• OutlierBlue
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    4 days ago

    At work I see more and more people call their computers “labtops” instead of “laptops”. A Michael wave doesn’t surprise me.

        • undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
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          4 days ago

          When I was a kid we had a Compaq Presario 9500 that came preinstalled with voicemail software that supported having multiple voicemail boxes with speech recognition (c. 1995).

          I really thought that was going to be the future and wanted my parents to use it so bad at the time. 😅

    • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      Wot. That’s crazy. “Labtop” is harder to pronounce (minimally so but still) with voiced b immediately followed by voiceless t. Everything I know about linguistics (not that much, tbh) tells me that, if anything, a thing called “labtop” should over time evolve to be called “laptop”*, because it’s easier on the speaker with voiceless p and t.

      ^* … maybe even lappop…?^

      • OutlierBlue
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        4 days ago

        Yeah it blew me away too. I had thought I’d heard a b sound a few times while talking to people but it wasn’t until someone sent in their device with a note attached that I realized it was a real thing. I’ve seen it a few more times since then (email, etc)

      • monotremata
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        4 days ago

        Clearly something is pushing in the direction of voiced instead. The ultimate form is presumably “lambdop.”

    • Mickey7@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 days ago

      It is interesting how some terms over time are mispronounced and spelled incorrectly. And those doing it have no clue as to the actual term and how it is spelled