this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 19 points 21 hours ago

This is apparently why some modern words like love or come are spelled with an o instead of a u. The o is much easier to read when followed by a v, n, or m, so the scribes changed it sometimes and the spelling stuck.

[–] Hope@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My goodness, I love how for the M N and Us they just barely connect to neighbors to unambiguously form the correct letter. Diabolical.

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 13 points 22 hours ago

Shit, I hadn't even noticed that. I just assumed those were identical.

[–] tal@olio.cafe 50 points 1 day ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence in English that is often presented as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs through lexical ambiguity. It has been discussed in literature in various forms since 1967, when it appeared in Dmitri Borgmann's Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den

"Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" is a short narrative poem written in Literary Chinese, composed of around 92 to 94 characters (depending on the specific version) in which every word is pronounced shi ([ʂɻ̩]) when read in modern Standard Chinese, with only the tones differing.[1]

"Shī Shì shí shī shǐ"
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

"Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den"
In a stone den was a poet called Shi Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o’clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 8 points 21 hours ago

Police police police police. Police police police police police police.

(The people who monitor and ensure the good behaviour of (i.e. "police" as a verb) law enforcement (the police) are called the "police police". The people who do the same for the police police must therefore be the police police police. The original phrasing structure is "2 verb 1. 3 verb 2.")

[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

minimum

Also actual gothic script provides tiny clues, ligatures, that make it slightly easier to read.

[–] OboTheHobo@ttrpg.network 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

thats actually kinda crazy how much more readable that makes it

...still not super easy tho lol

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 5 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] Rothe@piefed.social 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Noone would have written like that. That is a printing typeface. Handwritten fraktur is very different. Anyway the writing in OPs picture is medieval, while the printing typeface is obviously early modern, 17th-19th cenutry.

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I know, but it's hard to find a good example with exactly that text. And I have no clue where I've hidden my calligraphy stuff. At least it doesn't contain a lowercase s, so it should be somewhat fine.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

And I have no clue where I've hidden my calligraphy stuf

Le excuse maxima

What'd you need "calligraphy stuff" for?

I really haven't written jack shit in years except on digital so excuse the shittiness but I think that shittiness makes it a rather good example of casual writing.

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Now what exactly does this prove? That a non historic writing utensil in a completely different typeface doesn't look at all like Fraktur? I mean, yes, you're right.

https://youtube.com/watch/5UPC60e3Lsw

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago

I just recently learned that this is the historical reason why eyes have dots.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

naı reallι
a𐌉 dont

[–] JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] tal@olio.cafe 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔲𝔪

𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔲𝔪

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 6 points 20 hours ago

yes yes, nice fences

[–] inconel@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Russian cursive enters the chat (link is xcancel, mind you)

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

corporate needs you to tell the difference between these two pictures :
arabic.jpg
cyrillicCursive.jpg

They're the same picture

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)