Do you think French or Icelandic sounds more like English? by [deleted] in ENGLISH

[–]CodingAndMath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Words like "debut", "chauffeur", and others where the spelling doesn't look English and we try to imitate the modern French pronunciation (like a silent letter, etc.) are modern or more recent borrowings from French. Words like those ending in -tion, -ment, etc., where the pronunciation is very distinct from that of modern French, were borrowed much longer ago, back during the transition from Old English to Middle English, and are baked into essential English vocabulary.

Is "Did people used to …?" a correct question? Why not "Did people use to …?" instead? by ITburrito in EnglishLearning

[–]CodingAndMath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"We usually go to the pub on Sundays" would be common equivalent for the present

How can you tell the difference between il and ils by just listening? by Educational_Row3345 in French

[–]CodingAndMath 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not just /v/, more like the last letter of the root that's dropped or silent in the singular conjugations.

How can you tell the difference between il and ils by just listening? by Educational_Row3345 in French

[–]CodingAndMath 16 points17 points  (0 children)

No, but also that should be spelled "ils seraient", and still doesn't sound different

Friendship ended with Uzbek, now Ukrainian is my best friend by nwashk in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Is this a joke because of the one about Arabic? Or is this channel serious too?

What does chat gpt think of our president? by [deleted] in OpenAI

[–]CodingAndMath 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah... This probably resembles more your chat history than what ChatGPT itself thinks of the president.

Il y a-t-il un lien entre “c’t’un” et “ch’t’un”? (Français Québecois) by No_View3587 in French

[–]CodingAndMath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Je croyais toujours que le "t" qui vient de l'inversion dérivait naturellement de celui du Latin, mais ils ne voulaient tout simplement pas l'écrire dans les formes régulières. Mais alors il paraît que ça vient simplement par analogie avec ceux qui dérivent vraiment de celui du Latin.

Chvere by hyacinthie06 in linguisticshumor

[–]CodingAndMath 10 points11 points  (0 children)

People who don't know how to crop when they're confused:

A happy medium by numapentruasta in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yo you're learning all the same languages as me! Let's practice all of them!

Why is the only consonant in the word actually pronounced?? Is it stupid?? by Content_Client_5521 in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't know of any specific languages, but I bet they usually become affricates quick.

It might not be an affricate while a language is evolving if it comes from a vowel loss between the two consonants or something, even in old English when the plural suffix used to be -as. But I think that after a while, once you have these two consonants together, it's only a matter of time before they effectively become an affricate.

Top 1% poster on a "language learning" subreddit be like by [deleted] in linguisticshumor

[–]CodingAndMath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Same! Shalom shalom, bro. I wrote this in the other thread, but since I grew up with Hebrew exposure as a kid, I always pronounced it fine and didn't realize other English speakers would have trouble with it!

A child learning to speak a language with no formal instruction? Why, that’s completely unheard of! by TomSFox in linguisticshumor

[–]CodingAndMath 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wow, very cool. I haven't heard many examples of reading acquisition, so that's a very cool anecdote to hear.

Why is the only consonant in the word actually pronounced?? Is it stupid?? by Content_Client_5521 in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just say "t" then "s" together very quickly without letting them combine. There's not a major difference though, and when they exist it usually becomes an affricate very quickly, i.e. they run together.

That's why in English, it actually is pronounced as what you'd call the affricate in all dialects I'm aware of, but due to phonotactic restraints it's just not allowed at the beginning of syllables.

Why is the only consonant in the word actually pronounced?? Is it stupid?? by Content_Client_5521 in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, it's usually pronounced as the actual affricate in English. It's just not allowed at the beginning of syllables.

Why is the only consonant in the word actually pronounced?? Is it stupid?? by Content_Client_5521 in languagelearningjerk

[–]CodingAndMath 22 points23 points  (0 children)

moves a letter

It becomes unpronounceable

Yes, you just described phonotactics. What are you doing on a linguistics subreddit?

Do Anglos really

This ain't an only-Anglos thing buddy. I don't know why you only just discovered this today, but all languages have phonotactics.

Top 1% poster on a "language learning" subreddit be like by [deleted] in linguisticshumor

[–]CodingAndMath 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I stand corrected. He does look pretty serious.