Can we just skip to the next bit?

Vade*

Vafe*

huius obliviscere

everyone needs to hear about the situation in india right now. the youth of this nation are going through hell and back to protect the foundations that our country was built on in the first place, while the adults who are supposed to actually be in charge try to silence our voices.

NEET, which is an exam taken by millions of students per year and is the ONLY gateway for medical admissions across the country, had its papers leaked. so many took their lives because this exam meant everything for their future. and NTA, the agency who conducts this exam, was not held accountable.

there was national backlash. cockroach janta party (initially a satirical political party formed by abhijeet dipke in retaliation to the remarks of the chief justice of india calling the youth "cockroaches" and "parasites of society") started protests at jantar mantar, demanding the resignation of the union education minister, dharmendra pradhan. the movement also asked for ten million inr (~100,000 usd) in compensation for the families of students who died by suicide and wanted NTA be held accountable.

sonam wangchuk, a climate activist and education reformer, also went on a hunger strike at jantar mantar to protest against this corruption in india's higher education system. his fast began on june 28, demanding the resignation of the union education minister. his fast lasted for 20 days until delhi police FORCIBLY removed him and admitted him to safdarjung hospital on july 18.

because of this, cockroach janta party announced "chalo sansad," a march to the parliament beginning on june 20th, 9:00 am ist. but the police seems to be responding with water cannons, mobile jammers, and baton charge. all of this, because of a peaceful protest led by people no older than 30.

In my head: ah! The archaic form of the letter s! Being a casual scholar of linguistics myself I am well aware that though it resembles the letter f in modern typography in fact it is phonetically identical to s! How foolish it would be to stumble into such a simple lexiconical pitfall!

The scene takes place during the War of 1812, and Marryat goes out of his way to emphasize that the American captain pronounces the word as "leftenant," spelling it out phonetically.

Is he trying to suggest that this is actually the pronounciation used in the United States, as opposed to the (presumably more correct) British pronunciation? It is debatable how much American accents and British accents actually differed in the early 19th century, given the considerable evidence that American and British sailors sounded very much alike.

@favorite-phoneme-creature

I suppose palatalisation isn't a phoneme by itself, so if I have to chose an actual single phoneme, then /ʎ/. I know it's not technically phonemic in Frisian, but the word ljocht /ljoxt/ "light" is my 'cellar door' I just think it's so beautiful

if you've seen my header image, you might've expected the answer to be /ʕ/. but that's in there because of how it was described in E.D. Reymond’s Introductory Lessons in Aramaic ; a truly magnificent (non-)description of a phoneme which has lived in my head rent free since I read it over a decade ago :

Every so often, you have to sit without yourself and think, "am I in a cult?" This goes for everyone and it's really important to do so.

Consider:

1. Is there an out group I'm supposed to hate?

2. Is a group telling me they're the only safe people?

3. Am I being told to distance myself or stop contacting my loved ones?

4. Am I being asked to risk my life or others' lives? (This one is iffy, but still should be on the list.)

5. Am I being told that my group is above the law?

6. Am I asked to self censor? Am I punished for asking questions?

7. Am I worried about losing all my friends and social network if I step out of line?

8. Have other people called me an extremist?

9. Am I being told to follow one person or organization and not question it?

Everyone is susceptible to cults. Everyone!

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

The distinctive 'UCLA comma' and 'Michigan comma' are a long string of commas at the start and end of the sentence respectively.

University Commas [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

This is actually common with autistics. Our brains develop differently, so different parts of our brains mature at different paces.

This is how you get autistics who, at the age of 10, read at a high school level, but still act like they're 5.