• 0 Posts
  • 26 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

help-circle










  • Mobiuthuselah@lemm.eetoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlWhat hills are you dying on?
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Question about the first one. Do you consider English a living language that evolves over time?

    To that point, do you ever phonetically say boatswain instead of bosun? Which way do you spell it? How do you (personally) pronounce Worcestershire sauce? How do you feel about onomatopoeias in general?

    I would argue that words evolve with vernacular and sometimes the spellings become antiquated. In the case of Worcestershire sauce, pronunciation can vary greatly from spelling. If ketchup bothers you, are onomatopoeias even words to you?

    Eventually, insisting on the old spelling becomes more ridiculous than going with the newer. Since you spell it catsup, can you bring yourself to use a squeeze bottle for it or are you still tapping that 57 hoping to get it to ooze?

    Seriously though, since this is the hill you’ll die on, convince me otherwise about vernacular and spelling.








  • Evolution isn’t necessarily purpose driven. I know that sounds counterintuitive. Gene expressions can be random af and when they aren’t selected for or against, they can carry on for many reasons, sometimes just because they’re located on the chromosome near something that IS selected for. That’s just one example, there’s a lot of reasons something like this carries on. Maybe these horses have been bred for one thing and this is a genetically related side effect. Evolution is weird and accidental in many ways.