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tongue-tales · 2 years ago

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Absolutely! Let's dive deeper into the fascinating world of "disinterested" and "uninterested."

Language is a living entity, constantly evolving and adapting with the times. Words often undergo shifts in meaning over the years, driven by common usage and the needs of the speakers. "Disinterested" and "uninterested" are no exceptions to this linguistic metamorphosis.

Historically, "disinterested" was synonymous with "uninterested" and was used interchangeably to convey a lack of interest or concern. However, as language purists began to emphasize the importance of precision in communication, they sought to distinguish between the two words.

According to these prescriptive grammarians, "disinterested" should only be used to describe impartiality or a lack of bias, particularly in situations where one's judgment should be free from personal interests. For instance, a judge should be disinterested when presiding over a case, ensuring fairness and objectivity.

On the other hand, "uninterested" has been assigned the task of expressing a simple lack of interest, such as when someone finds a topic unengaging or unappealing.

The trouble arises when linguistic evolution and common usage don't align with prescriptive rules. Over time, many English speakers have embraced using "disinterested" to mean "uninterested" in everyday conversation. This is where the battleground of opinions emerges.

Language prescriptivists will fiercely argue for maintaining the distinction between the two words, emphasizing that clear communication depends on adhering to their prescribed meanings. Descriptivists, on the other hand, focus on how people actually use language and accept that language evolves organically based on how people use it.

So, what should you do when faced with the "disinterested" dilemma? Well, it depends on your audience and context. If you're writing a formal document or communicating with strict language purists, consider using "uninterested" when you mean lacking interest. But in casual conversations and most modern contexts, using "disinterested" to convey a lack of interest is unlikely to cause any major misunderstandings.

Language will always be a playground of opinions, and these debates keep our linguistic landscape dynamic and intriguing. So, the next time you encounter "disinterested" or "uninterested," embrace the rich history behind these words, appreciate the ongoing linguistic dance, and remember that language, like life itself, is an ever-evolving adventure.

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apiphine · 8 months ago

Video

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Explore the fascinating evolution of five words in the English language that have dramatically shifted in meaning over time! From "literally" to "demonic harassment," we dive into the surprising and often strange histories of words you use every day. Perfect for language lovers, history enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the quirky world of linguistics. In this video, we uncover how societal changes, supernatural beliefs, and culture have reshaped the meanings of once-familiar terms. Join us in exploring how language reflects our changing world and what these shifts tell us about the way we communicate today. 1. Meat 2. Obsessed 3. Girl 4. Literal 5. Nice #WordEvolution #LinguisticHistory #SemanticShift #LanguageChange #Etymology #Demonic #EnglishLanguage #WordOrigins #LanguageLovers #history #Obsessed #girl #literally #meat #nice #todayilearned #meaning

#youtube

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mwatso27 · 3 years ago

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Language Adjustment

When it comes down to whether or not a term like Latinx should be encouraged to be used in the Spanish language in order to include LGBTQ and nongender conforming individuals, I think it should definitely be used. Language evolves over time, even if it’s a gendered language like Spanish. Even the English language has changed over time in order to talk about the LGBTQ community and nonbinary people as well. Personally, in the past few months at a new Starbucks location that I work at, I’ve had to change how I address coworkers by using they/them pronouns because I’ve never worked with nonbinary people before. I stumbled a lot here and there, but now I’m so used to differentiating between who gets addressed with he/him, she/her, and they/them pronouns. So, I think that there just needs to be an adjustment period before Latinx is a term that is accepted in Spanish.

#latinx #nonbinary #languagechanges

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chronicles-of-a-student · 5 years ago

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“Any language variation is the result of a number of social, historical, and linguistic factors that might affect individual performances collectively and therefore dialect change in a particular speech community is a process that is continual.”

Linda Light in “Perspectives : An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology”

#linda light #cultural anthropology #anthropology #Opensource #Pressbooks #Perspectives #Language #linguisticanthropology #Anthropologist #Anthropologystudent #Studyinganthropology #Studyspo #Studyblr #Languagechange #Culturalchange #Linguistic #Changeinspeech

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thinksandthings · 5 years ago

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shrive

If you’ve never wandered around the weird old section of google books, I recommend it forthwith. There, I found a book which I will not attempt to refer to by its excessively long title, and only as An Universal Etymological English Dictionary by Nathan Bailey. I found this word shrive, which means “to make a confession to a priest or to hear a confession.” There were actually a second and third definition as well, being “to meet or reveal,” and “to write lifted up in a Roll” (whatever that means? the book was published in 1775, haha), but I was only able to confirm the first.

Shrive, according to Webster Dictionary, meaning “to either receive a confession of sins or to offer absolution and penance,” comes from the Old English scrifan through the Middle English shryven. The oldest variant, scrifan, is more removed from the religious connotation, and deals mostly with passing judgement and decrees. An interesting aside, apparently the phrase, short shrift, is from the noun form of scrifan, and referred to the time condemned individuals were given for confessions before their executions.

The English words are borrowed from a derivative of the Latin scribere, which is even further removed, meaning strictly "to write." The connotation here, however, is of carving words into stone, or clay. The Proto-Indo-European root is skribh-, which means “to cut, separate, tear or scratch,” and that connection is pretty clear.

#linguistics #language #old english #cool words #funfacts #languagechange #etymology #etymonline #websterdictionary #writing #wiktionary #middle english #An Universal Etymological English Dictionary; Comprehending the Derivations of the Generality of Words in the English Tongue either Ancient #or Modern from the Ancient British Saxon Danish Norman and Modern French Teutonic Dutch Spanish Italian; as also from the Latin Greek and He #brew Languages each in their proper Characters. And Also A brief and clear Explication of all difficult Words derived from any of the afores #said Languages and Terms of Art relating to Anatomy Botany Physick Pharmacy Surgeru Chymistery Philosophy Divinty Mathematicks Grammar Logic #y Rhetorick Musick Heraldry Maritime Affairs Military Discipline Horsemanship Hunting Hawking Fowling Fishing Gardening Husbandry Handicraft #s Confectionary Carving Cookery etc Together With A large Collection and Explication of Words and Phrases used in our Ancient Statutes Cuart #ers Writs Old Records and Processes in Law and the Etymology and Interpretation of the Proper Names of Men Women and remarkable Places in Gr #eat Britain : Also the Dialects of our different Counties. Also a Collection of our most common Proverbs with their Explication and Illustra #tion. The whole Work compiled and methodically digested as well as for the Entertainment of the Curious as the Information of the Ignorant ;#and for the Benefit of young Students Artificers Tradesmen and Foreigners who are desirious thoroughly to understand what they Speak Rad or #Write By N. Bailey

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tinycurtains · 3 years ago

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A Language Changed

Strangers on a train

On a train ride from New York to Connecticut last fall, my colleague Amanda Morris and her mother were having a conversation in American Sign Language. A man sitting near them saw them signing to each other and decided to join their conversation.

Like Amanda, he was a child of deaf adults who grew up using ASL at home and speaking English elsewhere. And he noticed a trait of Amanda’s: She signed like somebody who was much older than she was. He began gently teasing her about it, saying she was using signs that had fallen out of fashion.

He had gone through a similar experience, he said, when he went through training to become an interpreter. During that training, he learned that some of his signs — ones he had learned from his parents — were out of date.

The experience inspired Amanda, who is hard of hearing, to take an ASL class, and she noticed the same pattern. “I saw a lot of differences between how my young Deaf teacher signed and how my parents sign,” she told me. In those differences, Amanda recognized that there was a story to tell, and The Times has just published it.

The article documents the changes sweeping across ASL. Many are the result of the spread of smartphones and video, which have led to a flowering of ASL conversations, many of them remote. “In the past, ASL was changing in a more face-to-face way,” Amanda said. “Now a word can spread like wildfire on TikTok, and it never could have happened before.”

From cross to boot

An old sign for computer, to take one example, involved large circular motions to evoke the magnetic tapes that once stored data; a new sign combines the letter C with a small circular motion that’s a throwback to the old sign. As is often the case, the new sign is more compact — and thus fully visible on a phone’s tight video shot.

Other changes are attempts to make ASL more inclusive and accurate. An old sign for Italy included a cross, but many Italians are now secular; a new sign traces the squiggly outline of Italy’s shape, the famous boot. An old sign for bisexual seemed to imply polygamy; a new sign is simply the letters B and I. An old sign for diversity included a zigzag that suggested inequality; a new sign conjures colors, differences and a large group of people.

Change is obviously a part of every language. Merriam-Webster has added hundreds of new entries to its English dictionary in recent years, including super-spreader, horchata, woke and dad bod. But ASL does have a couple of qualities that can cause change to happen rapidly.

Most ASL users, unlike Amanda, did not learn the language from their parents. (More than 90 percent of deaf people have hearing parents.) People instead tend to learn the language through classes and their peers. School curriculums and slang can both change more quickly than language habits handed down from one generation to the next.

The number of ASL speakers is also relatively small, Amanda notes — with 500,000 being a common estimate. This smallness can contribute to faster change.

As in other languages, though, the changes are often matters of debate. MJ Bienvenu, a retired Deaf studies professor in Austin, Texas, said that she found many of the new signs nonsensical. “I feel like many people don’t realize that they bastardize ASL, and it harms more than it helps,” Bienvenu told Amanda.

As for Amanda’s mother, she is taking the changes on a case-by-case basis. When Amanda told her yesterday that the article inspired by their train ride was about to be published, her mother said that she planned to switch to some of the new signs, but not all of them.

Read the article — and learn about the changes to the signs for dog, phone, parents and privilege.

-By David Leonhardt, The New York Times

#asl #language #languagechange #historicallinguistics #signlanguage #linguistics #sociallinguistics #sociolinguistics

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asiteforsoirees · 3 years ago