Talk:medieval

The attested misspelling mid-evil implies the pronunciation [mɪdˈivl̩].

I came across this YouTube comment today:

• 2024 April 15th, “I’m a Gay Ass Mofo” (username), “comment UgwMQ-VfQuVVnEZTPxN4AaABAg”, in Sturdy and Sustainable: Sunflower Stalks as Teepee Supports! (YouTube video), “TheKiwiGrower” (channel name):

  Man, totally thought you were going to say "you can turn these into mid-evil spears and take it into battle" 😂

I can’t be certain, but the form ass (rather than the British arse) suggests the writer is American. The misspelling implies the elision of the schwa in the pronunciation /mɪdˈivəl/ to [mɪdˈivl̩], which is common in -al adjectives. 0DF (talk) 20:17, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

May imply a mishearing as much as a pronunciation. Equinox ◑ 20:19, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

@Equinox: Could you explain how, please? 0DF (talk) 20:21, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

@0DF: Like eggcorns, e.g. "ex-patriot" for "expatriate". Not identical phenomenon but you get the idea. YouTube is not a high-quality place to cite from. Equinox ◑ 20:41, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

@Equinox: I do now, yes; thank you. And no, I don't expect high editorial standards from YouTube comments. Interestingly enough, however, mid-evil seems to be surprisingly common even in printed matter; see google books:"mid-evil". What do we do with such eggcorns? 0DF (talk) 21:09, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

A-ha! I see that mid-evil and midevil have existed here since July 2013! 0DF (talk) 21:11, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

@0DF: For future talk-page readers as much as anyone else: I shouldn't have said YouTube is a bad place to cite, because it is full of real live language (and speech usually has priority over writing, doesn't it?). I meant that people are likely to be careless there. The historian writing the paper will not do it mid-evilly (unless funded by ... ahem) P.S. Whenever I see your name I think hexadecimal. Equinox ◑ 01:27, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

@Equinox: Agreed, though perhaps not about “speech…ha[ving] priority over writing” (phonocentrism, apparently). Surprisingly enough, that association had never occurred to me, but now that you mention it, “0DF” does, in isolation, rather look like a base-16 serial number. That would make me User № 223 in base-10, unless I’m mistaken — I rather think someone else beat me to that number long ago! 0DF (talk) 01:47, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

In ye olde days I used the name equin0x80 online (having been born in 1980) and once I went to a programmer chat room and somebody greeted me as equin128. Yes, very clever, now eat the dog-food, I said. Equinox ◑ 01:50, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

@Equinox: Nice. It's a shame U+0080 is a C1 control code and, as such, has no display form, 'cause that could've led to a wonderfully arcane greeting. I guess we might have to settle for equin10000000 or something. 0DF (talk) 02:00, 20 April 2024 (UTC)