English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

SmokeDetector

02:22

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected, offensive title detected (102): (potentially offensive title -- see MS for details) ✏️‭ by Suwh Jwau‭ on english.SE

CowperKettle

02:57

@jlliagre Yes

tchrist

03:18

“Call me by my name, Dumbo!”

alphabet

04:31

Wellesley animal control officer rescues baby raccoons, refuses to address how systemic antiraccoonism is the root cause of problems in the community

-2

Q: Specific term for a "Synonym Phrase"?

Is there a specific term for a pair of phrases where each word technically has the same or similar meaning, but when taken together, has a completely different meaning or implication? I used Synonym Phrases in the title, but was wondering if there was a better one. Examples include: "Butt Dial" vs

> "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned" vs "Sorry Daddy, I've been naughty"

CowperKettle

05:14

DNA as a perfect quantum computer based on the quantum physics principles - Nature Scientific Reports

> A physical–chemical-biological knowledge of DNA will allow us to control its properties with external parameters in the future. New doors are opening within the world of nanoelectronics and nanomedicine. God created the most perfect quantum computer: the DNA.

God created me so dumb that I can't even understand what they mean with their paper.

Thank you, God.

alphabet

06:56

Thank You God - Tim Minchin

►

Yes, it's 3am here. Sleep is overrated.

M.A.R.

07:45

@alphabet Lol 8/10

Robusto

13:44

Official languages of India:

Assamese
Bengali
Bodo
Dogri
English[1][2][3]
Gujarati
Hindi[1][4]
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Maithili
Malayalam
Marathi
Meitei
Nepali
Odia
Punjabi
Sanskrit
Santali
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu

I dare any nation to even come close.

Wordle 1,088 4/6

⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Mitch

14:22

@Robusto You are correct in multiple spirits but not in the literal sense of the word. Bolivia has 37 'official' languages (that is, they are named as official).

List of countries by the number of recognized official languages

This is the list of countries sorted by the number of official languages. Only countries with three or more official languages, either nationally or locally, are included. == See also == List of official languages by country and territory List of official languages List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language == References ==

That wiki page is very problematic though. India doesn't even appear on it though it certainly does have the list of official languages that you listed. (and there was a recent edit that added it in that was subsequently removed, for an unstated irrational justification).

Robusto

Hmmph, India isn't even on that list.

Languages of India

Languages spoken in the Republic of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates.: 283 According to the People's Linguistic Survey of India, India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists...

Mitch

But 'official' is a problematic word. It is a political statement rather than scientific.

Robusto

Well, yeah.

Mitch

But India would be on top certainly if they didn't count things 'officially'.

Yeah I was expecting New Guinea to be up near the top, likewise Nigeria.

Robusto

There are several meanings of "official" as well. "This is officially the best football game I've ever seen."

Mitch

14:27

But the country borders are political too.

Robusto

India is a conglomeration of different countries, really.

Mitch

@Robusto I think we can agree on what the official meaning of 'pfficial' is.

Robusto

If people speak it, it's "officially" a language.

Mitch

So the most appropriate thing that is desired is the highest -density- of -mutually unintelligible languages, and I think the island of New Guinea would win there.

@Robusto Not really.

Robusto

Not even 'pfficial'?

Mitch

14:35

Cripes

Bad joke made worse

Robusto

#WhenTaken #105 (11.06.2024)

I scored 838/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 1554 km - 🗓️ 2 yrs - ⚡ 157 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 1 km - 🗓️ 6 yrs - ⚡ 193 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 518 km - 🗓️ 22 yrs - ⚡ 131 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 57 km - 🗓️ 0 yrs - ⚡ 197 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 89 km - 🗓️ 17 yrs - ⚡ 160 / 200

https://whentaken.com

Mitch

Anyway, yeah if you look at the most populous state languages, India is kinda like Europe. But Europe has had state languages for (counts on fingers) ~150 years? (since German unification and Italian Risorgimiento? And India only since 1948?

Population wise, small languages in India have more speakers than many European countries.

Robusto

@Mitch I think cricket clubs in India have more members than many European countries have people.

Mitch

@Robusto snort

But population desnity is not very satisfying because then you end up with say Taiwan being up near the top (yes, Mandarin and Wu (Shanghaiese) but also a zillion malayo-polynesian languages), or central Ethiopia.

I tink there are a lot of varieties in the Amazon, but with very low populations each and very little formal education in them.

Most of those Indian varieties you mentioned have full on centuries old literary traditions, each separate from the other.

Robusto

@Mitch Yes.

Mitch

14:49

I state this confidently without knowing much of anything because I think I may have heard so the other day on a youtube short taken from a tiktok video of an interview with some rando ranting against Hindi.

Robusto

You left out the "left-handed incel" modifier from "rando."

Daily Octordle #869
5️⃣🕚
9️⃣🕛
3️⃣🕐
4️⃣🔟
Score: 67
Shoulda been way better. Had a great start, then botched it.

misk94555

15:16

> Even in today’s digital age, emails remain a fundamental tool for communication. [from here]

I didn't realize that e-mails are analog.

Of course there's the old school EE argument that "There's no such thing as digital signal, there's only digital information imposed on an analog signal."

jlliagre

15:31

#WhenTaken #105 (11.06.2024)

I scored 969/1000 🎉

1️⃣ 📍 405.5 metres - 🗓️ 6 yrs - ⚡ 193 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 1 km - 🗓️ 5 yrs - ⚡ 195 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 309 km - 🗓️ 1 yrs - ⚡ 189 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 964.2 metres - 🗓️ 3 yrs - ⚡ 197 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 31 km - 🗓️ 3 yrs - ⚡ 195 / 200

https://whentaken.com

Wordle 1,088 4/6

⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Robusto

Daily Sequence Octordle #869
6️⃣7️⃣
8️⃣9️⃣
🔟🕚
🕛🕐
Score: 76

@jlliagre Nice work.

@jlliagre What gave #1 away for you?

jlliagre

@Robusto This (spoiler).

Robusto

@jlliagre Yeah, but there are cold places elsewhere though nearby, at least cold enough to wear those clothes.

jlliagre

15:58

@Robusto Yes but that's the first city I thought of that matched my criteria. I just looked at its weather and today's max is 30°C (72F) though, not that cold...

Vikas

16:21

Wordle 1,088 6/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

jlliagre

16:56

Daily Octordle #869
6️⃣7️⃣
9️⃣🔟
4️⃣8️⃣
5️⃣🕚
Score: 60

@Vikas Please try whentaken.com and tell us (@Robusto and me at least) what you think about the first picture. Is it easy or not to locate it?

Daily Sequence Octordle #869
4️⃣5️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
8️⃣9️⃣
🔟🕚
Score: 60

Vikas

17:27

@jlliagre Do we have to mark the exact location or just the country? If exact location (or at least city), then I guess it is not too easy. I marked it 814 Kms away.

jlliagre

@Vikas The closer the better. Did you get the country?

Vikas

@jlliagre LOL no. I didn't expect the correct location would be that. But after seeing result you can't disagree. Maybe because similarities between these two countries' culture.

How about you both?

jlliagre

18:14

@Vikas I was spot on. I clicked on the city center. @Robusto was 1500 km away, not sure where.

Robusto

18:36

@Vikas I put it in your country. There are places there that are cold enough to wear other-than-tropical clothing for some seasons.

Vikas

@Robusto That's what I thought.

Robusto

@Vikas In fact, some are even farther north than the country in question. And just as mountainous.

Vikas

@Robusto I marked it in Delhi. There are open markets like that selling stuff on streets, in less developed areas.

Robusto

And actually, with the clothes those people had on I placed it even farther south than that.

Vikas

People often upload videos on Reddit assuming it's from India. But sometimes it's Nepal or Sri Lanka. There are many similarities.

Robusto

18:46

I wear hoodies even in late spring and early fall here.

Lambie

19:22

How about this really big deal: A guy at MIT (Damian Stefaniuk and colleagues)just discovered that cement-carbon black can be used as a supercapacitor for the storage of electrical power. Not for laptops etc. but for buildings and houses. Much less bad for the environment compared to say other ways to store it. Go to the BBC site and read the story. (

Robusto

20:08

I just watched a video interview with Tom Hanks, which contained baked-in closed-captioning. He talked about the "verisimilitude" of the D-Day simulation for Saving Private Ryan, and the CC rendered that as "barista militude" ...

NotTheDr01ds

@tchrist Sorry, long delay. Haven't been online much this week (actually lost a 650'ish day SO consecutive login streak). And yes, that's what I took away from the Meta post. Good to know I got it right.

And thanks for the feedback on singular vs. plural.

MetaEd

20:20

Wordle 1,088 5/6

🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟨🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,089 5/6

⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
⬛🟨⬛🟩🟩
🟨⬛⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

CowperKettle

20:46

Word of the day: haft-sin (Persian: هفت‌سین) is an arrangement of seven symbolic items which names start with the letter "س" (pronounced as "seen"), the 15th letter in the Persian alphabet; "haft" (هفت) is Persian for "seven".

Haft-sin

Haft Seen or Haft sin (Persian: هفت‌سین) is an arrangement of seven symbolic items which names start with the letter "س" (pronounced as "seen"), the 15th letter in the Persian alphabet; "haft" (هفت) is Persian for "seven". It is traditionally displayed at Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which is celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. == Items of Haft-seen == The following are the primary items of Haft-seen, whose Persian names begin with the letter S in the Persian alphabet. Sabzeh (سبزه) – wheat, barley, mung bean, or lentil sprouts...

Samanu

Samanu (Persian: سمنو / samanu; Azerbaijani: səməni halvası), Samanak (Persian: سمنک / samanak), Sümelek (Kazakh: сүмелек / Turkmen: Sümelek / Syumelek), Sumanak (Tajik: суманак), Sumalak (Uzbek: sumalak [sʉmælˈæk]) or Sümölök (Kyrgyz: сүмөлөк [symœlˈœk]) is a sweet paste made from germinated wheat (young wheatgrass) and wheat flour, which is prepared especially for Nowruz (beginning of spring) in a large pot (like a kazan). This practice has been traced back to the pre-Islamic Sasanian Persian Empire. Although Samanu is prominent for "Haft-Sin" (the seven symbolic items traditionally displayed...

Oh. A special dish out of germinated wheat.

I never knew that there existed such dishes

> Traditionally, the final cooking would take from evening until the daylight and was a party involving only women. This would be full of laughter and music and singing related songs.

Women always have all the fun.

CowperKettle

21:13

> In Tajikistan and Afghanistan they sing: Samanak dar Jūsh u mā Kafcha zanēm – Dīgarān dar Khwāb u mā Dafcha zanēm.[2][3][4][5] (meaning: "Samanak is boiling and we are stirring it, others are asleep and we are playing daf").

I wonder if "Kafcha" means "it".

MetaEd

@CowperKettle I thought it meant "huge bug".

CowperKettle

In ancient Persian veneration of Franz Kafka?

MetaEd

@CowperKettle I like to think the ancient Persians were huge Kafka fans.

"GPTBot" just crawled some of my web server. I feel so cheap and used.

@CowperKettle "a small ladle, spoon"

CowperKettle

21:28

Ah! Thanks!

@MetaEd Because of the Faravahar

Mitch

21:56

@Lambie Link?

MetaEd

22:30

@CowperKettle yes, sure

alphabet

22:53

Today in vowel mergers: TIL that, for most people, the words boor and bore aren't homophones. They pronounce boor with that weird sound I have trouble imitating.

MetaEd

@alphabet - the oo as in "moo"?

alphabet

@MetaEd Other people pronounce boor like boo + er but as one syllable. I never make that sound.

MetaEd

"boot"

"Boole". "Electric Boogaloo".

alphabet

The trouble is trying to put an /r/ after that vowel.

MetaEd

"Coors".

alphabet

22:59

For me Coors and cores are homophones.

But cure, assure, mature go the opposite direction and rhyme with fur.

(I...also didn't know that some people pronounce Coors in a different way than cores until you just mentioned it.)

MetaEd

cure, assure, mature rhyme with fyur, I suppose.

alphabet

I don't know what sounds "fyur" is supposed to represent.

MetaEd

"cure" IPA -- /kjʊɹ/, /kjɝ/

"fur" IPA -- /fɝ/

Unless of course you're /ˈfjɝ.i.əs/

alphabet

/ʊɹ/ is the sound I almost never use. It turns into either /ɝ/ or /ɔɹ/ or /uw.ɝ/.

5

Q: Tour or Tore Pronunciation

In the past few years newsmen and sportscasters have changed the pronunciation of tour (rhymes with lure) to tore (rhymes with wore). Why is this?

pronunciation dialects rhoticity

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