whosaprettypolyglot:

maskedlinguist:

lindentreeisle:

acepalindrome:

robotwithhumanhairpt50:

notmysecret:

i…

Fuck

Actually, ‘fall’ has its origins as an Anglo-Saxon word, and was popularized for use to denote the season around the 16th century from the poetic term ‘the fall of leaf.’ In the language that would develop after 1066, words that were coded as being common or lowly generally had Anglo-Saxon roots while the ‘educated’ words of the elite had French and Latin roots. This is why, even in modern English, we use ‘cow,’ which has an Anglo-Saxon origin, for the animal out in the field and ‘beef,’ which has a French origin, for the food to be consumed. The poor handle the animal while the rich eat the meat, and that is reflected in the language. The language of the conquerors was elevated while the language of the conquered was made base and common. If ‘autumn’ sounds smarter than ‘fall,’ that is only the linguistic snobbery of history talking.

LINGUISTIC BITCHSLAP.

Thank you. I was too lazy to find my post.

Fun related fact – the meaning of the word “November” in several Slavic languages (and “October” in Croatian because fuck you that’s why) – variations on listopad – is also named for falling leaves, list being “leaf” and pad being “fall”.

Time article: Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast

I have questions about the “density” thing (additional link on density)… it seems like they’re saying it’s entirely about how long it takes someone to say something which. Japanese is losing that partly because it’s natural to be redundant in sentence construction, so you might be saying the equivalent of “now right now I did this thing just now” or something because it flows properly in conversation, but all the extra nows aren’t necessary to be understood. But anyway. It’s still an interesting study, and the end result is that I’d agree that Japanese sentences tend to be rather lengthy (in syllables) to say the same thing an English sentence would so.

personal psa

because i’ve been meaning to make note of these things for a while:

1) i mostly am not on tumblr, i check it occasionally and add things to my queue or post art that i’ve worked on. if you have something important to tell me, please do the mention thing so I get a notification… or tell me somewhere else if you know me elsewhere, or i’m probably going to miss it.

2) i am terrible at tagging– if there’s something you really need me to tag for, please let me know and i’ll try? i can’t guarantee i’ll remember 100% of the time, though, so if that means you can’t follow me that’s cool too, i understand.

3) tumblr and i don’t get along in terms of interaction methods– i sometimes follow people and get overwhelmed, so end up unfollowing again. it’s not likely to be a judgment on you or your content if i do so much as it’s a comment on my lack of ability to cope with life/the internet, but if i don’t say anything and you’re unsure, feel free to ask.