…Lingo that is. I got my annual stats from Duolingo. I was very happy to see that I learned a beastly 666 new words. While on words, I thought I would share my latest weekly stats from Grammarly, also. Besides it bugs the heck out of me that they are tracking all my writing, besides correcting my manifold mistakes, but that’s what you have to do to be checked out, I do find the stats interesting.
I have given three papers at conferences about how natives of north-central New Mexico have a very unique vocabulary and word usage. I am a native of north-central New Mexico, and my weekly Grammarly stats always report that one-third or more of the words that Grammarly checks in my musings it considers them to be “unique words”. They must count many of the same words as unique each week, because I know I can’t be coming up with 1,800 to 2,000 new and unique words each week. Last week I seemed to have gone all out as Grammarly reported I used 3,387 unique words out of 9,656 of my words it checked. With my numb finger tips I make a lot of mistakes, the reason I have Grammarly to watch over my words, and probably another reason so many end up as unique.
Given my consistency in the number of unique words used each week, it supports my thesis that natives of north-central New Mexico have a unique vocabulary. Although, I would need to have a large sample of word usage stats from many different north-central New Mexicans to really show that my thesis could hold any water from the Rio Grande.
A collage of my Duolingo and Grammarly stats with comments by Silver, Spunk and Gwendolyn.
While on words, there’s always the issue of Acronymphomania!
So Wired!
Off Center & Not Even 
I kinda miss my Grammarly stats. For some reason, I no longer get them. Bizarre. Oh well. What can you do? Well.. I could get the damn thing connected again. Maybe.
And you kill me! What a tune!
I’ve been using Grammarly for a couple of years and it’s been the past 6 months or so I started getting stats. It’s weaird. I’m happy you liked the tune. Thanks, Dale.
I used it for eons. But I dunno why it got uninstalled on my blog and stuff. It drove me crazy on things like FB so I’m probably the one who deactivated it! 🤣
I did.
I had never heard of Grammarly before. Did I see the words “Oocycte Maturation Inhibitor” flash by in that video?
I’m pretty sure you saw “Oocycte Maturation Inhibitor” flash by. Grammarly is pretty good, but it doesn’t get things right all the time. Thanks, Lavinia.
Best post of all time, Tim. I would love to read one of your conference paper presentations sometime, if possible. Love the song, awesomeness. Any chance your bass work was influenced in some way by the bands Rush or Primus? When I hear you play the bass those two bands always come to mind.
What a nice comment. I can’t say I have any bass influences in particular. I know rush and Primus, but I don’t listen to a lot of either band. I listened to Stanley Clarke a lot in the 70s. When I get through with deadlines I’ll send you a paper. Thanks, Jeff.
Ah, got it. Oh, great, thanks, Tim. Look forward to reading. Your most welcome.
WHAAATTT??!!!
IS THIS SOME KIND OF MAGICAL SERENDIPITY? I was just about to quit WordPress and begin my daily dose of Duolingo! If you’re on Duo, we really SHOULD become friends!!! I get hyper excited anytime someone mentions Duo!
The acronymophpbia video is wowly! 😀 And what impressive stats!
What’s your username on Duo?
I’m El Cheo on Duo. I’ve noticed friends are not the same on Duo as they are on social media. But see if you can find me.
True, but I find it quite important to have friends on Duolingo, especially people you know (Atleast as virtual friends).
I wrote a post about this recently when I hit a milestone on Duolingo.
WOWW YOU HAVE A 542 DAYS STREAK???!!! And THAT is why I need you as a friend ASAP!!!
Send me a friend request. Laurie just got a 600 day streak yesterday.
Wowww (gonna follow her too!)
I sent you a request 🤔
That is to say, I’ve added you to my friend list.
Found you. We are following eachother. You have a 509 day streak. You are only a month behind me.
Doing your Duo. That’s good. I’m happy you liked Acronymphomania. Thanks, Sam.
Interesting post and fun video! 😁
Thanks, Michele.
Microsoft has adopted a similar process of following your writing, and suggesting alternative sentences and words. The whole idea was/is to make you better writer. I’m not so sure whether the product is Microsoft Edit (I think that’s the name), Grammarly, or whatever product can end up changing the original intent of what you have written. It’s one thing to spell check, it’s another to grammar check when it ends up rewriting your text. Several iterations back of the WP classic editor had a combined spell/grammar check, but you had to click on the tool before it would perform the check.
This is where education has failed to teach composition, the art of writing. Replacing composition with a digital version is not the solution. When Ginny, my sister, teaches math at the university level, many of her students fresh from HS do not know how to solve basic algebra problems, no matter how many AP courses and HS ‘Honors’ math courses they’ve taken. Moreover, her students stew over not being allowed to use a calculator, which is department policy, no calculators. It is the same endemic problem.
Similarly, I’ve run into the same problem in my consulting practice, which is straight chemistry. There are a lot of Ph.D., MS and BS level chemists that seem not to know what they are doing. Their ability to draw proper conclusions from their data is suspect too. You can’t say they need more or remedial training on material they should know from their undergraduate coursework.
Relying on digital tools has its place, but is not meant to be a substitute for basic knowledge and basic skills.
I have been trying to learn Russian on Duo so that I can read W&P in Russian. Love your video.
Good for you. Russian is difficult. I’m happy you liked the video. Thanks, Rebecca.
I haven’t gone past hello and good bye!!!
I feel I barely to Hi and Bye on english at times.
Loved the video…
Concerning Grammarly, it tells me I use a lot of unique words also…I just figured it didn’t understand hillbilly speak, so to speak. It doesn’t do too well on creative writing, though, and flags a lot of stuff when I’m writing fiction that it shouldn’t. But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to give it a second look. I have Microsoft Word 365, and I like its editor a little better. And as a bonus, in the ‘review’ toolbar, you can have it read aloud your text back to you. It’s very helpful in catching things Grammary doesn’t.
I figure my misspellings and “unique” words are simply me trying my best to be a Webster influencer. Clearly it should be a word.. they are just not cool enough yet to include it. That’s my story and I’m “sticting” to it hehehe.
“Stict” it to old Webster. Thanks, Brian.
Oh wow, look at all the birds on a wire. I have left a comment on your video on YT.
Thanks, Roberta. I haven’t gotten to the YT comments yet.
Racing out this morning. Bookmarked to come back and listen.
Thanks Shey. I hope you win the race.
Oh I try to every week!
Please play that tune!
Thanks, Couriers.
Acronymphomania!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Now that song is a hit!!!!!
Although my English is bad, I wouldn’t submit to any Word Patrol!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.. not to mention that it would find 99% ‘unique words’!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Kitties know better! 😉
Love the song, Tim! 👌🌟
Thanks, Marina. Acronymphomania is rampant in the IT industry and government setors.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣…….
YAY!!! And well worth coming back for it was too. Great sound and great song!! Oh and great post, did I mention the great post?
Thanks for the wonderful comment. So many acronymphomaniacs in the word. It’s amazing some people communicate at all. Wait a minute. They don’t.
Yep, you can say that again.
Very interesting, Tim.
Thanks, Teri.
Whoa .. good for you!! Your video has me in hysterics! 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks, Cindy. We all need fun hysterics these days.
You’re so right and it is so much appreciated!💖
Your video expresses this mania so well, Tim! It’s the end of language as we knew it! Logophilia is the better choice. We slow down, savor meaning, learn to communicate better; something poets delight in. LOL OMG SMH (JK) 🙂
Thanks, Mary Jo. Some phrases are better and more useful as acronyms like FUBAR and SNAFU. And some acronyms turn into words that most everyone knows what they mean. But so much of the use of acronyms in IT, for example, is to make the person seem like he knows what he’s talking about. A few years ago I started asking other IT professionals what the acronyms they were throwing around meant, and most had no clue. That’s when in became clear it was a nymphic mania and a complete communication breakdown because no one really knew what they themselves or other people were talking about.
Another funny story, when I first published the song three years ago, a friend said her dad used FUBAR all the time be she didn’t know what it meant. When I told her the meaning she said OMG! That’s my dad’s way of cursing. I didn’t think my dad cursed!
Hahaha! You’re beyond talented young man! You make me laugh out loud too. Grammarly, who knew it would stalk us? 😂
It’s a stalker alright. Thanks, Holly. Always happy to make you laugh.
Smiling!
Love the video! The latest theory I’ve heard about Native American migration is that they came up from South America – not across the Bering Straits into Alaska. Maybe that accounts for some of the uniqueness in language. And, they may have come from both directions!
I just realized you meant people born in New Mexico and not Native Americans in New Mexico. I’m not awake yet!
Hi Dawn. I was talking about all natives to north-central NM, including the Pueblos and the Navajo. There are deravations of pueblo words that blended into the Spanish. Some of the old folks would use guajalote for turkey instead of pavo. Guajalote is Aztec brought into NM by the Spaniards. Gualojte is a great insult, and apparently widely used as an insult in varies areas in South and Central America.
The peoblos have been around for a long time, so they may well have simply sprung up from the earth. The Navajos came from the north. When we doing a housing inventory for all the reservations in the country many years ago, I put some of our Navajo evaluators up in Canada because they were complaining about the lodging I was coming up with in Montana and North Dakota. They came back surprized they could understand the natives in Canada speaking a similar dialect to Navajo. I told them I didn’t know why they were surprised since their ansecestors came from the north. They of course had never heard that.
The oven is dinging! I’ll be back to listen!
Hmm, I used to have Grammarly and I didn’t notice it was missing, no wonder I have made so many spelling errors lately! I’m not surprised you use so many unique words, you are definitely unique, Tim! 😉
You have to log into Grammarly every now and then or it quits working. Thanks, Tiffany.
Wonderful song, Tim.
I adore your music.
You see, this is the charm of Spunkie-Poo 💋.
You’ve told me about how rotten he is. He’s a bad boy.
Now, just look at him. All cute and adorable, with pink orchids crowning him, his kissable pink strawberry nose and the word SWEET coming out of him.
Spunk has his moments. He’s been lying on my lap for short spells, purring and snuggling, then he goes psycho on me, bites me, hisses and bounds off my lap, often scratching in the process. He is very insistent about curling up on my lap and being super sweet for a few minutes. He has bad kitty ADHD.
Sheesh! Well, Spunkie-Poo 💋 will be Spunkie-Poo 💋
That is for sure. He wouldn’t be Spunk if he was anything short of being a psycho kitty.
Love the song and the collage. The cat commentary is fabulous. Congrats on your progress!
Thanks, JYP.
You are off centered my friend with stats like that. This is a great post, Scott and I were laughing our a–es off. There is a unique word for you. The cats were proud of your stats also. Really enjoyed this Tim. You sure are a productive person. I got to say hats off to you for that, I can’t believe how much you get accomplished on your blog with a business to run and also writing papers. You are my new hero. Hugs to you two. Joni
Thanks, Joni. I’m happy you and Scott got a good laugh. We all need a good laugh these days.
I also use Grammarly and I think that is why I was laughing. It tells me I use a lot of unique words too. However I delete a lot of its ideas. Do you use the setting where you can say what type of document you are working on? I am sorry about the numb fingertips Tim. I would probably have a hard time typing at all. By the way you sure are a hard worker Tim. I admire the fact that you have such an amazing site and run an architectural business as well. Sending hugs to you two down on the Rio Grande. ❤️🤗🦋
I don’t set the doc type, but I delete most of its suggestions for rephrasing because they don’t make sense in the context. But that could be because I don’t set the document type. I need it for spelling, typos and punctuation. I don’t need its suggestions for phrasing.
I agree. You can set it for technical, and several other types of writing. I need help with punctuation. I will look it up and try to be more detailed. Hugs, Joni