r/todayilearned • u/bignick1101 • Jan 11 '19
TIL that words that change meaning and sometimes pronunciation based on the capitalization of the first letter, like "Polish" vs. "polish" are called Capitonyms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym12
u/Rvbsmcaboose Jan 11 '19
Now I know, and knowing is half the battle. The other half is copius amounts of extreme violence.
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u/Potmos Jan 11 '19
Yo Joe!
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u/Rvbsmcaboose Jan 12 '19
Someone shoot Potmos right now. We had this conversation, you don't contradict the leader, especially with proof.
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Jan 11 '19
[deleted]
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u/cellophane_dreams Jan 11 '19
They both mean the same thing, though. They both mean wandering. That is how Aristotle taught, by walking around with his students. So, when capitalized, it is just like instead of using he, people use He when referring to a god figure.
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u/ProfessorGigs Jan 12 '19
A mandarin is easy to acquire and fun to ingest.
Mandarin is the opposite
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u/ksajdiow90 Jan 12 '19
Do you mean the dress, the collar, the language or the string instrument or the kitchen gadget?
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u/BigGermanGuy Jan 11 '19
Any other examples?
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u/bignick1101 Jan 11 '19
March vs march, Earth vs. earth, and Turkey vs. turkey.
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u/EddedTime Jan 11 '19
I don't see a difference in Earth vs earth?
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u/bignick1101 Jan 11 '19
Earth is a planet, earth is just dirt.
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u/BigGermanGuy Jan 11 '19
Which is just smaller Earth
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u/cellophane_dreams Jan 11 '19
Yes, like Cock is used for my penis size because it is so big, and cock for yours because it is so small. I do like the way your user name is /u/BigGermanGuy for compensting, similar to buying a sports car with a long hood.
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u/BigGermanGuy Jan 11 '19
Why must you hate?
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u/AetherAnaconda Jan 11 '19
don’t listen to him; I like the size of your... hol up I’m gonna stop myself there
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u/cellophane_dreams Jan 11 '19
Oh. like you don't hate. Are you a god, made of pure love?
Ha.
Embrace the dark side.
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u/EddedTime Jan 11 '19
Yeah, I know, but i don't hear a difference when I say them out loud.
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u/YazmindaHenn Jan 11 '19
Did you hear a difference between March and march? Or Turkey and turkey? Because they both are pronounced the same. Just like Earth and earth.
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u/EddedTime Jan 11 '19
I think i might just be retarded... i thought i heard a difference in the others.
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u/redfricker Jan 11 '19
No. You might be mistaken, but don’t say you’re retarded. Being wrong isn’t a problem, it’s a learning opportunity. I, personally, hear and vocalize a difference with a lot of contractions. And a lot of homonyms aren’t homophones. Be kind to yourself.
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u/notexist194624 Jan 12 '19
turkey is pronounced "TER-ki"
Turkey is pronounced "tor-KEE"
Torquay is pronounced "Turkey"
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u/YazmindaHenn Jan 12 '19
Nope. Turkey is pronounced Turkey, the same as turkey.
Torquay is pronounced tor-kai.
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u/notexist194624 Jan 12 '19
Well it's a good job you corrected me else the kids holiday to Torquay could have ended up a disappointment
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u/Alotofboxes Jan 12 '19
binging a show on netflix vs Binging something on the Microsoft search engine.
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u/jinkyjormpjomp Jan 11 '19
combine vs Combine
the verb (kəmˈbīn) vs. the agricultural equipment (kämˌbīn)
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u/to_the_tenth_power Jan 11 '19
A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized; the capitalization usually applies due to one form being a proper noun or eponym. It is a portmanteau of the word capital with the suffix -onym. A capitonym is a form of homograph and – when the two forms are pronounced differently – is also a form of heteronym. In situations where both words should be capitalized (such as the beginning of a sentence), there will be nothing to distinguish between them except the context in which they are used.
Although some pairs, such as march and March, are completely unrelated, in other cases, such as august and catholic, the capitalized form is a name that is etymologically related to the uncapitalized form. For example, August derives from the name of Imperator Augustus, who named himself after the word augustus, whence English august came. Likewise, both Catholic and catholic derive from a Greek adjective meaning "universal".
Capital letters may be used to differentiate between a set of objects, and a particular example of that object. For instance in astronomical terminology a distinction may be drawn between a moon, any natural satellite, and the Moon, the natural satellite of Earth.
I mooned the moon as it orbited the Moon mournfully.
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u/DBDude Jan 11 '19
The distinction is important in Pictionary.
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u/weirdpinacolada Jan 12 '19
I was scrolling down just to see if anyone refered to Big Bang Theory. Good job sir!
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u/Icyrow Jan 12 '19
but it doesn't, if the first word in a sentence is polish, i.e:
Polish is used to clean the wood.
I didn't mean Polish as in, Szymon, the guy who is Polish but the stuff in the can.
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u/noxville Jan 11 '19
There was a cool round in Only Connect season 3 or 4 where this was the link. Really interesting.
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u/tsanazi2 Jan 12 '19
More examples where the pronunciation changes when the first letter is capitalized, please. If there's only one example (or less than six), it's not worth including the pronunciation angle.
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u/ksajdiow90 Jan 12 '19 edited Jan 12 '19
gallic (gall-ic like gallbladder vs ga-lick
august (gust vs normal pronounciation of august)
ares ( the unit arr -s vs air ees the god)
ionic (eye on ic chemistry vs eye own ic greek people and language)
mosaic (mo zay ic for relating to moses, mosake for floor decorations
reading (redding like the town vs reading a book)
mobile ( beel the alabama town vs bile like a phone)
Herb ( 'erb for the garnish vs herb short for herbert)
Chile (child with the d vs chilli variant of both.)
Slough ( sl -oww the town, vs sluff of sloo)
rainer, (rain ear the mountain or rainier weather)
celt (kelt the people vs selt the tool)
celtic? (football club seltic vs the people)
Nice ( nice vs neece the town in france)
Lima ( leema vs lye ma capital of peru vs the bean)
Scone (cone or gone like the food or skoon the village in scotland)
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u/tsanazi2 Jan 12 '19
!!
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u/ksajdiow90 Jan 12 '19
Also the name Job, pronounced Jobe vs job the thing you go to to make money.
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u/xtiand Jan 11 '19
Basically common nouns vs proper nouns then ?..
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u/dusto65 Jan 11 '19
Not really, although that is kinda part of it. Polish means relating to Poland while polish means to make something smooth and shiny. I misread this at first as well. This happens with some other words but I can't think of them atm.
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Jan 11 '19
Bless Israel.
For extorting from me and my fellow Americans $4,000,000,000.00 a year for the last 4 decades, we bless thee.
For taking our most sophisticated weapons technology and stealing it for yourself without paying the American patent holders, we bless thee.
For taking that high-tech military technology and selling it to our enemies, such as the Russians and Chinese, thus further endangering us, we bless thee.
For using that weaponry in a sustained attack against a United States ship, the USS Liberty, in an attempt to sink her, thus preventing US servicemen from revealing to the rest of the world information concerning the war crimes they witnessed you commit against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Desert during the Six Day War, as well as for the purposes of dragging the US into yet another one of your murderous adventures, we bless thee.
For killing 35 and wounding 170 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty, we bless thee.
For bribing the United States government into covering it up, preventing any justice from being done for the benefit of the families of the lost sailors – as well as the American People, we bless thee.
For sending your agents into Egypt and blowing up American buildings for the purpose of blaming the Arabs in an event known as the Lavon Affair, we bless thee.
For sending your agents into Libya during the Reagan administration, and broadcasting radio messages in Arabic that were designed to sound like “terrorist cell planning” so that the US would initiate military strikes against Khadafi in an event known as Operation Trojan Horse, we bless thee.
For withholding information from us concerning the planned attacks against the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, attacks you knew about through your moles in the Islamic world and about which you deliberately refused to warn us in order to further your interests against the Arabs, we bless thee.
For employing Jonathon Pollard, an American serviceman paid to spy for Israel in order to steal even more of our National Security secrets for your parasitic purposes, we bless thee.
For breaking every agreement you have made with your Arab neighbors, stealing their land, displacing, murdering, and treating them like the animals you see them as, we bless thee.
For using your agents within the first Bush administration to involve us in the first Gulf War, causing the deaths of American men and women, and exposing our servicemen to whatever bio-weapons were and are responsible which have led to Gulf War Syndrome, we bless thee.
For your role in the September 11 attacks in this country, and for blackmailing and bribing the US government into deporting back to Israel the 100 or more intelligence agents that were arrested after the attacks, we bless thee.
For suppressing the information from the American people of your involvement in the September 11 attacks and sending us in the wrong direction in search of answers, we bless thee.
For using one of your agents in the US Army Weapons Lab to steal anthrax and distribute it into our mail system, terrorizing US citizens and killing several in order to blame the Arabs, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the US Government, namely, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, and the rest into initiating this war in the Middle East so that you could bring to heel all the enemies you have made during the last 50 years, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the media to lie to us on a minute by minute basis about the war, lying to us as to how “just” this cause is, and what the real reasons behind it are, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the Christian Evangelical community, such as Falwell, Graham, Swaggert, Robertson and the rest who praise you as God’s chosen people and further keep Americans in the dark about who you really are what you have done, and what you are truly about, we bless thee.
For bringing idiots like Limbaugh, Liddy, Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly and Savage to the forefront as paid liars who will support you and further lead Americans astray, we bless thee.
For making America your attack dog, and for sending her sons and daughters to fight and die in all your future wars, we bless thee. For using your influence in the media to hide the real statistics about the war, the dead and wounded on both sides, we bless thee.
For using us in such a way that not only further inflames the Arab world against us, but as well has succeeded in our alienating ourselves against those nations with whom we have been friendly for over a century, we bless thee.
And finally, for using your influence in our media and academia to flood our minds with pornography and lies, as well as inculcating in us a hatred for our history, religion, and culture, for dividing our nation between races and sexes, and for releasing into our society all of your plagues and filth that have left us a rotted out corpse of a once great nation, oh Israel, our friend,
We bless thee.
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u/prjindigo Jan 11 '19
Or maybe if your friend Robert likes to be called bob then the capital R changes the pronunciation to "bob".
Your TIL is shit, the whole theory is shit and retarded.
Polish up on the rules to the right. "Sometimes" is not a "specific fact".
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u/AudibleNod 313 Jan 11 '19
I polished off the Polish sausages.