Interesting language stuff

[Ela]

I saw it in my Sunday Times, too. 

[Jonathon]

I am honestly surprised it even made the front page.

[Ela]

It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would make the front page, does it. The main reason it did, I think, is cause it's about Trump.

[Jonathon]

This is a really great video on actors imitating the idiolects of real people in movies and TV.

[rivka]

Fascinating.

[Ela]

That really is fascinating.

[rivka]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/09/18/merriam-webster-toasts-an-expanding-food-and-drink-vocabulary-with-a-tallboy-and-matcha/

[rivka]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/16/confused-about-they-merriam-websters-word-year-dont-be/

[Jonathon]

Hey, I know that guy!

[rivka]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/24/21234170/microsoft-word-two-spaces-period-error-correction-great-space-debate

[Jonathon]

I'm sure this won't actually end the debate, but maybe it'll help convince some people to abandon the extra space.

I'm kind of annoyed that that story repeats the myth that the extra space is just a product of monospaced fonts on typewriters, though.

[rivka]

I'm sure this won't actually end the debate

Yeah, I'm sure.

but maybe it'll help convince some people to abandon the extra space.

Well, I'm working on my co-worker (who sent it to me!), but she is still resisting.

I'm kind of annoyed that that story repeats the myth that the extra space is just a product of monospaced fonts on typewriters, though.

Because that's simpler for people to remember than it started with (some) printing, and then it was adapted for typewriters, and then . . . .

I tend to forget the mono-spaced thing isn't true, and I know we've discussed it before. But in my defense, I learned it in school, and it stuck.

[Tante Shvester]

I use two spaces after a period, always have, and see no reason why I ought to stop doing so just because some young whippersnappers think they know better. 

Tradition!

[rivka]

https://twitter.com/Fritinancy/status/1256315755819175936

(Also going the rounds on WhatsApp, but no source listed.)

New Yiddish-English #coronacoinage:

Oysgezoomt

Definition: Fatigued by (or over-exposed to) Zoom.

[Jonathon]

Heh. It's always funny to see someone you know from one part of the internet pop up in another part. I've been following Nancy Friedman on Twitter and on her blog for years.

Also, that's a great word.

[rivka]

Heh. It's always funny to see someone you know from one part of the internet pop up in another part.

It is!

Also, that's a great word.

And the Internet says, amen.

[rivka]

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php

[rivka]

Could be fun: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624380/stet-dreyers-english-by-benjamin-dreyer/

[rivka]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-brazil-indigenous-endangered-language/2020/10/06/59fa1aa8-f42b-11ea-999c-67ff7bf6a9d2_story.html

Even before the pandemic, the world was at risk of losing more than a third of its remaining 6,800 languages. Hundreds have been lost in the last century, as development encroached on isolated villages, people migrated to urban centers, and new technologies and globalization saturated the world in a handful of dominant languages. Nearly 600 languages are critically endangered, according to UNESCO. Nearly 150 are spoken by no more than 10 people.

“By the end of this century, we will have a significant number of languages disappearing,” said Irmgarda Kasinskaite, who works on linguistic diversity with the U.N. cultural agency. “We don’t realize something’s gone until we lose it.”

[Jonathon]

I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but I'm speaking at the conference of the Dictionary Society of North America next week. You can check out the schedule here.

[rivka]

Very cool.

(I'm tempted to join, but the price is a bit higher than I would pay for a whim. Plus I am scheduled to be at the dentist that day.)

[Ela]

Nice, Jonathon. Sounds interesting.

[rivka]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/problem-with-word-problematic/620289/

This is why I find the word problematic to be, well, problematic.

[rivka]

The Georgia drawl is fading, y’all (gift link)

[rivka]

The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language

Similarly, the efficiency brought about by standardisation can shape how we write, not just what we write. When clarity is put ahead of stylistic or poetic flair – Word's grammar checker has a specific "clarity" refinement option – it can have implications for how we value forms of creativity.

Based on a quick, albeit arbitrary, experiment, if Harper Lee had used Word to write To Kill a Mockingbird, the software's clarity refinement would have suggested changing: "I never loved to read. One does not love breathing," to "I never loved to read. Breathing is necessary." Does this remove the poetry and depth of the original? The example is somewhat facetious, but it illustrates the effects using such tools can have.