this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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I'm getting better at understanding them

But damn sometimes I spend more time searching for definitions to understand it than it actually takes to read it

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

This is such a weird performative thing, why are we pretending kids are speaking some incomprehensible foreign language? Aside from a couple pieces of really specific slang, most of which is only ever used ironically anyway (I'm looking at you, "skibidi"), it's the exact same evolution of language and slang as every other previous generation before it, just perhaps with a wider spread and more global influence. And almost all of it can be deciphered with little effort: Rizz = ChaRISma, Gyatt = GYATTdamn (goddamn), etc.

Like I know we're all eventually going to become the next generation of boomers, such is the curse of time, but jesus christ y'all don't have to fucking speedrun to that conclusion.

I don't know about you, but personally I always planned to be better to the generation that followed me than the generation that preceded mine was to us.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Rizz = ChaRISma, Gyatt = GYATTdamn (goddamn), etc.

Erhm... As a non native speaker, WTF?

Rizz, first thing that comes to mind is rice. GYATT... Dunno. Gynaecologist I guess...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

No cap fr fr

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I guess GYATT is playing into that southern accent.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

personally I always planned to be better to the generation that followed me than the generation that preceded mine was to us.

And this is why I make the effort to understand. We don't have to make the same mistakes of the past, we have to tools to understand.

And I do my best, I look up the words I don't know and can't figure out. And worst case I simply ask.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Behold! Beowulf in the original English:

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

卄乇ㄥㄥ ㄚ乇卂卄 乃尺ㄖㄒ卄乇尺

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i mean it's a bit unfair to show it in a different font, if i wrote this in wingdings you wouldn't understand shit either.

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning. ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned, geong in geardum, þone god sende folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat þe hie ær drugon aldorlease lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea, wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf; Beowulf wæs breme blæd wide sprang, Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Different font? This is literally a picture of the original.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yeah, and as you can very obviously see it does not look like modern text, the average person would struggle to identify most letters.

My point is that using a text written in what is effectively a completely different writing system isn't a fair comparison, of course it's going to be impossible to understand when you can't tell what the letters are! That doesn't tell you anything about how different the actual language is.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

yeah, and as you can very obviously see it does not look like modern text

Because it's not; that was the point. It's still English, but is unrecognizable as such. It literally looks like "some kind of elvish."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I never really understood at what point a language evolves enough to be an entirely new language.

Old English feels so far removed from even middle English, let alone modern English.

We have "new" and "old" to differentiate them, but with how many Latin words alone entered English between Old English and Modern English, It's something I've never found a comprehensive answer to.

I guess, what is it about proto-indo European that we acknowledge as a distinct language from the hundreds of thousands of languages that evolved from it, other than time scale and global impact.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

except the major difference is just that it uses funny letters, which you can do with any language and that doesn't mean the actual language itself is different!

You're effectively taking dutch, writing it in cyrillic script, and going "look at how different the languages are" when in fact dutch is generally easier to comprehend than a thick scottish dialect.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

He/she probably meant hand, not font. Most people don't know the terminology regarding letterforms.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago
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