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@lexiconista@mastodon.ie

Post #780307

2026-03-23 15:54 UTC

If you believe that “all languages have words for yes and no” or some poppycock like that, then this will shatter your naïveté. https://www.lexiconista.com/falsehoods-about-languages/

Replies (7)

  • @amdg2@diaspodon.fr 2026-03-23 18:09

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie very interesting, even though a lot of them reads like "native English speaker barely know other languages exist"

    Open ##2904729

  • @dingens@troet.cafe 2026-03-24 10:07

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie very nice, cool! I have an addition to the emojis. The fingers crossed emoji 🤞 is culture specific. In German you'd say "I push thumbs for you" ("ich drücke dir die Daumen") to wish someone luck.

    Open ##2904733

  • @mlouise@localization.cafe 2026-03-24 22:48

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie Verbs and nouns, who cares, it's all spelled the same, and conjugation is the same except for 3rd person singular. Plural only needs an additional s at the end. What do you mean some nouns can be feminine/masculine/other and adjectives may vary depending on that?

    Open ##2904739

  • @xocolatli@lingo.lol 2026-03-25 04:09

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie Yes and no in Indo-European languages are actually a bit counter intuitive: Aren't you going to the store? No. This means "I'm not going," but most languages would give an answer of correct or incorrect to the statement, not a "no" to a negative question. This is incredibly confusing to non-native speakers

    Open ##2904741

  • @lexiconista@mastodon.ie That was a nightmare for some of the earlier Welsh translations with dialogue boxes that were a standard yes/no box and similar. OK buttons are as bad. Some languages really don't have a generic OK so you end up with translations that are akin to Your database file is corrupt [Cool]

    Open ##2904746

  • @travisfw@fosstodon.org 2026-03-25 22:45

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie I was hoping for something on #Farsi, which I am learning. I am *not* a linguist and I could use the insight. Anyone? #i19 #internationalization

    Open ##2904748

  • @jacobras@mastodon.social 2026-03-25 23:53

    @lexiconista@mastodon.ie nice! A couple of very interesting ones I didn't know yet (as someone very interested in languages 🤓)

    Open ##2904749