i can’t stand megathreads – no one reads these! no one wants their posts banished there!

  • man_in_space@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Complaints about language change. No. I am a linguist. If someone says “liberry” or “expresso” or “conversate”…I could damn well care less. No one speaks a standard language and the arbiters thereof are the community who use it every day. Nonstandard words and phrases often have their own logic to them and arise because they are necessary or because it eases communication. People have been spewing rage about this since Roman times; the Appendix Probi is a jeremiad against language changes in Latin that became the foundation for Spanish and Portuguese.

    People do not speak the way you would like. This is normal. They are the X-Men of language in practice. Get over it.

    • May@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’d like to say that I’ve seen comment of yours about language before and I want to say I really respect this. I know for me some words are harder to say in English (like rural - though I have practiced! But atm when I say sounds a bit like roool lol) and before seeing on Reddit, I wouldn’t have thought that conversate isn’t considered a word by so many! It doesn’t seem so wrong to me. And it helps to know there are people in the world like you who wouldn’t just be disgusted by the difference.

      • man_in_space@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        All my life I have been subject to bullies. I got an education in linguistics. There’s a piece of paper in my bedroom that says I know what I’m talking about. And I will defend the underdog because I fucking hate bullies.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      My god yes, also people who make horrible bots that interrupt the conversation just to push their owners’ spelling or punctuation preferences.

      It’s prescriptivist, elitist, and even ableist. Also, social media by nature is colloquial, not formal - it feels like being told off for not wearing a business suit at home on the weekend.

    • slicedcheesegremlin@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      AAVE is a good example of this. Despite being branded as “street talk” or even “black people are too dumb to speak proper English” by racists, a lot of the so-called “mistakes” are actually just following grammar rules consistent with a variety of African languages, that held over after slaves were forced to speak English.

      • starlinguk@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s completely different from speaking bad English. For example, “I could care less” isn’t cultural language, it’s stupid. It means the opposite of what you’re trying to say.

        • slicedcheesegremlin@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          How the fuck do you think language evolves? People say what sounds better or is more convenient. If they didn’t we would still be speaking like Shakespeare or have a dozen different conjugations for every use of a word.

    • Shinespark@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you in principle, but personally it drives me nuts whenever I see “could of”, “I could care less”, “nucelar”, etc. But I admit that it’s a personal thing and don’t correct anyone. That said, whenever I do see them corrected by others, it feels very cathartic. Also, I’d rather someone correct me when I make mistakes like this.