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Language is a living thing, but it doesn’t follow that it can be arbitrarily determined by individuals. You don’t get to make up and impose your own words, pron
by Veen 6y ago
Language is a living thing, but it doesn’t follow that it can be arbitrarily determined by individuals. You don’t get to make up and impose your own words, pronunciations, and meanings, or not if you want to be understood and respected. Language is a collective endeavour that evolves through the interactions of many people.
- throwawaysea 6y agoSo where does it crossover? For example male and female have definitions but activists are pushing to redefine those terms along with others. Why is that any more legitimate than an individual redefining a word? And what level of critical mass “permits” redefinition?
- LocalH 6y agoYou don't get to impose your own words, pronunciations, and meanings, but you do get to attempt to make up your own, as does everyone else. If you can actually get your words to gain traction, then so be it. Anyone who is credited with coining a new term very much did what you said they couldn't. They created a word, gave it a meaning, it took hold and became a thing.
- esrauch 6y agoIve used both pronunciations of "gyros" and in my experience it's concretely better in the US to use the "wrong" one. As in, if you say it "yeeros" some servers won't know what you're talking about, by "jy-ros" would be understood by all (but some will think you're saying it wrong). I think it's a case where language is to communicate and you can't be the "correct" person by verbalizing in a way others don't understand.