Did you know that the English alphabet had 2 letters for the th sound? (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

They had both þ (called thorn) and ð (called eth). Þ was usually used for a softer th sounds (think thin, thimble, thick) and ð/Ð was used for harder th sounds (think there, this, then). You can still see both these letters in some modern day alphabets (like Icelandic). They stopped being used in large after the normal conquest of England, since the French didn’t have these letters.

 

[velvet]

Yes I did! It's interesting to see the evolution to a 'th' actually. I have a book comprised of English 14th century shit and some verses use 'þ' but most of them use 'th'

 

[Ahsoka]

Yes I did! It's interesting to see the evolution to a 'th' actually. I have a book comprised of English 14th century shit and some verses use 'þ' but most of them use 'th'

It is interesting I wonder if the ð and þ would have remained if not for the heavy adoption of French stuff at that time. Even as is, thorn stuck around for quite a while, so it may not have noticeably changed the usage. But who knows

 

[anyu]

are any of you interested in linguistics

 

[dark_tranquility]

fascinating

 

[velvet]

are any of you interested in linguistics

@Ahsoka and I both are :3

 

[Ahsoka]

are any of you interested in linguistics

Absolutely

 

[snsd2beg]

Thorn my beloved, you're so cool

 

[anyu]

@Ahsoka and I both are :3

Absolutely

yay!! I'm super interested in linguistics and wanna chattttt
my favorite online linguists are etymologynerd and human1011
what are your favorite linguistics books? I checked out word origins and how we know them & mother tongue; the surprising history of women's words from the school library, bought myself reading old english & an introduction to japanese linguistcs & essential linguistics: what you need to know to teach, and got for the holidays through the language glass & speaking freely: a guided tour of american english & the etymologicon
what fields are you guys most interested in? i'm currently interested in morphology, writing systems, neurolinguistics, phonetics, and etymology (I know it's a lot )
sorry if I wrote too much, i'm just really excited to see other people who like linguistics!

 

[Ahsoka]

Thorn my beloved, you're so cool

Bonus fun fact. Old timey English stuff that replaces th with y (think ye old days type text) came across because most printing presses at the time in England were from places like Belgium and such, and they lacked the letter þ. So Y was used as a substitution because in writing, it could looks similar enough to thorn

 

[Ahsoka]

yay!! I'm super interested in linguistics and wanna chattttt
my favorite online linguists are etymologynerd and human1011
what are your favorite linguistics books? I checked out word origins and how we know them & mother tongue; the surprising history of women's words from the school library, bought myself reading old english & an introduction to japanese linguistcs & essential linguistics: what you need to know to teach, and got for the holidays through the language glass & speaking freely: a guided tour of american english & the etymologicon
what fields are you guys most interested in? i'm currently interested in morphology, writing systems, neurolinguistics, phonetics, and etymology (I know it's a lot )
sorry if I wrote too much, i'm just really excited to see other people who like linguistics!

Those sound really interesting! Im interested in linguistics but never formally studied it, so I have looked into much from the academic side, more like videos and pop linguistics. But I might check out more academic material some day Im interested in history, languages, and linguistics, so it makes a nice triangle since they’re all connected. For me though I’m most interested in looking at languages from a historical view, both how languages evolve over time and also similarities and differences that different languages have with each other, which ofc ties back to history and the diplomatic relations and influences between the countries those languages are from and whatnot. I think that kind is especially interesting to me because I know at least the basics of a few languages, some of which aren’t that closely related, and some which are quite close. So it’s interesting to see what procedure or rule one language has that works completely differently in another language Did you study linguistics at all in high school/uni? You definitely seem to have a lot of information about linguistics as a whole

 

[anyu]

Those sound really interesting! Im interested in linguistics but never formally studied it, so I have looked into much from the academic side, more like videos and pop linguistics. But I might check out more academic material some day Im interested in history, languages, and linguistics, so it makes a nice triangle since they’re all connected. For me though I’m most interested in looking at languages from a historical view, both how languages evolve over time and also similarities and differences that different languages have with each other, which ofc ties back to history and the diplomatic relations and influences between the countries those languages are from and whatnot. I think that kind is especially interesting to me because I know at least the basics of a few languages, some of which aren’t that closely related, and some which are quite close. So it’s interesting to see what procedure or rule one language has that works completely differently in another language Did you study linguistics at all in high school/uni? You definitely seem to have a lot of information about linguistics as a whole

im in 10th grade lol
but i want to study it when i go to college. i just have way too much time on my hands and i picked up a fun-looking book one day thinking it would be a quick, interesting read... it was a linguistics textbook lmao
i just read about it and study online, but im glad you think i have information
there's lots of fields of linguistics that focus on language throughout history and how they affect each other! diachronic linguistics, ethnography of communication (not directly stated by you but very very related), and linguistic anthropology!
you may also like philology and etymology
linguistics is so cool because things as small as the vowels used in different words or the word order can affect our brains and our perception of the world around us
for example, in english we call two different shades of red different colors- red and pink. even though pink is just light red, we specify it, and that distinction has been proven to make english speakers better at telling apart different shades of red. the same is true in russian, where they have a separate word for light blue, and can tell blue shades apart better.
also, in english we place a lot of emphasis on the subject of a sentence. it cannot be dropped (which leads to some weird phenomena like saying "it looks dark outside"... what is "it?" such an abstract subject) so we often remember better who did an action. in japanese, the subject is more often than not implied, so they have a harder time remembering who did an action. ex: an english speaker would recall "ahsoka broke the window" while a japanese speaker would recall "the window was broken."
simple things like these affect the thinking patterns of a society and can affect, subtly or not, the choices made by the speakers of those languages, which is super interesting to look back on in a historical light- like what decisions made by rulers reflect aspects of their main or native languages yk?
so cool!!! sorry for the rant lmao

 

[velvet]

yay!! I'm super interested in linguistics and wanna chattttt
my favorite online linguists are etymologynerd and human1011
what are your favorite linguistics books? I checked out word origins and how we know them & mother tongue; the surprising history of women's words from the school library, bought myself reading old english & an introduction to japanese linguistcs & essential linguistics: what you need to know to teach, and got for the holidays through the language glass & speaking freely: a guided tour of american english & the etymologicon
what fields are you guys most interested in? i'm currently interested in morphology, writing systems, neurolinguistics, phonetics, and etymology (I know it's a lot )
sorry if I wrote too much, i'm just really excited to see other people who like linguistics!

There was this book I was reading called how languages work which is a great overview of linguistics. They're written more like notes than an actual book. I'm currently studying Latin so I do like etymology as well and just anything with a historical perspective on it. Phonetics is the best thing ever though omfg I love the ipa. Not a perfect system but it's so cool transcribing shit imo.

I did a linguistics course in uni and found it really good though I realised majoring in linguistics is just not for me lmao. But learning about morphology and phonology and semantics was cool :3

 

[anyu]

There was this book I was reading called how languages work which is a great overview of linguistics. They're written more like notes than an actual book. I'm currently studying Latin so I do like etymology as well and just anything with a historical perspective on it. Phonetics is the best thing ever though omfg I love the ipa. Not a perfect system but it's so cool transcribing shit imo.

I did a linguistics course in uni and found it really good though I realised majoring in linguistics is just not for me lmao. But learning about morphology and phonology and semantics was cool :3

i'm trying to teach myself the ipa but i'm struggling hard. do you know any resources good for learning it? also i'm so jealousss i wish i could take a college or uni class about linguistics

 

[Ahsoka]

im in 10th grade lol
but i want to study it when i go to college. i just have way too much time on my hands and i picked up a fun-looking book one day thinking it would be a quick, interesting read... it was a linguistics textbook lmao
i just read about it and study online, but im glad you think i have information
there's lots of fields of linguistics that focus on language throughout history and how they affect each other! diachronic linguistics, ethnography of communication (not directly stated by you but very very related), and linguistic anthropology!
you may also like philology and etymology
linguistics is so cool because things as small as the vowels used in different words or the word order can affect our brains and our perception of the world around us
for example, in english we call two different shades of red different colors- red and pink. even though pink is just light red, we specify it, and that distinction has been proven to make english speakers better at telling apart different shades of red. the same is true in russian, where they have a separate word for light blue, and can tell blue shades apart better.
also, in english we place a lot of emphasis on the subject of a sentence. it cannot be dropped (which leads to some weird phenomena like saying "it looks dark outside"... what is "it?" such an abstract subject) so we often remember better who did an action. in japanese, the subject is more often than not implied, so they have a harder time remembering who did an action. ex: an english speaker would recall "ahsoka broke the window" while a japanese speaker would recall "the window was broken."
simple things like these affect the thinking patterns of a society and can affect, subtly or not, the choices made by the speakers of those languages, which is super interesting to look back on in a historical light- like what decisions made by rulers reflect aspects of their main or native languages yk?
so cool!!! sorry for the rant lmao

I think it’s safe a tenth grader hasn’t taken linguistics college classes, or any college classes for that matter. So fair enough
That’s definitely true that there’s a lot of branches of historical too. I think from the descriptions I’ve read historical sociolinguistics are the most interesting (though also a wide branch). While I do think literature is cool and shows interesting things about a past culture, I think it’s especially interesting to learn about it from the viewpoint of people as a whole, including not just more formal literature but also the common people and how their speech was affected by not just the other commoners or even trends among nobility, but also outside sources like traders, conquest, ect. And the differentiation between upper class and lower class language is interesting, like how in English we have different words for live animals vs meat on a plate, thought to be because the commoners were raising the animals and used Germanic language influence while the nobles ate the meat and spoke largely in French. Those kinds of things are cool to see, we all to often never think about why things like that work that way because we take it for granted, so it’s cool to learn about why it’s like that
I’ve heard about how having more names for shades of the same color can change our ability to differentiate shades, but I never thought about it for either English or Russian, despite speaking both to be fair, my Russian isn’t great and I tend to forget about the existence of a word for light blue and default to dark blue, though I am improving. So I’m guessing my ability to differentiate shades of blue is no better than an English speaker with no Russian knowledge, but it definitely makes sense that it would work that way for people who use both words comfortably
I also think word order and sentence structure are interesting with how they work, like in English it’s SVO in most cases and not really something that can be changed at a whim. It’s nice because it means cases in English are very minimal, but I’ve reflected on the difference between English and Russian in that sense (in Russian any word order is grammatically correct) and English in that way is more limited. You can’t decide that you want to move the object first for more emphasis, so whether you what to place importance on the fact that you’re going somewhere and it happens to be the beach vs wanting to place importance that the beach is where you’re going (maybe they already know you’re going somewhere), the standard sentence is the same. But in Russian you just put the more important stuff before less. But you also need to learn how to use 6 cases extensively, which makes the grammar harder. In that regard. But I do feel like it makes Russian art more interesting and impactful often because of the flexibility.
No worries about writing a lot, I did too. Usually people aren’t that interested so I also have a lot to say about it, I get the feeling

 

[anyu]

I think it’s safe a tenth grader hasn’t taken linguistics college classes, or any college classes for that matter. So fair enough
That’s definitely true that there’s a lot of branches of historical too. I think from the descriptions I’ve read historical sociolinguistics are the most interesting (though also a wide branch). While I do think literature is cool and shows interesting things about a past culture, I think it’s especially interesting to learn about it from the viewpoint of people as a whole, including not just more formal literature but also the common people and how their speech was affected by not just the other commoners or even trends among nobility, but also outside sources like traders, conquest, ect. And the differentiation between upper class and lower class language is interesting, like how in English we have different words for live animals vs meat on a plate, thought to be because the commoners were raising the animals and used Germanic language influence while the nobles ate the meat and spoke largely in French. Those kinds of things are cool to see, we all to often never think about why things like that work that way because we take it for granted, so it’s cool to learn about why it’s like that
I’ve heard about how having more names for shades of the same color can change our ability to differentiate shades, but I never thought about it for either English or Russian, despite speaking both to be fair, my Russian isn’t great and I tend to forget about the existence of a word for light blue and default to dark blue, though I am improving. So I’m guessing my ability to differentiate shades of blue is no better than an English speaker with no Russian knowledge, but it definitely makes sense that it would work that way for people who use both words comfortably
I also think word order and sentence structure are interesting with how they work, like in English it’s SVO in most cases and not really something that can be changed at a whim. It’s nice because it means cases in English are very minimal, but I’ve reflected on the difference between English and Russian in that sense (in Russian any word order is grammatically correct) and English in that way is more limited. You can’t decide that you want to move the object first for more emphasis, so whether you what to place importance on the fact that you’re going somewhere and it happens to be the beach vs wanting to place importance that the beach is where you’re going (maybe they already know you’re going somewhere), the standard sentence is the same. But in Russian you just put the more important stuff before less. But you also need to learn how to use 6 cases extensively, which makes the grammar harder. In that regard. But I do feel like it makes Russian art more interesting and impactful often because of the flexibility.
No worries about writing a lot, I did too. Usually people aren’t that interested so I also have a lot to say about it, I get the feeling

that's so interesting!! i relate to the insane second language struggle though, i speak german and the translations of the word the... der die das den dem des all depending on the case (nominative, accusative, dative, genetive) and gender (male, female, neutral, plural) of whatever you're describing... its so complicated
i really agree with your point about the development of language differing between social classes. i think it's insanely cool how social media has given the power of language mostly to the common people rather than the powerful. once, when i was in germany, i saw a chicken and said "wow, chicken!" and they just stared at me.. i said the word for chicken meat. they thought i wanted to eat the chicken sitting on some dude's driveway
what are your favorite languages? i love the korean writing system, the grammar of japanese, and the sounds of japanese, tagalog, most indian languages, and especially indonesian. i dont speak any of the ones i like to listen to (except japanese) but they just sound so pleasing and lovely yk? indonesian is just so beautifully sweet sounding like it makes me crazyyyy what about you? (also should we take this to dms so we stop giving people notifications?)

 

[velvet]

i'm trying to teach myself the ipa but i'm struggling hard. do you know any resources good for learning it? also i'm so jealousss i wish i could take a college or uni class about linguistics

Lol nope! Good exercises would be to simply transcribe words using the ipa, referencing the actual table or not

 

[Ahsoka]

that's so interesting!! i relate to the insane second language struggle though, i speak german and the translations of the word the... der die das den dem des all depending on the case (nominative, accusative, dative, genetive) and gender (male, female, neutral, plural) of whatever you're describing... its so complicated
i really agree with your point about the development of language differing between social classes. i think it's insanely cool how social media has given the power of language mostly to the common people rather than the powerful. once, when i was in germany, i saw a chicken and said "wow, chicken!" and they just stared at me.. i said the word for chicken meat. they thought i wanted to eat the chicken sitting on some dude's driveway
what are your favorite languages? i love the korean writing system, the grammar of japanese, and the sounds of japanese, tagalog, most indian languages, and especially indonesian. i dont speak any of the ones i like to listen to (except japanese) but they just sound so pleasing and lovely yk? indonesian is just so beautifully sweet sounding like it makes me crazyyyy what about you? (also should we take this to dms so we stop giving people notifications?)

Yeah we can go to dms I sense this may go on for a while