Zompist Bboard Again

I really doubt that, for instance, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian developed satemisation at the same time and have a common ancestor. I don't think they necessarily had a common ancestor "proto-satem", the sound change (and also the RUKI rule) could have spread by areal diffusion, just tha...

I'm more inclined to follow a theory where the palatovelars represent an innovation of the satem languages, though clearly relatively early, and probably any pre-satem dialect(s) may have co-existed during the time of PIE itself, but I am not convinced that the system currently reconstructed in a si...

Also given how *woyd would develop semantically in many IE languages, meaning something like "having sight of" might actually be more reasonable than "having seen", because certainly in Germanic at least, the reflexes of this verb are typically specifically used to denote knowled...

Looks decent, fairly Austronesian in feel, but word of advice; please don't post so much stuff all at once it makes it hard to comment on individual things.

Is there a particular reason why **sāl must be reconstructed as opposed to **selh₂? I assume the root itself mainly has this vowel because Anatolian either shows no laryngeal or lacks this word altogether?

Well phonetically is certainly looks very Irish, only I can't help but feel that what you write as labialisation should in fact be velarisation.

My current pet theory is that Pre/Early PIE had a vowel system like that of modern Circassian with *ə *a *aː, equivalent to the *∅ *e *o of traditional reconstructions. This would also account for Brugmann's Law, and explain the tendency for *o *a to be confused is most of IE if we assume relatively...

Next post will be the final one on history, bringing us to the present day. After that, I’m open to suggestions: I’m thinking of either a culture description along the lines of Zompist’s "lives of ordinary people" from the Historical Atlas of Arcél, or maybe some language stuff: what woul...

I personally think Salishan (particularly Coast Salish) is a much better candidate, because while they don't use the same kind of templatic morphology, they are famously consonant heavy, and a lot of their morphology does involve some vowel shifts due to stress movement. Here's some Saanich in a mod...

Interesting about Polish. Makes me wonder if all the "retroflex" stops in different Australian languages are all the same, or how they vary. I think in a typical Australian system the "retroflex" stop is apical and either postalveolar or palatal and it contrasts with an apical a...

With the Greek triple reflex thing, is there any particular reason forms like *h2ster must be reconstructed with a laryngeal there, or could it not just be a weak initial vowel that in Greek split into different vowels depending on environment and was lost in other languages entirely?

Ich würde auf Altgriechisch schrieben, aber ich habe keine polytonische Tastatur, die auf meinem Komputer installiert ist.
I would write in Ancient Greek, but I don't have a polytonic keyboard installed on my computer.

I think I tend towards X's not rather than X isn't, which I think is typical of the far north of England iirc (similarly "don't" is "divven't" in Geordie and nearby varieties). Also related, but with contraction of "will" it seems I contract it more contexts than many p...

The islands can roughly be divided into two halves at the Straits of Opordis, based on their geological origin and their prevailing climate. The windward islands to the north-east are a southern continuation of the Athros Mountains which divide the continent of Adeia in two. They are geologically o...

My /oʊ ʊ/ are likewise very centralized, but my /uː ɒ/ are back. Huh, interesting, that's pretty much the opposite of what's typical in the UK, where if any of the rounded vowels is going to be fronted, it'll be the GOOSE vowel, though the FOOT vowel is central round Manchester. Isn't /oʊ/ traditio...

Zaarin wrote: ↑Mon Sep 03, 2018 2:27 pmMy /oʊ ʊ/ are likewise very centralized, but my /uː ɒ/ are back.

Huh, interesting, that's pretty much the opposite of what's typical in the UK, where if any of the rounded vowels is going to be fronted, it'll be the GOOSE vowel, though the FOOT vowel is central round Manchester.

I'm currently just under 3 weeks away from returning to Cambridge for my second year. On the one hand I'm glad I've been home, because I can definitely see the injustices in the Cambridge system and the damaging effects it can have on people, myself included, and I definitely miss things about my li...

In Malayalam, you "knock" a drum, "blow" a flute, "read" all other musical instruments I can think of, and I believe "put" recorded media. (This last part is like Spanish). On a related note traditionally at the University of Cambridge you "read" yo...

It only just occurred to me that Crazy Rich Asians could be Asians that are both crazy and rich or Asians who are so rich it's crazy. Also the author of the book is apparently wanted in Singapore for dodging national service (which is ironic when you consider that this is the kind of thing the supe...

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