Search found 6014 matches

by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 3:24 pm
Forum: Languages
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread's Sequel
Replies: 891
Views: 1082737

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread's Sequel

As for PIE lacking post-velar consonants other than the laryngeals, Proto-Semitic is reconstructed in a similar way (though some Semitic languages at least have shifted /k'/ to /q/), and this is indeed the reason why Indo-Europeanists call them "laryngeals". Thing is, the *k *kʷ *q hypoth...
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 2:53 pm
Forum: Languages
Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
Replies: 4676
Views: 2058364

Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread

I'm with Linguoboy here -- the reasons against the substratum hypothesis for do-support seem quite strong, and I am not going to repeat them here because they have already been stated in this thread.
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 2:51 pm
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: United States Politics Thread 46
Replies: 1417
Views: 444459

Re: United States Politics Thread 46

I think Travis's point, which I agree with, is about which way to vote, not about discrediting protests. Please show me where in my OP I said a damn word about voting or not voting. He simply ignored the content of my post to ride his old hobby horse about voting. Obviously you would delegitimize c...
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 2:18 pm
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: AIs gunning for our precious freelancers
Replies: 710
Views: 136661

Re: AIs gunning for our precious freelancers

Torco, you seem to believe that Trump as president won't result in Trump pushing fascism on a global scale. Do you seriously believe this is true? Do you seriously believe that Trump will not help support fascists outside the US such as Orbán and Putin?
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 11:52 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

Let's see if I can puzzle things out: [ˈkʰʊː.ae̯.ˈɛːv.n̩ː.ˌɑ̃ː.ʁ̃ˤɯːp̚ˈpʰɑː.mʁ̩ˤː] Could I have an Arnold Palmer? [ˈtjɛːv.ˈɜ̃ːj.ˌae̯ˈdiː.əː.ˈwʌə̯m.ˈsʲpi.kɘ̃.ˌɪːʁˤ] Do you have any idea what I'm speaking here? It looks rather outlandish, but when I articulate it, I understand, and it isn't that diff...
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 10:57 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

I think you're onto something here. The case can definitely be made that global communication does do a bit to slow the otherwise natural drift, though, mainly from American English to other varieties--e.g. I notice more and more younger Englishmen in media engaging in very American-sounding yod-dr...
by Travis B.
Thu May 09, 2024 10:41 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

...and that I would have no expectation that a Brit would readily understand my own speech unless I was deliberately approximating GA... Curious... Any audio clips? I have no audio clips of my natural, everyday speech that I can readily locate at the moment, and my problem with that is that when I ...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 9:29 pm
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

I'm tempted to say the collapse of global telecommunications, or else a future where all of it occurrs by text, something like that.... then again, I wonder if the different big dialects of english (you know, brit, american, australian... not so much norfolk vs suffolk) have grown more or less inte...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 5:50 pm
Forum: Languages
Topic: English questions
Replies: 1383
Views: 443903

Re: English questions

I had assumed the presence of [t] in second , as in /ˈsɛkənd/ [ˈsɜkɘ̃ːnt], was simple English final devoicing, but today I noticed that my daughter has [ˈsɜkɘ̃ʔ] for it, at least at times, which presumably reflects underlying /ˈsɛkənt/. Any thoughts on this? I cannot recall any other words in Englis...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 5:36 pm
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: United States Politics Thread 46
Replies: 1417
Views: 444459

Re: United States Politics Thread 46

I get why a spontaneous student movement is as threatening to establishment Democrats as it is to Republicans, but I really wish people would apply a modicum of common sense and a healthy dose of scepticism when evaluating the charges of those trying to discredit the movement. It's the same canards...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 1:28 pm
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: AIs gunning for our precious freelancers
Replies: 710
Views: 136661

Re: AIs gunning for our precious freelancers

Another Trump term would only help spread fascism even more than it has already spread around the world. Remember, Trump was cheering on people like Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin. Conversely, the Dems have been against the further spread of fascism. And the position you are espousing here is very ...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 11:22 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

The key thing is that GA is effectively a descendent of older versions of what became SSBE, but without the development of non-rhoticity or things such the trap - bath split, and with its own vowel mergers (such as the marry - merry - Mary merger). As a result, GA and SSBE are actually quite close t...
by Travis B.
Wed May 08, 2024 10:33 am
Forum: Languages
Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
Replies: 4676
Views: 2058364

Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread

When did do support first appear in English? according to Dr McWhorter, back in the days of Welsh, Cornish, and other Celtic languages. (it was brought into English from there, so its been here the whole time) Key thing there is according to -- it seems that this position may not be universal.
by Travis B.
Tue May 07, 2024 12:13 pm
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: War in the Middle East, again
Replies: 417
Views: 73782

Re: War in the Middle East, again

I’m sorry, but this is not ‘latent’ antisemitism. This is antisemitism. ‘The Jews are coming to kill us all and replace us’ is one of the oldest and most persistent antisemitic canards there is. I’ve been the target of this accusation myself, long before the current events. You have missed Torco's ...
by Travis B.
Tue May 07, 2024 12:01 pm
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Challenge: American English as a separate language
Replies: 23
Views: 422

Re: Challenge: American English as a separate language

Plenty of divergent dialects made it to North America in large numbers. Where I grew up, the largest ethnic group was "Scotch Irish," meaning there would have been a time when everyone in the Appalachians sounded like this child . The issue is that those divergent dialects never made up t...
by Travis B.
Tue May 07, 2024 10:32 am
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: The perception of rhythm in language
Replies: 15
Views: 236

Re: The perception of rhythm in language

Raphael wrote: Tue May 07, 2024 5:29 am Shouldn't this be in L&L?
Agreed - this is very much a topic for L&L.
by Travis B.
Mon May 06, 2024 12:08 pm
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: AI in conlanging - present and future
Replies: 16
Views: 234

Re: AI in conlanging - present and future

To me LLM's are limited for all the reasons people have already stated here. LLM's can only produce content as good as the human-generated content it is trained on, and will get worse once they start getting fed content generated by AI in the first place.
by Travis B.
Mon May 06, 2024 11:02 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Word evolution game
Replies: 2646
Views: 274154

Re: Word evolution game

Lengthening of vowels in open syllables ['juː.vɔʃ] ivvos "( to a woman of higher rank than oneself ) Mrs., Ms.; ( of judges, justices ) your honour" u > [y] before front vowels and semivowels. ['iyj̥] ieich "( chiefly archaic ) madam, ma'am" [s], including when geminate, > [ɕ] af...
by Travis B.
Sat May 04, 2024 10:32 pm
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Word evolution game
Replies: 2646
Views: 274154

Re: Word evolution game

[ɔː] > [uɔ̯] ['juɔ̯s] iós "(to a woman of higher rank than oneself) Mrs., Ms.; (with titles of office) madam; (of judges, justices) your honour" [ej] > [æj] ['jæjç] ieich "(to a woman of higher rank than oneself) Mrs., Ms.; (with titles of office) madam; (of judges, justices) your hon...
by Travis B.
Sat May 04, 2024 8:57 pm
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Word evolution game
Replies: 2646
Views: 274154

Re: Word evolution game

[œ] > [jɔ] ['jɔt͡s] oets "(to a woman of higher rank than oneself) Mrs., Ms.; (with titles of office) madam; (of judges, justices) your honour" [çː] > [jç] / V_ ['ʝejç] giecch "(to a woman of higher rank than oneself) Mrs., Ms.; (with titles of office) madam; (of judges, justices) you...