@EddieKal Btw, that isn't correct ...

@AIQ Okay... I don't know... Verbose seemed very knowledgeable so I just deferred to their opinion

@EddieKal Oh so you think I am stupid ...

@AIQ No, I know you are the absolute authority...

@EddieKal I am offended ... Where do I file my grievances?

I would've given you my hats but I don't have hats any more.

How about some ice cream?

So, yeah, this is what bothered me about that room. A lot of smart people in there. But also a lot of incorrect information

@AIQ Mind explaining to me the differences? I am really curious. Please

I mean Bangal, Bangla

No really though, joke aside, that isn't correct at all. Look, I can't comment on the "Bengali" language in India, but I sure can comment on the "Bengali" language in Bangladesh! We went to war for this language, ...

So are Bangla and Bengali the same thing?

Yes. And "Bangal" isn't the right word ... It's either "Bengal" like the Bengal Tiger ... or Bengali ...

I see

Bangla for us, and Bengali for the rest of the world ... Something like Bharat/India

I see!

Interesting.

You know the only thing I had to go by was YouTube videos with "Bangla literature" or "Bengali literature" in their titles

I didn't understand the language, but I could see where the poster was likely from. It seemed to me there was an Indian Bengali vs. Bangla divide

The history of the language isn't very straightforward ... there are many dialects of the language both in India and Bangladesh ...

Lol, please do tell me more about this

I am really really interesting

Btw, as we are talking here, a Japanese person corrected someone I said in Japanese. Not on SE, on a Japanese forum

What she had problem with was something I said about Japanese linguistics

But the thing is I have almost 100% confidence in what I said. Yeah, she is a native speaker, but she doesn't seem to know how to Wiki... Just find that really funny

@EddieKal You speak Japanese?

Nice

@AIQ Lol, you didn't know?

Huh no, I just knew you hang around in their chatroom ...

I am nearly fluent in Japanese

Wow crazy!

How come?

I started way back as a kid. Anime was a huge pull as it is for a lot of people

Can you read and write in Japanese?

Yes

Sorry for interrupting, please do continue. I am really curious about Bangla. Please tell talk more about this, if you would. I am all ears.

Yeah, so basically "Bangal or Eastern Bengali is the vernacular of Bangladesh and also the Indian state of Tripura. It is considered dialectal; Western Bengali, the language spoken in the Indian state of West Bengal, is considered standard." is incorrect. And that is because, both of the main forms of the language are used in both India and Bangladesh. Bangladeshi people use the "standard" form (called the "running language") every single day ...

The Bangladeshi version therefore isn't non-standard.

@AIQ I see! So what did you mean when you said "We went to war for this language"?

The war between Bangladesh and Pakistan ...?

That was because of the language???

Wasn't there a massacre?

I apologize for my ignorance. I have read a little about this, so please do forgive me if I am asking some dumb questions

@EddieKal The genocide was the tipping point ... But it all started in 1948 with the Bengali language movement ...

> In 1948, Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared that "Urdu, and only Urdu" would be the federal language of Pakistan. However, Urdu was historically prevalent only in the north, central, and western region of the subcontinent; whereas in East Bengal, the native language was Bengali, ... The government stand was widely viewed as an attempt to suppress the culture of the eastern wing.

It all starts with the suppression of language ...

Ahhh I see!

Turkey did the same to Kurdish.

@user85795 That was around Ataturk's time?

still to this day, according to Wikipedia

The genocide of 1971, called Operation Searchlight, was a very strategic, smart, and brutal operation. It was devised by the best military minds back then.

> It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel.

It targeted the biggest source of our knowledge - the University of Dhaka - where they hunted down all intellectuals - mainly scholars.

@AIQ That's outrageous

Indeed, the influence of language on thought is outrageous.

@AIQ I don't quite understand what led Pakistan to push Urdu on people in East Bengal

Hadn't Pakistan itself just gained independence then?

Yeah something like that ...

Nationalism. I think Kemalism's influence might have entered into it

The effects of that operation still lingers to this day ... Bangladesh would have been far more advanced in the field of education, economic development, and income if the main "brains" were not eliminated ...

That is really terrible. I didn't know.

The idea of "one national language"... I never thought it could have been the main cause of the genocide

Of all places, South Asia... I thought Sough Asia was the most linguistically diverse place in the world

> In 1947, in line with the Partition of India, Bengal was partitioned between the Hindu majority west and Muslim majority East. East Bengal became part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan while West Bengal became part of the Republic of India.

So that divide had a lot to do with religion ...

Yeah that part I know.

Back then a lot of newly independent countries looked to Russia as an example and leader

Ataturk basically slaughtered the Turkish language, changing the writing system, abandoning tons of words with Arabic roots because Russia had done it (can't remember where, a Muslim majority region/country)

USSR, I should say

God damn will someone answer my question - sigh - where are the answerers

@AIQ ?

Link please

@EddieKal When I was in school, they never taught us about our own fucking history ... but who discovered which region in the west was so much important ...

@AIQ Even post-independence??? Wait you were in school after the liberation right? You can't be that old

@AIQ No clue whatsoever, but upvoted.

I like asking about really rare usages too

I think it means when you go to the drive thru at McDonald's and buy a bagged meal, with fries; some of the fries fall out and end up at the bottom of the bag. After you've finished the meal, and still feel hungry; you are so happy to find those few fries at the bottom.

> Steph Curry ... In his bag — deep — like the fries are at the bottom.

In his bag of tricks, down deep. There is, like the fries at the bottom of the bag, a joyful finding.

thanks for the great highlights :-)

@EddieKal Wait actually that had to do with the type of school I went to ... My school was under the UK board ... so basically, the curriculum was in English ... And that is why History was for some reason based on land discovery ... very weird ... I would have even loved to read about WWI and WWII ... none of that stuff ...

@AIQ lol

I am reading some of snail's answers on Japanese SE. Very illuminating

It's funny because three of the six ELL mods are/were active over there.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected (44): I [had]/[have] been in a pretty good mood so far by Prooff on ell.SE

Hello everyone!!

And I believe there are many questions like this around here.

I was confused about the position of the adverb 'only'.

Are these sentences correct and meaningful like the original question: "There was only standing room in the court." OR "There was standing room in the court only"?

Many sites say that position of some adverbs are flexible, can be placed at the very front, middle of the sentence or at the end.

@DhanishthaGhosh Generally, the placement of an adverb indeed has a high degree of latitude.

You can move it around a bit. But it also depends on the semantics--the meaning of the sentence.

So in this case, "There was only standing room in the court." "There was standing room only in the court." "There was standing room in the court only." all mean the same thing, but I would be careful with the last one.

Take for example another sentence, "There was only standing room in that room." If you say ""There was standing room in that room only." the meaning changes.

This is why it is so hard for AI to achieve full human comprehension.

Human language is really complex.

Noam Chomsky has done a ton of work on this

@EddieKal Aha, now I see. Reading the sentences aloud helps me sometimes.

@EddieKal True with all regards!

@EddieKal Heard his name, but never had the opportunity to read his work.

Shall do it sometime.

@DhanishthaGhosh Chomsky is an interesting character. He has been political vocal as well. If you are interested, you can look him up on YouTube and watch his talks and interviews on global politics and democracy.

I am poor with politics, but never bad to hear thoughts of people.