The Linguist Diaries
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diaryofalinguist.bsky.social
The Linguist Diaries
@diaryofalinguist.bsky.social
What do linguists actually do? What to we talk about? Argue about? Just how cunning are we?
Give us a Muppets Princess Bride. Muppets Godfather. Muppets Titanic.

#movies #muppets
December 16, 2024 at 11:05 PM
And what word has one of the highest number of cognates across the entire world of languages?

“Mama”

Love, Wug 🩵
#linguistics #etymology
December 16, 2024 at 7:31 AM
In fact, some linguists say that we can somewhat track how “old” a word is by how many cognates it has across languages, especially if it crosses beyond a language group (like romance or Germanic language groups).
December 16, 2024 at 7:31 AM
People in the past talked a lot about things like gods, water, and other concepts related to survival and community, so even as languages evolved, the most important concepts kind of kept similar words.
December 16, 2024 at 7:31 AM
Anyway, what would Tamarian language structure look like for us? Does it already exist a little bit within memes? Like, “This feels very Ed Sheeran on Game of Thrones” - all cultural metaphor, no simile kinda vibes.

Idk drop your examples for the Diary!

Love, Wug 🩵
#linguistics #startrek
November 24, 2024 at 9:48 AM
“Millennials ruined the economy” and “The economy ruined millennials” mean two very different things, and the only way we can interpret the meaning is through our grammatical “rules.”
TLDR: Form helps function, but function doesn’t always rely on form.

Love, Wug 🩵
#linguistics #culture #politics
November 23, 2024 at 1:45 AM
But that doesn’t mean that some rules and norms aren’t vital to actually getting your message across. The relationship between a subject, object, and verb is a good example.
November 23, 2024 at 1:45 AM
Also, some “rules” weren’t even created to help with language function. The preposition thing was really only created because some guys wanted English to be more like Latin.
November 23, 2024 at 1:45 AM
“Where is the party?” and “Where’s the party at?” have the same level of function. What person actually becomes confused by the preposition at the end of that sentence?
November 23, 2024 at 1:45 AM