#linguistness

[heavenlyraindrops]

japanese is such a kind language. like you forget a character it will hold ur hand and tell u that everything will be ok and you can just write it in hirigana and everyone will understand :)

and then chinese is like oh im sorry you forgot a character? youre illiterate. you mispronounce a word? your mother is now a horse

[londonlingo]

Brazilian texting slang

Here's a list of abbreviations that Brazilians use:

pro/pra -para o/para a -this meaning depends on the context but it can be 

Kkkkkkkkk -hahahahaha 

Fds -fim de semana -weekend OR -foda-se -fuck you/fuck this/screw this

Hj -hoje -today

tô /tá -estou/está -i am/he/she/it is

Vc/ce/cê -você -you

Cmg -comigo -with me

Gnt -gente -guys (used to refer to the whole group of people addressed)

Tbm -também -also/as well

Vdd -verdade -true 

Blz -beleza -sorted/great

Msg -mensagem -message

Pfv -por favor -please

Pq -porque -because

Mto -muito -a lot/very

Sdd -saudade -this means something similar to nostalgia or to miss someone/something

Bjs -beijos -kisses (get your mind out of the gutter!!)

KEY:

Slang -Portuguese word -Eng translation

The inspiration behind this post is a text my friend sent in a group chat: “Be ce ta na uni” meaning Bê, are you at uni (university)? I saw this and felt proud of how much Portuguese I’ve learnt because honestly it is a difficult language.

[in--other--words]

Fav Langblrs

Week 2, day 7 of prepolyglot’s langblr reactivation challenge

linguistness - lots of cool langblr but also linguistics content (German, Swedish, French, Czech)

cumbiana - phd life with some Spanish and langblr content thrown in

spanishskulduggery - really helpful explanations about Spanish grammar and vocab

thetudes - lots of useful resources for French

3oey - cute vocab drawings for Russian :3

tealingual - tonnes of resources for tonnes of different languages, great for resource masterposts

sciogli-lingua - several languages but especially Italian

pompadourpink - the ultimate authority on the French language as far as I'm concerned forget L'Académie Française

linguenuvolose - language study and general life posts, just a nice vibe

fluencylevelfrench - French and also book recs

[munchymunchkin]

[akaessi]

reading an article that uses the phrase "linguistic rights as human rights," and damn if that isn't the exact thing I want to explore and study in my life !!

so excited!

[arthoefmann]

Hi Linguists of Tumblr! For my bachelor thesis I created a website that is visualizing the IPA so you can learn it easier :D I wanted to share this resource with you it's still a work-in progress but you can already click through the letters and animations + also get more info on the IPA (you can basically click on every expression and it will be explained to you)

[aristattle]

i will not elaborate on this, but the name noam chomsky is an onomatopoeia for when one is chewing with their mouth loosely and loudly

[thisiscalmanditsdoctorreid]

To all my mutuals and everyone who has sent me messages, I’m sorry I’ve been so dead on here- but I’m writing my masters thesis- and it’s on Tumblr! And I’m mentioning Criminal Minds so that’s my mind criminally blown!

Super excited to post more about it when it’s down very soon! And to get back to this blog!

[jsem1ubomira]

I found this 70s Russia’s German language textbook distinguishes between ll and tt, mm and nn. It’s interesting for me cause I think it’s not difficult to distinguish t and l. And I wonder whether they’re distinguishing the sound or the shape of mm/nn?😂

[kwekstra]

Highlights from the conference room where they nominated contenders for Word of the Year 2023:

• They put Skibidi Toilet on the projector to explain what “skibidi” means.

• Baby Gronk was mentioned.

• We discussed the Rizzler.

• “Cunty” was nominated.

• “Enshittification” was suggested for EVERY category.

• “Blue Check” (like from Twitter) was briefly defined as “Someone who will not Shut The Fuck Up”

• The person writing notes briefly defined babygirl as “referencing [The Speaker]”. He is now being called babygirl in the linguist groupchats.

• MULTIPLE people raised their hand to say “I cannot stress this enough: ‘Babygirl’ refers to a GROWN MAN”

[victusinveritas]

[londonlingo]

History of @

Did you know that...

"The @ symbol, which we call "at" and which integrates the electronic address of any person on the planet, has its origin in Latin.

It appeared in the Middle Ages, when monks who copied texts and documents created symbols to replace letters, words and proper nouns, making their work easier. For instance, to replace the Latin word et, they created another symbol, interlacing the two letters: the ampersand (&).

Using the same interlacing resource, they replaced the Latin preposition ad (in house of) with the symbol @. Often used in accounting, the @ moved to the typewriter keyboard. And in 1972, American programmer Ray Tomlinson took advantage of the symbol to create the first electronic mail system."

SOURCE: Museu da Língua Portuguesa (São Paulo, Brazil)

[yeehawpim]

when your grammar accidentally transfers

[max1461]

I'm gonna reblog with some videos of people speaking various American Indian/indigenous American languages, because I think most people don't even know what they sound like. Not to be judgement of that—just, you know, I think people who want to be informed should know what they sound like!

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"