youmayberightimaybecrazy

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Ethno-linguistic map of South Italy

by atlas_cartography

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How sugar got it’s name in the Indian subcontinent?

by the.indian.balcony

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“We” in various languages and dialects, as of 1914.

by jkvatterholm

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Non-Castilian dialects in Spain.

by latium_mapper

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Most spoken languages in Nepal

by maps_by_samarth

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Linguistic families in former Yugoslavia.

by geomapas.gr

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People’s reaction when you start speaking their language: A non-serious map.

This map displays people’s reactions to foreigners speaking their language in different countries.

by languages.eu

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People should use this text embellishment more

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

so weird that there are more german speakers than spanish speakers when in irl native spanish speakers outnumber native german speakers like 6:1

deutsch ist gut aber el español es mejor sorry

Today is speak your language day :D! Which is your first language?

Porque el mío es español xD

I tried to add as much as I could! But I got out of space :,D

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

“Water” in Regional Languages of the Roman Empire, circa 1 AD.

by languages.eu

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[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

tfw someone who's a jerk to you at work uses the word whom when it's supposed to be who but you like linguistics so you can't look down on them for overcorrections

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

Indigenous vs. European perspectives on etymology: pumpkin

There are two theories about the origin of the word pumpkin, which represent two very different perspectives on history:

All major dictionaries say that the most likely origin for pumpkin is the French word pompion ‘melon’ + the English diminutive suffix -kin ‘little’.

The Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts says that pumpkin comes from its word pôhpukun ‘pumpkin’, but literally meaning ‘it grows forth round’.

The Plymouth settlers borrowed lots of words from the local Wampanoag people, including moccasin, skunk, squash, and the name of the state, Massachusetts. Tisquantum (who history knows as Squanto) taught them a great deal about local plants and wildlife, so it stands to reason they would have also learned the word pumpkin from him, butchering the pronunciation in the process.

But the way they butchered the pronunciation is important. When English speakers heard the word pôhpukun without realizing it was an Algonquian word, they thought it was actually based on English or French. To them, it sounded like pompion with the -kin suffix added to it. The word pompion (or some similar version of it) appears in English documents in North America prior to the settlement of Plymouth, so it’s likely the Pilgrims were familiar with the word (but probably not strongly so, given that the word was only borrowed into English 80 years prior). As a result, they misanalyzed pôhpukun as pumpkin, thinking it was a combination of the French word pompion and the English suffix -kin.

This kind of misanalysis is called a folk etymology. Other examples are cockroach (< Spanish cucaracha) and woodchuck (< Cree otchek). Folk etymologies happen when speakers analyze a word as having different parts than it actually does.

In this particular case, it seems that the folk etymology is the one that made it into the dictionary, rather than the original Native American one.

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

Tense/modal auxiliary on the model of gonna < going to, trynna < trying to, finna < fixing to: tempna < attempting to

[youmayberightimaybecrazy]

My sociolinguistics course in undergrad was taught by an L2 AAVE speaker: the professor was half-black and raised in an approximately GenAm speaking environment, but acquired fluency in AAVE later in life. The course was about 1/2 general sociolinguistics, 1/4 sociolinguistics of AAVE specifically, and 1/4 "AAVE for GenAm speakers", which was pretty fun. We were tested on AAVE grammar but I have since forgotten how all the auxiliaries work.

The professor had strong opinions about the 1996 Ebonics controversy, namely that (despite the given justifications by the Oakland school board being linguistically nonsense) teaching black students in AAVE would have been desirable both because it would have lead to better learning outcomes and because it would have increased the prestige of AAVE as a dialect. I think she was probably more or less right on both points. AAVE can be quite divergent from GenAm, and teaching kids in the language they speak generally results in them understanding you better. Of course one runs into practical issues with the availability of textbooks and so on, but that seems pretty solvable (both through writing new textbooks in AAVE and teaching AAVE speakers English as a second language, which would naturally be pretty easy for them).

Anyway. Long story short I think part of her deal is that she was LARPing the better world in which "AAVE as a second language" is a class you could take. And it was quite enjoyable to get to participate.

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