4 ms·
For those interested, I highly recommend "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher, in which he describes how languages evolve over time, to the great annoya
by mppm 2y ago
For those interested, I highly recommend "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher, in which he describes how languages evolve over time, to the great annoyance of purists, but without either losing or gaining sophistication in the long run. It's a very entertaining read and has considerably reduced my irritation at "incorrect" use of language.
- __loam 2y agoOn top of this I recommend languagejones on YouTube. He's a linguistics PhD that gets into things like how African American Vernacular English is actually more complex than regular English, intentionally obfuscated from white English, and has fast moving slang to stay ahead of adoption of the slang into the wider culture. It's pretty fascinating stuff and he does a lot to show how thinking some of this stuff is incorrect is actually just ignorance.
- sltkr 2y agoFor extra irony in this context: Deutscher means German in German.