Language topic

My current favourite word in German is Ulknudel. It's what your eighty year-old grandmother would call you with an ironic undertone if you stuck carrots in your ears and made a funny face.
 
Why... just why...

I used to like using the term epic when talking about something that felt very big and grand, but pretty much stopped (for everything except songs really) due to the way it developed into general use. I also think "You only live once" is a perfectly decent saying, but I hate even thinking it since YOLO became a thing. Swag used to always be something for pirates and those old timey robbers that dressed in stripes with a $ sack... but now.. urgh.

Adding it to the dictionary does nothing other than make them feel smarter because they're now using 'actual' words >.< I agree that language evolves, but it's evolving more through laziness here than anything... surely anyone who already spoke English for say 50 years should be able to have a conversation and understand it, rather than thinking "What the hell are these words they're saying?", being forced to learn half the language again.

Blergh, I don't like change! (Particularly change brought on by chav subculture :P)
 
About evolution of language: I was quite shocked when, during a discussion between @Perun and myself, I learned that German is suffering from the same disease as Norwegian - the mixing of the "-ch" and "-sch" sounds. However, I have been told that some actually don't hear the difference!

And this can have quite funny concequences if you actually do differentiate between the sounds. The Norwegian word for chicken, kylling, suddenly becomes the same as skylling which means flushing. And handsome, or kjekk, becomes the same as cheque, or sjekk.

And Jesus wept.
 
This is really not that big of a deal. First of all, pop culture tropes get added to the dictionary all the time, it shouldn't be a surprise that this would happen eventually. People who use these words don't care if they're "actual" words. Besides, do they really seem like the type of people who would pick up a dictionary to decide what words to use? Is it really going to hurt you if you own a dictionary with YOLO in it?

Also, words change definition all the time. Swag meant something at one point and now it means something different, might as well acknowledge that the meaning has changed. This isn't really anything new and you have to admit that slang has always been dumb. Swag isn't any worse than 'radical' or 'cool' or what have you. All words that are part of the lexicon and were started by dumb teenagers. Dictionaries have to reflect words that people use, and whether or not you like it, people regularly use those words now.
 
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English-speaking travellers sure have the easiest time of communicating.
Never had any troubles in my time in Europe.

But I guess it's to be expected given how this board's non-Native speakers have better English than many of my neighbours.
 
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