Tag: language

toast-potent:

captainsnoop:

i’ll never understand why we don’t call countries the names they actually call themselves 

like, i know this is a weeaboo-sounding example, but let’s start with Japan. They call themselves Nippon or Nihon depending on… i guess, the speaker’s accent??? or their level of formality while speaking??? I dunno. But we still called them Zipangu for like a few hundred years. And now we call them Japan. 

All because Marco Polo asked someone in China about that island over there and they said “oh that’s Cipangu” and Marco Polo was like “Oh, Zipangu, cool.” And then he went back to Italy and said “Y’ALL THERE’S THIS DOPE-ASS ISLAND CALLED ZIPANGU” and people back in Italy were like “An island called Giappone? Dope.” 

And this pattern of people mishearing people kept repeating until we got to “Japan.” 

And we still call them Japan even though we know better. Because fuck you, Marco Polo asked the wrong person 500 years ago and misheard them and we’re sticking to that, I guess. 

that was literally just the world’s worst game of telephone

I dont get it either. As it is, find it annoying af when people say O-ray-GON and Nuh-VAH-duh so just as a result of that I try to pronounce place names like how locals do, even if all I can do is a good faith effort. But I’d confuse everyone if I did that for country names also.

why do black people use you in the wrong context? such is “you ugly” instead of “you’re ugly” I know u guys can differentiate, it’s a nuisance

jenniferrpovey:

kingkunta-md:

miniprof:

rsbenedict:

prettyboyshyflizzy:

you a bitch

image

It’s called copula deletion, or zero copula. Many languages and dialects, including Ancient Greek and Russian, delete the copula (the verb to be) when the context is obvious.

So an utterance like “you a bitch” in AAVE is not an example of a misused you, but an example of a sentence that deletes the copular verb (are), which is a perfectly valid thing to do in that dialect, just as deleting an /r/ after a vowel is a perfectly valid thing to do in an upper-class British dialect.

What’s more, it’s been shown that copula deletion occurs in AAVE exactly in those contexts where copula contraction occurs in so-called “Standard American English.” That is, the basic sentence “You are great” can become “You’re great” in SAE and “You great” in AAVE, but “I know who you are” cannot become “I know who you’re” in SAE, and according to reports, neither can you get “I know who you” in AAVE.

In other words, AAVE is a set of grammatical rules just as complex and systematic as SAE, and the widespread belief that it is not is nothing more than yet another manifestation of deeply internalized racism.

This is the most intellectual drag I’ve ever read.

Dialect English is not incorrect English. It is racist, classist, or both to say that dialects that are used by minorities or lower/working class people are “incorrect.”

separatepoints:

“As an Aboriginal person who grew up unable to speak my language I feel I have been denied a core part of my identity, and it is a deep wound. The first time I said something in my language in public, “Ngaya Ngamitjimitong” – I belong to the Ngamitji clan – I broke down and wept in front of 400 people. Speaking my language was a visceral experience that left me weeping for something I couldn’t articulate. A loss so deep it was breathtaking. I have seen many Aboriginal people have the same reaction as they begin the journey back to speaking in their own language. Without our languages many Aboriginal people talk of being bereft, of wanting to speak language more than having food or housing. Language loss is so core to our identity as peoples it has had a profound effect on our social and emotional wellbeing, affecting our health and our capacity to thrive economically, socially and educationally.”

— Dr Jakelin Troy, Ngarigu (Ngamitji)

@mailidhonn