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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 3h

This is what I mean about English being fairly culture neutral, Korean is like if you literally couldn’t form a sentence without understanding the signifiers of the UK class system

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 3h

Oh English is far too decentralised for spelling reform lmao. The relevant comparator is Spanish which tried it and gave up when the peninsular and Latam couldn’t agree

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

Donald Trump did conduct a bold experiment in this by single-handedly annoying the canadians into voting liberal

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

Or rather list him as his own successor but keep the clock going on time in office which is an amazingly sarcastic compromise

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

Both English and French Wikipedia have decided to just not acknowledge his resignation

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

Ftr I think old little sounds weird but I am having flashbacks to an American on here who lives in NL complaining Dutch people don’t know what “quite” means and they were just being taught the British use of the word

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

I agree but I would say that I’m an Anglo.

I do English has relatively little of Anglo culture hardcoded into it (eg no t/v distinction let alone Japanese honorifics mean you can express your own culture’s politeness standards out the box) which likely helps

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

I do wonder whether if a famously difficult to learn language (Japanese?) has had all the advantages the UK and US’ consecutive global hegemony gave English it would have become as universal

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

French and Spanish have it on hard mode too bc it actually affects whether it’s before or after the noun

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 4h

Feels like a lot of semi-presidential or symbolic presidency systems fall into “have you considered what happens if the president just decides to be a dick” trap ngl

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 5h

Close enough welcome back Jose Bergoglio

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

Look it’s only 10 minutes at this rate it’ll only be 18-0 😇

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

Teehee #ENGvWAL

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

My family aren’t really the kind of Sikh that go in for the little swords but cannot emphasise enough that even the ones that have them don’t go round pointing them at people

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

There’s references to fuck as in sex back to 1310 and in 1528 a monk wrote “the d’ fucking abbot” but he might have meant a non-celibate one (also clearly he thought “damn” needed censoring much more. So maybe tbf bigthink.com/the-past/his...

A very short history of the F-word

The first use of the F-word comes from a monk in 1528. It's just one part of the weird, mysterious history of this infamous four-letter word.

bigthink.com

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

It is funny what throws you off though. Obviously on some level I accept that dialogue in wolf hall is not in accurate Tudor English but Cromwell using “fucking” in the metaphorical expletive sense just sounds inherently modern to an immersion-breaking extent

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

Hell, it for obvious reasons doesn’t matter much but *spoken* English until arguably the 1400s would now be incomprehensible

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

All I’d say is English GCSE results are vastly higher than they were in Paul’s generation and they definitely don’t involve reading just extracts so unless this is a US-specific phenomenon (maybe?) it’s not just thought terminating cliches or anecdotes that make people question his thesis

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

Ngl I’m becoming Chancellor Torsten pilled purely bc everyone yelling about him specifically seems so unhinged

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

It’s a bit unfair tbf because it’s actually 3-1 - Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan are clearly good at their jobs

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

Tbf the other minister this experienced is Yvette Cooper and they had a whole reshuffle just to get her out of a politically important department

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

The tragedy of Ed is if his brother wins in 2010 probably nothing else much about history changes except he’s PM by the end of next year

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

I mean sure but the point is, if you’re arguing for the proposition that it’s rose tinted glasses to say we had better politicians then - exhibit 1. Anyone writing that poem now would be mocked for it till the end of time

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

He wouldn’t put his knighthood in a list of his achievements on the same tier as being PM!

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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 1d

(Also no vaguely left of centre politician would now admit to giving a shit about getting medals from the king and I would argue that’s a good thing)

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