An example in English is the avoidance of adding a "-ly" adverb ending to an adjective already ending in "-ly." "He smiled friendlily" is usually rewritten as "He smiled in a friendly way." This is due to the awkward double -ly ending. Dictionaries list some of these forms, but they are not commonly used.
What other examples, in any language, can you think of where certain forms of some words are avoided due to sounding or looking awkward or strange?
Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
- Dormouse559
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Re: Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
Chiot “puppy” has no feminine form in French. I can’t claim causation, but that absence is probably no coincidence because the obvious feminine form, chiotte, happens to be identical to a (separately derived) vulgar word for “outhouse.”
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Re: Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
Er, don't English adjectives that end in -ly usually keep the single -ly ending as adverbs?Ryanvadar wrote: ↑20 Nov 2023 22:43 An example in English is the avoidance of adding a "-ly" adverb ending to an adjective already ending in "-ly." "He smiled friendlily" is usually rewritten as "He smiled in a friendly way." This is due to the awkward double -ly ending. Dictionaries list some of these forms, but they are not commonly used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Xb_7YDroQ
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Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
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Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 90,000 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
- eldin raigmore
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Re: Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
Definitely not usually.Khemehekis wrote: ↑21 Nov 2023 01:18 Er, don't English adjectives that end in -ly usually keep the single -ly ending as adverbs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Xb_7YDroQ
"SoCal is where my mind states/But it's not my state of mind/I'm not as ugly sad as you."
The use of “ugly sad” in the example you quoted is slang, or maybe a “substandard” dialect; at any rate, deprecated.
Edit: Or poetic license!
OTOH, clearly sometimes!
Unless, maybe, it might be better analyzed as a compound adjective; so “ugly” would be another adjective, like “sad”, rather than an adverb.
Last edited by eldin raigmore on 22 Nov 2023 14:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
I'm reminded of Old Japanese "adjective" verb classs ending in -si vs -siku.
Re: Words/forms avoided because they "look/sound" strange
in French, as in this pretty anthology, it's sometimes better to avoid the feminine gender...