this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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Linguistics Humor

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Do you like languages and linguistics ? Here is for having fun about it


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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The first two do not fit the description, as neither is conveying a thought. Those aren't words. They're onomatopoeias.

They do convey thoughts, which is why you know what they mean.

They're not onomatopoeia, because they aren't made to reflect sounds (though the first one reflects a sound a person would produce with their vocal tract, those aren't usually called onomatopoeia).

Spoken words are still made up of letters, even if they're not written down.

Spoken language came before written language. Words existed long before letters were invented. So then letters making up words can't be the definition of words because words existed before letters existed to "form" them.

Just because they aren't roman letters, does not mean they aren't letters. Cuniform and hieroglyphs are just a different kind of letter.

They don't need to be Roman letters, but many written languages don't use letters. I'm not sure about cuneiform, but I know that not all hieroglyphs are letters. Chinese is another written language that doesn't use letters, for example.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They do convey thoughts, which is why you know what they mean.

I'm sorry but even as a joke, this is just way too wrong. The examples given of "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" and "Aaaarfgfhfhrhhhh" have no meaning. They are, at best, sounds. Making them onomatopoeias.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

Mmmm is something that people (English-speakers?) say when something tastes good, seems appetizing, or is interesting or arousing or something. It's not exactly a word, but it's not an onomatopoeia.

"Aaaarfgfhfhrhhhh" would be an example of someone typing frustratedly into the keyboard (or mashing their keyboard) because something didn't go their way. It's an arrangement of letters to express frustration. It isn't even necessarily a sound that anyone would vocalize. So it's an arrangement of letters that conveys a thought but isn't a word.