Tag: language

Another list of some words snagged into English just from Virginia/Carolina Algonquian languages is at the bottom of the page here. (Ran across that looking for a reference link.)

I still find the usage difference a little jarring, with horns hooting instead of honking in British English.

Just realizing I have no idea what geese did before English speakers encountered cohonk elsewhere. (So yeah, geese are basically “honkers” in Powhatan that I know of.)

English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

cubstearns:

linguafandom:

However it originated, though, the usage of “because-noun” (and of “because-adjective” and “because-gerund”) is one of those distinctly of-the-Internet, by-the-Internet movements of language. It conveys focus (linguist Gretchen McCulloch: “It means something like ‘I’m so busy being totally absorbed by X that I don’t need to explain further, and you should know about this because it’s a completely valid incredibly important thing to be doing’”). It conveys brevity (Carey: “It has a snappy, jocular feel, with a syntactic jolt that allows long explanations to be forgone” “It has a snappy, jocular feel, with a syntactic jolt that allows long explanations to be forgone”).

But it also conveys a certain universality. When I say, for example, “The talks broke down because politics,” I’m not just describing a circumstance. I’m also describing a category. I’m making grand and yet ironized claims, announcing a situation and commenting on that situation at the same time. I’m offering an explanation and rolling my eyes — and I’m able to do it with one little word. Because variety. Because Internet. Because language.

Reblogging. Because linguistics.

English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

sewickedthread:

perilegs:

copperbadge:

minnielikes:

galesofnovember:

liketheghost:

so is it a thing in (american) english to use “texas” as a word for like, something that’s out of control or chaotic, or as like, “crazy”? like “that party last weekend was totally texas!”

because that is a thing people say in norwegian and i just think it’s important for americans to know that?

this is the best thing I’ve ever heard

i’m sorry wHAT

This is like the time I found out that in Israel “Ma po ze, Chicago?” (What is this, CHICAGO?) is a saying for when people are acting unruly. 

in finland if something is far away or in an unknown place we can say that “se on huitsin nevadassa” (it’s in nevada) you can also politely tell that you’d wish someone to fuck off by wishing that they’d go to nevada

I am both amused and nodding my head at the accuracy.

aegipan-omnicorn:

hiiimaugust:

petewntz:

recontweek:

petewntz:

recontweek:

petewntz:

why r cookies called cookies if u … Bake them ..

compelling. cant believe no one has ever noticed this before in the history of forever. u are a visionary. how do u come up with this stuff. genius.

lol okay but can you answer my question? no. u cant. thank u for ur comment, ur doing nothing to help our environment or ease the publics curiosity

because calling them “bakies” is the dumbest fucking thing anyone has ever heard

still doesnt answer my Question 🤔🤔🤔🤔

It’s an Anglican spelling of the Dutch word for “small cakes” I believe

I  believe @hiiimaugust is correct.  …But my Internet search powers are glitching, and I can’t find the actual Dutch word.

As I understand it, early English colonists called them “Biscuits,” like they did (and still do) in the Home Country (and “biscuit” comes from “Twice baked,” because you’d bake them once to cook them, and then again to dry them out, so they don’t go moldy in the days before refrigerators).

But then the English/American settlers met the Dutch/American settlers, and the Dutch kept talking about these little treats they called Kuchen (I think?). And English, being the vacuum cleaner language, sucked it up, and changed the ‘en’ ending to ‘ie’.

Not even that big a change, from “koekje” with the pronunciation manglicized some as usual. 😉 Meaning “little cake”. Kuchen is German for cake, koek in Dutch.

(A good number of frequently ridiculed common US English usages differing from the British just got snagged in from other languages in North America, btw–in classic tradition for the language. 😅 Besides a lot of vocabulary, the large number of German immigrants in particular apparently had quite an effect.)

axonsandsynapses:

yuletidekarkat:

dannygayhealani:

creatingaquietmind:

the speech impediment of the 21st century (by Marc Johns)

I’ll fuck you up buddy this is not a speech impediment it’s linguistic evolution!! the existence of the phrase “Aisha was like” allows the speaker to convey whatever Aisha said without making the listener assume they’re quoting Aisha directly while still maintaining the FEELING of what Aisha said.

ie, Aisha said she didn’t want to go out with me VERSUS Aisha was like, “I’d rather kiss a Wookie”.

the addition of “XYZ was like” lets the speaker be more expressive and efficient and it is a totally valid method of communicating information!!

With the way language has evolved, this is one of the few ways I can even think of to express in casual conversation what someone said. 

“So I said to Aisha,” is certainly used, but if you remove the “so,” which implies casual tone (“and” can be used in the same way), you get

“I said to Aisha,” which is really formal in most English dialects/variations. I don’t know about all, but in New England dialects, you sound like you’re reading aloud from a novel.

“I told Aisha,” is really only used when you continue to describe, not tell, what you told her. Ex: “I told Aisha that James was too punk for her” works while, “I told Aisha, ‘James is too punk for you’” crosses the line back into formalness of the “I said.”

Things like “I asked” or “I answered [with]” are similar levels of casual and efficient to the “So, I said [or say, as many conversations about the past take place in present tense anyway, as if the speaker is giving a play-by-play in the moment]” but are specific to only certain situations. 

“I was like, ‘Marc Johns, what is your obsession with restoring archaic speech patterns and interfering with the natural progression of English from complex to efficient?’” envelopes all of these easily and is accessible and crisp, and allows for more variations on inflection than the others.

Of course, James is probably like, “I already fucking said that.” But eh, I tried adding on.

#linguistics #a.k.a. how I learned to stop worrying and love the evolution of the English language without being a discriminatory elitist jerk (via crystalandrock)

Source: creatingaquietmind