#language change

[iohannesrhetor]

I have made a 30 minute video-- it is 20 minutes of lecture and 10 minutes of essay on the semantic evolution of the word "wholesome" in the last ten years.

I had a lot of fun making it. I hope you enjoy.

Please pardon the excessively link-baity thumbnail.

[dedalvs]

welcome back! Ages ago I think you posted a link to a dictionary of common sound changes any chance you still have that resource or something like it? need some guidance so I'm not doing something totally wacky like all my Ts becoming Qs

Got a couple things for you. The first is the Index Diachronica, which is a searchable website. It's a database of hundreds of natural language sound changes.

Second is William Annis's "Paterns of Allophony", an article on Fiat Lingua that represents visually common sound changes.

Hope you find those useful!

[snowgall]

How to sign ‘gay’ or ‘queer’? American Sign Language users don’t agree

Nice article in the Washington Post on the Deaf community’s search for inclusive signs for “queer”, “trans”, “gay” etc. 

“With signs related to identity, it’s personal, and it’s hard to find one sign that works for everyone,” said Julie A. Hochgesang, a Deaf linguist and professor at Gallaudet University in Northeast Washington.

For almost every concept mentioned in the article, there are at least 2 or 3 different ways to sign it, and no clear consensus yet. The one exception is the newer sign for “trans” which was coined in 2003 by a group of Deaf trans people attending a conference:

Morgan Jericho signs “trans” in ASL. (Video: The Washington Post) 

This one is generally accepted by the Deaf trans community, if not yet widely known outside of it.

More from the article:

"While spoken and written languages can spread swiftly through a number of formats, ASL has typically spread through face-to-face interactions and can’t be easily shared by written word, so it can take longer for consensus to form around new signs. For much of ASL’s history, those who have had the most power to disseminate signs have been straight, White, cisgender people, according to Deidra Pelletier, vice president of the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. “In the past, much of the queer community was closeted, so they didn’t really have the chance to discuss or analyze signs in large groups with straight people,” she said. The rise of video-based social media is allowing ASL to spread more rapidly and is empowering the Deaf queer community to exert more influence over American Sign Language."

This is a gift link to the article, and should work even if you don't subscribe to the Washington Post:

https://wapo.st/3qZtNyY

[ailurinae]

Anyone know articles or videos or just have some ability to infodump in the reblogs about hyphens and the (seeming?) decline of hyphenated words in English?

Like there are some really obvious ones like "e-mail" becoming "email". Indeed most e-anything dropped the hyphen. That seems like it could just be society becoming more familiar with it, and using the word more often and dropping it to save a keystroke. But it seems to me that I am always having to tell my spellchecker to accept non-hyphenated versions of compound words, because the hyphenated version just does not look right. This post was spurred by the FF spellchecker claiming it should be "re-implemented" not "reimplemented". As a computer person, the hyphenated version looks absurd.

Of course spellchecker dictionaries aren't always the best, but on occasion if you look it up Merriam-Webster.com or whatever you will find the same sort of thing. Not for "reimplemented" of course you just get the base word "implement" but I have seen other cases where they give a hyphenated version not the unhyphenated.

And, if you look at like newspapers from like, the 30s or something, it seems like you see hyphens all over the place. Like sometimes they hyphenate "to-day" and I don't mean just for a line break. What's up with that?

This is good and all, and talks about familiarity, but is it just that that is driving it? And familiarity wouldn't seem to be the case for weird stuff like sometimes hyphenating "to-day". Especially since it seems like they didn't always do it.

[datasoong47]

Idea: A sci-fi time-travel story with people from, say, 2423 travelling back to today. But, language evolves and 25th century English is not going to be the same as 21st century English, so having future characters and modern characters speaking the same is unrealistic

Several possibilities:

Create a future-English conlang for all your characters from the future. This would be a bit inconvenient and depending on how much change you apply might make the characters difficult for the audience to understand, especially problematic if the 25th century characters are your main POV characters. Might not be as much a problem if the main POV characters are the 21st century characters. At the very least, they're going to sound strange to listeners

Leave the characters from the future speaking normal 21st century English, but to simulate the language difference, have your 21st century characters speaking in Shakespearean English. Advantages: easier to understand the 25th century characters, especially important if their the main POV characters, and most English-speakers have at least some understanding of Shakespearean English. Disadvantage: would sound very anachronistic to have 21st century characters talking like someone out of Shakespeare

The time-travellers studied 21st Century English before their trip (maybe you could even show a brief scene in a classroom where they're studying older forms of English), so they're speaking more or less normal 21st century English, but sometimes they slip up (if they're seasoned time travellers, they might even mess up by occasionally slipping in an archaism "Yes, I would fain join you on that expedition"), and maybe have a peculiar accent (especially useful if the POV characters are the 21st century characters - might be a bit less believable if you're focusing on the 25th century characters and so you have scenes with only the future people talking to each other but still using 21st century English)

For comedic effect, you could have them mixing up eras and accidentally using all-out Shakespearean English - they accidentally signed up for the wrong class, or their mission was changed at the last moment - "Hey, bud, I know you've been studying up for that trip to 1607, but looks like we need you to go to 2023 instead" "Wait, what? But I haven't studied early 21st century English!" "Eh, close enough"

[paradoxcase]

Because I have no idea what Gen Z kids mean when they say "download":

Please reblog, I want actual Gen Z people to answer this, which means it has to leave my corner of tumblr

If you picked the last option, please leave a comment or a tag with what you think "download" means, because I honestly have no idea what it could be

For bonus points, please specify if you think "upload" and "install" mean different things than "download" or if they are all just different words for the same thing in your idiolect

[catboy-pentheus]

FUCK I meant to make the poll 1 week

please rb I want data!

[eccedeus]

There is nothing inevitable or predestined about language change and the words we end up using, of course. Sometimes I like to imagine alternative histories. Caulk in its early English sense referred to stopping up seams to make ships watertight. In Middle English we can find fide-cok to mean "penis" with cok from male domestic fowl and fid meaning "peg or plug". Tonight I will dream of a timeline where fifteenth century sailors said "stick your caulk in the hole!" and we ended up saying caulk instead of cock

[cottonundiestf]

How about a short little caption focused on someone having their lips expanded into absurd dsls

I actually had an old blog post for this!

Kithable

Kenna was accustomed to the hormonally-charged environment of an all-girls school now that she was eighteen and in her final semester. Even the straight girls were so starved for experience and intimacy that it was common for girls to experiment with one another. 

As a certified, card-carrying queer girl, Kenna would love to have been part of the fun, but the introvert struggled to pull together the confidence to suggest a proper snogfest to any of her classmates.

Ever the dutiful goodie-two-shoes, Kenna was volunteering for the chore of cleaning up the dorm attic when she found an old oil lantern.

Curious, Kenna took it in her own room and managed to light the lantern. Much to her surprise, a busty genie manifested from the flame!

"Thank you for releasing me. As a token of my gratitude, I can grant you one wish!"

"Wow, that's... wait, one? I thought it was supposed to be three?"

The genie rolled her eyes. "A bit bratty to look a gift horse in the mouth. I can only change reality so much; accept a small gift and be grateful."

Kenna sighed, but this was what she was asking for. She could not change anything big, but she could make her last year of high school and all her years of college way more enjoyable. She just needed a way to get people interested in her without Kenna having to be the initiator.

"I wish I was the best kisser in my grade, my job, or whatever groups I end up in, and everyone knows it." That was like starting a rumor without having to do any of the work!

"So your wish is... to be the most kissable person anywhere you go?"

"Yes, please!"

"Easy."

Kenna gasped as her lips started to tingle. She scrambled from her bed to the mirror on her wall to see what was happening. Her eyes went wide as she watched her thin lips fill with natural collagen. Her lower lip puffed up. Her upper lip matched, developing a perfectly defined cupid bow. She kept expecting those lips to stop, but they kept swelling until it was hard to imagine telling anyone that they were not fake.

Dumbfounded, Kenna brushed a finger along her pouty pillows. They were so sensitive that she felt the grazing touch between her legs. Even when those lips were closed, there was a little permanent keyhole open between them.

"How am I thupothed to exthplain thith?" Kenna gasped, shocked by the lisp she developed thanks to her obstructive mouth.

"You won't have to. I changed your history; your lips have been this way for years, Hot Lips!"

"But now I thound ridiculouth! How will anyone take me theriouthly in college?" She was a top-notch student, but she sounded like a total ditz! As remade memories hit her, Kenna realized her teachers always clearly judged her harshly for her "silly speech."

In fact, they thought she was a dumb bimbo because of her reputation. The reputation she asked for. They could not mark her down for it, but they gave her a hard time for being the school slut.

"You didn't ask to be taken seriously. You asked to be 'kithable,' remember?"

"But wait, thith ithn't—huh??"

The genie, tired of the ingrate's whining, had vanished into the lamp, leaving Kenna conflicted. Is this really what she wanted? Was it worth it?

The door to the dorm room opened, and Kenna's roommate, Lila, entered. The popular, confident young woman was blushing and looking at Kenna in a way she never had before. "Hey, Kenna. I don't know if this is overstepping things as roommates, but… well, it's been a while since my boyfriend has been able to visit and…" She looked at her feet.

And Kenna realized what she was asking. Her full lips curled into an alluring smile. She moved to Lila and closed the door behind her and pulled her into a soft, sensual kiss so perfect, a moan hummed in Lila's throat.

Okay. Her teachers and professors could judge her all they liked; if that was how every girl she kissed would react, this was the best wish ever. Of all time.

[linguisticdiscovery]

The many senses of run

How do you define the word run? You probably think of something like ‘fast pedestrian motion’, but what about the use of run in these examples? There are three boats that run from the mainland to the Island On my way to the elevator, I ran into Pete the bench, which numerous times rebuked the Attorney General for letting his witnesses run on The tears ran down my face Colors on the towels…

[drlinguo]

Source

[salvadorbonaparte]

How did English get so many Latin words ? It’s a Germanic language right?

Hello! Thank you so much for that question and providing enrichment to the tiny linguist in my brain.

English is indeed a Germanic language. It doesn't behave very much like one these days but it's actually kind of Double Germanic because it has it's roots in the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who settled Britain and influence from the Vikings, who tried pillaging the British Isles and then settled there.

Before these groups arrived, the British Isles were a Roman colony (and Celtic before that), which left some influences. The Roman baths in Bath are a physical example. But Latin entered into English in other ways too, especially since Latin wasn't really anyone's first language anymore by the time the Old English started to exist.

Firstly, the ancestor of Old English already had some contact with Latin.

Secondly, Latin was a high prestige language. It's much easier for prestigious languages to influence others (this is why English didn't borrow many words from Celtic languages). Latin was the language of religion and scholarship - the Bible and all church services were in Latin at the time and any educated person would have written and read Latin texts.

Thirdly, some of those words entered English through French. You see, French is a Romance language related to Latin so sometimes it's difficult to know when a word was borrowed at a first glance. But when the Normans took over Britain a lot of Norman French entered the vocabulary (again because as the ruling class they had prestige) and now you have a Double Germanic language with Double Romance influences.

And last but not least some Latin words are more modern. Because Latin and Greek were already high prestige language connected with scholarship they kind of just stayed that way and the West decided that if you're naming something (scientifically) it should be derived from Latin and/or Greek. (shout out to my favourite phenomenon where some plant or animal gets a name and it's a Latin/Greek word followed by the name of a scientist with a Latin suffix attached eg Lophophora Williamsii).

I hope this explanation made sense!

If you want to learn more about Old English you can also check out A History of Early English by Keith Johnson which I have uploaded in my MEGA folder of language resources.

[certifiedsillygoofer]

studying language variation over time isn't enough i need to eat all of the words

[midgesquidge]

i wonder if the people who cry about inclusive language being stupid realise that it serves the purpose of excluding certain groups.

for every ‘person with the ability to get pregnant’ there is a person without that ability. if we simply use the term ‘women’ that opposing side so adamantly claim to be representative of this group then where do those who identify as women who cannot get pregnant go? those who are infertile? those who have undergone hysterectomies? those who are simply child free? are they not ‘women’?

using just ‘women’ as the representative noun in this context to refer to those with child bearing capabilities also upholds the damaging view that all ‘women’ are able to get pregnant, leading into the pit that is the discussions of reproductive rights and the importance of procreation and everything else that is semantically related to the heavily politicised concept of a ‘pregnant woman’.

overall, inclusive language is language that is careful in what it classes as part of a specific group. it recognises that these concepts are not just ‘black’ and ‘white’ but come in many shades. assuming leads to generalising which leads to stereotyping.

conveniently, those who despise this little language movement seem to love a good stereotype.

[paradoxcase]

@turtletotem:

I think you might mean "the down low," not "download"

That's definitely what they meant. Oh, what a fun eggcorn! It does kind of fit the imagery of downloading something from one brain to another, especially if you subscribe to a more peer-to-peer definition of "dowload".