Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 204221 times)

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #800 on:** September 11, 2013, 09:07:17 AM »

That also makes me think about how interesting political differences make things. Czech and Slovak are politically distinct, so we present them as two languages. But there are so many distinct dialects of Chinese that none of us would ever stand a chance in the game were they all recognized. Yet the politics dictate that there's only Mandarin and Cantonese - even native Chinese don't consider their mother tongues to be "real languages" because of the way they've been raised.

eta: I had a conversation with one of my students on a bus in Taiwan. He was telling me how jealous he was that I could speak multiple languages. I told him "Well, you can already speak two, and you're learning English."

"What do you mean? I only speak Chinese."

"What does your family speak at home? Taiyu? Or maybe Hakka?"

"Oh, Hakka, but that's not a language."

Hakka is unintelligible to speakers of Taiyu, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Jonathon · « **Reply #801 on:** September 11, 2013, 09:56:40 AM »

Have you read You Are What You Speak? It talks a lot about language politics like that. I think you'd really like it.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #802 on:** September 11, 2013, 06:35:26 PM »

I haven't - sounds really interesting!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #803 on:** September 12, 2013, 08:54:30 AM »

I got 500.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #804 on:** September 12, 2013, 09:09:25 AM »

Quote from: Annie Subjunctive on September 11, 2013, 09:07:17 AM

That also makes me think about how interesting political differences make things. Czech and Slovak are politically distinct, so we present them as two languages. But there are so many distinct dialects of Chinese that none of us would ever stand a chance in the game were they all recognized. Yet the politics dictate that there's only Mandarin and Cantonese - even native Chinese don't consider their mother tongues to be "real languages" because of the way they've been raised.

eta: I had a conversation with one of my students on a bus in Taiwan. He was telling me how jealous he was that I could speak multiple languages. I told him "Well, you can already speak two, and you're learning English."

"What do you mean? I only speak Chinese."

"What does your family speak at home? Taiyu? Or maybe Hakka?"

"Oh, Hakka, but that's not a language."

Hakka is unintelligible to speakers of Taiyu, Mandarin and Cantonese.

I'm sure I've had this exact same conversation before.

Jonathon · « **Reply #805 on:** September 13, 2013, 11:31:55 AM »

Grammar Rumble

rivka · « **Reply #806 on:** September 13, 2013, 12:49:40 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #807 on:** September 18, 2013, 11:51:19 AM »

I don't remember if I posted this before, but even if I did, it's worth posting again: http://whatshouldwecalllinguistics.tumblr.com (warning: language)

I just read through the whole thing during lunch and kept cracking up.

Brinestone · « **Reply #808 on:** September 18, 2013, 12:25:33 PM »

I was surprised by how many of those went over my head completely. I kept reading them and going, "I know some of those words."

Jonathon · « **Reply #809 on:** September 18, 2013, 12:29:08 PM »

A lot of them went over my head too, but somehow I still found them funny.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #810 on:** September 18, 2013, 05:33:51 PM »

I always wonder about the people who make tumblrs like that. Do they have a giant repository of gifs open somewhere? How long do those take them?

Jonathon · « **Reply #811 on:** September 19, 2013, 12:03:15 PM »

I assume a lot of them are pulled from other meme sites, but that's still a lot of work.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #812 on:** September 23, 2013, 06:28:49 PM »

So, I've been using "what the what" for quite some time. Probably since high school at some point with variations in frequency, but it was always there. I'm sure I came up with it by myself. The only high-profile show I can think of using it was 30-Rock some time ago, and that might have been when it the phrase reached critical mass. But I'm starting to see it all over now, and I'd like to think I was part of it's propagation.

I think it's more likely than my tacking on the phrase "True story" to all sorts of accounts of things happening giving rise to that meme.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm involved in language development!

BlackBlade · « **Reply #813 on:** September 27, 2013, 08:42:28 PM »

Submitted without comment.

Porter · « **Reply #814 on:** October 02, 2013, 07:21:26 AM »

#1 isn't even about a font.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #815 on:** October 02, 2013, 07:46:53 AM »

While I can understand that some fonts are better designed or more in style than others, it is nothing that I feel any passion about. I have a hard time understanding the strong feelings that some people have about typefaces. It seems to me a silly thing to get passionate about.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #816 on:** October 02, 2013, 12:21:36 PM »

Quote from: Porter on October 02, 2013, 07:21:26 AM

#1 isn't even about a font.

True! But do you agree that should stop?

Porter · « **Reply #817 on:** October 02, 2013, 02:16:57 PM »

rivka · « **Reply #818 on:** October 02, 2013, 02:56:36 PM »

I agree with Porter.

(I really wanted to reply using this font, but can't figure out how.)

Jonathon · « **Reply #819 on:** October 23, 2013, 11:33:23 AM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #820 on:** November 01, 2013, 08:20:55 AM »

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #821 on:** November 01, 2013, 10:08:37 AM »

Page break after each sentence!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #822 on:** November 01, 2013, 10:09:01 AM »

It's the forth way.

Nighthawk · « **Reply #823 on:** November 19, 2013, 11:07:13 AM »

*facepalm!*

rivka · « **Reply #824 on:** November 20, 2013, 07:03:37 AM »

Literally?