npr:

Body language can be a dead giveaway of where you’re from. People can tell whether you’re from Australia or the U.K. by the way you smile. They can tell whether you’re from China or Egypt by the way you count using your fingers. And they know whether you’re American or German depending on how you express sympathy.

But when it comes to expressing negative emotions, our body language might be much more universal than we realize. The proof is in a single facial expression that crosses over cultures and languages around the world: the “not face.”

It’s A Small World When It Comes To

Photo caption: The facial expression for “that’s not a good idea” is the same across native speakers of English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and American Sign Language.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Ohio State University

How do you spell ‘descriptivism’?”
“Any way you want.

A linguistics joke
(via allthingslinguistic)

yuuga:

*understands one word without subtitles* I’m practically fluent

spanishskulduggery:

Upsetting grammar: “It is imperative that you use the indicative” is actually subjunctive

just-shower-thoughts:

English must be difficult to learn. I’m sure it can be taught through tough, thorough thought though.

shenanigism:

shenanigism:

what did the french trademark lawyer say to her wife

je ™

Little fact about French because I just learned that

prudencepaccard:

culmaer:

limbile:

The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.

For example: fenêtre used to be fenestre

It is still possible to see the “s” at times in family words like “défenestrer”.

knowing this, « être » becomes much more regular :

être → estre (es, est, sommes, ê[s]tes, sont ; ser-)

some French derivations become clearer :

fenêtre → défenestrer → L. fenestra

fête → festival

hôpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)

intérêt → intéressant (E. interest, -ing)

ancêtre → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)

arrêt → arrestation

épître → épistolaire (E. epistle)

some English cognates become more obvious :

hôtel → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)

forêt → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the ‹e›)

bête → beast

côte → coast

honnête → honest

pâte, pâté → pasta, paste

quête → quest

enquête → inquest

tempête → tempest

vêtements → vestments (ie. clothes)

baptême → baptism

sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :

ḗcole → escole → L. schola (E. school)

ḗtranger → estrangier (E. stranger)

ḗtudier → estudier (E. study)

dḗgoûtant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)

dḗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)

rḗpondre → respondre (E. respond)

rḗpublique → L. res publica

Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :

château → castel (E. castle)

pêcher → L. piscare

and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :

guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)

bonus etymologies :

tête → L. testa

fantôme → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)

Pâques → Gk. pásxa → Am. pésaḫ (E. Paschal)

Also just be aware that the circumflex has some other uses too, like distinguishing « sur — sûr » or « dû » and the vowel quality in « âge »

“guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)”

You know what w→g cognate is, IMO, even cooler? “Garou” and “werewolf.” Frankish wari wulf (compare OE werewulf) became warous, which became garou(l) and finally loup-garou (a redundant expression, basically “wolf-werewolf,” which undoubtedly stuck because of the irresistible rhyme).

just-shower-thoughts:

The word “thing” and the word “night” use all the same letters, but none of the letters make the same sound in both.

fleetwoodharry:

i know eoghan is pronounced owen but that doesn’t stop me from saying EWGhAaN every time i see it

somewhatgreatexpectations:

naked-mahariel:

zeplerfer:

weeping-wandrian:

why the fuck does english have a word for

but not for “the day after tomorrow”

???

Because you’re not looking hard enough! 😉

Overmorrow = the day after tomorrow

Ereyesterday = the day before yesterday

Example: I defenestrated my brother ereyesterday. I shall defenestrate my sister overmorrow! Because I hate my family and also windows.

english has some of the best examples of stupidly specific words, tbh

Rhotacism (n): excessive use of the letter “R”

Lingible (adj): meant to be licked

Whipjack (n): a beggar, specifically one who is pretending to have been shipwrecked

Yerd (v): to beat with an object with a stick

Roddikin (n): the fourth stomach of a cow or a deer

Balbriggan (n): a type of fine cotton, most often used in underwear

and my personal favorite

Cornobble (v): to slap or beat another person with a fish

This makes the English nerd in me extremely happy.