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English & Linguistics / Re: You keep on using that word
« on: January 29, 2025, 10:51:48 AM »
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: January 13, 2025, 08:36:01 AM »
*nods vigorously*
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: January 07, 2025, 01:59:52 PM »
Merriam-Webster does list is as the second pronunciation, but it does make me wonder if the speaker has studied français.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: January 06, 2025, 08:20:20 AM »
Huh. I've never heard that before either.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: October 08, 2024, 05:55:57 PM »
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: October 05, 2024, 09:13:59 AM »
We just started watching an Australian show too, and we learned "esky" as a generic term for a portable cooler.
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: September 21, 2024, 10:14:37 AM »
I also knew arvo, root, and combi, but the rest were new to me.
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: September 20, 2024, 07:57:56 AM »
I thought a ute was just a truck based on a passenger car chassis, like an El Camino, but Wikipedia says the term expanded at some point.
"You've got tickets on yourself" is pretty great.
"You've got tickets on yourself" is pretty great.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 19, 2024, 07:42:34 PM »
No problem! I didn't even realize before now that there was variation in how some people said it or that my pronunciation didn't match the standard dictionary pronunciation.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 19, 2024, 08:48:44 AM »
It doesn't strike me as the kind of variation that's typically regional. And if it were regional, there's a fair chance it'd be in listed in the dictionary. I think it's more likely just an idiosyncratic thing, but I'm really not sure.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 18, 2024, 01:08:40 PM »
Merriam-Webster says "län-ˈje-və-tē" (so a regular "n" sound followed by a soft "g"), but I guess I pronounce it like "long-gevity" (with an "ng" sound followed by a soft "g"). I'm not really pronouncing the "g" twice, because there isn't actually a "g" in the "ng" sound—it's just a nasal sound pronounced in the same place as a hard "g". But it makes sense why someone would think of that as pronouncing the "g" twice, since most people think of pronunciation in terms of spelling (which is why people also talk about "'g' dropping" in words like "singin'").
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English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy
« on: June 18, 2024, 12:18:11 PM »
This actually happened at my last job (so at least four years ago now, since it was in the pre-pandemic days). I started drafting this a few years ago, but I abandoned it because I didn't want to get in trouble if my boss saw it. But I haven't worked at that job in almost two and a half years now, so I finally pulled it out of my drafts, finished it up, and posted it.
But yeah, we had one especially fractious discussion that inspired this post (though many other discussions were at least a little frustrating or contentious). Many of the lines are direct or near-direct quotes. And I'm probably safe pointing out here that the coworker in question was literally named Karen.
But yeah, we had one especially fractious discussion that inspired this post (though many other discussions were at least a little frustrating or contentious). Many of the lines are direct or near-direct quotes. And I'm probably safe pointing out here that the coworker in question was literally named Karen.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: June 07, 2024, 12:23:50 PM »
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: June 03, 2024, 04:08:38 PM »
I don't think I've encountered "narc" to mean "narcissist".
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English & Linguistics / Re: I hate journalistic writing
« on: April 05, 2024, 08:21:25 AM »
A classic.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: March 15, 2024, 03:10:36 PM »
Mouseover text: Doug's cousin, the one from London, runs a Bumble love cult.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert
« on: February 06, 2024, 09:27:14 AM »
Yeah, it's wrong. I have no idea why someone would put one there, though.
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: December 18, 2023, 10:03:04 AM »
Encyclopedia Britannica says that may not be true:
Quote
The original term is of doubtful meaning. Pliny explains that the word denotes a coffin of limestone from the Troad (the region around Troy) which had the property of dissolving the body quickly (Greek sarx, “flesh,” and phagein, “to eat”), but this explanation is questionable; religious and folkloristic ideas may have been involved in calling a coffin a body eater.
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: November 29, 2023, 08:04:46 AM »
Huh indeed.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary
Quote
On old manuscripts, "descent" was indicated by a forked sign resembling the branching lines of a genealogical chart; the sign also happened to look like a bird's footprint. On this theory the form was influenced in Middle English by association with degree. This explanation dates back to Skeat and Sweet in the late 1800s. The word obviously is of French origin, and pied de gru is the only Old French term answering to the earliest English forms, but this sense is not attested in Old French (Modern French pédigree is from English). Perhaps it was a fanciful extension developed in Anglo-French. Other explanations are considered untenable.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary
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English & Linguistics / Re: Interesting language stuff
« on: November 02, 2023, 08:54:28 AM »
I actually wrote a chapter last year on editors and dictionaries for an edited volume that's coming out next year, and I briefly discussed spellcheckers. I didn't do a super-deep dive into the literature, but I found surprisingly little on that specific topic, so my guess is that nobody's really done any research in that area.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Interesting language stuff
« on: November 01, 2023, 01:22:27 PM »
Definitely.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Interesting language stuff
« on: November 01, 2023, 11:39:30 AM »
That is interesting, though I was hoping they'd go into more detail about specific changes. I wonder if anyone's studied it in depth.