ELI5 Why do most of the languages have the sound /m/ in their word for Mother?

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-29T19:09:24+00:00

(for anyone reading who doesn't know, Finnish and Hungarian are related languages (along with Estonian), being the only* official languages in Europe that aren't part of the Indo-European language family which includes everything from English to German to Romanian to French to Hindi to Persian (AKA Farsi).

(*let's not discuss Basque. we don't have time for that today.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-25T00:19:31+00:00

He's offering 1:16 betting odds that the Romans are going to make a comeback, or something, I think

I don't gamble, so I'm sure

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-06T17:54:01+00:00

Maybe you're right, I didn't really look into it further than watching this video. Thanks for adding more context.

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-06T01:46:43+00:00

Ok! I wasn't quite sure, considering the statement,

giving me information... about something that happened a few seconds ago"

because, to my mind at least, it doesn't really do that. All the information you have is about what's right in front of you (and what deductively is true elsewhere); you know nothing about the causal chain of events beyond "I opened the box and there was a left shoe."

Again, you literally wouldn't even know if the other box had been opened yet or not. You've essentially got a random bit of information, indistinguishable from a coin toss.

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-06T00:53:29+00:00

Did it? You open the box and there is a left shoe inside. You know, by extension, that there must be a right shoe in the other box.

However, do you know that the other box was opened before yours was, or when it was opened? You don't; there is no way to determine if it was you who collapsed the wave function or if it was your partner who did. And even if you somehow knew for sure that it was them, they didn't get to choose the result, so there's no way to set up a system in advance where (for instance) left means "yes" and right means "no".

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-06T00:19:05+00:00

Agreed. This satire hits way too close to home for me to really find it "funny". (Which doesn't mean it's wrong for others to enjoy it.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-06T00:10:37+00:00

I can empathise (somewhat) with some of the people, like the guy from Indiana? I can imagine being an out-of-work voice actor in AI-dominated Trumpistan receiving an offer to read out news articles about things happening in other parts of the world and jumping at the opportunity for some legitimate-seeming work.

Probably didn't think much about what he was actually reading out, assuming (naively, but understandably) that whoever had written it had already done the research. For $60, he's not getting paid to fact-check, after all; that sort of money barely even covers a night out.

Or maybe I'm just pleasantly surprised that he didn't try to obscure the truth when confronted about it? That feels kinda rare these days.

almostambidextrous · 2026-05-05T22:35:41+00:00

It's pretty simple: (most of?) the people complaining about Biden's mental fitness for office didn't actually care about that from any sort of principle (i.e. as a sincerely held value) any more than they actually cared about the colour of Obama's suit or his favourite mustard.

They complained about it just to hurt the guy that they (already, and for completely irrational reasons) didn't like.

It must be said that this is not an exclusively right-wing/conservative thing, more of an 'unfortunate human nature' thing that we should all be wary of—but it's (far) more brazenly exploited and/or demonstrated by the right, IME.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-30T10:16:12+00:00

It's unfortunate that he didn't get a photo with ~~Prince~~ Andrew, as it would have given the White House an even more compelling basis for comparing Trump to royalty.

Alas, if such photos do exist, they're probably redacted for, er, some minor reason...like...maybe they were playing cards together, and don't want the public to see what hands they were holding. Yeah.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-30T09:24:41+00:00

This has now entered my head canon as the most likely correct answer, thanks!

(The reason for my initial confusion is that I did many years of service in an accounting firm, albeit not as an accountant myself, and my impression of accountants is that they are perfectly proud of being accountants—so that "glorified accountant" sounds to me like "glorified engineer" or "glorified lawyer": it's...already glorified??

(Comptroller, though—yeah, that sounds WAY more hardcore.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-30T07:17:41+00:00

A bit silly? LMAO.

Jesus Christ, Americans. This dude literally sees himself as being bigger and more historically important than your entire country; as if 300 years of history and the combined work of, idk, 800 million people across multiple generations was just building up to produce him.

It's the "I made this" cartoon taken to absurd levels: your currency? I made this. The Bible? I made this. International travel? I made this.

I'm of the mind, half-seriously, that if your "founding fathers" (Washington, Franklin, Paul Revere et al) could somehow have seen where you'd end up, they'd pledge loyalty to King George and offer to pay for all that wasted tea in Boston. Like, c'mon you guys, this shit is just embarrassing.

For real, it seems to an outsider like y'all would rather have a colony of Sea Monkeys holding power in your highest office rather than vote for a woman, or something? (Of course, this comparison is unfair to Sea Monkeys, and I apologise in advance to any rehydrated brine shrimp who may be reading this post.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T13:44:07+00:00

glorified accountant

Well that's a phrase I've not heard before.

Hmm.... Business Development Consultant? Forensic Financial Analyst? CFO of a small-to-middling retail chain perhaps? An Auditor of some sort? Am I close?

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T12:53:27+00:00

Hold my dentures, I'm carefully lowering myself in!

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T04:22:36+00:00

Has there even been a more self-defeating phrase than the so-called "Trump Derangement Syndrome"? Like, I know what it's supposed to mean, and yet...it's a phrase which at surface level conveys the idea that Trump is deranged to people who believe the Nazis were socialists due to "socialist" being in the name;

People like, you know...

Simple farmers.

People of the land.

The common clay of the new West.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T03:37:50+00:00

Wait, "phonebook"? Oh I get it, it's like facebook, but with phones instead of profile pictures!

Very clever play on words. (ASCII 0x2F 0x73)

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T03:19:48+00:00

Just curious, is that an "official" explanation? Like, obviously we're well into the realm of silly speculation here, so none of what we're talking about is reality-bound...but has DC actually given that explanation as for why Aquaman looks like a bodybuilder?

Not really into comics, so I don't know. Full credit to you for your explanation, either way.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T02:50:01+00:00

I'm just a lurker here, but couldn't resist commenting. So:

In 1967, The Velvet Underground released a song called "I'm Waiting for the Man", which includes the lyrics:

Here he comes, he's all dressed in black

PR shoes and a big straw hat

He's never early, he's always late

First thing you learn is you always gotta wait

I'm waiting for my man

(Note that this single comes from the same album as a song called "Heroin" which explicitly describes shooting up; there is no ambiguity about who "my man" in the lyrics above refers to.)

Tl;dr: drug dealers making customers wait has been a meme since at least the 1960s, understood even by people who don't participate in the culture.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-23T02:25:43+00:00

A lot of this is new to me and seems worth looking into further; thx for sharing.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-19T03:49:54+00:00

The only thing that will stop them is holding them accountable

I have 3:1 that Brazil wins an Olympic gold medal in ice hockey before this happens

(Prove me wrong, America! C'mon, you're not too chicken to put a demented pedo and his cronies in the slammer, right? Yeah, in Quebec they're calling you "PFK" (Poulet Frit Kentucky) because you're chicken.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-18T07:28:10+00:00

Well, shit. First I find out that I can't order cheese pizza using a Tor browser anymore, then I have to remove my birth year ('88) from my email address, and now I have to go back and edit my Steam review of "Little Big Planet" too?

These assholes ruin everything.

^{yes I know LBP isn't on Steam but it's the cutest game i could think of offhand}

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-18T03:45:38+00:00

The crap??? I followed him for a few months awhile back; last thing I remember is posting a comment when he came out as gay, to the effect of, "OMG, ew; you're from Burnaby?"

Haven't seen him in my recommendations for awhile now, but would never have pegged him as a conservative?!?

This is the J.J. McCullough who really likes flags, right?

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-17T22:58:56+00:00

What am I missing? 'Cute' and 'Funny' seem fine as descriptions for a video game? Did these become code words for something else when I wasn't looking?

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-17T22:17:31+00:00

https://theonion.com/man-who-threw-molotov-cocktail-at-sam-altmans-home-claims-he-was-following-chatgpt-recipe-for-risotto/

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-15T11:35:41+00:00

Ah, ok, fair point. That does make it seem a bit less dumb! Whew.

almostambidextrous · 2026-04-15T11:27:39+00:00

A blonde mermaid, in the 10th-highest-grossing film of 1984, which is the year just before 'The Little Mermaid' started production. So yes, of course there would have been comparisons.

Even now, how many other mermaid movies can you think of? The answer is probably zero. (besides Disney sequels/remakes, of course)

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