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latin (lemmy.world)
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[-] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 37 points 2 years ago

I kind of want to learn some Middle English stock phrases to grill anyone who complains about the changing nature of English being just political correctness. Like, “You want to be a language conservative? Here’s some Chaucer-era language motherfucker.”

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

here's my favourite one: the oldest known use of singular "they" dates back further than the use of singular "you", and it's so old that it was still spelled with a thorn (þei)

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Simple way to remember:

Roses are red, violets are blue

Singular they predates singular you

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
[-] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

Please, anyone who reads this, stop posting links to the mobile version of Wikipedia. It doesn't switch automatically on PC, and I see it happen all the time. Just take the half a second to remove the ".m" from the beginning of the link, save everyone else from the pain of having to be surprised by it and taking the time to do it themselves.

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

I thought it’d been switching automatically for years. Might be wrong. Guess there’s a TamperMonkey script for it then.

Copy/paste tip, at least on iOS: use the share sheet (share icon), where they’ll give you the desktop URL - instead of copying from the URL bar.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 years ago

Or people complaining about language changing in general. Not only are they usually wrong (eg "literally" has been used as a figurative intensifier for hundreds of years), they just happen to define the "correct" use of words as whatever they learned as kids.

this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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