• Mr. Satan@monyet.cc
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    42
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    20 days ago

    Look, english spelling is already a mess for me to parse (non-native speaker). If y’all start using this other alphabet, I’m just not gonna bother reading.

    “Oh no! Anyway” kind of comment, but I must protest somehow.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      35
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      20 days ago

      Yeah, I think this is a pretty shitty way to behave on a website with a large number of non-native English speakers.

      • _NoName_@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        20 days ago

        I think the real shitty part is the English itself, not letter changes.

        We could do the nice thing and make an easier language the standard? Spanish maybe? Could also do German. /s

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        20 days ago

        Do you think it’s shitty for black people in America to use African American English dialect on public forums where non-native speakers could see it? Same deal, just different levels of familiarity. Nothing is forcing anyone to engage with this post, but a lot of people seem to feel a strong enough desire to enforce social conformity that they go out of their way to complain about someone doing something different.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          20 days ago

          No. Not same deal. One is dialect with slang, which is readable, and which you can just easily look up if you don’t know.

          The other is using letters that even most native English speakers can’t parse.

          Also, comparing this person’s nonsense to an ethnic group’s way of speaking is highly offensive. I hope you realize that.

          • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            10
            ·
            20 days ago

            No. Not same deal. One is dialect with slang, which is readable, and which you can just easily look up if you don’t know.

            I couldn’t read OP’s post so I looked it up and now I can. All it takes is a little effort, which if you’re not willing to expend you can simply move on.

            The other is using letters that even most native English speakers can’t parse.

            Sure African American English (which is not just slang, but an entire dialect with a different set of grammatical rules) is common and recognizable to most native English speakers now, but there was a time when it was just as inscrutable to them as OP’s post.

            Also, comparing this person’s nonsense to an ethnic group’s way of speaking is highly offensive. I hope you realize that.

            I get that you think you’re being progressive by getting offended on others’ behalf, but all you’re really doing is using that ethnic group’s struggle as a rhetorical device to shame me for having a dissenting opinion. I am comparing them because they are alike in a way that is relevant to my point, not because I think they are identical.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              20 days ago

              I get that you think you’re being progressive by getting offended on others’ behalf

              What the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?

              • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                6
                ·
                20 days ago

                I vaguely recall you saying you were Jewish in an earlier comment, if you’re actually black then I apologize. If not then perhaps you can try asking someone who is African American if they find what I said “highly offensive.”

                You see OP’s use of Old English as worthy of derision, so you interpreted my comparison as belittling towards AME. I don’t share your aversion to esoteric forms of expression, so my comparison is entirely without malice.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  11
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  20 days ago

                  Yes. I am Jewish. And being from a minority ethnic group, one with more than one language that has developed due to centuries of forced isolation and relocation (Yiddish and Ladino), I know what it’s like for people of privilege to take your particular ethnic language and use it to make points that have nothing to do with it.

                  It has nothing to do with “being progressive” and everything to do with having been in this position myself, so I know why it’s offensive.

                  • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    4
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    20 days ago

                    Thank you for explaining, I’m sorry for being insensitive. I already explained that I meant no disrespect towards AME. I disagree that the point I made has nothing to do with it. AME was at one time esoteric among the general US population, and that is the only way I’m saying that AME and OP’s use of Old English letters are alike.

    • apostrofail@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      20 days ago

      Ban ñ from Spanish! My language does not have this character!

      Non-native speakers tend to mess up dental fricatives in speech as is. This usage is a good reminder as a character for a sound your language doesn’t have… a lot of languages “th” is pronounced as English “t” which implies aspiration like in Thomas. It is just like learning any other non-Romantic language & is literally in Icelandic—not some made-up character.