Easy to miss in Mastodon's latest update, but the most-requested features are indeed coming "soon:"
"...quote posts, improved content and profile search, and groups. We’re also continuously working on improving content and profile discovery, onboarding, and of course our extensive set of moderation tools, as well as removing friction from decentralized features. Keep a lookout for these updates soon."
It's been months since I wrote something for Strong Language (the sweary blog about swearing). Finally researching a new post, on the phrase "swear like a trooper" – or a sailor, trucker, etc. There are so many variants, and more in other languages. But it's a fun one to dig into. #swearing#idioms#language#linguistics#research#amwriting
If you speak a #language other than English, and it has an expression equivalent to "swear like a ____", referring to a specific occupation like sailor, cart driver, etc., let me know! I've gathered a few examples, but the more data I get, the better. #linguistics#languages#swearing#profanity#research
I am a veteran software engineer who works as a freelancer from their home.
I love modernizing ancient software by carefully, slowly rewriting while it is still operating - without disruptions.
Currently I have two wonderful, awesome, really amazing clients between whom I split my time roughly about 50:50.
For the first one, I am the "Primus inter pares" in a team rewriting a 20-yo C++ & JS-based system in modern nodeJS + Typescript. My main job there is not to write code (it seems), but review PRs, review code, give coding guidelines, merge PRs, and make sure everything my team needs is there: test servers, development server, on-premise Gitlab, on-premise Mattermost, a good/respectful/lovely atmosphere, a lot of fun, and what else we need to deliver an awesome product. The team is amazing, the atmosphere is full of respect and love; I will stay with this team as long as I can.
For the second client, I am rewriting a 15+ year old system (Java, Java/Swift/Vue1.x-FE; rpc-like crap-API) using go(BE), gRPC (API) and dart/flutter (FE).
Here I am the core developer for the new client and the new back-end. The back-end is, for now, a proxy/a wrapper around the existing one. Behind that wrapper, two wonderful co-workers are modernizing & optimizing the Java-BE. This team here is equally as lovely as one can ever hope for; and yes, I will stay with this team as long as I can as well.
Oh, and BTW: people in both teams are nearly 100% remote.
I am married to a wonderful, an absolutely amazing person who is so full of love that she sometimes struggles with the universe (or with humanity). And I am a proud father (yes, "father"*) of a woman with a brilliant Beautiful Mind and a heart as big as the universe (who also happens to have Mastery of Words™️).
I love learning new things from complete strangers. The stranger the new knowledge the more fascinating it is for me.
I have a #FragMyBrain (autistic, ocd, nd) so be ready for detailed explanations, where each word is carefully chosen & positioned in the sentence, but still some missing - when you ask me something.
I quickly fall in love with brilliant people with language mastery skills - Mastery of Words™️.
You can always shitpost with me & talk garbage - as long as it is done intelligently, with wit & humor, and respect.
The fastest way to land on my block list is not to make a mistake, but to repeatedly make the same stupid mistake again and again and insist on it being right. There is always enough space in the "Dungeon of Blocked Accounts" (and being racists, queer-/transphobic, ableist, disrespectful, white supremecist, etc., etc. - you know what I mean).
I will add CW and mark as sensitive whenever I think so. If I forget once, please inform me and I'll correct it as fast as I can. I don't discuss whether something needs CW/sensitive marker or not, I just accept it.
I wear my feelings on my skin, i.e. what you see is how I really am, there is no IRL Imdat Celeste and a different, Fediverse Imdat Celeste: you will see a lot of 🫂,💜,😍,🥰,🥹,😳... and more. If you feel it is intruding, please let me know.
I come over differently, but I am also insecure: so, I will add a lot of emojis - just to be sure.
Also, please don't expect a "normal person" here: I am completely, utterly, hopelessly an un-normal person.
Also, my posts my start with one specific topic but during the text itself it may just become something completely different - "Train of Thought".
Again, nice to meet you - I am always looking for more new friends...
*: I am a trans non-binary person. When I came out to her, my daughter asked me how she should call me from then on and since it is an honor to be her father, that, yeah, I am and will always be that.
Good Morning #Canada
Or should I say Bon matin! Canada has 2 official Languages and most of us speak English (75.5%) or French (21.4%). But the 2021 Census shows that we truly are a multicultural society. Excluding English and French, 4 in 10 Canadians could conduct a conversation in more than one language and 1 in 11 could speak three or more languages. Diversity makes us stronger as a nation.
I'm a former #conlanger (a #conlang is a constructed #language) which got me into #linguistics, #languages and language-learning in general. I'm in a long-term, purely cerebral relationship with #Welsh, whether it likes it or not.
In June 2022 I stumbled across the r/Asexuality subreddit and found people talking about me. Of course, they were talking about themselves, but for me it was like a second awakening. On the #asexual spectrum, I'm specifically #anegosexual (a.k.a. #aegosexual) and some flavour of grey-homoromantic I haven't explored yet.
I'm generally #sex-positive, but I spent too many years being made to feel like shit by other young #gay guys who saw themselves as the only valid way to be #queer so it doesn't always come across.
The Rosetta stone has been the key to decrypt the Egyptian hieroglyphics system, as the same text is written in three #languages: #Egyptian, Demotic and #Greek.
Four [#native#languages spoken by #tribes in #Sarawak are now #extinct according to the national literary & cultural agency Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Sarawak director, Abang Haliman Abang Julai, said that according to #researchers the #Seru , #Pegu , #Bliun & #Lelak languages were now no longer in use.]
I have a #big#announcement: I am accepting #contributions to JokeBot! I added support for making JokeBot translatable into other #languages, and I need some help translating JokeBot into as many languages as possible, so it can be used by non-English speakers. If you would like to contribute, please see the contributing guidelines; you will see a section linking to a localization guide in these guidelines. Also, please make sure that you open an issue before you open a PR, so others will know that a #translation is a work in progress.
The word for "forest" in some languages.
"Forest" in English was originally a legal term, denoting (royal) land set aside for hunting, not necessarily with trees on. Apparently, that was also how the Latin word was used in the times of Charlemagne.
Of course, English also uses "woods", and French has "bois", Italian has "selva", etc. But I'm hoping these are the most directly equivalent terms in the various languages.
First, she learned Mandarin, one of the most difficult languages in the world while studying medicine at Cambridge. Okay! Can I even do half of what she did??
But her tips at learning #languages efficiently and effectively is great. My plan in 2024 is to finally progress from basic #Mandarin to intermediate. The good thing about my Mandarin is I have good pronunciation due to growing up in Mandarin-dominant Johor Baru so I have a leg up.
I found something interesting: https://wals.info/feature/31A#2/46.1/148.9
An (incomplete) map / list of #languages and their #grammatical#gender system. It is interesting to see that many languages don't have the grammar to address different (social) genders via #pronouns. Others use gender to distinct between other things (e.g., human vs. animal vs. plant vs. thing). IMHO, looking at all these different concepts of gender is very important when trying to make languages more inclusive.
The word for "we" in some languages. (Being Norwegian, I am giving more details of Norwegian dialects than of other languages' dialects.) Now let's see if I can explain this in a way that won't make linguists chew their arms off...:
Pronouns are very basic elements of language, and are very often irregular. Now, in terms of meaning, English "we" and "us" are really the same word - only different grammatical forms... 1/*