Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 217164 times)

Ela · « **Reply #1300 on:** June 12, 2020, 12:23:44 PM »

Indeed.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1301 on:** August 05, 2020, 09:45:36 AM »

Hover text: "INSIDE THE HOUSE was where the descriptivist was calling from! ....er, I mean, the descriptivist was calling from inside the house!!"

pooka · « **Reply #1302 on:** August 06, 2020, 12:53:56 AM »

Ela · « **Reply #1303 on:** September 15, 2020, 05:33:33 PM »

For months I've seen the abbreviation EVOO. I didn't know what it meant, but I wasn't actually interested enough to look it up. Fast forward to today. Someone posted a question asking what our favorite EVOO is in a cooking forum. The picture accompanying the question was a bottle of extra virgin olive oil.

Seriously?!

I think I was happier not knowing what it means.

rivka · « **Reply #1304 on:** September 15, 2020, 11:17:21 PM »

Quote from: Ela on September 15, 2020, 05:33:33 PM

For months I've seen the abbreviation EVOO. I didn't know what it meant, but I wasn't actually interested enough to look it up.

This was me, for a couple years even. I finally looked it up a few months back.

This needs an abbreviation???

Ela · « **Reply #1305 on:** September 16, 2020, 07:48:27 AM »

Quote from: rivka on September 15, 2020, 11:17:21 PM

Quote from: Ela on September 15, 2020, 05:33:33 PM
For months I've seen the abbreviation EVOO. I didn't know what it meant, but I wasn't actually interested enough to look it up.
This was me, for a couple years even. I finally looked it up a few months back.

This needs an abbreviation???

Exactly my feeling.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1306 on:** October 14, 2020, 01:17:39 PM »

Mouseover text: "Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different?"

rivka · « **Reply #1307 on:** October 14, 2020, 02:17:17 PM »

Mmkay.

pooka · « **Reply #1308 on:** October 30, 2020, 08:15:05 PM »

We're talking about llamas at work. Or I am reading about them on wikipedia and my coworkers are occasionally making a humoring comment. so I wonder whether is /lama/ or /jama/ and one of my coworkers says in Argentina it's shama. I guess all double L's are SH in argentina. But it's tempting to wonder if there's any relationship to Chamois or if it's just a coincidence. It appears to be a coincidence.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1309 on:** January 10, 2021, 12:32:09 PM »

The aftercomic:

Ela · « **Reply #1310 on:** January 13, 2021, 07:53:52 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1311 on:** January 29, 2021, 03:53:48 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1312 on:** February 05, 2021, 11:58:08 AM »

mouseover text: "microphones aren't even small. sometimes they are, but usually you can, like, trip over them. usually you can trip over them at any time without warning"

Jonathon · « **Reply #1313 on:** February 05, 2021, 02:37:21 PM »

Mouseover text: "Soon, linguists will be wandering around everywhere, saying things like 'colorless green ideas sleep furiously' and 'more people have been to Russia than I have,' and speech will become unintelligible."

Jonathon · « **Reply #1314 on:** February 14, 2021, 10:42:54 AM »

Ela · « **Reply #1315 on:** March 16, 2021, 06:59:35 AM »

The reporter on a politics podcast said “more quickly and fastly.”

Fastly?

I don’t think that’s a word.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1316 on:** March 16, 2021, 08:29:52 AM »

Though it's really odd that it isn't, and I'm not sure why it isn't.

It apparently was a word for a long time, though. The OED records uses from 888 AD all the way up to 1859. Most of the senses are marked obsolete ("In a fixed or steady manner"; "Firmly, unwaveringly, steadfastly; with confidence"; "Without intermission or cessation"; "Closely, securely"), but the "quickly" sense is marked "now rare".

It makes me wonder why it fell out of use in modern times.

Ela · « **Reply #1317 on:** March 16, 2021, 09:43:26 AM »

The explanation I've seen most often is that fastly is not needed because fast is both an adjective and an adverb.

As you state, the OED lists it as an obsolete usage.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1318 on:** March 16, 2021, 09:50:38 AM »

Quote from: Ela on March 16, 2021, 09:43:26 AM

The explanation I've seen most often is that fastly is not needed because fast is both an adjective and an adverb.

Which is kind of a weird argument. For every other adverb, some people get annoyed when you drop the -ly, as in "drive slow".

Ela · « **Reply #1319 on:** March 16, 2021, 12:18:14 PM »

Yeah, I guess. Most of the -ly words haven't dropped it, as far as I know. No clue why fastly dropped out of use.

Ela · « **Reply #1320 on:** April 20, 2021, 12:14:58 PM »

On a podcast this morning, I heard an Israeli podcaster pronounce wanton like wonton. I don't think that's an accepted pronunciation, though I'm willing to be proven wrong.

It's funny because a podcast FB group I'm in was just discussing whether he has an Israeli accent or not after so many years in the US. He generally speaks "American" pretty well, but has occasional odd pronunciations of certain words.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1321 on:** April 20, 2021, 02:26:42 PM »

Yeah, I'm not seeing it in any major dictionaries. I'm guessing it's one of those "learned the word from reading it" things.

I think I've heard it before too, though.

Ela · « **Reply #1322 on:** April 20, 2021, 05:58:22 PM »

You don't have to be speaking English as a second language to make those types of mistakes, to be honest. For years my son was notorious for mispronouncing words he'd only seen in print and had never heard in the spoken form. It was kind of amusing. I don't know if he still does it.

rivka · « **Reply #1323 on:** April 21, 2021, 09:37:30 AM »

Quote from: Ela on April 20, 2021, 05:58:22 PM

For years my son was notorious for mispronouncing words he'd only seen in print and had never heard in the spoken form. It was kind of amusing.

I resemble this remark. I have a very strong memory of my mother -- mostly successfully -- fighting down laughter at my pronunciation of some word I had just mangled. And she did not succeed the first time she heard me blithely mispronounce "Hermione".

These days, I ask teh internet how to pronounce things.

Ela · « **Reply #1324 on:** April 21, 2021, 11:31:51 AM »

To be fair, I've heard Hermione pronounced two different ways. The way it's pronounced in Harry Potter is one way. But I once knew an older woman with that name who pronounced it Her-me-on, three syllables.