Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[UselessBytes]

*raises hand*

I can’t help it as an English major. Reading and hearing incorrect grammar is like nails on the chalkboard of my brain.

As someone currently majoring in English, I’m the exact opposite. I’ll use correct grammar in my writing, but in text conversations or face to face my grammar is atrocious. People listen to me speak and are like “how do you write so well?”

That’s probably a byproduct of me growing up in a community that had slang for literally everything though

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Ooh, I like it when we talk about linguistics.

my dad still doesn't believe that "x" is pronounced as "z" and not "ks" in words like "xenophobia" or "xylophone" no matter what i show him.

It's all Greek to me!
In all seriousness, I don't like how most Greek words are transliterated with all those silent and unintuitive letters.

Another transliteration oddity occurs in a book series I half-like called Seekers, which is about bears, and they all have names from Native American languages spoken in the places where those bears live. Two of the main characters are called Kallik (I don't know what it means, but it's from Inuktitut) and Ujurak ("rock" in some language I can't remember the name of for the life of me)... pronounced "Kalliak" and "Urjak". So why didn't you just spell them like that? Most Native American languages weren't written down until relatively recently, such as the aforementioned Inuktitut.

 

[canisaries]

blegh i coded for several hours today and in the last 30 minutes found out a way simpler solution that took way less time to do and way less debugging. i'm peeved but at least i'm almost done with this project now, meaning i don't have to worry about the deadline coming too soon after all.

hopefully after this project is over, i can try to work on that oneshot idea that's been in my head, but tests are also coming so there's that :/

 

[Misfit Angel]

I’ll use correct grammar in my writing, but in text conversations or face to face my grammar is atrocious. People listen to me speak and are like “how do you write so well?”

Same. If I ever meet any of you guys face to face, you'll be shocked by the garbage that comes out of my face hole. Hardly any of it is functional English. But my writing has been helping me to improve the way I speak at least.

 

[Iggy]

<trump>Pfff, my garbage level is bigger than yours. </trump>

I'll shock you all with my outrageous silly accent.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Eh, I'm awful at proper English in texts/IM and whatnot as well. If I'm talking with ultra proper grammar and punctuation in text/IM, I'm probably not happy and in serious business mode. Or talking to people I don't normally talk to and who also type with ultra proper grammar and punctuation. xD In real life, I stutter and trail off a lot, struggling to find what I wanna say. Grammar gets botched up more often than not as a result.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Codeswitching vs loanwords~

Fact is, loanwords don't have to follow correct pronunciation - if there is even such a thing, since accents are defined by their difference in pronunciation.

Notions of linguistic correctness are more often political than anything else. Even now, the definition of "correct" English more or less boils down to how Oxford-educated Londoners speak it

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

The idea of having an eternal, correct, standardised guide to any language (that isn't a strict utility conlang) is ultimately futile. France has the Academie Francais to preserve language, and what happens when the French need new words for the information age? English loanwords. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, all the different dialects and permutations of English are wonderful and sacred, even the frustrating or peculiar or cringey ones. And clinging to the minutiae of 'correct' English is not only a Sisyphean task, but it's tied up in a bunch of classist/racist history anyway so really, why persist with it?

 

[CrystaI]

But the problem is, all the academic English teachers in schools and colleges will enforce such politically "correct" English rules to every students they teach, regardless of time, place and occasion.

How funny it will be in the conversational situation of English teacher VS novel author/columnist/bloggers? I can imagine a grammar war occurs immediately once they start talking.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

What's the term for loanwords that don't mean the same thing as the original word? In Japanese it's called wasei-eigo (English made in Japan), but what's the non-language-specific term?

I also got bored last night, decided to play Alpha Sapphire, realised that all I had left was Cosplay Pikachu, so I decided to restart it. In French. Thoughts so far: one of the Machoke at the start talks like Machop, and I can't remember what the second town is called in English.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@Nitro Indigo the word you're looking for is "cognate." Cognates are words that share an etymological root, but not necessarily the same meaning or exact spelling/pronunciation. Usually cognates are found in related languages, but loanwords with different meanings are technically cognates as I understand it.

 

[diamondpearl876]

All this linguistics talk reminds me I have a long, long way to go before I'm fluent in the languages I'm learning...

 

[Beth Pavell]

Thing is, linguistics and speaking languages are two different things. My buddy Silver is pretty much English fluent, but he couldn't really tell you much about what influences there have been on English and why

 

[diamondpearl876]

Thing is, linguistics and speaking languages are two different things. My buddy Silver is pretty much English fluent, but he couldn't really tell you much about what influences there have been on English and why

Depends on the area of linguistics, I think. I studied psycholinguistics, and that information could be useful in understanding the way different cultures communicate, and what certain gestures and inflections in speaking can mean. Couldn't tell you a damn thing about influences on the English language, either. As for learning languages, you still gotta have at least a basic knowledge of the language's semantics, syntax, etc.

 

[TRNatalie]

In real life, I stutter and trail off a lot, struggling to find what I wanna say. Grammar gets botched up more often than not as a result.

I relate so much to this.

My grammar when I write/text is fine but I have a really hard time talking to people. I'm usually more focused on sound getting out so sometimes a word or a sentence slips up.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Protip: don't try to type and talk at the same time. You'll end up saying what you meant to type and look silly. Also embarrassing. xD

 

[Iggy]

Good Lord, dealings with German customs are so damn arduous. :/ I know my parcel is there, just let me pick it up already! Argh!

And answer the phone while you're at it! Or should I say fix it?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Other people learning languages here? I'm learning Esperanto!

For those that don't know, it's an artificial language made out of bits from several European languages. It's extremely consistent, logical, and easy to learn. Been learning it for a couple months now, just ~4 lessons a day on Duolingo. Going pretty well, and I recently found out a writer friend of mine actually teaches it, so that's cool.

Esperanto: Mi pruvos: mi komencis lerni Esperanton antaux du monatoj, kaj mi faras bone gxis nun!
Literal translation: I will-prove: I commenced to learn Esperanto before two months, and I do well till now!
Actual translation: I shall demonstrate: I started learning Esperanto two months ago, and it's going well so far!

 

[canisaries]

i started learning spanish on duolingo just 23 days ago, just on a whim, though i'd been considering some casual spanish learning for a longer time. knowing english, swedish and very rusty german gives me a pretty good idea on germanic languages, but i wanted to learn about latin ones. also i want to learn to understand mexican memes

it's funny how the whole person-embedded-in-verb thing happens in both spanish and finnish, when they're completely unrelated. i think it gives me an advantage over, say, english natives in that regard. also helpful is some latin terminology i know from biology and such.

 

[Ambyssin]

Does knowing how to talk in medical jargon count as a second language? Because it sure seems like it sometimes.