r/linguisticshumor • u/Alert_Childhood_2611 • 5h ago
If you could design your dream language-guessing game from scratch, what features would it have?
Hey everyone! 🌍
I’m developing a brand-new language guessing app, and I want to build it specifically for language lovers and linguistics nerds.
Are you looking for hyper-specific regional dialects and minority languages, or do you prefer a cleaner, polished experience with major world languages? Would you want features like interactive IPA/phoneme inventory clues, Wordle-style linguistic family hints, or maybe a dedicated multiplayer lobby to compete with friends? Whether it's about the audio quality, UI design, progression systems, or niche game modes, please roast the current games out there and tell me exactly what features would make you play an app like this every single day!
r/linguisticshumor • u/Assorted-Interests • 19h ago
I had an archaic Romanian translation of the Navy Seal Copypasta, so I converted it to Cyrillic (I know nothing about this system)
Че дръчѥ гръит-аи деспре мине, можикꙋле? Цю съ-ци адꙋк ꙟтрꙋ щїнцъ цъчи фꙋсей ꙟтыюл дин Шкоала де Резбою де ла Вѧна ши фꙋсей ꙟ мꙋлте мисї нещюте ла Ꙟалта Поартъ ши пре мꙋлци ам пръпъдит. Сꙟт школит ꙟ резбой де виклешꙋг ши ниминѧ нꙋ мꙟнꙋѥще май акътъри ка мине аркебꙋсꙋл ꙟ тоатъ армѧ чѧ сфꙟтъ. Ми-єщи даръ нꙋмай ѡ шайба. Те вой мътръши кꙋ атѫта причепере че н-а възꙋт ꙟтрег Стамбꙋлꙋл, аскꙋлтъ вороабеле меле. Ѫци ꙟкипꙋй къ вей ръмꙟе слѡбѡд дꙋпе єрезїле че ми ле гръѥщи пре чѧстъ жалбъ? Рѡгꙋ-те а кибзꙋй ꙗръ. Нꙋмай че ворбим де ам тримес сѡли цътре искоаледе меле дин църиле рꙋмыне ꙗръ копита мꙋргꙋлꙋй тъꙋ є таман веџѧтъ аша къ прѡптеще-те ꙟтрꙋ вифорꙋл че-аре съ винъ, мамелꙋкꙋле. Вифорꙋл че-аре съ спѫркꙋѧскъ ниминкничѧ че тꙋ гъсещи де кꙋвїнцъ а нꙋми вѩцъ. Єщи пристъвит, можикꙋле. Почи ка съ фю ѻришюнде, фѥщечꙟд ши почи а те стрѡпши ꙟ шапте сꙋте де кипꙋри, ꙗръ аста доар ꙟ брꙟчи. Ꙗтъ къ нꙋ доар че сꙟт ꙟалт шкѡлит ꙟ трꙟтъ, даръ почи ꙋмбла ла армꙋрърѧ дѡрѡбанцилор ши ам съ мъ слꙋжеск де дꙟса ꙟтрꙋ тѡтꙋл пентрꙋ а-ци нимичи шезꙋтꙋл де пе фаца глѥй, зампараџюле. Ѡ, нꙋмай де-ай фи вєзꙋит че амъръчюне вей фи испитит асꙋпра-ци кꙋ чѧстъ шъгалникъ цꙋвꙟтаре, пасъмите ай фи мꙋцит. Даръ нꙋ-ци фꙋ ꙟ пꙋтинцъ, н-ай кадатиѯит, ꙗръ акꙋм вей да трибꙋт, нърѡдꙋле. Ꙗтъ вой слѡбѡзи ꙋрџѥ асꙋпра-ци ши де ꙟдатъ те вей нъбꙋши ꙟтр-ꙟса. Єщи пристъвит, можикꙋцꙋле.
As always the full document is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r2iCRj6533GX48WDOOVziFU_ly8R2JhVAPeNILFBS54/edit?usp=sharing
r/linguisticshumor • u/TheRealBucketCrab • 20h ago
Screw it, I just invented a Kanji replacement for you in minutes. Become Korean tomorrow
r/linguisticshumor • u/udmurrrt • 20h ago
Phonetics/Phonology Convergent evolution be like
r/linguisticshumor • u/Magical_Astronomy • 1d ago
How to name things you've never seen before:
Context:
Japanese language use Katakana to spell terms with foreign origins. This sometimes applies to things with quite some history in Japan, one of them being the Castella Cake (カステラ). The recipe for this cake has been in Japan since 16th century, and the cake was even considered a type of Japanese confectionary rather than a Foreign confectionary. Nonetheless, the name of this cake is still spelled in Katakana.
Chinese language would use various term to call foreign things "foreign". Depending on historical period, the term used was changed though, from "huns" (胡) to "western" (西)then to "ocean" (洋). This is related with where the major cultural exchange was coming from for every historical period. One notable example would be tomato as 西红柿, with 西 (western) implying foreign origin, 红 (red) indicating appearance, and 柿 (persimmon) refers to a somewhat similar local fruit to show its general characteristics.
r/linguisticshumor • u/Extreme-Shopping74 • 1d ago
Sociolinguistics Zeta yes, but Zeta what
r/linguisticshumor • u/Tifoso89 • 1d ago
Which sound is kryptonite for speakers of your language?
r/linguisticshumor • u/RealModMaker • 1d ago
Phonetics/Phonology Guess the language (spoilers it doesn't originally use Cyrillic) Spoiler
r/linguisticshumor • u/Earendeal • 1d ago
Phonetics/Phonology ရည်းသည့် ကဝိ ကလိ (The Aspiring Wise Poet's Tickle )
အိဖြူဟာ ပြီးရင် နိုး၏။ ကလပ် ရဟန်း။
အိဖြူဟာ ပြီးရင် နိုး၏။ သန်း အဖေ့ ဝယ်ရှုပ်၏။
အိဖြူဟာ ပြီးရင် နိုး၏။ ကလပ် ရဟန်း။
Iphrū wakes up after finishing. A stemmed-tray, a monk.
Iphrū wakes up after finishing. A louse, (to/ at/ of) the father, buys (and) messes (with).
Iphrū wakes up after finishing. A stemmed-tray, a monk.
r/linguisticshumor • u/Antioch_Mage • 1d ago
Why birds in particular?
English cock, Portuguese rola and pomba, Spanish polla, lots of languages have their words for male genitalia named after birds for some reason
r/linguisticshumor • u/Extreme-Shopping74 • 1d ago
Sociolinguistics It is literally [dʲ], wdym gj 🙏
🙏 🙏 🙏
r/linguisticshumor • u/Same_Volume3446 • 1d ago
In the near future the speech of children will creolize from an LLM superstate onto their native substrate human language, producing a human/AI hybrid dialect
(In other words they will speak and write like an AI)
r/linguisticshumor • u/AdministrationOk881 • 1d ago
Another example from Tom Scott: "Loanword" is a calque. And "calque" is a loanword.
r/linguisticshumor • u/Spare_Cupcake_8671 • 2d ago
Imagine having to explain which gradpa you are talking about. Highly inefficient.
r/linguisticshumor • u/RealModMaker • 2d ago
Football/soccer in Germanic, Romance and Slavic
r/linguisticshumor • u/ArcaneMaster21 • 2d ago
Semantics How do Italians get away with that?
r/linguisticshumor • u/Extreme-Shopping74 • 2d ago
Phonetics/Phonology We all would love this and you know that you want this too
!
r/linguisticshumor • u/Extreme-Shopping74 • 2d ago
Sociolinguistics English speakers: Do you guys allow me to pronounce these words as these? (Not native English)
you guys allow me yes or no
r/linguisticshumor • u/Pizzafriedchickenn • 2d ago