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Steve the vagabond

@stevevagabond.bsky.social

4.2K followers 1.1K following 180 posts

I love #language and #linguistics. Check out our magazine at sillylinguistics.com. Follow us at @sillylinguistics.com

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · 22h

No good thing in life comes without effort. You often make quick progress when first learning a language but people always reach a plateau at some point. But you just need to keep going! Proficiency in another language is very possible, it just takes time

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · 1d

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · 10d

One of the sounds French is famous for is the R sound in words like frère. Interestingly, as late as the French revolution French didn't have this sound and only developed it later in the 1800s. Some say it spread from French to German, Danish and some dialects of Swedish

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · 13d

One interesting feature of Norman French is that it retained the hard C sound (found in words like cat). Over time in other parts of France this sound would evolve into more of a soft sound and be written as ch, which you can see in modern French "chateau"

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · 23d

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Sep 8

Language learning apps are great! But sometimes you just want the reckless abandon of watching a video in your target language that is made by a fluent speaker of the language and just facing the challenge 😀

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Sep 7

It's the only writing system that I think is more difficult to learn than English (which hasn't properly been updated since the 1300s). Tibetan spelling hasn't been updated since the the 700s. You write Bka'-rgyud but say Kagyu

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Sep 3

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Sep 3

And Spanish has "perro" of unknown origin

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Sep 1

The German word for mastiff is "Dogge" and was borrowed from English. The French word "dogue" (also meaning mastiff) also comes from English

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 29

What are you obsessed about?

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 26

Hey guys. I have been posting on Bluesky for a few months now. Do you guys want memes, fun facts about language, or meme and fun facts? Suggestions and comments welcome :)

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 26

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 25

What other interesting animal names do you know about?

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 18

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 14

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 13

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 12

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 11

English developed on an island. It was settled by Celts, then Germanic tribes (such as the Angles and Saxons), then the Vikings came in, and then the Normans. Latin also had an influence thanks to Christianity. English has words from all over

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 11

I am glad you are enjoying it :)

Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Aug 6

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Jul 28

The word "gar" also features in the first line of Beowulf "Hwæt, we Gardena in geardagum" which means "Listen, we Spear-Danes in days of old"

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Jul 24

Yakuza get their name from a Japanese card game. The hand with 8-9-3 (ya-ku-za in older Japanese) gives you the worst possible hand and thus useless. One theory is that this word came to mean "useless" and then was applied to the group itself

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Jul 21

The Vikings were a fearsome and infamous group of seafarers and raiders from Scandinavia who terrorised England and France (Scandinavians who settled in France became the Normans) and many other places in Europe who lived on the Mediterranean coast

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Steve the vagabond @stevevagabond.bsky.social · Jul 16

I didn't realise that the word "undermine" comes from literally mining under something

We get the word "undermine" from medieval times"

It is literally to mine under something

People would dig under castle walls to weaken them

Over time this got an additional figurative meaning of attempting to weaken someone's reputation or work against them

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