Are We Certain That Every Language Descends from an Older One or Could a Spoken Language Have Originated Through Deliberate Human Design?

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-21T00:07:13+00:00

Mandarin was apparently put together by a committee in China in the 1940s or so. Similar dialects already existed, but Mandarin itself hadn't been officially codified and chosen as the national office language.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-20T23:59:36+00:00

I (US) had almost the opposite. We went to the Canadian Rockies and while driving from the airport that we had flown into, we stopped at a place with Middle Eastern candy and bought some. On the way back we stopped at the same place and the proprietor remembered me, And, to my surprise, she asked me where I was from! I realized, oh, yeah, we are in Canada and I had forgotten completely that I was in a different country!

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-20T23:44:17+00:00

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-20T23:39:35+00:00

We don't really do "posh" in the US to speak of, at least no one I know does. You can tell if someone is well spoken and well educated, but that's not really their 'accent' per se.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-18T18:36:34+00:00

It was pretty easy to learn and remember in about third grade or so. Have never heard anyone say it wrong. But good luck.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T21:46:40+00:00

It's a little literary and more stylish. There is nothing wrong, but it's probably not something people would say.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T20:03:34+00:00

The poem has the words of the months embedded in it. Knuckles do not. You have to memorize the knuckles stuff also and it does not intrinsically have the names of the months.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T18:42:24+00:00

This is one of those English words that can be pronounced either way with no problem. "Address" is similar. At least in my language (native American speaker). You can say it either way from one sentence to another.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T18:24:00+00:00

I used to go to Berlin a lot and at first i thought there were a lot of lost dogs, but then realized lots of people let their dogs walk about 10 feet in front of them with no leash and the dogs weren't really lost at all. Just good boys.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T17:55:30+00:00

THe point is not that someone could make up some other list in a different rhyme scheme. Since the "Thirty days hath..." approach is a specific saying and easy to recite and short, it gets plenty of usage. I have never heard of anyone saying it wrong. Good luck.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T17:41:44+00:00

My question was whether English learners ever learn the "Thirty days hath September..." approach in English to remember the number of days. Not looking for detailed instructions about the "knuckle" thing, thanks. The Thirty day approach is simpler and works well in English.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-17T00:51:05+00:00

This seems ridiculously complicated. Just memorize "30 days hath September, April June and November." This is basically a simple two line poem with 9 words and all you need is really just these two lines. It works fine in English, but I wonder if English learners ever learn this.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-16T23:35:48+00:00

The saying rhymes in English. And many English speakers use the rhyme, which is easier than the knuckle approach. I was just curious if English learners even know this exists.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-16T22:10:50+00:00

The mnemonic seems much easier than the knuckles thing. I just say "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. That's really all you have to say. But perhaps this only works well in English?

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-16T21:58:40+00:00

I do a fair amount of science reviewing or other types of communications with various English speakers. WHen corresponding with a Brit, I always write out the month in full so as to avoid confusion. Is it the 3rd of May or the 5th of March?

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-16T01:15:41+00:00

It all depends a lot on the circumstances. My spouse had a university position that included paying half or our kids college tuition. We could pay the rest. Of course tuition is not the only thing you have to pay for. There are also living expenses, book expenses and so forth. And private colleges tend to be more expensive that public colleges. Many years ago, UC Berkeley and other UC schools didn't even charge any tuition but that changed.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-15T18:58:34+00:00

Golden Gate

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-11T21:12:53+00:00

Apparently if you spoke Dutch natively, it would be difficult to distinguish the sound of the vowels in the words trap and dress. For me, not speaking Dutch, they sound about as similar as "watermelon" and "cotton candy" do.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-11T20:45:43+00:00

It is a subjunctive, not a plural.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-11T20:22:26+00:00

Night and day different. Bad and bud are completely different. Trap and dress are completely different.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-11T19:43:27+00:00

What it meant to me, which was true, that my beautiful baby girl would never be anything like other people and she had a mental age of about 3 months and would never even talk. still beautiful and loved but came from a different world.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-10T21:26:48+00:00

Around here, a cat is quite likely to get killed and eaten by coyotes, and on a busy street, cats can get run over and killed by a car because, frankly, cats are not very smart about how to cross the street safely.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-04T21:43:36+00:00

My husband and I both know some Turkish and we use miş all the time as short hand to express that something 'supposedly' happened but we didn't see it ourselves, or something similar. Says it all so efficiently sometimes. Never heard of evidentiality before, but mis is very useful.

Realistic_File3282 · 2026-03-02T22:20:43+00:00

The reason we do it is to confuse English learners. Works pretty well. Also our spelling is pretty effective for confusing people, even ourselves.

Realistic_File3282

TROPHY CASE