English
English is my native language (specifically, Australian English). Thanks to British colonialism and US neocolonialism, it is the most widely-learnt second language in the world. It is estimated there are almost 1.5 billion speakers of English in the world, of which only 373 million are natives. English is notorious for its highly fossilised, and therefore (compared to the modern spoken language) difficult and inconsistent orthography.
Did you know? I also have a wiki page called ‘English’! If you want to check that out, you can do so here.
Wiki
- : 💬 origins of English words: English is a Germanic language, but for historical reasons its modern vocabulary (though largely not the most common, …
- : 💬 Australian English: Australian English is the variant of English that I speak, obviously. Like a lot of people, I am interested in the …
- : 💬 Australian English accents: Unlike North America, Britain or Ireland, we don’t really have regional accents (although some features are more …
- : 🪴 title case: Title case is a capitalisation style used for titles (hence the name), in which “major” words are …
- : 🪴 English letter frequency: In English, in order of how often they appear in real-world texts: E – 13% T – 9.1% A – 8.2% O – 7.5% I – 7% N – 6.7% S …
- : 💬 Transatlantic accent: The Transatlantic accent is a non-rhotic prestige accent of English that was popular among the US upper classes in the …
- : 💬 Shavian alphabet: The Shavian alphabet is an alternative alphabet created for the writing of English. (See also: English spelling reform). …
- : 💬 English spelling reform: English spelling is notoriously difficult and inconsistent, including to its own native speakers. Ages ago I saw a map …
- : 🪴 Deseret alphabet: The Deseret alphabet was an alternative alphabet proposed for writing English by Mormons in Salt Lake City in the middle …
- : 💬 IPA for English: This is a page all about using the International Phonetic Alphabet to write English. Consonants The consonantal phonemes …
- : 💬 Brevian alphabet: The Brevian alphabet is a proposed alternative alphabet for typing English. Drawing inspiration from the Shavian …
Posts
- : 💬 Micro post: I feel like this is an underappreciated fact: the American South is not the only place where people say y’all. My …
- : 💬 Double Object Pronouns in English: When I was studying linguistics at uni, one constant refrain was that native speakers (not grammarians) are the arbiters …
- : 💬 Micro post: A linguistic pet peeve of mine: people saying “all X are not Y” when what they mean is “not all X are …
- : 💬 Mental Models of Languages: So as we know, children acquire their native language by being exposed to lots and lots of input in that language, …
- : 💬 Micro post: My honest opinion that I absolutely will not stand by if challenged by someone with coercive power over me is that …
- : 💬 Micro post: Have you ever wondered where the English word “net” came from, and how it expanded to uses in …
- : 💬 Why aren't words pronounced the way they're spelt?: Some time ago on Q&A website Quora, I answered a question about why English words aren’t pronounced the way …
- : 💬 The Evolution of Canadian, Australian and NZ Englishes: On Quora, I once answered a question about why Australian and NZ English sound more like “British English” …
- : 📚 On Book Localisations for the US Market: Earlier today I read a Reddit thread about book localisations for the US market (external link), and while …
- : 💬 Spelling English Phonetically: English spelling is notoriously inconsistent and difficult, at least to its own native speakers. Ages ago I saw a map of …
- : 💬 Evolution of English Accents: I watched a couple of interesting YouTube videos last night: this one, demonstrating how London accents have evolved …
- : 💬 Micro post: Today I discovered that the English word country is in fact cognate to Latin (and descendents’) contra; apparently it …
- : 💬 On (and In) the Shavian Alphabet: NB: I wrote this post first in Shavian, then transliterated it back into the Roman alphabet. Both versions are presented …
- : 💬 Micro post: There are seriously a lot of American Shavianists who are like “oh, my accent doesn’t distinguish between …
- : 💬 Micro post: One neat thing I’ve noticed as I’ve worked at learning to read Shavian is how my experience has mirrored …
Links
- : 💬 Link: “The academic story of African American English has been wrong all along.”
- : 💬 Link: “scolding water – John Wells’s phonetic blog”
- : 🍱 Link: “Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA / NZ”
- : 💬 Link: “That Weirdo Announcer-Voice Accent: Where It Came From and Why It Went Away”
- : 💬 Link: “Time Period of the word “cool” and its synonyms”
- : 💬 Link: “Why We Use “lol” So Much”
- : 💬 Link: “A Brief History of Dik”
- : 💬 Link: “‘Y’all,’ that most Southern of Southernisms, is going mainstream – and it’s about time”
Interactions
Jessica Smith is a socialist and a feminist who loves animals, books, gaming, and cooking; she’s also interested in linguistics, history, technology and society.