thekernel

I've heard the term "bacne" but I always thought it was more colloquial than anything. The other two just don't look like words at all. "Lolarious" in particular looks like an extremely egregious addition to a dictionary considering I've never heard it used anywhere, ever, by anyone. My computer has no sound right now, so I'll have to watch the video later to gauge the other words they're considering.

"Necessary", "Unnecessary", and "Embarrassing" are words I mess up all the time. The double consonants are hard to remember for each individual word. I'll always end up with a missing n, a missing r, or an extra c. I hate when I get that red underline every time I try to type those words, yet somehow I don't remember the differences between them.

It's a language that has been deeply ingrained within me. After learning Spanish some time ago, I was able to see that a lot of the rules that govern English have a bevy of exceptions, sometimes not purely logical ones either. That being said, English's vocabulary is incredibly deep, and it's a language that borrows heavily from the world's tongues. So there is a lot of variety.

It can only serve to further confuse people trying to learn the language. It's not a rule, it's not a guideline, it's practically rubbish. Not worth teaching to children or anyone.

Is it possible in today's world for a single writer to have the same influence over a language as Shakespeare? As we all know, he is responsible for the conjuring of many words and phrases, oftentimes creating new words out of prefixes and suffixes not before used in that sense. Words and terms such as "majestic", "fashionable", "cold-blooded" and "discontent" have all been traced back to his writings. Today, much of the modern changes to our lexicon can be attributed to the rise of the internet. "[To] Google" is now a dictionary-certified verb. Beyond that, is there any reason to believe that a single person could impact a change in our vocabulary to the extent of Shakespeare?

It isn't necessary, but a second language is one of the most important skills you can have. There are situations in life where everything becomes so much easier because you know another avenue of communication. And in today's competitive job world, it is a great thing to have on a resume.

I would think Esperanto would be the easiest. After all, the goal of the language was for everyone to be able to understand it and communicate with others who would otherwise be impossible to understand. That being said, I have no experience learning the language itself and thus cannot speak credibly to its simplicity.

"The early bird gets the worm" -- if you're early and punctual, you will reap the rewards. "Crocodile tears" -- feigning sincere grief. "A frog in [one's] throat" -- feeling hoarseness or a lump in one's throat.

The most similar English term I could think of would be "bullish". It literally means to be "like a bull", but in a more idiomatic sense, it is used to described someone who is "obstinate or stupid".

Cockney English for me. Really any accent that gives me trouble in understanding it is hard to like. But I do have a special bias against dialects that seem lazy and dirty.

Absolutely it is. Language is a means of communication, whether verbal or physical. That being said, sign language differs greatly from region to region, so it's more accurate to not consider it on the whole as a language, but more of a language family.

It never feels like it until someone points it out to me. I have deeply Canadian mannerisms imbued within me. We all sound foreign to someone though.

Esperanto has a fundamental problem where it's hard for it to be practical. I know it's designed to be the most practical and logical language, intended for universal use, but how do you get people to popularize it so that it becomes worth knowing? At this point it's hard to think of it as more than a novelty.

I feel the same way, not just about poetry, but lyrics as well. I enjoy thought-provoking verses over abstract or meaningless ones. Popular hip-hop has a huge problem with this, although artists like Kendrick and J. Cole are working hard to undo that. They write some very high-concept music that hasn't been on the scene for a while now.

I believe the antonym counterpart to that would be "adept". As with most rules in English, there are several exceptions that can defy logic -- the logical application of the prefix would indicate that the word should be "inadept". And of course, sometimes the first two letters of the word can just happen to be "IN" and not a use of the prefix, like "index" or "inane".

"Spitting image" is a cool one, because from what I've heard, it's actually a phonetic perversion of the original saying, "spit and image". "Spit" in this case being the very DNA of a person. It's a cool one because that sort of gradual shift in the way the phrase is spoken makes it really hard to translate as an idiom.

The hardest part is the discipline. Your brain will not retain a language very well if you are not adequately practicing it. For people outside of school and with no practical motivation (like work or traveling), it's hard to put in the hours unless you are really having fun with it.

I don't over use it, at least, I don't think I do. I say "haha" when I'm really laughing at something, and "lol" when something is funny but it doesn't draw as much laughter. Which I guess is ironic given the meaning of the acronym.

Song lyrics use recurring motifs like these to reinforce themes all the time. Think of the final verse from Pink Floyd's "Dogs": It's the best example I can think of off-hand as the repetition is continuous throughout, whereas other songs might have one or two repeating lines in succession.

Do you mean prefixes that alter the word to mean the opposite? Because some words use "a" or "un" to achieve a similar effect. "Tonal" vs "Atonal" or "Believable" vs "Unbelievable" for example. Or do you mean other words that "In" can be added to, i.e. "Insufferable", "Insatiable", or "Incongruent"?

Awesome, I don't suppose you'd have any you'd like to share? I'm always interested in what people are creating, as well as what inspires people to create. Kofi Awour is not a name I've heard but I will look him up. How did you come across a poet from Ghana?

I've recently indulged myself in the works of James Douglas Morrison (aka Jim Morrison). After reading his biography, I was incensed to search out the words he wrote but never sung. It's very imaginative, tough to deduce meaning from, but vivid in its imagery. What poetry do you like to read?

I trip over my tongue a lot. It's not great for when I try to tell witty jokes and I end up botching the punch line. That doesn't stop me from trying though. I'm not really concerned about how people perceive me through my grammar and pronunciation. In a professional business environment, it would do you well to have great language etiquette. But I don't believe it seriously impacts what people think of you.

If you want to be steeped in the culture, knowing slang words and curse words is pretty key. It can only add language barriers if you're in a practical situation and someone is using tons of words you don't understand. I think it's rather asinine that some words are so taboo in the first place.

Good old Dictionary.com. It's very convenient to be reading an article for example, seeing a word I don't recognize, and being able to instantaneously unearth its meaning. Back before the internet, the Oxford dictionary was a household standard for family game nights with Boggle or Scrabble.