on Instagram and TikTok) answered to a Spanish person who was complaining that it's rude to speak Catalan/Valencian on the internet instead of Spanish because then there's people who don't understand you (as if everyone in the world spoke Spanish lmao). Joan, who is tired of getting this kind of comments so often, answered: there are already endless videos and things to watch on the internet in Spanish. In fact, if you look for [the topic he was talking about in the video that this guy commented] all the videos are in Spanish except for mine. And yet you had to come to me, the one in Valencian, and tell me that I can't make a video in my language and that I can only make it in yours. If you don't like it, it's so easy to find another one!

However, it's not a matter of actually being interested in what's being said in a language they don't speak. It's about the imposition of the language they consider superior (Spanish) and telling speakers of the languages whose land Spain had occupied that they are useless and should be ashamed of existing in public. Well, we aren't. Like Sergi's video, don't let the comments disturb your macarrons.

[gendercensus]

Diverse vs. divergent

This is something I see people tripping up on sometimes, in a gender context and also in a neurotype context, so since the Gender Census research is primarily language-focused I thought posting it here might be quite on-topic.

"Diverse" is an adjective that describes a group as containing variation within it. Something that is diverse has [the inherent quality of] "diversity" (noun). It cannot describe an individual.

"Divergent" is an adjective that describes someone or something within a larger group as being different from the "norm". Something or someone that is divergent has [the behavioural quality of] "divergence" (noun).

So:

A person cannot be diverse, but they can be divergent.

A group of people/things that are diverse can contain very common examples as well as very uncommon examples relative to that whole group.

An individual person can e.g. have diverse interests, and in that situation the group that is diverse is the interests, not the person. Some of those diverse interests may be common, and some may be divergent.

A group of people can be diverse, and they can also be divergent as a subgroup of a larger group.

This applies to words/terms that end in "-diverse" and "-divergent".

So, for neurotype contexts:

A normal population is neurodiverse, and contains within it neurodivergent individuals and neurotypical individuals.

An individual person cannot be neurodiverse. They would be described as neurodivergent.

"The neurodiverse community" could refer to the entire human race, which would include both common and uncommon neurotypes, including all neurotypical people.

"The neurodivergent community" is correct, and refers to the subgroup of individuals whose neurotypes are less common and differ significantly from "the norm".

The neurodivergent community is itself diverse, and even neurodiverse, containing its own more and less common neurotypes relative to the neurodivergent subgroup as a whole.

And for gender contexts:

A normal population is gender-diverse, and contains within it gender-divergent individuals and cisgender and binary individuals.

An individual person cannot be "gender-diverse". They would be described as gender-divergent. (Or perhaps this is where people would usually say "gender non-conforming"?)

"The gender-diverse community" could refer to the entire human race, which would include both common and uncommon genders, including all cisgender and binary people.

"The gender-divergent community" is grammatically correct, and refers to the subgroup of individuals whose genders (or lack thereof) are less common and differ significantly from the more common human experiences of gender.

The gender-divergent community is itself diverse, and even gender-diverse, containing its own more and less common genders (or lack thereof) relative to the gender-divergent subgroup as a whole.

[linguisticdiscovery]

The unequal proportion between the number of languages and how many speakers those languages have

The median number of speakers for a human language is only about 5,000 people.

From the incredibly good book, When languages die: The extinction of the world’s languages and the erosion of human knowledge.

[deep-down-in-drowsy-town]

One Song in Every Language

Okay, tumblr. Let's try something.

I want to make a playlist with one song in every single language. Of course, this is impossible- the spotify playlist limit is something like 5,000- but I want to try. Of course, I can't do this alone, and so I'm sharing the project with the entire online language nerd/ music nerd community. Together we can celebrate linguistic diversity- and find some really cool music :)

Here's how it works. This spreadsheet will document every song and language represented. When you want to add a song, first look in the spreadsheet to see if that language is already represented. If it isn't, add the song to the playlist, and then add it to the spreadsheet.

What counts as a language? This is, as we all know, a fundamentally political question (Russian/ Ukrainian? Hindi/ Urdu? "Chinese" and its "dialects"...) We don't have to solve those debates here. My thinking is: the point is to celebrate linguistic diversity in as many forms as possible. If you can make a reasonable argument for why a song and its linguistic variety should be represented, go ahead and add it.

Yes, this means conlangs count (cause conlangs are SICK!) This also means dead languages count- throw in all the Latin and Classical Nahuatl you like. Glossolalia (à la Sigur Ros) and semi-linguistic scat-esque nonsense (à la Kobaian)? Sure, why not!

I'm calling this one song in every language, but we also want to highlight small and minority languages. So maybe we don't want ten different French songs, but if there are two or three different artists singing in Sami (especially different varieties of Sami), throw it in!

Let's make this awesome. Let's make this huge. Spread it around to every language nerd and music geek you know.

Thanks, dankon, merci, etc :)

[kwillow]

And one for my other boy, because of course I had to do the horse.

Unlike Theo, Ambroys has enough romantic experience to more accurately understand what he wants out of intimate relationships. That does not make him any less maladapted for romance.

(Do you know how hard it was to come up with green flags for Ambroys. Nearly impossible task.)

[achillesapple]

also put in the tags broadly where you're from and if english is a first or second language for you. tell me a whole story if you want.

please reblog you know the drill sample size and all that

[stargir1z]

“When we lose linguistic diversity we suffer a consequent loss in the range of ways of experiencing the world.” - Beth Ann Fennelly, Fruits We'll Never Taste, Languages We'll Never Hear: The Need for Needless Complexity

[gothhabiba]

the Bantu dialect. the Bantu dialect. the Bantu dialect, singular. the singular Bantu dialect* invariably spoken by all of the Africans enslaved and brought to Louisiana.

I can't adequately explain, briefly, just how fucking bonkers of a phrase that is. just how completely outlandish. the Bantu dialect...

Bantu is a family of languages. actually it's like, a family of language groups. it is a huge, high-level division of language clades. the sub-divisions of the Bantu family can be further subdivided into nodes that are subdivided into languages (and then those languages are sub-divided into dialects).

even just following wikipedia's version of the taxonomy (all of this is constantly subject to argument and revision): the Mbam languages are a group of Bantu languages. the "Mbam" umbrella divides into the Sanaga, West Mbam, and Yambasa language groups. the Sanaga node can be further divided into the Tuki, Leti, and Mbwasa languages. dialects of Tuki include Kombe, Cenga, Tsinga, Bundum, Njo, Ngoro, and Mbere. one randomly chosen node of one node of one node of the Bantu language group has seven dialects (eight, if you count Mbwasa, which some linguists do).

linguists who study any subgroup of African languages frequently complain about ignorance surrounding them, the prototypical example being people who think that every African language is perforce a Bantu one. this man is not even knowledgeable enough to be at that level of ignorance. he published this. he wrote an easily verifiable claim about the accepted etymology of a word and didn't even bother checking, and then he published that in a book.

about 5% of the world's population speaks one of these 400-600ish languages. in terms of number of recognised, living languages, this statement is sort of like if I called Indo-European a "dialect." thus basically all of Europe except for Finland, everyone in the north of India, and the entire Iranian plateau speak "the Indo-European dialect." completely insane. off-the-wall bonkers amounts of racism at work here.

*If Bantu is a "dialect," by the way, one wonders which broader language it is a dialect of? Really, though, we needn't ask—here "dialect" simply means "something spoken by African or Indigenous people and therefore not worthy of the exalted word 'language'"

[shiranuieditorial]

20 inspirational names for a super summer!

List summary: 新夏、夏向、夏涼、夏艷/夏艶、琉夏、夏樂、夏怡、夏悅、夏嬉、夏歡/夏懽、梨夏、夏梅、夏蓮、莽夏、青夏、勇夏、承夏、平夏、峰夏、and 夏緒！ (Keep reading ’til the end to discover their meanings, readings, pronunciations, guide to etymology and history, and more linguistic knowledge!)

Is it just me or has this summer been unnervingly chilling for us tropical islanders? 🌞🥶

Check out this summer-inspired name bank I’ve been working on for the past 5 months!

Each name was…

→ meticulously hand-picked like exotic cherries 🍒

→ carefully translated to the best of my ability 🉑

→ and then packed with a mini beginner’s guide to 夏 (the Han character/Chinese character for “summer”, used throughout the Sinosphere) 📖

→ which contains its standard readings in many languages: Mandarin Chinese, Dungan Tili, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Wu, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese! 🀄

(If you need info on any other topolect, dialect, or time-specific variant not mentioned here, just ask away! I’ll see what I can do for ya!)

👉🏼 An incredibly versatile character, it’s impossible to run out of given names containing/based on 夏!

The possibilities are endless, and the only limit is our imagination! 💡

👉🏼 If we visit the Wiktionary entry for 夏, we’ll see a whole lot more linguistic variants & historical hypotheses on this ancient grapheme dating back to 2070 BC, and even a reconstruction of its Middle Chinese & Old Chinese pronunciations based on recovered millennia-old scripts! 😱

👇🏼 Comment “Wiktionary” and I’ll send you the link to read further. It’s very interesting to read, whether you’re a curious beginner or a veteran Sinologist.

❓ QOTD 1: Which name stood out to you in particular? 🤔

❓ QOTD 2: Do you know what the difference is between “reading” and “pronunciation”? 🗣️

👇🏼 Also also also, let me know what you think of this list! 📜

Is it interesting enough? Are the tables mathematical enough? Are my font choices weird enough? Have I managed to convince you that I’m secretly an omniscient Taoist immortal from the 16th century BCE here to steal all the trees off your backyards, or should I try harder? If so, what other attempts at floor-length grocery lists should I make to satisfy your most honourable expectations?

Remember—your plants are at stake here! 🧚🏼‍♀️🌲🌳🌴

[candela888]

First, second, and third most spoken language in New York City 🗽🚇🌭 and Los Angeles County 🌴⭐️🌆

[useless-catalanfacts]

Clip from the German stand up comedian Shahak Shapira who did a gig in Barcelona (Catalonia's capital city). He saw it so clearly.

[wildfeather5002]

What do you think of it when people say things like "haha this person is a loser living in their parents' basement because I think they're annoying and their opinions are trash"?

I get a bit uncomfortable when stuff like this is being said because it sounds kinda ableist towards the part of disabled community who are unable to live alone & must rely on their parents / caretakers in their daily lives. When you use "living in parents' basement" as an insult it stigmatizes the existence of disabled people with high support needs, just like using "taking pills every morning" as an insult would stigmatize taking medications on a daily basis, which is also something that some people need in order to live. I know that these insults are not always purposefully targeted towards disabled (or mentally ill) people but it doesn't really matter since these insults still contribute to the stigma surrounding disabilities (& mental illnesses).

This is what I think about it, but these are just my thoughts and I could be wrong as well.

[mapsontheweb]

Linguistic diversity index

[linguisticdiscovery]

How many languages are there anyway?

It turns out it’s really difficult to determine what counts as a language vs. a dialect!

Some would say there are as many dialects as there are people, since no two people speak exactly the same language. We each speak our own “idiolect.”

Unfortunately, even though new languages are appearing all the time, the number of language families is getting smaller with time. Linguistic diversity is on the decline 😢

Further Reading: When languages die: The extinction of the world’s languages and the erosion of human knowledge

[bxdtime-ceai]

Diversity win!!! I think my coworker might be aro and/or ace. In her words: "I don't really care much about other people for dating". Happy happy happy