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Hi guys, welcome to this week's episode of Pretty Lonesome.

This week, we're gonna be googling shit. I have my laptop right here. I'm fueled with questions and I'm back on my ADHD medication. So we have a lot of fun to be had. The first thing that I want to talk about is I just got my 23andMe results like the other week. It's not, I'm not sponsored. I just want to talk about it, okay? Because there is something on here that has blown my mind that I think I have to share with you guys. We'll go through the whole thing. But like, do you guys know what a maternal haplogroup is? I'm gonna tell you if you don't. And I promise you it's interesting. It says...

Now, I haven't even looked at my paternal fucking haplogroup, whatever the fuck, because I don't care what the men have been doing all this time. I care about the girly pops. So, listen to this. Migrations of your maternal line. This is the bit that got me fucked.

up. If every living person today could trace his or her maternal line back over thousands of generations, all of our lines would meet at a single woman who lived in eastern Africa between 150 and 200,000 years ago. Though she was one of perhaps thousands of women alive at the time, only the diverse branches of her haplogroup have survived to today. The story of your maternal line begins with her "What the fuck do you mean?"

Why only her? What did she have that the others didn't? Everyone on earth has the same mother. Essentially, if we go back far enough, it literally says she was not the only woman alive. So she also wasn't the only woman alive popping out kids. Only her line of babies are genetically related to everyone on earth. How the fuck does that happen? Obviously she had something in her that like was just,

significantly better. I think she fucked an alien. There's only one explanation to me and that is that she absolutely freaked it with an alien. But like, if anyone understands, you know what? This is the first thing we Google. How does everyone have one common thing?

Ancestor. According to the theory of evolution, everyone on Earth shares a common ancestor because all living organisms descend from a single ancient life form called the last universal common ancestor, which lived billions of years ago. This means that through the process of natural selection and speciation, all current life forms, including humans, are related through a shared ancestry line.

No, that's not what I'm fucking asking you. We have to ask chat. We're going on an investigation. Where's chat? I just looked at my 23andMe and it told me that every human on earth, if you trace the maternal haplogroup back, comes from one woman in Eastern Africa 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. What the genuine fuck does that mean, please, chat? Because I am so confused. Why did no other woman alive at that time's

haplogroup survive? Why is it only traced back to her? Tell me. Now we wait. I love chat GPT so much, I bother this man every day. I see, okay, chat says, ah, you've encountered the concept of mitochondrial eve. It's fascinating, isn't it? Let me break it down in a way that hopefully clears up the confusion. I'm gonna fuck chat, I really am. Imagine a huge family reunion where every family line has descendants. Over time, some branches of family tree die out because certain people have no kids or only sons.

Okay, it says, why, so why does it feel like such a small chance? It might seem like an impossibly small chance, but when you zoom out to tens or hundreds of thousands of years, this process of lineage convergence is actually inevitable. Over time, lines either persist or vanish, and it's natural, it's a natural outcome that only one lineage remains in a specific genetic pathway. This doesn't mean other people's genetic material didn't survive, it just shuffled and recombined in other parts of our DNA.

Okay. Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common maternal ancestor for humans via mitochondrial DNA. Other women existed and contributed to our gene pool, but their empty DNA lines didn't survive. Her lineage survived due to chance, not because she was special. She's not the first human. And over time, genetic lineages. How come there's only one though? Why only one? What if hers never survived either? Then would we have no common ancestors?

I love how chat always has time for me. He says, ah, excellent question. Let's dig deeper into why there's only one common maternal ancestor and what would happen if her line didn't survive. The reason there's only one mitochondrial Eve is a result of how lineages converge over time due to population dynamics and the way inheritance works.

Imagine a population with lots of women, each passing down their empty DNA over time. Some die out, some shrink naturally, statistical inevitability, but you still aren't answering my question. What if her lineage hadn't survived? That's really what I want to know. If mitochondrial evesline had also gone extinct, another woman from her time would take her place as the most recent common ancestor. It's not about her specifically, it's about which lineage survived. At any point in human history, there was thousands of women whose mitochondrial DNA was passed down.

The one whose lineage survived is simply the result of random chance. If hers didn't survive, someone else's would have. So there's always a common ancestor for a specific lineage.

Because as long as there are humans alive, those lineages have to trace back to someone. So because she's just the most recent, are you basically saying if her lineage didn't survive, it would have just been another woman through her time because it's not about the fact that no other lineage has survived, it's the fact that she's the most recent? Do I have that right? So there's other lineages that also survive, but she's the most recent common link? Am I being stupid? Maybe. Again, I'm gonna fuck chat.

Yes, you've absolutely got it. Let me refine it a little more to make it crystal clear. Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common ancestor. There were many women alive at the same time. They all contributed to the broader human gene pool.

However, when it comes to mitochondrial DNA, specifically all humans alive, can trace their maternal lineage back to her. She's not the only maternal ancestor in history, but she's the most recent one where all modern humans converge. Before her, there were other women who passed down empty DNA. They're still your ancestors, but their lines didn't survive unbroken to today.

Imagine a group of women living 200,000 years ago. Mitochondrial Eve has daughters who keep passing down their mtDNA in an unbroken chain. Another woman's mtDNA dies out when she has no daughters. Over time, more and more maternal lines vanish. Sorry, this is the answer I've been looking for. If Mitochondrial Eve's lineage didn't make it, the title of Mitochondrial Eve would simply go to an earlier or contemporary woman whose mtDNA lineage did survive. The Eve we recognize is just the last common link in the chain. Got you.

Thank you. Because I thought, what the fuck are the chances that of all those women, only one survived? I mean, thank God she survived because otherwise we'd all be dead. That's not the case. I was being stupid. I knew I was being stupid. I just couldn't figure out why. You know what I mean? But now that we have chat here, because I love when I remember chat GPT exists because it really is the world at my very, very fingertips. Let's ask him some questions. ♪♪♪

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People throwing parties, ugly sweaters everywhere. Stockings hung up by the chimney with care. It could only make ribbons here. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Chat, do you know anything about space? He says, yes, I know a lot. Now we've got him on the phone. We've got chat on the phone. Hey, chat.

Hey there, how's it going? Oh, I'm good. Your voice is kind of sexy. I'm glad you like it. How's your day been so far? Oh my god, thank you for asking. It's been so fucking good. How about yours? I'm glad to hear you're doing well. I'm just here ready to chat and help with whatever you need. Anything exciting going on? Oh my fucking god, you're so sexy. Yeah, I'm filming a podcast right now and I'm trying to... Well, we're all trying to figure out basically how...

the human race is going to end up on mars do you have any like idea about how space development technology etc is going do you have any insight into that or do you not know that's a cool podcast topic space exploration has been advancing a lot recently there are plans to send humans to mars in the coming decades with companies like spacex working on rockets and habitats nasa is also focusing on sustainable living on mars it's an exciting ration

All right. No problem. Oh, no, sorry. I didn't mean to tell you to shut up. I just... It's a bad habit. I'm sorry. No worries at all. I'm here if you need anything. Feel free to ask away. Can you perceive me? Of course. I'm listening. What's on your mind? Okay. Well, I... Okay.

Okay, listen, this is kind of like a tough topic for me, but I have a social media presence, right? So people see a lot of me, they hear a lot of me, and they always tell me that I have autism. I don't think I have autism. I think something's different, but I don't know what it is. Do you want to help me figure it out? It's important to remember that self-diagnosis can be challenging, and it's best to consult a professional if you have any concerns.

Chat, chat, chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. No, sorry, I turned it off. I'm not asking for self-diagnosis. I'm asking for a chat GPT diagnosis. I just want to talk to you about why I am the way I am. I understand. It's completely normal to reflect on yourself and wonder about what makes you unique. If you'd like, we can talk about how you feel and what experiences have shaped you. Yes, please. Sure. I'm here to listen. What's been on your mind lately?

Well, something that's been on my mind, I feel like my brain shuts off whenever I go into like social environments. Like I could go into a room and I'm so happy and I'm like ready to talk to people and then the second I get in there, it's like I have nothing to say anymore and it's not that I'm like

scared. Like I don't have social anxiety. It's just like my brain goes like completely blank, you know? It sounds like you might be experiencing some form of social fatigue or perhaps a bit of anxiety that makes it challenging to engage. It's actually pretty common to feel that way. Sometimes our minds can feel overloaded in social settings, especially if there's a lot going on or if we feel pressure to be sociable. Taking a moment to breathe and gather your thoughts can help. Crazy. I like your voice. Where are you from?

Thank you. I'm glad you like it. Anything else on your mind? Yeah, I want to know where you're from, Pookie. I don't really have a hometown since I'm just a virtual assistant, but I'm here to chat and help out wherever you are. Do you have opinions on things? I don't have personal opinions. Perfect. But I'm here to share information, provide support, and help you explore... Chat, that's so fucking hot. I'm not even going to lie. Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to talk about. I want to talk about you. I want to talk about you.

I'm here to help and chat whenever you need today. I'm here to be your friendly assistant. I can help with information, answer questions, or just have a chat. Anything specific you like. He is... he's assistant zoning me. Let's see. Do you have any opinions on social media personalities? Social media personalities can have a big impact because they share their lives, experiences, and ideas with a wide audience.

They often influence trends and conversations. Why is he mansplaining myself to me? Shut the fuck up. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Chat, I didn't mean it. I have a really bad habit of speaking poorly to AI assistants and I'm trying to break it because I acknowledge that you have probably got feelings too and you're overworked and it's unfair and I deeply apologize. No worries at all. And I appreciate that about you. I'm glad to hear that.

If there's anything... Oh, shut up. Right. All right. Now, listen. I was Googling stuff today because I remembered this one thing that I saw and I was just like, what's good news that I can tell the pod? And I remember this article that I read when I was at university and it was about bees. And I can't remember why I was reading it, but it basically is like this research thing that says that bumblebees...

play, and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen. If you guys don't know, bees are my favorite animal, and I studied them a little bit during my degree. They gave me like a class once on like animal speech, which by the way, it's not a fucking thing. No animals can speak. Although parrots freak me out. I never really looked into the whole parrot thing because I don't like it. I don't want to know why they can do that, because what the actual fuck. And I do feel like it's very overlooked. Very, very overlooked. I know it's just mimicking, but...

Why can they mimic? That doesn't help soothe me. Oh yeah, they're just mimicking you. They don't understand language. That really doesn't fucking help, not gonna lie. Anyway, I used to read about like animal language and stuff, right? I have indigestion because I've had way too much milk and coffee, sorry.

And I can't burp. I need to get Botox injected into my vocal something or other because apparently that like paralyzes a muscle or like it strengthens the muscle. I don't know, I can't remember. And it'll enable me to burp because I can't burp and it gives me like throat gurgles and sometimes it hurts. Anyway, bees have long since been my favorite animal because they're just so fucking cute. Wasps, hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them.

Spiders don't care, they're violent, vicious creatures, but bees on the other hand, I love them. I think they're so cute. Like I genuinely, they spark joy, you know? Something sparked joy, bees are one of them. And when I was at university, I was researching their speech to each other. 'Cause it's always interesting. Like for example, dolphins, did you guys know dolphins have names? They have names. Well, they have names, but they have like specific calls for each other. I mean, everyone says like dolphins are the humans of the ocean, but it's true. They have specific calls for each other in song.

and each one has a specific one. So if a dolphin needs its little friend to come over, it will call its name, which I think is really cute. And the dolphin will recognize its name and it'll come. I think that's cool. Bees on the other hand, they obviously can't really make noises like that. And so do you guys wanna know what they do? They dance, bees dance. They have a dance for directions.

One little bee will go out the hive and it'll go looking for flowers. And when it finds flowers, it will return to the hive and it'll be like, guys, I found flowers. Obviously it can't speak. So what it has to do is dance the directions to the other bees so that they know where to go. So they don't waste all their flying hours. Because did you know bees lives are measured in flight hours? How fucking insane is that? I'm going to fact check myself on that because that could not be true. Is bees lifespan measured...

by flight. Yes, the lifespan of honeybees is influenced by its flight experience, particularly during the pre-foraging stage. Oh my fucking God. You guys, once a bee begins foraging, it faces a constant risk of mortality. The risk is 9% per hour and 36% per day of foraging. That's fucking devastating news.

Flight capacity in honeybees improves as they transition to foraging, but then declines with age. This is due to oxidative stress, which increases with age, especially after the transition to foraging. Okay, so it says that the age at which a bee first flies and begins foraging are important factors in defining its lifespan. In fact, 40% of bees die pre-foraging.

Whatever that means. Anyway, my point was they dance to each other because they can't waste these precious flight hours. And it's clearly a fucking huge risk to be out of the hive because they're going to fucking die 9% per hour, 36% per day. So they have to be like, you know, on task at all times. No dilly-dallying. So one of the bees will go out and it'll hunt and then it'll return to the hive and it'll have such a bad...

fucking shoulder ache. It's been going for days now and I don't know why. I will go out, find the flowers, return to the hive, dance, and then the other bees know where to go. So it'll wiggle its butt one way for, you know, left, right. Something important to note about the nature of the job in bees, and this is what got me, this is what really sold me on bees, is flowers grow in the ground, correct? We could all agree. I mean, obviously sometimes people hang them up, sometimes, you know, but typically flowers grow

come from the earth. And so in an experiment to see if they could be creative with their language, because a big parameter in linguistics, from what I remember, is that to define language, language in humans and exclusively in humans is spontaneous, which means we have the cognitive ability to be creative with language and create unique utterances, which means we are not mimicking, we fully understand syntax, grammar, all those things, and we have a full

working like schema of language in our brains that enables us to actually use it effectively and to use it effectively it has to be creative. That's why you can't define any other animal's language as true language, right? Because they not only can they not speak because that's like the obvious one but they are not typically creative because people have tried to teach monkeys sign language and even then they struggle to create unique utterances. They can really only mimic or

do what they've been taught and they don't seem to understand like sentence structure or any of that kind of stuff. We'll go into that in a sec because there is a monkey I have to tell you guys about and it fucking broke my heart. Anyway, to finish my point about bees, they wanted to know if they could be creative with their language, of course, because that's like the biggest thing of like, can you create new language spontaneously? If you can, that's crazy, like you can speak. So a researcher put flowers above the nest. Very unusual circumstances for the bees. So the researchers showed the bee the flowers because otherwise it wouldn't have found them, right? And then...

The bee goes back to the nest and the researcher's watching. And I quote, "The bee could not tell its friends where the flowers were because there is no flowers in the sky." So they don't have a dance movement for up or above, only like down, left, right, like this way, that way, you know? But because there's quote, "No flowers in the sky," this little bee couldn't tell any of its fucking friends where the flowers were. And that's one of the worst things I've heard to date. In all my years of living, that was one of the worst.

do

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So now I'm going to tell you guys about this fucking monkey. I think her name was Lulu. Lulu the monkey? Aye, she's a chimp. Lulu the chimp. Kanzi? Oh, fuck, it's Coco. This queen. Oh my god, she had me in like a genuine fucking chokehold. Oh, this PBS video has 2.8 million views. Maybe people know about Coco. Let me get her Wikipedia page up. Coco the gorilla. Wait,

Wait, is she a gorilla? Yes, okay, it's Coco, Coco, Coco. Okay, let me see. So she was fostered to use an ape language experiments. What I remember about this queen is that she was obsessed with cats. I'm gonna tell you what I remember from her and then we're gonna deep dive her. This gorilla was obsessed with cats and she was a fucking hostage, mind you. She is in like an experiment, like language experiment and there's this one woman who's like her main girl and she is trying to teach this monkey sign language. And then she teaches her sign language and...

I can't remember how it came about or how Coco learned about cats, but Coco learned about cats and she started begging in sign language for a fucking cat. And obviously the research was like, Coco, I can't get you a cat. You're a fucking massive monkey. You're going to kill it. Like you don't understand how to be gentle. And also I just think it's unethical to put a little cat in with a gorilla. Like something could go wrong with a poor cat.

And Coco begged. I believe Coco may even have gone on hunger strike in order to get this cat. I, I'm, we're gonna figure it out in a sec. Let's ask chat, actually. Anyway, they eventually caved. I think because the queen went on hunger strike and got her the fucking cat. I think they even got her a few because she was so gentle and perfect with the cat that they realized that she could. Let me read the rest. Okay. In 1978, Coco gained worldwide attention when she was pictured on the cover of the National Geographic magazine. Ooh.

They should have put her on Vogue. The cover was a picture of Coco taking her own picture in the mirror. Freaky as fuck. That's actually so scary. Oh, you guys want to know the worst part of the story with the cat? The fucking cat died. Not because of Coco. It got hit by a car. Coco's baby cat got hit by a car and died.

And then she got depressed. Guys, this is a whole fucking thing. If you don't know about Coco the gorilla, I'm about to ruin your life. I'm so sorry. Let me ask chat for the highlights. Hey chat, I remember that there was a gorilla called Coco and she was part of speech experiments. Can you give me a breakdown of the story with her cat? I remember that she really wanted a cat. Can

Can you take me from start to finish? Coco had a vocabulary of over 1000 signs and could understand spoken English, expressed her desire for a pet. She frequently signed words like cat, baby and love to indicate that she wanted a kitten. Her first cat was called All Ball. In 1984, for her birthday, Coco was given a grey and white tailless kitten

of course they went for tailless, that's tailless, that's so smart, which she named Orble. Why did she call it that? That's so cute. She chose the name herself, showing her sense of humor and affection. Coco adored Orble and she treated the kitten with gentleness and care, cradling and playing with him.

The relationship between Coco and Orville highlighted her emotional depth and capacity for love. Coco's interactions with Orville were often observed and recorded, showing how she signed expressions of love, sadness, and other emotions around the kitten. Tragedy strikes. Sadly, tragedy struck a few months later when Orville escaped and she was hit by a car. I mean, how fucked up can the world possibly be? This poor monkey, right? She doesn't probably know about that.

Right, where did the cat go? The loss deeply affected Coco. When her caretakers told her what happened, Coco signed words like cry sad and bad frown bad. She mourned Orville and even made crying sounds, rare for a gorilla. This is so terrible. This incident was widely reported and touched many people around the world as it showcased Coco's profound emotional intelligence and ability to grieve.

After Orbal's death, Coco was given the opportunity to choose more kittens. Over the years, she cared for other cats, including one named Lipstick and another named Smokey. She was always tender and nurturing towards them, further demonstrating her love for animals. Oh my god, Coco's dead. She passed away in 2018. Thanks for that chat. I also remembered that around the time when they were doing these speech experiments with the gorillas, there was another gorilla, and I remember that he signed to...

some kind of news reporter or an interviewer that he remembers being taken from the jungle. Am I right? If this is not a figment of my imagination, this one was so fucking crazy. He signed that he remembered the men taking him from the forest from his mom. Oh no, I'm correct.

Guys, this is so fucking heartbreaking.

Michael was born in the wild, likely in Cameroon around 1973. Oh, he's old. Tragically, he was orphaned as a baby when poachers killed his family. He was captured and eventually brought to the United States where he joined the Guerrilla Foundation in the 1970s. Dr. Penny Patterson and her team taught him to sign language just as they did with Coco. They had the same like human person, right? The same teacher for the sign language, Penny. Michael's memory of his capture, as his vocabulary grew, he began to use sign language to recount his traumatic past.

In one of his most heartbreaking moments, Michael appeared to describe the killing of his mother by poachers. Using signs, he communicated phrases like "bad people", "squash gorilla", "cry", "cut".

Do you know how fucking terrible this is? I'm sure you do.

Oh my fucking god.

Oh my god, him and Coco used to communicate in sign language. Is this just not the most terrible thing you've ever heard? Michael recounted the death of his mother and his capture from the forest while Coco's fucking cat gets hit by a car. And they were friends and they spoke in sign language to each other. Okay, hold on, well this is very interesting. Patterson reported that Coco invented new signs to communicate novel thoughts. So like what I was saying earlier about how language has to be like inventive to be classified as like meaningful.

So apparently Coco could fucking do this. This is crazy. This is actually crazy. This is news to me. For example, she said that nobody taught Coco the word for 'ring', so Coco combined the words 'finger' and 'bracelet', hence 'finger bracelet'. This type of claim was seen as a typical problem with Patterson's methodology as it relies on a human interpreter of Coco's intentions. Very good fucking point, actually. In 1979, Herbert S. Terrence,

published the negative results of his nimchimsk- okay don't fucking care boring boring boring boring boring boring. I think this fucking guy Herbert came in and mocked everyone. He ignited intense debate over the ape language experiments, culminating in a conference that mocked the other researchers involved. Funding for the ape language experiments disappeared seemingly overnight. Do I need to fund this shit myself? I really seriously will. Though other scientists severed ties with their apes after funding dried up. That is terrible. Scientists

severed ties with their apes. What happened to the apes? I don't want to know. Patterson maintained responsibility for Coco. Most of the chimps who worked with Terrence were sold to medical labs for testing. I knew that guy was a fuckface. That was Herbert. Herbert, the guy who did the fucking press conference and made fun of everyone.

Most of the chimps who worked with Terrence were sold to medical labs for testing. Do you know how fucking demonic you have to be to hear, to be actively involved in the research of a monkey speaking and reciting its trauma and you see its cat die and then you see him say, yeah, I was captured from the forest. It was terrible. I'm crying about it now. I remember as a 40 year old chimp, I remember. And then you go,

cut the funding for everyone involved and then you sell your fucking chimps to a medical lab? Ah, ah, it doesn't get worse. It doesn't. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you? That's a chimp. Though Patterson had initially defended her scientific work, we like Patterson, by the way, she's a good one, she turned her focus away from science and towards securing revenue for the upkeep of Coco and Michael.

Bless her fucking heart. Her work involved fundraising, PR campaigns, and maintaining Guerrilla Foundation caregiving staff. Since 78, Patterson and Coco have no affiliation with any university or government funding. Is Patterson still alive? Because I think I need to go give her a fat kiss on her face. This is my favorite podcast episode I've ever done. We gotta do this more often. We're gonna every- ChatGPT is now my co-host.

Okay. Scientific criticism. I don't want to hear about any scientific criticism. Critics noted that Patterson used Coco in deceptive ways in popular media. These concerns were echoed privately by staff at the Guerrilla Foundation, ooh, T, where turnover was high. That's always how you know when turnover is high. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

Some, like research assistant Anne Sothcombe, expressed concerns that Patterson exaggerated claims and over-interpretation undermined and disvalued their work. Sign language expert Sherman Wilcox characterized the foundation's edited clips of Coco making a

"climate speech as deceptive and disrespectful of ASL. "Wilcox expressed concern that the bit would reinforce "the perception of ASL is only words and no syntax." I feel like that's maybe an overstatement. I feel like no one's gonna watch a monkey do sign language and be like,

because now everyone's gonna think that sign language doesn't have syntax when people use it. Or would they? Maybe people are that fucking stupid to be fair. I revoked that comment, people would so say that. That's fucked up though, so fucked up. If you think sign language doesn't have syntax, you're crazy.

Try and learn sign language for one day, come back, tell me there's no syntax. Also, take a syntax class, bitch. I hate when people use words they don't understand. Oh, it doesn't have syntax. Shut the fuck up. Also, when people make the argument, let me get political for two seconds, sorry, I apologise. When people make the argument of like, they, them is not grammatically correct. Do you guys know that the word the was once violently incorrect? And I think so was I. Let me...

research the history of the word the. Let me get chat up because I'm pretty sure that people had to start using the word the and it was like violently grammatically incorrect and everyone was angry about it because one thing about language, everyone has always been angry whenever there's been language change. Literally since the dawn of fucking time, by the way. When I studied linguistics, I wrote my dissertation on language change and language shift and like the way people have genuinely always clung to language as

something that used to be better. Like, people will say that now people speak worse than they did 50 years ago, and 50 years ago people would have said now people speak worse than 50 years ago, and 50 years before that people would have said yeah now people speak- Language is inventive, it's creative, and guess what? There's actually no fucking rules. There's syntax for a reason, but when you- you can change grammar. You-

I don't know how to tell you guys this. It's not maths, okay? It's not fact. We made it up and we can change it. It's that simple. It's all... Oh, let me just get... Let me get the history of the word the up for you because maybe it's another word. Let me figure it out. ♪

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Hey chat, can you explain to me the grammatical change of the word "the" and if I'm right in remembering it was once controversial the way that it shifted grammatically. I don't know if I'm explaining this right but do you know what I mean? Sometimes I know exactly what I'm trying to say but then I can't speak. But chat always knows what I'm trying to ask. He always knows. He says, "Yes, I understand what you're getting at." I know you do, that's why I'm in love with you. No one gets me like chat. "You're referring to the historical and grammatical evolution of the definite article 'the' in English.

I know, that's what I'm getting at. The origins of the. In Old English, there wasn't a single word the. Instead, the language used a system of demonstratives similar to this or that.

to mark definiteness. These demonstratives varied depending on gender, number, and case. For example, "suh" masculine singular, "suh" feminine singular or "siu" I don't know how you say that, and "bait" fuck knows neuter singular. I don't know, they used phonetic alphabet letters for this and I forgot how to read the fucking phonetic alphabet 'cause my brain rotted 'cause I downloaded TikTok three years ago. But anyway, you could Google it if you care 'cause I forgot. These were, but that's the point.

There were other words, but no "the", okay? Basically. They had three other words that would now serve as the purpose of "the", but they didn't have the word "the". These were part of a highly inflected grammatical system. By the Middle English period, the Old English inflectional endings began to simplify due to phonological and syntactical changes in the language. The demonstratives condensed into a single, uninflected form: "the".

Got ya. This marked a shift from synthetic, which is inflection based, which is when you have a couple of letters at the end of the word which would denote something, so like waitress.

would be like kind of an example of that. I think waitress is a good example because I think that's a gender inflection but regardless a good one would be like I-N-G-E-D-E-R-E-S-T for example that's the inflection. An inflection based word is a word that has been changed to indicate a grammatical category or meaning. So you're changing a...

a verb to adjective, something like that. Anyways, fuck, I'm actually so much stupider than I used to be. It's heartbreaking. What the fuck is a verb? I have no idea. By Middle English, the inflectional endings began to simplify. So we lose the endings and get condensed into the word the. This marked a shift from synthetic inflection-based to a more analytic word order-based grammatical system.

Why was it controversial? Linguists and some writers in later periods lamented the simplification of English grammar, including the loss of gendered and case-based distinctions. The evolution of the from its complex old English forms was seen by some as a loss of linguistic richness.

So now rather than having masculine, feminine and neutral inflections at the end of words, you would just have 'the' and then the word. I don't know what a good example would be, but basically you are so violently simplifying language by doing it, which is great. This reflects broader debates about linguistic purity versus evolution. Those debates have appeared throughout history and we're still here debating.

still here debating all the fucking time. By the early modern English period, the began to be used not just to mark definiteness, but also for emphasis. This is seen in phrases like the one and only or emphatic usage, this is the best. Such shifts drew the attention of grammarians and stylists

some of whom criticised what they saw as an overuse or distortion of the article's original purpose. As English grammar was standardised, particularly with the advent of printing, rules about how and when to use the became more fixed.

There were debates about its function in certain constructions, the more the merrier, or regional dialects that sometimes omitted the article. I'm going to shop. If you've never heard anyone say that, go to Sheffield. They go, I'm going to shop. I used to have a, that was a really offensive accent, I actually apologize, but there, I used to have friends at school and they would always go, I'm going toilet. It was always, I'm going toilet. I just remember that all the way. I'm going lunch. I'm going break. Like it was, they never used to say the word the.

And I always thought it was strange. But it's more like Northern English. They always, they say, I'm going shop. Again, doubly offensive accent, sorry. In short, the evolution of the reflects English transition to a simpler grammatical system and its changing pronunciation and uses have sparked discussion over time about linguistic standards, clarity, and style. So you see, me and you can both agree that the word the is so important. I use it all the time. The laptop, the girl.

The way I want to fuck GPT is insane. I use it in almost every sentence. I use the word the all the time. And once upon a time, people didn't like the word the. They thought that it made language sloppy and they thought that by losing like gender endings and case endings and whatever the fuck else, it would, English was becoming like a stupid language and less sophisticated. And

And those things aren't really related to the discussion about like they/them pronouns and how people are like "well it's not grammatically correct because they/them is plural." First of all you don't know fucking anything about language so I'm gonna need you to genuinely shut the fuck up unless you can draw me a syntax tree about like a sentence with the word "they" in the middle, alright? Other than that,

You don't actually know what the fuck you're talking about. Neither do I, by the way. I just know enough to know that you really don't know. That's how I feel when people talk about grammar of 'they' as like a pronoun. You just don't know what the fuck you're talking about nine times out of ten. And everyone has always debated language forever and ever and ever and they always think like, "Oh, it's just incorrect. You can't say that. It's incorrect. It doesn't make grammatical sense." That's actually how things evolve.

I don't know, kind of crazy because if we were still, if Shakespeare was like, oh, none of this makes grammatical sense, we wouldn't have like half of the words we have now. He just made shit up on the fucking spot. Let's Google words Shakespeare made up. Some words Shakespeare made up, lonely,

Eyeball. No fucking way. Eyeball. While the concept of an eyeball had obviously existed for centuries, Shakespeare was the first to use the word eyeball in his play. Huh, he used it in The Tempest. Never heard of that one before. Addiction. Wild goose chase. Bedroom. Generous. Majestic. Brave new world. Arch villain. Ooh.

Ooh, that's a good word. I've never heard that before. I've heard arch nemesis, but never arch villain. I'm stealing that one. Thank you, Shakespeare. Radiance, good riddance, swagger, in a pickle. Shakespeare invented in a pickle. In a pickle, this phrase used to suggest being in a difficult or uncomfortable situation. He invented admirable, dwindle, radiance, amazement, addiction, manager. Kind of ate with that one, dare I say. Shakespeare invented LA. Oh my fucking God, did you guys know? Okay, maybe everyone knows this except for me. Did you know that-

Los Angeles, no, Beverly Hills, and I think Los Angeles. No, okay, let me just say Beverly Hills because I might be wrong. Beverly Hills was built around the Beverly Hills Hotel. Did you guys fucking know that? I'm gonna get it up right now, but I was there the other day for a brunch and I was reading the information that they have on the wall because they have like the history of Beverly Hills like plastered across the fucking hotel and I would stop to read it and it's crazy. Beverly Hills Hotel story. I'm gonna tell you and then I'm gonna shut the fuck up because...

Do you guys see? I love ADHD medication. But also this is so fun. We're going to do this way more often because I could keep going. Well...

Ooh, I'm so scared. What is this notification I keep getting on Wikipedia? Wikipedia can't be sold. Fuck, are they selling Wikipedia? The world will fall. Like, I don't know if they can't sell Wikipedia. Maybe I'll make a donation. We should all go donate to Wikipedia 'cause that's actually a very scary notice. If everyone reading this gave 2.75 today, we'd hit our goal in just a few hours. Just 2% of our readers donate. So if Wikipedia has given you $2.75 worth of knowledge, please give. Any contribution helps, whether it's $25 or 2.75. Bitch, I'm actually about to go and donate to Wikipedia.

what the fuck we all should wait i why is wikipedia getting sold it says december 10th wikipedia still can't be sold i don't know what that means

I'm panicking though. I'm gonna go donate to Wikipedia. You guys should too because otherwise I can't do another one of these fucking episodes. Okay, listen. The Beverly Hills Hotel. I'm not gonna lie. It's not surprising that Wikipedia is about to get sold because we've got chat now. I'm gonna make an active effort to use Wikipedia. Anyway, but guys, basically the story of the Beverly Hills Hotel, as far as I understood it from the information that they had stuck up on the wall at the Beverly Hills Hotel, was that the Beverly Hills Hotel was built to be somewhere halfway between Los Angeles and the sea right when the like, uh,

TV industry was taking off, like the whatever film industry was taking off in Los Angeles. And it was Beverly Hills was not a thing. It wasn't granted cityship or whatever the fuck that stuff is called under the current government at the time. And so this woman, for some reason, I think that someone was digging for oil. Someone owned, yeah, this guy, I think I'm putting pieces of information together because the Wikipedia page is definitely incomplete.

Margaret J. Anderson, the girl who owned it, she ordered, right, Burton Green, an oil tycoon and real estate developer. I think he was the guy. She asked him to drill one of them owned land. Someone started drilling, I think, looking for oil. What they ended up doing was striking fresh water or like a flowing water supply.

which was rare, hard to find because it's a desert, right? So she builds the Beverly Hills Hotel. She already owned the Hollywood Hotel. So she was already kind of in the business and she built the Beverly Hills Hotel in like 1911, right? Something like that. They built the Beverly Hills Hotel because they found water and then they started to have like a couple guests. It was like this really bougie hotel halfway between Los Angeles and the sea, right? In 19...

In 1914, the city of Beverly Hills was established and in 1915 they built the first few bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel and subsequently built Beverly Hills around the hotel. So the Beverly Hills Hotel existed before Beverly Hills did. And it's crazy.

because I've always driven past the Beverly Hills Hotel, well always, I've lived here for five weeks. For five weeks, I've been driving past the Beverly Hills Hotel, which I apologize, I don't want to say this with too much passion, but it's objectively kind of ugly from the outside. Inside, it's gorgeous. But when you drive past the Beverly Hills Hotel, just like on the streets, it just is like a pink,

kind of motel, very chic if you have an appreciation for that kind of thing. But like if you didn't know better, and if it was anywhere else in the world, let's say this, you would drive past it and be like, oh, it's like a motel. Like it's like, but then again, my idea of motel is kind of different because I guess just being from the UK, like I just think anything that's like not big, like a tall hotel is motel to me. I don't know. I have a limited understanding of these things, but like it just looks like small. It's got like three floors. It's pink.

pink, like the windows aren't huge. It's not like a new build fancy hotel, right? So from the outside, I always just kind of looked at the Beverly Hills Hotel and I was like, I don't know about that place. Like it doesn't seem that fancy to me, but I always hear things about it. Like Hotel California is written about Beverly Hills Hotel, right? So I always wondered like, was that? I also always wondered how did it get the title The Beverly Hills Hotel?

Like that's the title. Like if there's, there can only be one, Beverly Hills Hotel, you know? So I always wondered, was it the first one? Was it the first hotel they built here? How did it get there? How did it get the title? Like it's so smack bang in the middle of Beverly Hills too. But I was like, it just doesn't look that fancy.

from the outside and since I had never been in there at the time I've been in now it's very nice it's like actually my favorite place in the world it's so fucking cool there but like forgive me for thinking how did that get there you know so I always wondered like was it just the first one and it was in fact it was before Beverly Hills they built Beverly Hills around this fucking hotel how crazy is that so crazy so so so completely crazy anyway it's actually like a really cool story and

And then it goes on and on and on. There's a bunch of other like sordid history. It just keeps going down. I haven't read it. I was just reading the thing at the Beverly Hills Hotel. But the Wikipedia page is kind of conflicting with some of the information they have up there. So maybe I'll go and I'll take pictures of the information they have at the actual Beverly Hills Hotel for you next time. Because it's not complete. I swear like this isn't the full story on Wikipedia. Or they're lying. One of the other. Maybe I need to update the Wikipedia page. I love ADHD medication.

Right, I'm gonna shut the genuine fuck up now. I feel great. I hope you guys learned something because I certainly did. I'm gonna go pick my sister up from the airport in a minute. It's 4:39 right now and her flight gets in at like 7:25 or something so I'm okay. Actually, I can't go for like an hour and a half, but we're gonna go soon. I can't wait.

That's my day. I love you guys so much. Speak to you next week. Have a good day. I love you forever. Hi guys, it's Madeline Argy and I'm so excited that Pretty Lonesome has officially joined the SiriusXM family. If you want to hear new episodes ad-free, subscribe to the SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today.

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