#linguists — Public Fediverse posts

hello #language bubble. in #Germany there is a concept for words called "Teekesselchen", it is for words that are spelled the same, but have more than one meaning to it in one language. Now i just stumbled about the word #inari, which i only know for being a city in northern #finnland. but here in the #fediverse i also learned is is a word for a type of #sushi in #japan. So, #linguists, is there a international version for "teekesselschen"? And what is it called?

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

Random Wikipedia #criticism (rant?)...

One of the things that bugs me about (English) #Wikipedia is how aspects of it are controlled by, for lack of a better word, #pedants, without consideration of the actual #readers - without considering the purpose of an encyclopedia.

One example of this is how, when an article features aspects of another language or dialect - for instance, something from Old English, or Arabic - where the reader will not be familiar with how to pronounce something presented transliterated to a modern Latin/English alphabet, or with a word shown in a non-Latin script entirely.

It used to be common in reference works to give a simple #pronunciation key that was at least close to the correct pronunciation, but was easily understood by a normal literate reader. You know; the stuff that looked like "ED-joo-KAY-shun" or "SHEH-joo-ull" or whatever.

Well, that's not good enough for Wikipedia most of the time. Instead, they give the pronunciation in International #Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so you get stuff like "æɪ" and "aʊ" and "/ɔː/".

These are absolutely more #accurate guides to how a word should sound. And they are absolutely, completely #useless and #uninformative to 99% of people reading the article.

You know who already knows and is completely comfortable reading #IPA?

#Linguists. Students of language.

You know, the people who *already know* how to #pronounce the words. The people who don't actually need it.

#FFS.

#pedant #unhelpful #rant

I'm looking for a transliteration tool for English words to Thai pronunciation, as Thai has a phonetic alphabet.

I'm learning Thai and my MIL wants to learn English so I want to make flashcard/post it's that show
the English word : LIGHT
the Thai pronunciation of LIGHT: ________
The Thai word for LIGHT: แสงสว่าง
The English phonetic of แสงสว่าง: S̄æng s̄ẁāng

Any #linguists #polyglots or #translators or #thai speakers that could help me out? Please boost until we find each other. Thanks!

This virtual workshop will discuss: *common issues in handling right-to-left and left-to-right text *tips & strategies for overcoming challenges with existing translation tools and *how Bidi text functionality is implemented & supported across platforms 💻Register Now: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9817347089794/WN_xFMxBi7GTq2tCOTY083ckA
#Linguists #Localization #Translators #Unicode #Bidi #Unicode

Hey can some #linguists out there show their work on the etimology of the whole 'flip flop' thing as the words have evolved on a timeline over a 30yr time period. That world be greatttt

Examples include:

¹ #flipflop
² #foritbeforetheywereagainstit
³ #etm