Every time I see media outlets talking about Twitter they always talk about "Mastadon" like, sure buddy

@Roxy why do people misspell it all the time anyway? i get why people say mastodon instead of fedi but why the spelling??
-F

literal answer about spelling mastodon 

@Felthry @Roxy depending on region, "mastodon" is pronounced somewhere between /ˈmæstədɑn/, /ˈmæstədən/, and /ˈmæs.tə.dɒn/ - h/t en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mastodo - and in all three cases the middle vowel is reduced to a schwa - an "uhh" sound. and "a" is the letter that best represents that "uhh" sound.

so yeah, they're spelling it phonetically. like "definate".

- Packbats 🎒

Follow

re: literal answer about spelling mastodon 

@packbat @Roxy it still just kinda bugs us, possibly because we know the etymology and that -o- is always the linking vowel used in this context, but i dunno

it just bugs us! i don't want to be prescriptivist about it but it bugs us
-F

re: literal answer about spelling mastodon 

@Felthry @Roxy *nods*

we don't feel the same way, but the way conventional spelling preserves etymology in English /is/ really cool

- 🎒

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Awoo Space

Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.

While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.

Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!