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1. Embed this notice
   EmbraceBecoming (embracebecoming@kolektiva.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 01:22:35 JST EmbraceBecoming

   • Sabrina✨

   @ryanhoulihan if you use something enough it becomes grammatically correct. That's how language works.

   • Embed this notice
     Josephine of the Spirits (joflohk@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 01:31:44 JST Josephine of the Spirits

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan I had this argument with my husband about gender neutral language in Spanish, which substitutes the A or O that indicates the gender of the nouns with an E
     (i.e. hermanAs, hermanOs, hermanEs)
     He was ranting on facetime with his mum about how these are not real words as they're not in the dictionary

     So I asked him to tell his 74yo mother, using only words that are currently in the Spanish dictionary, about the NFT he had minted that day on the Solana Blockchain

   • Embed this notice
     VulcanTourist (vulcantourist@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 01:41:13 JST VulcanTourist

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan

     The story of how that came to be over centuries, prior to events of the last decade or so, might be an example of linguistic anarchy that we must abandon if we hope to approach Kardashev Type 1. There's good reason that we have standards bodies for nearly everything else outside of language evolution. Ethics are prescriptive; why should evolution of the language used to communicate "them" not also be prescriptively guided?

   • Embed this notice
     FIN commentator (timokarppinen@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 02:08:19 JST FIN commentator

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan My writings are not "grammatically correct", but I think that everyone understand those. English is not my first language but second. After that came Swedish, German and Thai. So I hope some mercy for my mistakes in grammar.

   • Embed this notice
     SirDrake (sirdrakexxii@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 02:09:10 JST SirDrake

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan talk about reaching for straws for their discrimination

   • Embed this notice
     🥥 We Built This City 🌴 (webuiltthiscity@sutrofan.com)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 02:58:51 JST 🥥 We Built This City 🌴

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan Language usage changes over time. I’m still working on having it not feel awkward to use “they” for a single person, but my brain’s internal objections about grammar are much less important than addressing actual human beings in a way that makes them feel seen and acknowledged

   • Embed this notice
     George Liquor, American (liquor_american@universeodon.com)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 03:00:23 JST George Liquor, American

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan @EmbraceBecoming I was astonished when I learned there's like a high council of the French language that accepts or rejects new words based on their perceived benefit or harm to the uhh Frenchness of French.

     It's absurd and specifically limits the utility of language. A language that grows organically is one that's serving its speakers' purpose. A language being dictated to you from on high...well whose purpose is that serving?

   • Embed this notice
     George Liquor, American (liquor_american@universeodon.com)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 03:00:23 JST George Liquor, American

     in reply to

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan @EmbraceBecoming I mean.... 🧐
     https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/jul/21/france.internationalnews

   • Embed this notice
     Mike "MikeMead" Mead (mikemead@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 03:51:38 JST Mike "MikeMead" Mead

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan Grammar cops who don’t know the grammar law get the grammar guillotine. #AGCAB

   • Embed this notice
     Cat West (catawu@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:02:20 JST Cat West

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan People who get tongue tied over “they/them” and are proudly defensive about it, are almost instantly the low buzz & hum of background noise for me. They really have nothing to say and my attention quickly wanders elsewhere. Either that or I become laser focused angry and someone may have to throw my bail.

   • Embed this notice
     David Nelson (dmnelson@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:10:57 JST David Nelson

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan My sister is a linguist and she has worked on documenting dying languages with fewer than ten native speakers. She says you’re not there to prescribe how the language should work, but to describe how people use it and what it means to them. We should have the same mindset with English. Sure there’s an element of right and wrong when you’re writing a legal document or a paper for school. But what goes into the dictionary is a description of what we mean and we get to influence that.

   • Embed this notice
     VulcanTourist (vulcantourist@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:29:44 JST VulcanTourist

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan

     Let's just do away with building codes and let builders wing it, shall we? I'm sure that all the upwardly mobile home buyers will appreciate that.

     Prescriptive standards, methods, and processes matter enormously in this densely populated age. Leaving language to the wolves just because we can't collectively agree how to shepherd it is foolish. Ethics are prescriptive, too, and we're failing miserably at establishing universally accepted human rights (and responsibilities).

   • Embed this notice
     iquanyin (iquaanyin@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:35:23 JST iquanyin

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan just tell them@language is alive and it grows and changes. only dead languages stay the same. have a great weekend.

   • Embed this notice
     iquanyin (iquaanyin@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:36:35 JST iquanyin

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan also, if you feel like explaining about language, ok. it’s not a “loss” to do so, no a loss to not do it. it’s merely a choice. yay for choice! and both are fine. 🌹

   • Embed this notice
     iquanyin (iquaanyin@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 04:39:07 JST iquanyin

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan @EmbraceBecoming 🤣 touché!

   • Embed this notice
     VulcanTourist (vulcantourist@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 06:46:32 JST VulcanTourist

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan

     Building codes and language are more similar than you recognize or admit. Building codes establish a framework of rules - a SYNTAX - that seeks to avoid misunderstanding (a structure with unusual construction for sale to a buyer who doesn't know or understand the particulars). Language serves the same purpose: a framework and syntax that seeks to establish a PREDICTABLE baseline to avoid misunderstanding. Linguistic anarchy doesn't serve that goal well.

   • Embed this notice
     VulcanTourist (vulcantourist@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 06:48:46 JST VulcanTourist

     in reply to

     • iquanyin
     • Sabrina✨

     @iquaanyin @ryanhoulihan

     Have you ever been in the position of communicating instructions to a computer system? Programming languages must be inflexible for a reason. The misuse *ahem* flexibility of spoken human languages comes at considerable cost: misunderstanding. If the same literary license was attempted with a computer, the result would be comparable or worse.

     The less effort humans use to communicate precisely, the worse the misunderstandings.

   • Embed this notice
     iquanyin (iquaanyin@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 06:48:48 JST iquanyin

     in reply to

     • Sabrina✨
     • VulcanTourist

     @VulcanTourist @ryanhoulihan i’m a retired copy editor. the only time rules matter much for language is formal disciplines. books, scientific papers, etc. am also, editors *constantly* have to decide on new things that arise. it’s not cut and dried. i know for a fact because it was my career.

   • Embed this notice
     Katie the Pink Panda (pinkpandakatie@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 06-Nov-2023 23:22:37 JST Katie the Pink Panda

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan The use of "they" as singular predates the letter "y". It was usually spelled "þei".

   • Embed this notice
     Snowshadow (snowshadow@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:50:09 JST Snowshadow

     • Sabrina✨

     @ryanhoulihan

     Back in 1980, our English professor told us to use "they/them" rather than she/her and he/him.

     (Is this why conservatives hate universities? Next they will ban the word 'inclusive' from dictionaries.)