English is a COVID risk!

General discussion about learning languages
dampingwire
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English is a COVID risk!

Postby dampingwire » Sun Aug 01, 2021 9:31 pm

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisonesca ... languages/

It's interesting that the article singles out Japanese as having fewer aspirated constants than English, so that Japanese speakers should produce fewer airborne particles while speaking. Given that mask wearing has been more culturally acceptable over there for years, perhaps I should have tried to get to the Olympics after all? Maybe not given the current Tokyo COVID levels.
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby Cainntear » Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:14 pm

dampingwire wrote:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisonescalante/2020/09/08/why-speaking-english-may-spread-more-coronavirus-than-other-languages/

It's interesting that the article singles out Japanese as having fewer aspirated constants than English, so that Japanese speakers should produce fewer airborne particles while speaking. Given that mask wearing has been more culturally acceptable over there for years, perhaps I should have tried to get to the Olympics after all? Maybe not given the current Tokyo COVID levels.

Also interesting that a Russian university should single out English for this -- can't imagine Russian's phonemic inventory does it many favours in that respect...
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby outcast » Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:17 pm

All Hail Sign Language!

(I'm sure it will be in the guidelines soon enough, alongside never getting within 30 meters of another human again, wearing triple masks at all times and including procreation events, and hand washing every 7.3 minutes for a minimum of 7 minutes. Sign language naturally is up there!)
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby mick33 » Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:55 pm

I wouldn't say that English is a COVID risk, but consonants (not just aspirated ones) definitely are. Maybe we could all just give up using consonants when we speak any language. Vowels are so much better sounding anyway. ;) :lol:
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby Iversen » Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:42 pm

Singing in ANY language is a covid risk. And so is being ecstatic in any language because it makes you breath and maybe even spit into the faces of people around you. Lisping could be a problem, but I'm not sure. The same could be said about clear pronunciation in general.

By the way: Japan is in the middle about a surge in covid infections. How did that happen if the Japanese language is so safe?
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby 白田龍 » Thu Aug 05, 2021 12:49 pm

Next step on the fight against Covid: The CDC is urging all English speakers to replace their aspirated plosives [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] by their plain [p, t, k] counterparts.

Speak safe!
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby tractor » Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:45 pm

Good Lord, how bad could the situation in Spain have become if their plosives were aspirated!
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby Deinonysus » Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:58 pm

Arabic is even more of a health risk. Not only are there two aspirated stops, several consonants involve clearing your throat or exhaling aggressively.

If we want to be truly safe, we need to shoot a new international language that not only doesn't have aspirated stops, but also doesn't have any fricatives. I think Gilbertese might fit the bill.
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby IronMike » Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:48 pm

Living is a [COVID] risk.
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Hash
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Re: English is a COVID risk!

Postby Hash » Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:22 am

Deinonysus wrote:Arabic is even more of a health risk. Not only are there two aspirated stops...


The /t/ and /k/ are aspirated in Moroccan, Algerian, and in the pronunciation of some women in Egypt, the Levant, and the Gulf (especially in the upper class!), but in other dialects they are not.
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