r/language 8h ago

Question using 'we' to refer to a group of other people excluding yourself.

18 Upvotes

idk how to word it in google so im coming here.

im writing an analysis for eng lang, and wondered if there is a way to describe using we in this context.

'I see we're lacking common sense'

with 'we' referring to a group of other who are the ones lacking common sense. it is said by someone who is criticising them for lacking common sense but says 'we' , even though theyre not including themselves as lacking common sense.

it reminds me of how a teacher might refer to a class. eg. 'are we going to behave now?' , although the teacher is not misbehaving but rather the students misbehaving are the 'we'.

i hope i worded it well enough to understand.


r/language 9h ago

Discussion Arabi origin words in Byari/Beary language

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6 Upvotes

r/language 1h ago

Question Make a case for the most beautiful language by posting videos

Upvotes

People have opinions regarding which language is the most beautiful. But its hard to understand why some people think Japanese, Persian or Finnish are beautiful, because when I google those languages I only find videos about learning those languages, news reports or songs.

So please tell us which language is the most beautiful and post a video that proves your point. Preferable a speech or conversation, not songs.


r/language 1d ago

Question Why is Portuguese so overlooked?

79 Upvotes

It's the second most spoken romance language, yet it feels like french and italian have more people interested in learning those languages globally. Some people even think Brazil and Portugal speak Spanish.


r/language 19h ago

Video Made a tiny song about Sindhi Alphabet for fun.

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6 Upvotes

Made it because loved the language for some reason.

By me.

Translation: "52, Alphabets, Are a bit too much. But learning them, Is very, Important!"


r/language 11h ago

Discussion The Modi script: Not what you think

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1 Upvotes

r/language 15h ago

Question What is special about Bangla language?

1 Upvotes

I think it might be the beautiful script


r/language 17h ago

Question Is Russian or German easier to learn?

0 Upvotes

I'm Czech and I know English as a foreign language, but as a high school student I need to learn a second foreign language.

I have to choose between Russian and German and I need to choose the language that is easier to learn because I really need to finish my studies and honestly I'm struggling with learning in general and thus make it at least a little easier for me in languages🥹


r/language 1d ago

Discussion Evolution of Bangla script

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3 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Question Do u understand?

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4 Upvotes

r/language 19h ago

Question What's the worst language learning take you've ever heard?

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0 Upvotes

r/language 19h ago

Request Duolingo Language Addition Request: Kannada

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1 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Question Languages and Cultures

13 Upvotes

Are there any words in your languages that shows your culture? I’m currently writing about why protecting languages is important, and I was thinking about relating it to culture.


r/language 23h ago

Discussion Exon’s Law, Latin Vowel Loss, *-C(C)C-

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0 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Question Any suggestions

3 Upvotes

Is there an app that has the same design and the way of learning " reading stories " as iStoria and "elingo" (the exposive app on iOS" , but for other languages , or at least for french


r/language 2d ago

Question What languages could replace English as the global language in the future?

141 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Discussion Grammatical gender distribution in different languages

18 Upvotes

Many languages divide their nouns into multiple categories, traditionally known as 'grammatical genders, such as masculine el auto (the car) and feminine la casa (the house) in Spanish. Have you ever wondered whether the split between those categories is even or whether one grammatical gender has more words than the other?

In this chart, I compare the distribution of nouns into each gender in a few languages, based on English Wiktionary categories. For instance, English Wiktionary lists 6471 entries in the category 'Irish feminine nouns' and 9758 entries in the category 'Irish masculine nouns' leading to the 40%/60% split in the chart.

Danish and Swedish nouns are split into 'common' (roughly corresponding to both masculine and feminine nouns in related languages) and 'neuter' genders. I'd expect the same split for Dutch, but since Wiktionary has separate categories for feminine and masculine nouns, I went with that criterion.


r/language 1d ago

Request Offering: Urdu / Seeking: Arabic

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0 Upvotes

r/language 2d ago

Discussion Why "the" is so hard for Indian and Chinese people

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10 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Question Can someone unpack this? Unexpected answer from LLM Claude.

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0 Upvotes

r/language 1d ago

Question How to make a foreign language become a well-entrenched indigenized language within a few generations?

2 Upvotes

How to make a foreign language without preexisting historical roots in a particular country a well-entrenched indigenized language within a few generations? Let's say make English and Spanish a well-entrenched indigenized languages in Belgium/Switzerland and Philippines/United States, respectively?

Do you think mandating the entrenched elite class and civil servant aspirants in a particular country to speak a specific foreign language will make a difference over the long-term, to the point where middle and lower socioeconomic class will begin to speak the language of the elite class within a few generations?


r/language 2d ago

Question What is this symbol?

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23 Upvotes

What does it mean? I am confident it is Amazigh. These pictures were taken in an Amazigh speaking area of Morocco and in the third picture, there are clearly other Amazigh symbols. But I can’t find anything online about it. I tried asking AI and it just gave me fake answers. Any help?


r/language 1d ago

Discussion Fortunatov’s Law

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2 Upvotes

r/language 2d ago

Discussion What is a word in your target language that made you completely rethink how you structure sentences?

4 Upvotes

r/language 3d ago

Question Favourite extinct languages?

39 Upvotes

Like, what are some extinct languages you wish could come back? I'll go first:

  1. Polabian

  2. Dalmatian

  3. Old Prussian

  4. Gothic

  5. Gaulish