Search found 1384 matches
- Wed Mar 13, 2024 12:14 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread
- Replies: 1782
- Views: 4935139
Re: The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread
I'm not a native speaker, but I'm pretty sure there's no "syllable final rhotic" in "various"? Mmm, checked Wiktionary, and it seems that the GenAm pronunciation has, weird. Anyway, like Wiktionary says, I'm 99% sure that the "r" in "various" is the onset of ...
- Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:10 am
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread
- Replies: 1782
- Views: 4935139
Re: The "How Do You Pronounce X" Thread
How do you pronounce "various" and "rule"? I'm particularly curious as to whether non-rhotic speakers have a syllable final rhotic in the bisyllabic pronunciation or the first, or an onset /ɹj/. I'm not sure how one objectively distinguishes the two possibilities.
- Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:18 am
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4676
- Views: 2058381
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
A fronting of [ʃ] to [f]. I never would’ve figured on that as a direct step. ʃ to x and thence to f, sure, but this may be useful to some. The direct step is also hinted at in Welsh ffroen 'nostril' from Celtic *srognā and there is a voiced parallel in Latin sobrinu 'related via a sister' from *swe...
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:52 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: Venting thread
- Replies: 1920
- Views: 15027414
- Sat Feb 24, 2024 7:41 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4676
- Views: 2058381
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
there are usually no clear boundaries in time between a language and its descendants. That's why counting language deaths is a clever conceptually simpler idea that I believe yields almost the same answer. The only problem I see is whether related languages can merge, which it seems can happen with...
- Fri Feb 23, 2024 4:14 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: The Computer And General Tech Thread - Software, Hardware, Questions, etc.
- Replies: 557
- Views: 271188
Re: The Computer And General Tech Thread - Software, Hardware, Questions, etc.
Fun with spellcheckers: My Mom just reported to me that her Microsoft Word spellcheck (or, more accurately, grammar check) apparently can't decide whether to write a specific letter sequence as one word or two words. When she writes it as one word, the software "suggests" that she should ...
- Wed Feb 14, 2024 3:46 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4676
- Views: 2058381
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
Around 3000 BCE IE had not yet taken over Spain, Italy, Greece, Anatolia, Iran, or India. And it still hasn't totally taken over Spain, Anatolia, Iran or India - in fact it seems to have lost ground in the middle two. And I really wonder how we actually know "there were more families here"...
- Mon Feb 05, 2024 7:30 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Conlang Random Thread
- Replies: 2956
- Views: 2847402
Re: Conlang Random Thread
I've read a reddit guide on tonogenesis but it doesn't tell you how to manifest tones from closed syllables or syllables with dipthongs or syllables with onset clusters or all three. I was trying to write up something, but in the process I discovered this paper which looks quite comprehensive: http...
- Mon Feb 05, 2024 7:14 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: Elections in various countries
- Replies: 1096
- Views: 608358
Re: Elections in various countries
Just in case you didn't hear it yet, Northern Ireland seems to have an Executive again, because they somehow managed it to get the DUP to temporarily stop sulking. I must be extra thick these days because I've read over the new agreement and still don't quite understand what concession from the Bri...
- Mon Feb 05, 2024 7:00 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4676
- Views: 2058381
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
The precedent for not assimilating the first <c> would be Old French acciun , 'action', if it is truly inherited. A more typical pattern would be for the first <c> to vocalise to <i>, but that seem undependable - compare façon , inherited from factionem - and too deviant to have fed back into Latin.
- Mon Feb 05, 2024 2:58 am
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4676
- Views: 2058381
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
The number of 35 is widely bandied around; I note that Wiktionary has 36 Proto-afroasiatic terms.Nortaneous wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 4:55 pm Isn't Afroasiatic mostly defined by shared morphology, with hardly any accepted cognates?
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:13 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: English questions
- Replies: 1383
- Views: 443953
Re: English questions
Do I get this right that the statements " I have never done [fill in bad thing here], unlike certain other people " and " I have never done [fill in bad thing here], like certain other people " mean basically the same thing? There may not be a prescriptive rule on the matter, bu...
- Sat Jan 06, 2024 6:50 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
The text really is riddled with scannos. I can't help wondering if some of them are deliberate jokes, such as 'r' frequently being misalphabeticised as 'l'. Hah, funny… except that I checked a bunch of random words, and ⟨r⟩ always seems to be transcribed as ⟨r⟩ (except for one word where it became ...
- Thu Jan 04, 2024 1:24 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
- Thu Jan 04, 2024 1:16 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
- Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:54 am
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
Usually, I do find that I can comprehend French papers in linguistics. (Although weirdly, Spanish is easier.) But for some reason this one seems to be a bit more difficult to read — fewer technical terms, I suspect! Fewer technical linguistic terms, perhaps, but the paper seems unusually rich in wo...
- Wed Jan 03, 2024 7:43 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
Ferlus offers answers to most of Bradn's questions about Thai. …in French, a language I don’t speak. (I do have plans to learn it soon, but that only helps so much.) I must say the French looks very English; it's not like a newspaper. Also, there are a lot of pictures. Still, it may be a lot of wor...
- Wed Jan 03, 2024 1:01 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
Ferlus offers answers to most of Bradn's questions about Thai.
- Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:33 am
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
Khmer had 2 orthographic vowel notions, <a> (null glyph) and <ā>, to cover 2 degrees of aperture and 2 lengths. They prioritised aperture. I don’t quite understand this… consulting Wikipedia, it looks like all Khmer vowel sounds are written separately? If you look at the notes in the vowel table, y...
- Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:06 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: A guide to writing systems
- Replies: 138
- Views: 288512
Re: A guide to writing systems
Hmm, so you consider ‘alphasyllabary’ and ‘abugida’ to mean different things? How so? (I tend to agree with masako that most people use them as synonyms.) Bright's definition of an alphasyllabary and Daniels' definition of an abugida are quite different. That's why Meroitic is not an alphasyllabary...