I've been speaking English all my life(cool story bro...I know) and during this time I've noticed some things, here are a few of them.
1. the naming scheme for different parts of different continents. Examples
Europe:
North-ERN Europe
South-ERN Europe
Africa:
North Africa(region)
South-ERN Africa(region)
South Africa(country)
Asia:
East Asia
South Asia
South-West Asia
South-East Asia
Why is the "ern" suffix used so inconsistently?
Also there are different names for different places depending on the time period were talking about, and I don't mean like the difference between "Roman Britania" and "England" I mean like when you talk about the Ancient middle east it is referred to as the "Near East" and when you talk about pre-Columbian Central America it is called "Mesoamerica".
2. Names for different "races" in the USA, for people of East and South-East Asian continental descent the term "Yellow" is heavily frowned upon, while for people of European and African descent the terms "Black" and "White" are the standard(and "politically correct") way of referring to these groups. Also, the term "Brown" is not as often used as an everyday identifier for people of Latin American, Middle-Eastern or South Asian descent, except when making ironic points about historic and present day racism and prejudice. Also the term "colored people" referring to non-Whites is considered at the very least old fashioned and often mildly offensive, while the nearly identical term "people of color" is considered the politically correct term for the group.
I know some of my examples were sort of political but I just wanted to share some random things I noticed about the English language and I was curious what all of y'all had noticed.
Well, there is no real 'rule' for the -ern suffix, as far as I know. These aren't so much English Language issues as cultural relics. English is a Eurocentric language, so that's probably why Europe gets 'Northern' and 'Southern' and everywhere else is 'North, South, East, West'.
As for races in the US, the 'yellow' thing had a lot more to do with cultural fears at the time, so 'yellow' has similar connotations to racial epithets for black people.
White and Black don't have the same connotations, and Brown is actually used quite frequently. I usually refer to my wife (and Indian woman) as 'Brown', and it tends to be a descriptor for Middle East/South Asians to identify themselves as a group.
White and Black don't have the same connotations, and Brown is actually used quite frequently. I usually refer to my wife (and Indian woman) as 'Brown', and it tends to be a descriptor for Middle East/South Asians to identify themselves as a group.
Middle Easterners are "White" at least historically by the US census. They are no darker than some Italians and Greeks. Not sure what I'd call Indians. They are "Caucasian" and sometimes "White".
"Brown" refers to Hispanic individuals, IMO. Middle Easterners and Indians have attempted to dissociate themselves with being "White" in the past couple decades to emphasize their minority status; but, even by that convention, calling them "Brown" feel more unnatural than "White" considering they don't actually share that close of an ancestry with Hispanic "Brown" individuals.
Whenever you see something that doesn't make sense in the English language, the most probable explanation is that there's some historical reason. A lot of words and rules are picked up from other languages, seemingly at random. The best example is the "split infinitives" rule: "To boldly go" is considered grammatically incorrect by some people because... that's how Latin does it (and apparently Latin is the best language ever and we should copy it whenever possible). The thing is, the reason you can't split an infinitive in Latin is that it's only one word: In this case, "to go" translates to "ire", and there's nowhere to put "boldly" in the middle of that because it's one word.
It's kinda like a raft that was cobbled together from parts of three different boats and since then has been kept barely afloat with crude repairs every time a leak appeared.
I've heard people refer to American Indians as brown but historically they've been called red. Not quite sure why, my Alabama-Coushatta relatives are definitely olive colored and my Cherokee grandfather was very dark brown with jet black hair until the day he died. People say I'm brown but I'm more olive colored, part Cherokee, Swedish/German, and Mexican. So people don't know what I am. I've gotten Arab, Indian, Persian, Italian, Greek, Salvadorean, probably some more I haven't thought of.
I don't know why people refer to Latinos as "brown." Even Latinos refer to other Latinos as "brown." I think it has to do with minority status more than anything else. I have Latino relatives that look Swedish minus the tall height and there are black Latinos and Japanese Latinos. It excludes a whole bunch of Latinos to call them "brown."
I have a friend who is of the landed Dallas gentry and he thinks it's stupid that people use the term "white" to refer to people of European descent in the US. Dude is of mostly English descent and he said his ancestors that moved to Texas were horse thieves. He went to Spain for a foreign exchange program and they all commented on how dark he was. They actually called him African. The thing is, anyone who has been in the sun in Texas or Louisiana for a moderate amount of time isn't going to look white to some Europeans...
It always astonishes me how native speakers NEED to check pronunciation on stuff (you'll see Maro getting this asked all the time, most of the time getting it wrong or americanized) like if you didnt had rules for it like most other languages do.
The English language doesn't have a universal or key pronunciation guide like Spain has. (They have an institute set up by the King to preserve and maintain the Spanish language.) Oxford is considered an authority, but they're not the only authority in the English language. English is a language that spread so quickly across the globe that no matter where you are, there will be different pronunciations of things. Just within America there are different ways to pronounce things. I was in the Piedmont area of Virginia and I think they say something like "yernses" instead of "you all" (or where I'm from, "y'all"). I had so much trouble understanding them and we were speaking a language that we share in the same country.
And don't try to start an argument with an English major over whether "irregardless" is considered a real English word. I witnessed the fallout from this one. The non English major said it was so colloquial that it was a word and the English major vehemently disagreed.
...It's kinda like a raft that was cobbled together from parts of three different boats and since then has been kept barely afloat with crude repairs every time a leak appeared.
This is one of the funniest, yet accurate descriptions I've heard/read when trying to explain the English language. In truth, you can replace "three" with any other number and the statement would still ring true. Kudos Mysticake!
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(about the English language) It's kinda like a raft that was cobbled together from parts of three different boats and since then has been kept barely afloat with crude repairs every time a leak appeared.
2. so many of those little things above certain letters - like in deja vu or fiance. Is this a French thing?
Indeed it is. And in French the accent can go in either direction depending on the word.
I've noticed that in older texts I've read, the English language used a lot of umlauts for words that had double Os. So coordinate had an umlaut on the second O.
Also, I've been wondering about if elite (referring to the ruling classes) is used most properly as a singular word or if elite can be plural. In older texts they appear to use elite as plural with an accent on the last e. My ex once asked me to spell elite and I had to ask which era and language he was writing it in, because usage varies. He got annoyed and said "as in today, in English, in Texas."
I don't have a lot of experience with other languages, only elementary learning in Spanish and French, but conjugating verbs in other languages seems a lot easier compared to English once you know the rules.
The word "typhoon" is so dumb and unnecessary. In Mandarin, this word literally translates to "hurricane." Why not incorporate every Mandarin word in English then?
i've been led to believe that typhoon came from the japanese word "taifuu". i guess either both japanese and mandarin share similar pronunctiations for that word or that was just japanese elitism at play (or both).
The fact that words sharing the same combinations of letters (and even different words spelled identically) are pronounced very differently, e.g. "bow," "owe," "shadiest," and "priest." I had a (college professor) Chinese friend who pronounced Burger King Whoppers as "Hoopers," because the word had "who" in it.
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1. the naming scheme for different parts of different continents. Examples
Europe:
North-ERN Europe
South-ERN Europe
Africa:
North Africa(region)
South-ERN Africa(region)
South Africa(country)
Asia:
East Asia
South Asia
South-West Asia
South-East Asia
Why is the "ern" suffix used so inconsistently?
Also there are different names for different places depending on the time period were talking about, and I don't mean like the difference between "Roman Britania" and "England" I mean like when you talk about the Ancient middle east it is referred to as the "Near East" and when you talk about pre-Columbian Central America it is called "Mesoamerica".
2. Names for different "races" in the USA, for people of East and South-East Asian continental descent the term "Yellow" is heavily frowned upon, while for people of European and African descent the terms "Black" and "White" are the standard(and "politically correct") way of referring to these groups. Also, the term "Brown" is not as often used as an everyday identifier for people of Latin American, Middle-Eastern or South Asian descent, except when making ironic points about historic and present day racism and prejudice. Also the term "colored people" referring to non-Whites is considered at the very least old fashioned and often mildly offensive, while the nearly identical term "people of color" is considered the politically correct term for the group.
I know some of my examples were sort of political but I just wanted to share some random things I noticed about the English language and I was curious what all of y'all had noticed.
As for races in the US, the 'yellow' thing had a lot more to do with cultural fears at the time, so 'yellow' has similar connotations to racial epithets for black people.
White and Black don't have the same connotations, and Brown is actually used quite frequently. I usually refer to my wife (and Indian woman) as 'Brown', and it tends to be a descriptor for Middle East/South Asians to identify themselves as a group.
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"Brown" refers to Hispanic individuals, IMO. Middle Easterners and Indians have attempted to dissociate themselves with being "White" in the past couple decades to emphasize their minority status; but, even by that convention, calling them "Brown" feel more unnatural than "White" considering they don't actually share that close of an ancestry with Hispanic "Brown" individuals.
It's kinda like a raft that was cobbled together from parts of three different boats and since then has been kept barely afloat with crude repairs every time a leak appeared.
I don't know why people refer to Latinos as "brown." Even Latinos refer to other Latinos as "brown." I think it has to do with minority status more than anything else. I have Latino relatives that look Swedish minus the tall height and there are black Latinos and Japanese Latinos. It excludes a whole bunch of Latinos to call them "brown."
I have a friend who is of the landed Dallas gentry and he thinks it's stupid that people use the term "white" to refer to people of European descent in the US. Dude is of mostly English descent and he said his ancestors that moved to Texas were horse thieves. He went to Spain for a foreign exchange program and they all commented on how dark he was. They actually called him African. The thing is, anyone who has been in the sun in Texas or Louisiana for a moderate amount of time isn't going to look white to some Europeans...
The plate belongs to [xx]. Him Her
It is [xx] plate. His Her
The plate is [xx]. His Hers
"Her" is equivalent to either "him" or "his"; "his" is equivalent to either "her" or "hers."
Modern: U M'Olk; B Goodstuff
The English language doesn't have a universal or key pronunciation guide like Spain has. (They have an institute set up by the King to preserve and maintain the Spanish language.) Oxford is considered an authority, but they're not the only authority in the English language. English is a language that spread so quickly across the globe that no matter where you are, there will be different pronunciations of things. Just within America there are different ways to pronounce things. I was in the Piedmont area of Virginia and I think they say something like "yernses" instead of "you all" (or where I'm from, "y'all"). I had so much trouble understanding them and we were speaking a language that we share in the same country.
And don't try to start an argument with an English major over whether "irregardless" is considered a real English word. I witnessed the fallout from this one. The non English major said it was so colloquial that it was a word and the English major vehemently disagreed.
1. I couldn't spell the past tense of panic. I ended up writing "paniced."
2. so many of those little things above certain letters - like in deja vu or fiance. Is this a French thing?
3. "Typhoon" came from a Chinese word. =O
Also, the German title of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' is 'The Return of the First Avenger'. WTF!
This is one of the funniest, yet accurate descriptions I've heard/read when trying to explain the English language. In truth, you can replace "three" with any other number and the statement would still ring true. Kudos Mysticake!
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Indeed it is. And in French the accent can go in either direction depending on the word.
I've noticed that in older texts I've read, the English language used a lot of umlauts for words that had double Os. So coordinate had an umlaut on the second O.
Also, I've been wondering about if elite (referring to the ruling classes) is used most properly as a singular word or if elite can be plural. In older texts they appear to use elite as plural with an accent on the last e. My ex once asked me to spell elite and I had to ask which era and language he was writing it in, because usage varies. He got annoyed and said "as in today, in English, in Texas."
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