


A place to discuss linguistics with or without Marxist context, this includes discussion of Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics.
Rules:
No oppressive language-
No using slurs for any oppressed group. They (them/theirs) is (are) a perfectly fine gender neutral pronoun(s) of which is not always plural.
No reactionary political opinions-
This applies to all Lemmygrad communities and it applies here.
Euro-centrism-
European languages are completely fine here though try not to in anyway point to non-European languages as "odd" or "foreign." As well don't push colonial theories about language.
Last point: all those who speak out against the voiceless uvular plosive will be sent the gulag.
(keep in mind you may be banned for other inappropriate behavior not listed in the rules)
(read this: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1950/jun/20.htm)
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml KrupskayaPraxis @lemmygrad.ml Have you ever quit learning a language?
I have quit learning hindi in the past, but had started learning it sometimes. But now I don't think I will ever try to learn it again. I don't think it's useful for me, even if I watch a moderate amount of Bollywood movies.
I also tried to learn Greenlandic once, but since it has so few speakers, it wouldn't be useful. It's a shame because I would love to speak a native American language but due to colonialism there's not one that I could learn that has enough speakers to be useful to me.
I'm currently debating myself for dropping German and Portuguese. Technically I'm still learning these languages but I haven't actually learned them in a long time, except for some flashcards. Since I already know three other Germanic languages, Dutch, English and Danish, I feel my level of German wouldn't drop that much if I decide to stop learning. And since I'm in Germany at least a couple times of the year, I have some natural practice moments.
Portuguese used to be very useful for me since I
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml Al-Andalusian @lemmygrad.ml Being gender neutral in Spanish
In Spanish everything is gendered, so being gender neutral is not as easy as for example English where you can just use 'they' or 'them'.
Sometimes people use the 'e' instead of the o/a (which often mark the gender of words, for example gato/gata, cat in Spanish) but it can't always be used and it just sounds really weird for a lot of people, though that might just be because it is barely used.
The other way to be gender neutral that I know is to say both the male and female versions of the word you are trying to make gender neutral, for example "trabajadores y trabajadoras" (workers[M] and workers[F]) but it's also not ideal as you have to say one of the genders first and it is pretty inconvenient to have to do that every time you refer to a group of people that is not guaranteed to be composed of one gender only.
Anyway thanks for reading my post and I hope I find out about a better way to be gender neutral in Spanish.
At least in Spanish there is never doubt how shit is pronoun
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml KrupskayaPraxis @lemmygrad.ml Are there movements to bring back Chu Nom (Chinese characters) into Vietnamese?
Similar to what Mongolia is doing with the Mongolian script
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml Al-Andalusian @lemmygrad.ml Portuguese and Spanish are so similar I can kinda read Portuguese even when I haven't learned it.
I noticed this some time ago, there was some tweet in Portuguese that I noticed I could kinda read by using the context of the words that I do understand.
To see what I mean just look at how similar these are:
ES: Hola, ¿Cómo estás?
PT: Olá, como está?
ES: Buenos días
PT: Bom dia
ES: Dinosaurio
PT: Dinossauro
If you understand Spanish but not Portuguese (or the other way around) I invite you to try to read the one you understand, it's wild just how similar they are.
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml KrupskayaPraxis @lemmygrad.ml Do any of you learn a native american language?
I learn a little Greenlandic sometimes and I want to study it more in depth in the future.
You can reply if a native american language is your native language as well
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml Lenin enjoyer🏳️⚧️ @lemmygrad.ml Just spreading awareness about the existence of the very interesting Gullah language.
I don't have a vast resource pool but the language is amazing, if you wanna learn more about it check out the wiki
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml Lilac [she/her] @lemmygrad.ml If con-linguistics is fine here, here's a Stalin quote translated into Dlay ró
Sorry, graphics design is my passion. This is from a fictional communist party in a dialect of Dlay ró spoken along the coast in Northwest Africa.
English Quote: It is difficult for me to imagine what personal liberty is enjoyed by an unemployed hungry person. True freedom can only be where there is no exploitation and oppression of one person by another; where there is not unemployment, and where a person is not living in fear of losing his job, his home and his bread. Only in such a society personal and any other freedom can exist for real and not on paper.
Text: Avraǘ ow wóči d libeṛter v ruman hàx misëḷ d vɣùstz v rumam kákrǘ b awlan. Krǘ d vdéǜ ŋë̀x v lóh vól v bafm vól b ekslwatsiö́x yb owṛetsiö́x v ruman v küŋ; x baf b awláx fakǘḍ, y vël v ruma ybel ẓḷëz hàx fakëḍ dz awlaz ydz gë̀taz yxz tez. Xaỳ muctmam kr ŋë̀xǘ vól v ruman t d vdéǜ kü, yb iw-àzastë.
Direct Translation: I difficultly imagine one-personal liberty that bring
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Leftguistics @lemmygrad.ml Lenin enjoyer🏳️⚧️ @lemmygrad.ml Anyone have some resources on rongorongo?
Rongorongo is a form of (proto)-writing that originates on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) made for older forms of the Rapa Nui language that has never been deciphered. I'm more interested in the orthography if anyone has some recourses on it. (especially because there's a a colonial theory that somehow the indigenous hade "copied" it from Europeans.)