Language Overflow

Anonymous

01:32

Also, hello! :-)

Anonymous

@V.V. I collect words! It's fun. The nice thing is, you never run out of new words to collect :-)

Jim Reynolds

@V.V. haha! His or her or her and his are acceptable gender-neutral alternatives to their.

Anonymous

02:19

@JimReynolds Her and his is a marked word order, though.

Anonymous

I use singular their all the time, but I don't think I'd use it in that particular instance. I'm not sure why not. I suppose it might sound like the robot and the cat both, together, have a tail :-)

Anonymous

Besides which, I know whether the cat is male or female.

Anonymous

Although this is changing over time, fewer speakers accept singular they when the gender of the antecedent is known.

Anonymous

Of course, it appears Jim doesn't know, and he was the speaker.

Anonymous

But that might feed into my intuitive decision not to use they there.

Nihilist_Frost

02:44

how do you pronounce "yeah"?

"air" vowel?

I used to think it was short A before I realized that I participate in æ tensing

In my straw poll suddenly the "hot" guys rose to nearly outtaking the "cut" guys

because I advertised it on a forum where there were many "hot" guys.

AmE comprises the majority of native English speakers, ironically.

Anonymous

@Nihilist_Frost I pictured hot guys and cut guys before I realized what you were talking about :-)

Nihilist_Frost

which variety of English is most often taught as a second language?

Anonymous

I don't know the answer to that.

Anonymous

I've seen people claim both AmE and BrE are the 'standard' internationally.

Anonymous

By the way, is guys in your sentences there gender-neutral?

Nihilist_Frost

02:53

@snailboat I was being careless.

V.V.

Morning!

Is there an expression "language joke"?

Like "Two- teas -to-two-two-two".

tchrist

03:23

@Nihilist_Frost You really shouldn't talk about rhotics to rhotics. Trying to figue out whether yesterday and carousel have "the same" vowel is too hard.

@snailboat wonders what he's stumbled into

Anonymous

04:19

Word of the day: alexiteric

2

CopperKettle

Good morning, Snails!

alexiteric

Noun: alexiteric ‎(plural alexiterics)

(medicine) A preservative against infectious diseases.
A preservative against the effects of poison.

Adjective: alexiteric ‎(comparative more alexiteric, superlative most alexiteric)

Resisting poison, or the effects of venom

Catija

Ooooh, just saw the site design! That's super exciting and really cute!

CopperKettle

A curious word. "A" is probably a negation particle.

No. Greek alexein, “to ward off”

Russian has the namy Alexey, and it means "protector" in Greek

Jim Reynolds

05:07

CopperKettle

Танцующий осьминог

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(A Japanese dish: a dancing squid. OMG)

Odorigui

Odorigui ( 踊り食い, literally "dancing eating") is a mode of seafood consumption in Japanese cuisine. Odorigui refers to the consumption of live seafood while it is still moving, or the consumption of moving animal parts. Animals usually consumed in odorigui style include octopus, squids, ice gobies, and other similar animals. Consumption of live seafood without remarkable movements, such as sea urchins, is usually not included in odorigui. == Notable dishes == Katsu ika odori don (活いか踊り丼) lit. "living squid dancing rice bowl" == See also == Ikizukuri, the preparation of sashimi from living animals...

Jim Reynolds

@Cop I hate it. I really suffer emotionally to see such things. I'm in favor of your having posted it, and I know that animals being eaten is part of nature. I ate a steak last night. But this upsets me!

guest

06:18

The Science of Internet Trolls

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Jim Reynolds