Tfw you try to learn a new language and are heavily confused by some things because you figure grammar out as you go and see words changing in an illogic way...

...and then realize your own language does this as well.

Dear people learning German as second language:

I am so sorry for our language being so weird.

(Disclaimer: Yes, I know German is a mess, have known it a long time. It's just funny to experience a similar struggle and realize how this must feel. )

German language advice:

Many long scary words are just several small words in a trench coat. It's like lego, you just have to know how to stack them.

Also, many words are rather, well, descriptive:

Handschuh -> hand shoe -> Glove
It's kind of like a shoe, but for your hand.

Fußgängerüberweg -> foot walker over path (sort of) -> pedestrian crossing
The path where people walking on foot can cross the street.

And that second one is often marked with a Zebrastreifen, a zebra stripe, because it's a bunch of white stripes placed on usually rather dark coloured streets, creating a pattern resembling a zebra.

Esperanto: The Language That Hoped to Unite the World - Christmas: a good time to broach a topic of hope. We’re talking Esperanto. This la... - https://hackaday.com/2024/12/25/esperanto-the-language-that-hoped-to-unite-the-world/ #linguafranca #linguistic #mischacks #esperanto #duolingo #language #tokipona #zamenhof #science #klingon #loglan #news #hope #gta

#Linguistic origins - #etymology of the word ‘weird’

http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxvtr5aGmmLrJlhWRywIkoq5jk_NucHSFZ?feature=shared

Dear #linguistic #people who #speak #languages,

Please feel free to fill my feed with how #palandromes manifest in ways other than English. I'm curious about #Japanese in particular, but any examples are welcome Multiple #spoken and #writing systems a #plus.

@tacocat.space and @tacocatarts , I'll want you on the away team for this if you're available.

Around the world, researchers are fighting a losing battle to save the world’s #linguistic #diversity. The most optimistic estimates suggest that half the estimated 5,000 #languages spoken today, from Siberia to the Australian Outback, Africa to the Amazon, could vanish by the end of the century.

https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/stories/race-extract-indigenous-language-its-last-lucid-speaker

Thank you Abby Walker for such a great review of our book! "At times I felt like I was sitting in on a conversation between really
smart and thoughtful people." Reading your review feels exactly the same way

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00754242221146631

I am not in linguistics or historian, but as someone who speaks more than one language, occasionally I find myself thinking about words beyond "what means what".

Words like "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" for example. I think it's very telling for past (and present) society how there are no age appropriate common terms for unmarried adults in a relationship (or gender neutral ones). Getting divorced and meeting someone new or never having been married to begin with but still dating as adult is not so uncommon anymore in many parts of the world. And yet there are not a lot substitutes to calling someone your "boyfriend" at an age of 50 or 10 years in a relationship.

There is "partner" but this is a fairly broad term and can also apply to dance partner, business partner or any other kind of partnership in the wider sense of the meaning. I suppose "significant other" is the closest thing. It is a mouthful though and I am never quite sure how common it is because, internet aside, I am not living in an English speaking country and don't have everyday conversations in this language.