Zompist Bboard Again

A common method of working with inanimate agents is to require sentences that involve them to be passivized. There is a good deal of evidence that this was true in PIE, and it is semi-true in Algonquian--the Algonquian inverse isn't exactly a passive, but it's similar, and the inanimate-agent verb f...

Can one of our resident Britbongs explain this exciting-sounding "Festival of Brexit"? It's apparently going to cost 120 million pounds, a sum which sounds like it would buy a lot of fireproof cladding.

Cappadocian: pilišpēša, impf. pēlišpēšan, pret. pēlišpekša.

Next: bacon

burp We'll make a new rule that word-final long vowels do not shorten if they were accented. This, plus the "unaccented *ĕ goes to /i/" rule and "*ó goes to /ā/ rule" splits ā- and o-stems into two different classes each. Declensions a1 and o1 were stem-accented, a2 and o2 ending...

Yes, the augment gets added onto all preterites regardless of whether they come from old aorists or old perfects. This means that perfect-derived preterites like that of bela look like they're supposed to be pluperfects...but they're not; pluperfects don't exist. (At least I don't think so. Maybe th...

Another shot at Satemophrygian, which I've been working on on and off. Sound Changes 1) General core IE sound changes: *h₁e *h₂e *h₃e > ĕ ă ŏ; *eh₁ *eh₂ *eh₃ > ē ā ō; Szereményi's, Stang's, Osthoff's, Pinault's, etc. The usual, basically. Interconsonantal *H of any sort becomes *ă (no triple-reflex)...

I got a Morin Khuur for about $65, which is decently mid-range for a Morin Khuur (they're thankfully not expensive by the standards of instruments). She needs some rosin, and I'm trying to find lessons. I'm hoping one of my students will know somebody who knows somebody. They're cool instruments--as...

Basics Username: dhok Name: unique enough to easily google Other nicknames (including good stories, if you have any): Birthplace: Boston, Masach8suty Place of residence: Ulaanbaatar Any particular reason you live there now? Much better and more interesting job and lifestyle than China. Occupation: ...

*ʔP > hP is attested in most of Algonquian (Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cree and Menominee excepted); *hP > PP is attested in Ojibwe, and *hp > ʔP in Shawnee.

Face and head are very basic terms and not likely to be borrowed at all. But it's not impossible! Ojibwe oshtigwaan "his head" is a borrowing from Cree; the root is Proto-Algonquian *-ʔtekw-, whose expected Ojibwe reflex -tigw- appears in some place names. (also German Kopf , as noted)

I think a more interesting question is whether there are languages that combine TIME IS SPACE distance-measurement with relative directions--e.g. "That hunting-ground is three hours left of here." (Are there any languages that don't use time to measure distance at all? I presume it must ha...

I'm booking a train ticket to Ulaanbaatar for this weekend to find a new job!