The same rules apply to gods, according to Terry Pratchet
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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It's dangerous not to believe
I rattle my kitchen drawers at least once a week
Gonna go on Countdown with the line “Dictionaries aren’t rule books, they’re record books” and fight Susie Dent.
Académie Française: <<Ahem -- pardon et moi?>>
"Le Weekend."
"Je suis overbooké"
Zut alors!
Delightfully failing to be either but with a huge sense of superiority and disdain for the youth and migrants.
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Just going to share this little gem again...
I dig the variety of topics on this comm, and I super appreciate how it doesn't get STEMlordy at all.
It's all connected. :)
End prescriptuhvist speling! We haf nuthing to loose butt hour wigly red underlyns!
undalihnz
That hurt to read... Kudos!
Would you look at the time? Loose butt hour.
One thing I learned as an information technology engineer: language is a tool for communication. As long as the sender can send its message unobstructed and as long as the receiver receives and understands the message as intended, the information transmission can be considered a successs.
"That's not a word" only applies to scrabble and boggle. Fuck any other context.
"refrigerate" at least has sensible etymological roots in its constituent components.
The problem with brain rot lingo is that it isn't constructed from precedent but a decay therefrom, corrupted by niche "meta" references that are little more than inside jokes that escaped their in-group, divorced of the context that brought them about.
...
Then again, though, the most popular word that humans speak all over the world is "OK", which is itself a memetic corruption of a fad, wherein people were saying "All Correct" with a deliberately exaggerated fake British accent: "Oll Korrect" (which became abbreviated).
And brain rot does have the fact that it's very funny going for it. It sounds silly which makes it fun to say and it pisses people off which makes it even funnier, because getting mad about it is a drastic overreaction. So I don't think it'll even really BECOME an actual serious problem, because the moment it hits mainstream and corporations start publishing commercials about "skibidi Ohio GYATT" it's going to implode like "it's morbin time" burned Sony.
Otherwise, constructing new words out of extant etymological particles is DELIGHTFULLY useful.
In Minecraft, I built an Enfenestrator:
A window through which zombies throw themselves into a catchment chamber for culling and (when zombified villagers are isolated) curing.
“Divorced from the context that brought them about” Ahh, so you’re complaining about all the Germanic words in English, or the Latin words? The whole point of their diatribe is that the “brain rot” words you hate are little different from most words. It’s just that for some words the “in group” is Latin speakers, and for some words it’s some group nerding out about their own topic that spread their word to the rest of us… actually, I’m still talking about Latin speakers.
A newer word (than fridge) is "selfie". Nothing wrong with that one.
Studies linguistics, but not grammar.
While I get the point they’re making, I have a counterargument:
Ngqnund urnidng bptgx durunbde druxng.
What, you didn’t understand that? Are you dissing be just because you didn’t bother to learn new words?
"If a word it's regularly used by a certain amount of people..."
Yes. English is evolved by whatever's popular, ergo whatever the cool kids are doing. They're actually going to make 'fetch' happen because there's no one driving this crazy short bus; just a bunch of cheerleaders on the roof and influencers tasting the back windows.
No, snuffles005, that doesn't mean "yzax" is a valid word for Scrabble.
My favourite part of Scrabble rules as written is that if another player challenges the existence of a played word the player who is wrong skips their turn, be they challengee or challenger.
It's a worm found in New Guinea, everyone knows that!
Great post. Fnrb wijjk blerb phtooie wagawaga nkkjqqz frup walawala madooie.
Edit: What do you mean you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about?
Phtooie waawaa ngizzk nizik wagag was plerb. 😮💨
this is kindergarden level argumentation lol
Or perhaps it's a level of intelligence beyond your limited comprehension.
English dictionaries are also very much on the descriptive side of things as of late, especially compared to their counterparts among other languages.
Dunno how the tea totallers do things but here in burgerland we actually have sort of a minor annual event finding out the latest slang terms and grammars that have entered this year's edition of the webster dictionary, and which words have fallen out of significant use enough to be dropped from the book too.
...what do you think teetotaler means?
Brits and Brit adjacents.
A teetotaler is someone who abstains from alcohol
Tea totaller would make a reasonable pun in a thing about the Boston tea party, but sounds like a mondegreen in other contexts
In Boston tea party contexts the Bostonians would be the tea totallers presuming you accept "to total" as meaning "to destroy"
oh the irony
Except if you're talking about Turkish, TDK dictates what words are real, how they're written, what they mean and other grammar and writing rules.
Do they monitor your private messages and fine you for typos or do they just codify the language which is taught in schools and used by the authorities? If it's anything like German language regulation then it's the latter and the way people actually talk and write slowly is adapted by the language regulations.
Several languages have this. Spanish has the Real Academia Española (RAE) and French has something similar.
But they're not generally in much of a different position than a dictionary is. If the people start using the language in new ways they have little recourse other than to accept it and amend their rules. If they refuse they'll look antiquated and people start to question their influence.
They certainly do have influence of course, but the ultimate authority is the people who speak the language in the end.
People always think the académie française is antiquated because it doesn't like new anglicisms (old ones are fine though) and sometimes invents words. But in general language standardisation will always be seen as antiquated because it needs to lag behind at least a decade, otherwise things get standardised that are just a fad or where no general consensus has been found.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
silivren penna míriel
o mendel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
This text is a poem in Sindarin, one of the languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien for his Middle-earth legendarium. It is a hymn to Varda (Elbereth), a revered figure among the Elves. Here's a translation and analysis:
Translation:
A Elbereth Gilthoniel, (Oh Elbereth Star-kindler,)
silivren penna míriel (white-glittering, slanting down sparkling like jewels)
o menel aglar elenath! (from heaven the glory of the star-host!)
Na-chaered palan-díriel (To-remote distance far-having gazed)
o galadhremmin ennorath, (from tree-woven Middle-earth,)
Fanuilos, le linnathon (Fanuilos [Ever-white], to thee I will chant)
nef aear, sí nef aearon! (on this side of the ocean, here on this side of the Great Ocean!)
Analysis:
Elbereth Gilthoniel: Elbereth is another name for Varda, the Queen of the Stars, one of the Valar. Gilthoniel means "Star-kindler."
silivren penna míriel: Describes the shining and glittering quality of the stars.
o menel aglar elenath: Refers to the glory of the star-host (elenath) in the heavens (menel).
Na-chaered palan-díriel: Indicates gazing into the remote distance.
o galadhremmin ennorath: Mentions Middle-earth (Ennorath) being tree-woven.
Fanuilos, le linnathon: Pledges to sing to Fanuilos (another name for Elbereth) forever.
nef aear, sí nef aearon: A vow made on this side of the ocean (referring to the Great Ocean that separates Middle-earth from the Undying Lands).
The poem reflects the deep reverence and love the Elves have for Elbereth, highlighting her connection to the stars and the distant heavens.
Fine, but I'm still not happy about 'performant'
Is there a better adjective you prefer to use to describe something that performs well?
Performant seems like a good word to use when you don't want to admit the performance was poor
I would probably say fast, efficient, high-performance, or optimal, depending on context. Or just "it performs well". But I recognise I'm in the vast minority - just one of those new words that bugs me now but I'll eventually accept