# History of languages [comma] and Linguistics



## Cenzontle

I want to suggest that the forum title "Etymology, History of languages*[,]* and Linguistics (EHL)" be granted a second comma:  the "serial comma", alias "Oxford comma", alias "Harvard comma".
Why?
Because for several months after I first laid eyes on this forum I thought that discussions of linguistics under that heading were limited to *history of* linguistics.  
I now see—thanks to the subtle device of capitalization—that "History" reaches only as far as "of languages", and that "Linguistics", unmodified, constitutes a third category (or at least I hope this is the intended scope of the Forum).


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## wildan1

Why not just reverse the order to _"Linguistics, Etymology and History of Languages"_? Crystal-clear that way...


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## cherine

True, but we've been referring to the forum in its short forum EHL for so long. Changing the word order now would make all past mentioning meaningless or confusing.

I don't know about the comma though, so I won't comment on this.


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## Sowka

Hello 

How about: *"E*tymology, *H*istory of Languages,* L*inguistics (EHL)"?


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## elroy

Sowka said:


> *"E*tymology, *H*istory of Languages,* L*inguistics (EHL)"?


 I like that! 

If we don't care about losing the acronym EHL, I think we could just rename the forum _Linguistics_.  Etymology and history of languages are part of linguistics so the current name is a little strange: it's like saying "Volleyball, Soccer, and Sports."

I wonder if we could call it _Linguistics_ and then add a sub-heading with examples of topics:

*Linguistics*
Etymology, history of languages, phonology/phonetics, morphology, syntax, etc.


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## mkellogg

I see that @berndf  is our moderator of that forum. I always wait for the official word from the moderator, so I will wait to hear his opinion.


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## berndf

I am happy adding the comma. It resolves a real pro I hadn't realized yet. I don't mind if we keep or drop the _and_.

I *do* care about the EHL acronym. For me, this is an overriding consideration to any renaming exercises with this forum.


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## mkellogg

berndf said:


> I am happy adding the comma.





Cenzontle said:


> "Etymology, History of languages*[,]* and Linguistics (EHL)"


I was happy to add the comma, too, but got this error message:


> Please enter a value using 50 characters or fewer.


Apparently the comma was one character too many.

Should we get rid of the "and" as suggested by our German speakers?


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## cherine

I'm not a native speaker, but without the "and" it feels something's missing. Can't we replace it with &?


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## Peterdg

mkellogg said:


> Apparently the comma was one character too many.


Which is strange as "Spanish-English Vocabulary / Vocabulario Español-Inglés" (55 characters) is one character longer than "Etymology, History of languages, and Linguistics (EHL)" (54 characters).


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## berndf

mkellogg said:


> Should we get rid of the "and"


My preferred solution.


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## mkellogg

Peterdg said:


> Which is strange as "Spanish-English Vocabulary / Vocabulario Español-Inglés" (55 characters) is one character longer than "Etymology, History of languages, and Linguistics (EHL)" (54 characters).


Good point, Peter!  I am glad you are thinking.  I remember now that I had to change it directly in the database.  I've just done that and everything seems to be working well.


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