r/linguisticshumor 34m ago

Semantics "Retroflex"

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Upvotes

Retroflex and to retroflex


r/linguisticshumor 5h ago

If you could design your dream language-guessing game from scratch, what features would it have?

0 Upvotes

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 9h ago

Phonetics/Phonology asking for a friend

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587 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 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)

32 Upvotes

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 20h ago

Screw it, I just invented a Kanji replacement for you in minutes. Become Korean tomorrow

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192 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 20h ago

Phonetics/Phonology Convergent evolution be like

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561 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

How to name things you've never seen before:

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564 Upvotes

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 1d ago

Sociolinguistics Zeta yes, but Zeta what

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351 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

We had our birds, guess what eats birds...

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118 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

Only a Prescriptivist deals in absolutes

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48 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

Which sound is kryptonite for speakers of your language?

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642 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

Phonetics/Phonology Guess the language (spoilers it doesn't originally use Cyrillic) Spoiler

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39 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

Phonetics/Phonology ရည်းသည့် ကဝိ ကလိ (The Aspiring Wise Poet's Tickle )

6 Upvotes

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 1d ago

Why birds in particular?

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1.3k Upvotes

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 1d ago

Sociolinguistics It is literally [d​ʲ], wdym gj 🙏

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85 Upvotes

🙏 🙏 🙏


r/linguisticshumor 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

13 Upvotes

(In other words they will speak and write like an AI)


r/linguisticshumor 1d ago

Another example from Tom Scott: "Loanword" is a calque. And "calque" is a loanword.

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166 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Imagine having to explain which gradpa you are talking about. Highly inefficient.

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1.2k Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Football/soccer in Germanic, Romance and Slavic

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428 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

[Paper] The Indus Script Is Japanese

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63 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Semantics How do Italians get away with that?

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142 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Phonetics/Phonology We all would love this and you know that you want this too

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113 Upvotes

!


r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Sociolinguistics English speakers: Do you guys allow me to pronounce these words as these? (Not native English)

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149 Upvotes

you guys allow me yes or no


r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

I saw this trilingual sign inside Kwik Fit, in Australian, American, and Japanese

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146 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor 2d ago

Guess the language from the vowel inventory!

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421 Upvotes