Comment on šŸ™ Octopus is Octopus šŸ™

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dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Sure, languages evolve I guess but this isn’t really that IMO.

The whole idea of etymology is that you can figure out what a word means from its roots. If you throw all that out, you give up the scaffolding that makes words make any sense. Same goes for grammatical rules. It seems like the argument for descriptivism is ā€œlet’s not be elitist when people become less competent with the rules of a languageā€, and while that’s a fine ideal, yer usin ma words wrong!

I suspect there is also a body of professional linguists who oppose your point for the same reasons.

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