Welcome to our mailbag, where all the really great questions come from.
- Why do we say “You’re welcome”?
- How can varelse mean ‘a being’ in Swedish, but ‘a room’ in Danish?
- In sci-fi, what happens when the universal translator breaks?
- Is there any reason to study conlangs?
- How can you overcome problems with finding the right word?
- Is the word datatainment for real?
All will be answered on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlPromo
We start with a bonus Mailbag question: Why is a millennium not a kilonium?
Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/ttt-promo-2019-31161095
Leave That In!
Deep thoughts: We often say that language is about intent. But do we really intend all the things we say, or are we just trying to get the effects we want? (In John Austin’s terms, is it about illocution, or perlocution?)
What do you watch on the plane? The team reveal their habits.
We also talk about our favourite forms of datatainment. And Daniel describes his favourite Reddit game. (No one else wants to play.)
Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/31298733
Reflections on 384: Mailbag
Welcome to Reflections. I’m Daniel Midgley. 🎹♫
Have you noticed that the Mailbag episodes are happening more and more often lately? We’re getting so many great questions lately, so we’re trying to do one every five episodes or so.
We all love Mailbag episodes because they give us a chance to explore some areas that we wouldn’t normally get to do. Would we ever do a show on “You’re welcome”? On word retrieval? On varelse? No, no, and no. It’s the kind of thing you’d never think of. But others would, and so here we are.
Bill’s Universal Translator question is a perfect example. It’s the kind of question that gets us nerding out, and the audience gets to come along with us. The danger is that it’s hard to tell if the audience is going to enjoy the trip.
And now I have to reveal what’s going on in my head as the recording is going on. I guess I’ve taken the role of director of the show. I do have information that I want to get across, and part of my brain is busy being the Informer, but you’ll notice that there are long stretches where I’m quiet, letting Ben and Hedvig get what they want to say out there. While that’s happening, the Editor part of my brain is keeping track of how the conversation is going, whether what we’re saying is comprehensible, how the pace is going, and whether it’s time to haul things back on track. It’s exhausting! But it’s still fun to be able to have these conversations in public. Anyway, I think I included enough of the discussion to give the audience the idea, but I cut it off soon enough that it didn’t fully dissolve into tiny details.
What else — I especially loved the varelse question because Hedvig really had it under control, and I got to relinquish control. And for the conlang question, I’d never heard of CALS, the Conlang Atlas of Linguistic Structures, so that was a great find. I’m just going to share my favourite chart: Presence of Uncommon Consonants. What’s especially hilarious is that they compare conlangs with natlangs, and boy, do conlangers ever ladle on the pharyngeals!
We’ve even got a bracket of questions for our next Mailbag (in five weeks). That’ll be our last Mailbag for this year. Still time to get one in. Thanks for your awesome questions, everyone. It’s lovely to be asked. And if you have a different answer, we’d love to hear that too.
Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/31183817
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Show notes
millennium (n.) | Etymonline
https://www.etymonline.com/word/millennium
etymology – Where did the phrase ‘you’re welcome’ come from? – English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/152941/where-did-the-phrase-youre-welcome-come-from
Ta, cheers, much obliged: A brief history of ‘thanks’ in English – OpenLearn – Open University
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/english-language/ta-cheers-much-obliged-brief-history-thanks-english
(PDF) Mattias Jacobsson: Thank you and thanks in Early Modern English
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fa07/67bb3bcede941bc446e277156867985282ce.pdf?_ga=2.157430399.459362823.1572131920-2053412528.1572131920
Why Don’t People Say ‘You’re Welcome’ Anymore?
https://www.countryliving.com/life/a19621740/why-dont-people-say-youre-welcome-anymore/
welcome (n.) | Etymonline
https://www.etymonline.com/word/welcome
thank (v.) | Etymonline
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=thank
In Polite Defense of ‘No Problem’ | Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/07/01/in-polite-defense-of-no-problem/
Svensk Etymologisk Ordbok
http://runeberg.org/svetym/
CALS: Home
https://cals.conlang.org/
Shaka, When the Walls Fell
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/star-trek-tng-and-the-limits-of-language-shaka-when-the-walls-fell/372107/
(PDF) Nathan Sanders: Constructed languages in the classroom
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/02e_92.3Sanders.pdf
Why You Should Learn Dothraki and Other Conlangs | Living Language
https://www.livinglanguage.com/blog/2014/10/16/why-you-should-learn-dothraki-and-other-conlangs/
How to Invent a Language, From the Guy Who Made Dothraki
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/conlang-book/
Because Language: The Art of Language Invention (featuring David J. Peterson)
(another podcast by Daniel)
http://becauselanguage.com/the-art-of-language-invention/
Word-Finding Strategies for Aphasia – A How-To Guide & Top 10 List
https://tactustherapy.com/word-finding-strategies-aphasia/
Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC: TOP TEN LIST: Word Retrieval Strategies
http://twinsistersspeechandlanguagetherapy.blogspot.com/2013/09/top-ten-list-word-retrieval-strategies.html?m=1
Effect of computer therapy in aphasia: a systematic review: Aphasiology: Vol 30, No 2-3
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02687038.2014.996521?src=recsys
A comparison of drill- and communication-based treatment for aphasia
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3349434/
‘Datatainment’ not my fault – it’s official! – Seven League
https://sevenleague.co.uk/2014/07/11/datatainment-not-my-fault-its-official
Why (and how) datatainment is the future of sports writing |
http://sixtwofourtwo.com/why-datatainment-is-the-future-of-sports-writing/
Gregoire Cliquet: datatainment
Translated with Google Translate
Words ending with TAINMENT
https://lotsofwords.com/*tainment
Transcript
We’re working our way back through the archives. If you think we should prioritise a transcript of this episode, let us know!
