Or language extinction or whatever your preferred term. Is it a good thing? Does it help us work towards instating a universal language? Should we have a universal language? Is death of an obscure language inevitable? How much resources should go towards preserving a given language? What can we get out of preserving a language?
It doesn't look like we had this thread, and I figure it's worth talking about. Especially since I might end up dealing with it in my career years from now.
Yeah, loanwords can get very ugly when they collide with a language's spelling rules, especially verbs.
I'm currently studying at the Alliance Française, and I assure you they are very nice and reasonable, and not stubborn or pompous at all. They are also fine with loan words. Then again, this is the Dutch branch of the AF.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesYes! Absolutely! Sometimes they go back and forth. Sometimes a language will borrow a word, then, after some language changes, borrow the same word again with a different meaning. Sometimes people will change words to make them sound like other, more prestigious languages (this is where we get some of those odd English spellings from, like "island").
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesDutch has a similar reputation. It has been said by some that you can't write epic poetry like Homer's Odyssey in Dutch, though I feel that may be a bit of classicist bias (read Gorter's "Mei" sometime if you want to see what Dutch really is capable of). It probably comes with the reputation of being the language of bankers and businesspeople.
It doesn't help that a certain literary movement at the end of the 19th century has pretty much strangled the life out of popular poetry with a rather misguided ivory tower elitist approach to literature.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesWith Brand Names specifically, I suspect a big part of what causes it is that brand names are designed to be catchy and easy to remember. Generic terms are often comparatively boring, unwieldy, and technical.
This is especially true of the concept is heavily popularized by a single brand. For example, the throwing disc and Frisbee.
In the case of Google, it's the same deal. We need a term for searching things over the Internet, which usually involves Google.
Leviticus 19:34![]()
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I wasn’t even aware that Frisbee was a brand name until I saw a team Frisbee match on TV (yes, that’s a thing) where the commentator explained they couldn’t say the word because of that.
Speaking of names, in France we like to act outraged at those who don’t call chocolatines/pain au chocolat/couque au chocolat
by the "right" name (which is "chocolatine", obviously).
What are the petty conflicts on regional naming conventions in your countries?
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In America, a famous shibboleth is what to call a sugary soft drink—the "soda"/"pop'/"coke" distinction has resulted in several maps
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I also have some disdain to using too much loanwords. Esecially when there are perfect words in the language for the relevant terms. It really irks me when people use the word "Random" itself instead of just "aleatorio" or "arbitrario". note
And I am not sure how different the loanword culture is in Spain. I know that at least in Mexico and those just under its Sphere of incluence (like Central America), we have the stereotype of the "Niña Fresa". Imagine a Valley Girl. Teenage girl that is super annoying and disdainful of anyting not trendy. And of course, tend to sprinkle some English words in every sentence for the sake of it.
EDIT: Oh, nice. A pagetopper.
Edited by ElBuenCuate on Mar 22nd 2023 at 12:27:19 PM