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Category: English
Why is Hermione pronounced like her-MY-on-ne in English? Does it follow the rules? It doesn’t seem phonetic, and the Greek is probably different.
It follows the rules alright. They’re just rules that have nothing to do with the original Greek. Traditional English pronunciation of Latin – Wikipedia In the middle of a word, a vowel followed by more than one consonant is short, as in Hermippe /hərˈmɪpiː/ hər-MIP-ee, while a vowel with no following consonant is long. Hence, […]
What terminology from “The Guardian” newspaper’s list of 35 misused word definitions do you often use wrong?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/05/the-35-words-youre-probably-getting-wrong Ah, I see we have an instance of that special being we call in Greek the glōssamyntōr, the “language defender”. Harold Evans, Fleet Street editor, eh? Of the Street that gave us Lynne Truss? And in turn the immortal book review of Lynne Truss, Bad Comma? (“An Englishwoman lecturing Americans on semicolons is a […]
Can you write an English sentence, phonetically, in another script without changing the language?
Having read James Garry’s answer to Can you write an English sentence, phonetically, in another script without changing the language? Όου Γκουντ Λορντ. Μάι μπρέιν ιζ χέρτιγκ του. Δε πέιν, δε πέιν… … Χαγκ ον, James Garry, γιου ρόουτ Ένσιεντ Γκρικ, νοτ Μόντερν. Οκέι. Λετ μι όφερ μάι ατέμτ. I’m pretty sure Ancient Greek rendered […]
What are some words or phrases that are only used in your region?
Let us now praise Australian hypocoristics. Or Diminutives in Australian English. I’ve seen hypocoristic used here, because the Australian forms aren’t used like normal diminutives, to indicate that something is cute or small; hence bikie “member of a motorcycle club, with a connotation of involved in criminal activity”. Of course, hypocoristic is just Greek for […]
How did it come to the letter Y (ypsilon) having the sound value of a consonant?
That outcome of <y> is specific to English, and as Y – Wikipedia says, it is through the influence of the obsolete English letter yogh, which was conflated with <y>: Yogh – Wikipedia The letter yogh (Ȝ ȝ; Middle English: yoȝ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing y (/j/) and various velar […]
Why do Australians prefer plain easy English over rich English?
The other answers are good, but I like to step back with questions like these, to the cultural context. In former times, expertise and professional use of language were elite activities; people who would use language professionally had an education that encompassed the literary canon and rhetoric; and the dominant literary aesthetic prioritised an extensive, […]
Why is “damn” considered a dirty word while “condemn” is not?
Because, for better or worse, damn is what God does, and condemn is what a judge does. So damn picked up the religious and then blasphemous connotations which condemn never had, which made it much more eligible as a profanity. Profanity is all about the current taboos in society. Answered 2017-05-27 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Why-is-damn-considered-a-dirty-word-while-condemn-is-not/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
We have Francophile, Anglophile and Sinophile but what do we call someone who loves The Netherlands?
Nederlandia – Vicipaedia Country Name in Latin: Nederlandia or Batavia Name of inhabitants: Batavi or Nederlandenses The Dutch may well want to avoid Batavia these days, but Batavophile is less of a mouthful than Nederlandophile. Marginally more hits on Google too (438 vs 299). Hollandophile has 711 hits, which just shows how insensitive the world […]
Regarding Australian states and territories, say you have a certain word in your state. Have you come across different words in other states that mean the same thing?
Australians desperately hang on to the small lexical differences between States, as you’ll see here, because otherwise Australian English is ludicrously homogeneous geographically. Variation in Australian English – Wikipedia The names for different sizes of beer glasses (Australian English vocabulary – Wikipedia) is kind of the counterpart to the renowned Eskimo words for snow. (Yes, […]
What exactly is the origin of the “ain’t no” kind of speech/dialect?
Ain’t – Wikipedia Ain’t is found throughout the English-speaking world across regions and classes, and is among the most pervasive nonstandard terms in English. It is one of two negation features (the other being the double negative) that are known to appear in all nonstandard English dialects. Take ain’t instead of am/are not, add the […]