Post AzsfhEMn7trUbIBfsW by elilla@transmom.love
(DIR) More posts by elilla@transmom.love
(DIR) Post #AzsfgwnmQoks7mfyRk by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T20:59:37Z
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original: kakaw, kakawatlSpanish: cacaoGerman: KakaoPortuguese: cacaoFrench: cacaoPolish: kakaoJapanese: カカオRussian: КакаоHungarian: KakaóArabic: كَاكَاو English: cocoa :thonking: I never thought about that, why is English like, metathesised the vowels? it doesn't make sense phonetically either, you would expect something like "cackaw" or whatever if they were trying to imitate the sound. it feels as if at some point someone mixed up the letters rather than the sounds
(DIR) Post #AzsfgxbPSISCbhtbns by slothrop@chaos.social
2025-11-03T21:01:36Z
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@elilla I feel sorry for linguists, who feel an urge to question this sort of thing. The rest of us can simply conclude that “it’s English, they were never going to spell anything in a predictable fashion anyway”, and move on with our lives.
(DIR) Post #AzsfgyHavSCKiXdIYa by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T21:18:15Z
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@slothrop there's always a reason for things in language.in English, the reason for the distance between writing and spelling is 95% explained by the fact that words are written like they were pronounced 500 years ago, and modern English speakers refuse to acknowledge or engage with this fact and prefer to pretend the spelling is random or arbitrary, because the alternative would be to admit that the sounds of their language are pretty simple and could be trivially written in a simple way like anybody else.it's like the thing where English speakers make a big deal of their language having mixed vocabulary from several sources, pretending it's a noteworthy vice or depreciative quirk of the language, as if that wasn't 1) just the way languages normally are and 2) the case for every widespread language in the world.basically the general trend with English speakers' self-image about English is total exceptionalism thinly masked by a veneer of self-depreciation
(DIR) Post #Azsfh53fjcDjjOAmKO by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T21:01:14Z
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> The form cocoa came about by confusion with "coco", popularized by Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.[1]howhow did you confuse cacao with coco :neocat_confused:
(DIR) Post #AzsfhEMn7trUbIBfsW by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T21:05:06Z
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COCOA, n.ſ. [ cacaowal, Span. and therefore more properly written cacao.]Wiktionary lied to me, Johnson 1755 was telling people that "cacao" makes more sense
(DIR) Post #AzsfhLyyoJZIDl6lsG by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T21:12:29Z
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A ſpecies of palm-tree, cultivated in moſt of the inhabited parts of the Eaſt and Weſt Indies; but thought a native of the Maldives. It is one of the moſt uſeful trees to the inhabitants of America. The bark of the nut is made into cordage, and the ſhell into drinking bowls. The kernel of the nut affords them a wholeſome food, and the milk contained in the ſhell a cooling liquor. The leaves of the trees are uſed for thatching their houſes, and are alſo wrought into baſkets, and moſt other things that are made of [ofiers? oliers?] in Europe.interesting to me that even the intelligentsia of the 1700s wasn't arrogant enough to claim the name of the continent for one single country like modern USians routinely do
(DIR) Post #Azsfjp9DLXfHFo4bZI by coolbean@linfan.moe
2025-11-03T21:23:01.261984Z
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@elilla @slothrop if memory serves i think the futhark actually works pretty well for modern english which is really funny
(DIR) Post #Azt5jrgyU2plxCXpAm by elilla@transmom.love
2025-11-03T21:27:07Z
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@zoec colonisers usually do. often literally.it can be argued in fact that writing was developed originally and foremost with the purpose of colonial administration, and afterwards for the spread of imperial culture in the form of holy books in a holy, written language that stands in opposition with the dirty language spoken by flesh ("hieroglossia").
(DIR) Post #Azt5jtCYs5h8dSKZ2u by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2025-11-04T02:13:48Z
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@elilla> it can be argued in fact that writing was developed originally and foremost with the purpose of colonial administrationIf I remember rightly, Graeber says otherwise in Debt. Suggesting that it was developed for inventory purposes, in large, communal operations like monasteries. Which traded with famers and small communities to feed large populations, those engaged in spiritual/ intellectual pursuits, and those whose work kept everyone's basic needs covered.@zoec