Tock tick

56 comments

Unrelated but I have the exact same clock pictured in the article ... Weird.
- Does it go tock-tick?
  
  I suppose it depends on what part of the clocks action you first wake up during.
- No fucking way, it's exactly the same!
  
  I could only find two differences.
  Birds head is tilted different directions and mind has a single door for the cuckoo whereas the pictures one has double doors.

Trying to explain this to non native English speakers at my work is hilarious. It's a rule that I don't even know the parameters of. It just is!

What a load of flam-flim.

All that clip-clap and doesn't say why
- Here you go, enjoy!
  
  More specifically look up the term "ablaut reduplication". There's lots of great articles and honestly some pretty good YouTube videos on the subject. I'm honestly surprised how great the YouTube linguistics scene is, from Tom Scott's language files to rob words and name explain (plus nativlang). Hours of infotainment on linguistics for those interested!

I now want to read a small story that actively violates these kind of rules.
- I heard that child Tolkien told his mother he'd "written a story about a green, great dragon" and when his mum told him it had to be a "great, green dragon" he was so put off that he didn't write again for years.
  So maybe track down that story?

This is about the most useless thing I will learn all week. Interesting, but utterly useless.
- Not if you're an EFL (English as foreign language) teacher and you needed a way to help your students understand adjective placement better: )

stupid-big-ol-quadratic-yellow-bikinibottom-sponge-fuckin ass

Drake and Josh, Zack and Cody, Rick and Morty
- Bout what about Mork and Mindy?
  
  Good question. Maybe they did it deliberately to make it feel more alien and strange? Or maybe there's another rule about the relative number of syllables (e.g., Tom and Jerry, Jak and Daxter, etc.)
  
  That sounds normal when flipped to me. Swapping Rick and Morty for Morty and Rick sounds wrong but Mindy and Mork still has that right to it. I think they did it on purpose.
  
  This is likely because of the different sound profile(not sure if this is the right word) of the words. Mork ends with a guttural letter that opens up for usage of a relatively open vowel like the "a" in "and". Also, it's one syllable, and it should be easier to start with the lower number of syllables and work your way up or at least keep it that count. Mindy, on the other hand, has those two syllables, and ends with a vowel that also I believe, making this up on the spot, shouldn't open up for possibilities to follow up, which I think is why there's not just barely quite as much usage for "y" as a vowel too. Add to that that saying "Mork and Mindy" makes ylu naturally slide "O-Æ-I-I'", gradually opening up. Instead, saying "Mindy and Mork" will make you rather awkwardly jump around less open vowels: it's stressing your mouth to close more. If you say it like "Mindy 'n Mark" it should be a slight bit easier to say. Finally, and is atonal, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, and saying "Mork and Mindy" allows Mork to quickly slide to Mindy by merging "and" with "Mork", whereas Mindy would force you to either pronounce a hiatus, or a glottal stop, forcing you to tonalize "and", which is suboptimal. There's many different rules at play than I-A-O. Why did I invest my time making a point through potentially incorrect information.

I was literally just yesterday wondering how to find this again, thanks internet person/strong A.I.

I fucking love linguistics oh my god. This is amazing
- You should check out this book: Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme―And Other Oddities of the English Language
  It was absolutely fascinating. Who knew there're very good reasons why English is so messed up?
  https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55332395
  
  English is hard, but can be figured out through tough thorough thought though.
  
  Thank you for that, straight onto my reading list.

[...] opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose noun [...] if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac.
And if I try to stick to that word order when I'm speaking I'll sound like an obsessive-compulsive person.

Bing bang bong, sing sang song... Ding. Dang. Dong.

Sounds like BBC has a FLCL fan.

Slip Slop Slap
Australia disagrees.
- That's interesting! I've heard aussies refer to that campaign/guideline a lot and I've always heard it as "slip slap slop", which follows the rule but doesn't make sense as the order of activities. I don't know whether they reverted to the vowel order when talking casually, or if they said it right and I subconsciously 'corrected' it in my memory.

What about cat nip?
My mom, who learned english later in life always says “nip cat”, maybe unconsciously trying to follow the rule?
- It's because "catnip" is one word.
  
  Anything can be one word if you remove the spaces 🤷‍♂️

I'm from Germany, so no native English speaker. Why does it still sound wrong in my ears? Is it the way we have to open the mouth to make those sounds, and it feels unnatural in a different order?
- English is basically bastardized German, so that's probably it
- Or maybe it's a Germanic language thing, Zick Zack, you know.
- Schwip Schwap. In fact, ablaut is a German word: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_ablaut
  It's common to all Indo-European languages to some degree
- Another reason might be, that you consumed so much English media, that you got used to the correct order?

Bad boy, fat lip, cat toy, sad song, ad lib, bat wing, say so, far right, bar fight, fort night, lock pick

Damn, I thought it was because the old clocks literally sound like tick tock.
- It is, but it’s the way we say it that has the rule.

56 comments