I don't dispute that there are amateur researchers. To elaborate on what I said, though, my point is that the "research" that we do here on EL&U is secondary research that consists in looking up sources of research (dictionaries, encyclopedias, and what have you) and regurgitating that for public consumption (and private profit). This has become rather stylized and ossified, so that if there were ever anything like original research done here it would be panned by the community.

We can only find out what is already accepted.

Most of it, probably.

But not all.

I'd be interested to see some of the "not all."

There are answers which use sources to find certain linguistic features, for example.

Primary sources.

Well, true. I recall Araucaria giving such an answer to a question of mine.

Let's see if I can find it.

Answers such as these are by far the exception, though.

Uh oh, angry discussion on site functionality. Those always end well.

@Vikas if you survived all that Tom has, you'd be able to lift historical buildings too

@M.A.R. Oh you mean it's impossible for me.

Is the second message correct?

@CowperKettle it's not odd. It's perfectly ungrammatical

@Vikas I dunno. Guess we'll never know until you try some of those things

@Vikas it's odd to pluralize FAQ. "Frequently asked questionses"

@Vikas there's something distinctively non-native about "sure sir". The honorific is reserved for people you're not supposed to be casual with, you know, with remarks like "sure". It's a bit like "how's it hanging my liege?"

A native speaker of English would probably only say it sarcastically

@CowperKettle "We totally depend" would sound more grammatically correct? I mainly see problem with "purely".

@M.A.R. Sorry. I can't survive a firecracker blast on my nose.

@M.A.R. It's confusing. E.g see 2 different Amazon pages use both FAQ and FAQs: amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201995060 aws.amazon.com/faqs

@M.A.R. I went to a doctor yesterday and I called him "sir" than I realized I shouldn't have said that. I should have called him "Doctor" instead?

This is my vernacular: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagri_language

It is basically a mix of 3-4 Indian languages.

@CowperKettle It is spoken in a limited area. Not well known in other states of India. It is spoken by some area in mainly 2 or 3 states (including 1 in Pakistan)

But it sounds weird among other language speakers so I avoid it 🤣

@CowperKettle LOL

You won't feel what I felt when you wrote that 😂

@CowperKettle Only in home and family. But as kids we would prefer it in schools. The teachers would sometimes scold us for speaking it in schools.

@CowperKettle Yes.

@CowperKettle But that language makes it even more friendly and light humor based. Very very casual.

I have to speak it mainly with my parents and relatives/cousins. Anywhere else I tend to avoid it in my area.

Yeah languages can be very old

Yeah

Sanskrit is optional in schools here and so I didn't learn it. It didn't sound cool to me.

I haven't seen anyone speaking in Sanskrit except priests in temples.

That too during religious ceremonies only. For short duration

I'm surprised to see that Thanks for suggestions is idiomatic. I would have expected Thanks for the suggestions. Would the lack of article work in all cases? e.g. Thanks for bottles!

@jlliagre Probably just sloppy/hasty writing?

@Cerberus I bet you're right. It's tough to come up with a suitable context that would make not using the article ok there.

@Vikas "totally" is also too casual. "Greatly" is the best fit, I should think

@M.A.R. I totally agree with you.

@Vikas a few doctors would take offense to being called anything but.

@M.A.R. call anything but "Sir"?

It's a bit less weird to use "sir" if the sir in question is twice or thrice your age, but it still gives off military vibes

@Vikas "doctor"

@M.A.R. Okay. But what is the right word?

Shouldn't I say "I'm feeling better today, doctor"?

@M.A.R. Okay. Still some doctors might find it offensive?

@Vikas some doctors would take offense to being referred to as "Mr." or "sir" or the like

Here, the local most common phrase is "Doctor Saheb"

They're usually the insufferable sort, but one can't be picky there eh

Saheb == Boss/Sir/Owner or to show respect to a well known person.

@RobustosupportsUkraine Putin's mind is already crispy from all the plutonium in his tea or whatever

Nah, he puts polonium on other people's tea.

@Vikas I'm referring to the implicit rules of conduct in a country like the USA. Obviously, the rules are much more lax in Indian English communities

Ok

@RobustosupportsUkraine can't blame him, his mind is already fried

These are people of the lie. They must be held accountable.

Russia denies and deflects in reaction to Bucha atrocities

This is right out of Trump's playbook.

The Trump diaries

Autocrats and would-be autocrats routinely lie to serve their purposes.

Eh, that's giving Cheeto too much credit.

Too much credit? That he lies to serve his ends?

I think that is right in his wheelhouse.

@RobustosupportsUkraine this did happen, didn't it. I kept wishing it wasn't true because of the sheer inhumanity of it

@RobustosupportsUkraine no, I think it's more like they're the masters and he's the apprentice

If one thing is true about humanity, it's that it can be profoundly inhumane.

@M.A.R. OK, but my point was that they are birds of a feather.

Sure, they're better at it than he was/is.

Yeah I'm just splitting hairs

They are all people of the lie.

This is why the fourth estate is so important.

US Presidents other than Trump have certainly lied and tried to cover up. But at least we have news organizations that can get the truth out.

@Vikas तुम्हारी हिम्मत कैसे

@CowperKettle I thought that Tajik was mostly the same as Dari which is mostly the same as Persian

@RobustosupportsUkraine The fourth estate always sounded a lot nicer place to be than sitting in a smoky office making phonecalls. You know, like you have your place in the Hamptons and the place on the Riviera, and a chalet in the Alps, and then the afterthought 4th one, the Caribbean island with its own landing strip.

@M.A.R. But that sir could well be the common way to do it in Indian English (and I hear it a lot more in Indians in situations like Vikas's sentence).

I can't play this nearly as fast (or as well), but it's what made me want to play the piano.

What a joyous celebration of music.

Fox viewers transformed after watching CNN for 30 days, report finds

And this is the corruption of the fourth estate.

@Mitch And your home in MA is just a pied-à-terre?

I should have said Faux News is the corruption of the fourth estate. My meaning wasn't clear

@RobustosupportsUkraine nah, just one of those new mirrored glass highrises

not so modest as just a floor or two. I mean all fifty stories.

@CowperKettle Also क्यांमी राफ चोड़ी करै है रे?

@Mitch lol

Do you understand literal meaning of it?

@Mitch It is little incomplete sentence. It means "How dare you"

@RobustosupportsUkraine it's that easy?

Even whiteboard markers leave a more lasting mark

@Mitch the whole Indian English thing is a rabbit hole I'm not going down, although I certainly agree there is something called Indian English. Anyway I think Vikas is more interested in what would be considered natural in other Englishes, at the very least. And of course if Indians use "sir" for perfunctory politeness they need to come up with something that means the AmE and BrE "sir"

@Vikas Elon is now leaving his musk on Twitter, though thankfully he hasn't infiltrated anything I have a use for

@M.A.R. So Musk will become Elone?

> US increases oil imports from Russia by 43% : Russian Official

Is this true?

@Vikas When?

@Vikas America has very recently embargoed all oil imports from Russia.

@Cerberus I read it on Reddit a few minutes ago. To confirm I Googled.

But when was it written?

April 03

@Vikas Does it give a source?

Because it sounds like nonsense.

Why can't other countries help Venezuela sell produce and sell its oil?

@CowperKettle No, I think it will happen much faster now.

@Cerberus Maybe

@Vikas Partly because the country's government and organisations are corrupt, partly because of sanctions.

Hmm

@Vikas I'm sorry, but why would you believe any random message on the Internet, without a reliable source?

Sacntions?

Especially when it makes no sense.

Venezuela has been under sanctions for a long time.

@Cerberus I didn't believe it ;) I read it on Reddit, then on that website then asked again here to confirm.

Maduro basically suppressed democracy.

Indian uncles would forward it on WhatsApp after first read.

Haha.

Dangerous people.

Windows 11 will finally have tabs in its file explorer.

More than anything else, I needed it.

Haha congratulations.

You could use a different file browser in Windows and have tabs right now!

And the announcement came after 2 days of me downgrading from Windows 11 to Windows 10 (due to failure)

@Cerberus Yes. There's one on github

But it was kind of laggy so I don't prefer. Also I don't trust third party apps like that.

There are many, I believe.

Many that should be reliable.

That have been around for a long time.

I will try to explore them.

Hah.

I pronounced Stalingrad as Stalinguard for almost 2-3 months. I never paid attention to spelling.

@CowperKettle Oh. It's something like some Indian city names. And also like Bridgetown?

@CowperKettle I get it now.

@Vikas I copied it from the bagri wikipedia page. It's hilarious in English too

We have cities like Yamunanagar (Yamuna + Town), Ganganagar (Ganga + Town)

@Mitch Yeah I know. But it's even more hilarious in my language xD

It somewhat means like making your mouth/cheeks wide maybe while you're laughing out loud

There's another sentence. Which is used like "Why is your face swollen?"

Guess what does that mean?

@Vikas I used google translate for that. 'How dare you' is also this weird sentence fragment that sort of stands by itself.

@M.A.R. Apparently.

@Mitch I expected that.

@Vikas Does it mean that your face is swollen?

@CowperKettle Good job.

@Mitch No. Think about a child or kid whose parents deny him to buy something he was wishing for. He would become angry/sad and his facial expressions would change. That is when they say "Why have you made your mouth swollen?"

@Vikas but to Hindi. They don't have Bagri ... using Hindi to English on Bagri gives gibberish

A better example would be your boss scolds you and you sit on desk sad/angry.

'pouting'?

@Mitch No. It's nothing that significant. But one can identify something is not right.

@Vikas "Angry" is way more significant than "pouting" would be.

@RobustosupportsUkraine Yeah. Maybe I didn't use the right word. It could be upset instead.

@Vikas Maybe it means you're playing a trumpet, like Dizzy Gillespie?

@Mitch Google translate won't understand all of Bagri. Bagri does contain a lot of Hindi. So Google will translate only those parts.

@Mitch No no no. You're not getting. I'll show you example.

Something like these.

But it's not limited to kids only.

@Mitch It can be used for that too of course. But that's not common case for that sentence usage.

Not really an achievement. This one was obvious at a glance.

Wow I'm so good at it now!

It took me 3 seconds.

Well, living where you do you could hardly miss that one.

Haha

Probably only your own country would be easier.

And not by much.

I would recognize Australia or Chile more easily too.

And Canada?

Italy?

This one was kinda hard today.

Japan?

Italy is probably the easiest ever.

@Cerberus I'm getting familiar with Italy map. It's unique.

There is a reason it's called the "boot" of Italy.

Can you give me a starting word for Wordle

Maybe it will help

@RobustosupportsUkraine Yeah I saw and read about that.

Let's see

That has 4/5 of the letters.

Or perhaps more.

I think it still will be hard for you.

How to share it?

I forgot to copy link from popup

Click on "SHARE" ...

@RobustosupportsUkraine you must be surprised?

I didn't think you would know that word.

Honestly, I don't even know what does that word mean.

@RobustosupportsUkraine Yeah

It was pure luck. I didn't expect it will come true.

Now I will look into dictionary

I never even heard before

@RobustosupportsUkraine Is it always tough like this?

Not for me. Not usually.

The problem comes when you get 4/5 in the right places and then have to guess.

I have of course heard its nearest word.

@Vikas Two letters are clearly visible...

Consider _ATCH. That could be WATCH, LATCH, HATCH, PATCH, MATCH ... you get the idea.

@RobustosupportsUkraine Oh yeah

Then you try e.g. PALMS.

It's the oldest game in the world, people.

Pro tip: Try to start with a guess that contains two common vowels: CLEAN, PACER, etc.

And remember that in English, letter frequency is in this order: ETAOINSHRDLU ... if I remember correctly.

@Cerberus We used to play it as Mastermind in college.

Wouldn't I love to pick up an old game like that, slap some programming on it, and sell it to the New York Times for a tidy sum.

@RobustosupportsUkraine Interesting

So STAIN would be another good seed word.

@RobustosupportsUkraine It is called Lingo here.

Was on television daily for decades.

How well does it work in Dutch?

Same? Easier? Harder?

@RobustosupportsUkraine I am only familiar with the Dutch game, so I don't know.

Oh, I've played a Latin version recently.

Hahaha. Nice.

wordle.latindictionary.io

Latin has fairly praedictable patterns.

Limited consonantal clusters.

Limited endings.

@Cerberus I'm stumped. On guess 3 I have O__MI, but I can't think of a Latin word that would fit that when the other vowels are non-matching.

@RobustosupportsUkraine aioli

xerox

pizza

@RobustosupportsUkraine Yeah, it is not a common word.

But what you can do is simply try letter combinations that sound like they could be Latin.

@Cerberus Yeah, but I've already done that and come up empty.

I've exhausted my knowledge of Latin and Latinate possibilities.

So what have you deduced about the missing two letters?

What can they be, and what can they not be?

Note also that all valid inflexions are possible.

Well, they can't be W or U or K or Y.

OK.

And the third letter probably has to be a vowel, right?

Yes. So V?

No, it uses U for vowels.

OK.

A, E, and U are all taken.

Taken, as in impossible?

Yes.

OK.

Then I and O remain?

I suppose we could come out with O_IMI. That would be possible.

You could try a couple of consonants with that.

If none are valid words, try with O.

But it is admittedly less fun when you don't know the word, which also happens to me sometimes.

And we once saw a form that was impossible.

In this case, the word is not common, but valid.

lol

Tadaa!

Now, was that so difficult?

Well, I tried that one in Google Translate.

Why not try directly in game?

It translated from Bulgarian.

It will simply refuse non-existent forms, so there is no harm in trying.

@Cerberus Yeah, a rookie move.

OK.

In Lingo, your turn ends immediately when you give a non-existing word...

So what does opimi mean in Latin?

> ŏpīmus, a, um, adj. [ob, and obsolete pimo, to swell, make fat; akin to Gr. πίων, πιμελή; cf. pinguis], fat, rich, plump, corpulent; of a country, etc., rich, fertile, fruitful.

Plump.

Nice word, huh?

Yeah. Opimi uva?

Should be opima.

Yes, of course.

Are there any rules in Latin about modifier position?

No strict rules.

Usually nothing stronger than pragmatic pressure, or avoiding ambiguity.

And, in poetry, hyperbaton sets them almost completely free.

They jump over other words.

You're not going to strike me with your hyperbaton again, are you?

That one really smarts.

Only if I can catch it.

@Vikas don't give him any ideas, the last thing we need is him ruining puns

Very interesting perspective from Mikhail Khodorkovsky, exiled Russian oligarch whom Putin had jailed for 10 years.