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[MaxTheFox]

Speaking of language:

[Rolan7]

Yeah: https://xkcd.com/771/
I like when a setting plays with that, like the Chinese vernacular in Firefly or all the new words in Cyberpunk or Shadowrun.  But adding vocabulary like that puts an onus on the reader to figure it out.  Some fantasy stories go waaaay too far with it.

As for native or First Nations people being called Indians, it certainly confused me when I was young.  Who knows what biases I still have from thinking that way as I developed?

It also seems disrespectful and most of the people directly involved seem to think so too.  Like claiming Romani people are from Egypt, for example.  Better to be accurate, or respectful, or even both!

[dragdeler]

German solved it, one is Inder, the other is Indianer.

[scriver]

No, Swedes solved it: one is indier, the other indianer

[Maximum Spin]

That just sounds like someone from Indiana.

Oh yeah, also, virtually no linguists actually believe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis anyway. As a group, they're almost pathologically conservative about claims like that. So they're much more likely to agree than to hate me for my one weird trick.

[dragdeler]

More indy than who?

[voliol]

I think people from Indiana would be... "indiananer" in Swedish? So a secret third option. Though really it's not a word I've ever heard someone say; people from the USA tend to be grouped together as "amerikaner" or "jänkare" over here.

[Maximum Spin]

I think people from Indiana would be... "indiananer" in Swedish? So a secret third option. Though really it's not a word I've ever heard someone say; people from the USA tend to be grouped together as "amerikaner" or "jänkare" over here.

That obviously means a banana from India.

[dragdeler]

I was just checking... Apparantly people from indiana are called hoosier... like universally (ok that wiki article only exists in english, french, german, dutch, esperanto and russian and I can't read cyrillic). Which... weird but ok then.

[Maximum Spin]

I was just checking... Apparantly people from indiana are called hoosier... like universally (ok that wiki article only exists in english, french, german, dutch, esperanto and russian and I can't read cyrillic). Which... weird but ok then.

Speaking as an American, at least in my part of the country, that's a jokey nickname, not something you'd actually call an Indianan in a formal context.

[Magmacube_tr]

In Turkish, you just add "-lı/-li" suffix.

İngiltere = England
Ingiltereli = English/British

İndiana = Indiana
İndianalı = Ones from Indiana /"Indiana-ian"

[Il Palazzo]

Oh yeah, also, virtually no linguists actually believe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis anyway. As a group, they're almost pathologically conservative about claims like that. So they're much more likely to agree than to hate me for my one weird trick.

As it was originally stated, sure. In that it was too strong - sort of ascribing nearly mind control-like, dictatorial powers to language. I suspect nobody does take that seriously. But then again, it was just a hypothesis. A fanciful idea without any tangible support. What it did, is spawn a field of research in linguistics studying how language affects (rather than dictates) thought. It's more subtle in its claims, but it's a thing.
I don't know what's happening there now, but some dozen years ago one of the leading/most visible in the media names was Lera Boroditsky. Her talks and popular articles should still be on youtube or elsewhere.

[Bumber]

calling something by a name doesn't change the thing or how people view it.

You can get people to say they agree with a thing when they think they're agreeing with something else, however. Just changing how you phrase a question in polling can drastically skew results, for example.

[scriver]

I think people from Indiana would be... "indiananer" in Swedish? So a secret third option. Though really it's not a word I've ever heard someone say; people from the USA tend to be grouped together as "amerikaner" or "jänkare" over here.

Indianare? Indianáare?

[Magmacube_tr]

I can't stop thinking about this.

English: "Is the principal a principal?"

Turkish translation: "Müdür müdür müdür?"

LMAO