Language & Grammar discussion

Just watched this video and learned a few things I didn't know. (I hadn't a clue about clusivity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYlVJ...

Interesting.

Very interesting. Is there an English word for "talk slower, please?"

Ruth wrote: "Very interesting. Is there an English word for "talk slower, please?""

Tak slar plz.

If you are being annoyed by the change in English pronounciation accompanied with an urge to reform the spelling of words then you have the same predicament i have. You haven't gone to a bunch of rock concerts without hearing protection or worn your headphones on blast setting. People are not hearing words right and thus can't understand why they are spelled the way they are. It is not the dictionary, in most cases, that is defective. It could be the people whom want to change it.

An important rule to visual codification: basic wordforms when conjugated for intrinsic nuances may not be spellable or uniformly alterable therby seeming to hinder quick recognition but therefore the normal reader must and is endowed to memorize the subtle incongruities. The visual codification is not the same as the auditory codification because it is representative and not actual.
I can not see anything that is said or hear anything I see. I associate them.

I think I like this guy. But language is about communication and it may not be his strong suit. Doug, in post 6, what language are you speaking?

I had trouble putting up with him for the full four. His exaggerated gestures, facial expressions, and overall manner distracted from his message. Oh. And that fast talking thing, like he thinks he'll be running out of tape at the 5-minute mark.

Would be a good medieval punishment, though. A marathon, forced viewing of this clip....

Kenneth P. wrote: "I think I like this guy. But language is about communication and it may not be his strong suit. Doug, in post 6, what language are you speaking?"

I speak American English, broadly termed.

Video: I got sensory overload after a couple of minutes and started to pan through unable to absorb gratification instantaneously enough but perhaps if the accent were more familiar, it would have helped me.

Faster speaking necessarily looses some meaning. Listen to the southern dialects and its obvious there is more sound in each word. Those sounds including the slow parts are interrelated by life style in the locale of the dialect. But this is evolving to accommodate the increase in the rush of modern life.

Ie: I'll be seeing you all. Southern translation could mean as much as: I regret to watch you leave but hope that we meet again soon with your kith and kin. If you spell (and pronounce) it as follows, all of that inuendo is lost: "Ahbe seeyal". That could sound like: I'm tired of you.

I think this is also partly due to using the throat in word formation as I have heard some other languages do greatly. That takes a more time. More inportant is the brain has more time to adjust the subtleness of the exact communication desired. You can not do that in a classroom because the life situation is not present there. So we should not criticise it in a closed environment. Someone once said: I went to the mountains and I saw the mountains.

Those are my own ammature observances. Comments?

Kenneth P. wrote: "I think I like this guy. But language is about communication and it may not be his strong suit. Doug, in post 6, what language are you speaking?"

Let me say that in a different way. If the word "the" were written as "247398" I would still understand it as the word "the" when I see it. I associate the code. There would be no reason to change it to "247388" just because the number had not been used yet. Then the reader would have to fill his brain with additional options for the word "the". Lazy thinking is no reason to change any spelling. Just move on.

In the video Tom Scott talks about absolute direction not existing in English. Maybe I don't understand. I wonder what the ancient and modern surveyors and Military would think of that. I am seated at 280 degrees typing with my !0 degree hand. My ceiling is at 8 feet and the floor is incline zero. Hummmm. Do I have to qualify by hemisphere? If I stand on my head is up then down for everybody or just me. If I lay down, which two ways are my feet? Can I only walk forward? Would I be ambidextrous? I need help.

Doug wrote: "In the video Tom Scott talks about absolute direction not existing in English. ..."

While it's true that we don't think of our south foot or our north foot, that's partly due to how important those cardinal directions are to everyday life.

When Captain Cook discovered Hawaii, the natives had no words for North or South. They did have words though for toward the mountain and toward the beach.

Newengland wrote: "I had trouble putting up with him for the full four. His exaggerated gestures, facial expressions, and overall manner distracted from his message. Oh. And that fast talking thing, like he thinks he..."

Agree. Makes him unwatchable for more than 47.3 seconds.