Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 216912 times)

pooka · « **Reply #1375 on:** December 15, 2022, 10:36:49 PM »

That's because you're never supposed to tell your kids they are mistakes.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1376 on:** January 10, 2023, 12:19:38 PM »

Mouseover text: NOTE TO FUTURE ETYMONLINGUISTS: Our best guess is that 'blimp' is onomatopoeia. The 'B-Limp' thing is a folk etymology.

rivka · « **Reply #1377 on:** March 02, 2023, 05:00:41 PM »

I am watching a presentation by one of my favorite living historians. He just defined Yiddish as "medieval German with phlegm".

Jonathon · « **Reply #1378 on:** March 03, 2023, 09:22:40 AM »

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1379 on:** March 29, 2023, 02:17:11 AM »

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1380 on:** June 06, 2023, 12:52:35 AM »

I'm sorry that insipid is a word but that it's opposite, sipid is not.

My creamy mushroom soup is highly sipid.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1381 on:** June 23, 2023, 02:05:20 PM »

Mouseover text: Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing

And the Explain xkcd page for all those (including me) who can't parse it

rivka · « **Reply #1382 on:** June 26, 2023, 07:16:28 AM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1383 on:** June 28, 2023, 04:19:05 PM »

Ela · « **Reply #1384 on:** June 28, 2023, 07:51:02 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1385 on:** July 05, 2023, 03:14:43 PM »

A Twitter friend of mine put me in a comic about editing.

rivka · « **Reply #1386 on:** July 05, 2023, 10:03:39 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1387 on:** August 03, 2023, 09:41:41 AM »

Mouseover text: You’ve heard the phrase “raining cats and dogs”? Well, over there, they call dogs “cats,” and cats are, you guessed it, “lorries.”

pooka · « **Reply #1388 on:** August 22, 2023, 09:46:28 PM »

Catching up, on the alphabet:
I use the distribution of vowels to alphabetize things into 5 stacks, then those stacks can be broken into 5-7 stacks. I'm glad I don't still work in jobs where I used this a lot. In my very first couple jobs, I had an alphabetizing sleeve. I would dream of having a rack, but those are quite fussy.
I have a set of wordle tiles in my wallet for when I feel like I should be able to get a word on a 3rd guess but it's evading me. They are sorted into vowel initial groups. I haven't bothered using it since curation started.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1389 on:** October 09, 2023, 02:29:07 PM »

Mouseover text: "My first words were 'These were my first words; what were yours?'"

Porter · « **Reply #1390 on:** October 12, 2023, 08:18:01 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5vXn_Rap4

Jonathon · « **Reply #1391 on:** March 15, 2024, 03:10:36 PM »

Mouseover text: Doug's cousin, the one from London, runs a Bumble love cult.

pooka · « **Reply #1392 on:** May 31, 2024, 11:53:16 AM »

My sister who is in her 40's is going back to SLP school and hasn't used IPA before. I was trying to help her start practicing before she hits the ground in the fall. I thought she'd be really excited about it since she's the one sibling who didn't learn to spell based on the prediction of an elementary teacher that we'd be going to phonetic spelling (I guess this would have been in the 80's).

Jonathon · « **Reply #1393 on:** June 07, 2024, 12:23:50 PM »

rivka · « **Reply #1394 on:** June 07, 2024, 01:20:51 PM »

I have been using captions on Netflix and Prime a lot lately. And have noted when they do (or do not) indicate in the caption when speakers elide letters. (As in the example, do the captions say "gonna" or "going to" when what was said was definitely the former, etc. Do the captions reflect accents, real (either of the actor or the character) or temporary (like funny voices when a parent is reading a book to a child), and so on.) It's quite interesting.

pooka · « **Reply #1395 on:** July 16, 2024, 10:41:54 AM »

I sure hope this pharmacy is Care[L]on and not Careion.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1396 on:** July 16, 2024, 10:55:31 PM »

It is.

Porter · « **Reply #1397 on:** July 19, 2024, 09:37:54 AM »

Quote from: rivka on June 07, 2024, 01:20:51 PM

I have been using captions on Netflix and Prime a lot lately. And have noted when they do (or do not) indicate in the caption when speakers elide letters. (As in the example, do the captions say "gonna" or "going to" when what was said was definitely the former, etc. Do the captions reflect accents, real (either of the actor or the character) or temporary (like funny voices when a parent is reading a book to a child), and so on.) It's quite interesting.

Do you have opinions about spelling those out in, say, a novel or short story?

Personally, I find it very hard to read dialog that is attempting to reflect the accent.

rivka · « **Reply #1398 on:** July 19, 2024, 11:18:48 AM »

I have seen it done well -- just enough to give you the flavor, without making your eyes cross -- and done very badly. And everything in between. The Outlander books mostly do it well.

pooka · « **Reply #1399 on:** August 30, 2024, 10:13:45 AM »

My husband likes the outlander books, but has only experienced them on audio.