Zompist Bboard Again

I have heard it suggested that the Pirahã suddenly starting to use /tʙ̥/ around Everett was literally just a joke. Like they were bored and wanted to fuck with him so they started sticking raspberries in random words. Isn’t it also seen in Wariʼ, at least? (Personally, I think it’s no less weird th...

IIRC there even were quotas of Jews at universities. Yes indeed, and plenty of them. As I recall, the most egregious offender was Harvard, but for a long time it was very difficult for Jews to access any higher education in the US. (It’s interesting to note that, when it comes to modern-day quotas,...

I would have said that back then it would have been more moral to try to convince the US to end its Jewish quotas than to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine and drive out the Palestinians who already lived here. You’re not wrong there. But what if the Americans turn around and say ‘no, we won’t take ...

This is getting beyond what I’m familiar with, but according to Wikpedia , such a region of the universe would result in a gamma-ray signal from annihilation with our region of the universe, and we’ve seen no evidence of such a signal. It only says that for regions within the observable universe. i...

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:49 pm No, I'm with Holy on this. Some languages are incorrect in what they think is acceptable, and it's time we had the courage to admit it.

I know you like to be sarcastic, but recently I’ve been dealing with enough opinions like this to feel that the encouragement really isn’t necessary…

In that case it makes sense that there's more of one kind than the other, since otherwise we wouldn't exist to observe said universe. 'Nuff said. Can we do more than say that there's more matter than antimatter in the visible universe? The antimatter might mostly be beyond the horizon! This is gett...

In that case it makes sense that there's more of one kind than the other, since otherwise we wouldn't exist to observe said universe. 'Nuff said. Exactly: so the question is, why is there more of one kind than another? As zompist mentioned, it means that somewhere in the laws of physics there must ...

Sorry, I meant "mutually annihilated with all the matter". Yes, if there was an equal amount of antimatter as matter, it would all have been annihilated, and the universe would consist of photons alone. (Which, if I must state the obvious, it does not.) In that case it makes sense that th...

Some languages, like English and German, have a complex ruleset for phonotactics. Their ruleset is too big. Other languages, like Japanese, have a very simple ruleset for phonotactics. Their ruleset is too small. What does it even mean for a language to be ‘too big’ or ‘too small’? It’s just… how t...

The one thing we can say about our current physics is that it does not yet completely model the universe, so if we discover new physics, it is conceivable that that might tell us it is possible to go faster than light. But I consider it exceedingly unlikely. And I'm not sure that even that would ma...

If there was more antimatter, wouldn't it of blown up all the matter (including us)? Yes... and then we'd call it "matter." The sign is arbitrary. Sorry, I meant "mutually annihilated with all the matter". Yes, if there was an equal amount of antimatter as matter, it would all h...

Regarding ‘antimatter is going backwards in time’: one very important thing to understand about quantum mechanics is that it doesn’t really have an arrow of time in the first place. That is to say, the laws of quantum mechanics are perfectly reversible, such that there is no difference between ‘evol...

Jonlang wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 3:47 am re-purposed Earthly names like Avalon(ia), Kasterbouros (the -borous sounding a lot like Latin boreus),

I know nothing of Doctor Who, but that last name reminds me of Greek ouroboros more than anything Latinate.

The verbal auxiliary, revisited I’ve decided to fully commit to the idea in the last post. No longer will wa- be a mere causative: now, it is a very general transitivity marker, which can signal instrumental and comitative applicatives as well as causatives. (Though, it’s not the only applicative —...

The only problem with this is that Palestinians already lived in Palestine before the First Aliyah …and the Jews lived there even earlier. As tempting as this sort of argument is, you can use it in favour of either side, which is why I tend to avoid it completely. […] as the treatment of Jews over ...

The ZBB is a place for friendly discussion where I never encountered any antisemitism. Maybe you haven’t noticed it, but it’s certainly here (though thankfully not in this particular discussion). Other members have informed me that they’ve witnessed even more than I have. Like a lot of prejudice, i...

Does anyone know anything about the variant /æt/ of that ? I have it and I have heard my daughter use it. And it clearly is not a variant of it to me; it feels like an allomorph of that rather than an independent word. I never have this except in the standard attaboy/attagirl. Oh, is that what ‘att...

as if the state of israel was faced with an impossible-to-satisfy, greedy opponent that insisted on demanding and demanding. But yes, this is precisely what it is faced with. Just look at, in the hostage negotiations, how much Israel has publicly admitted to compromising on (quite a lot) vs how muc...

Does anyone know anything about the variant /æt/ of that ? I have it and I have heard my daughter use it. And it clearly is not a variant of it to me; it feels like an allomorph of that rather than an independent word. I’m not quite sure what you mean by this question… surely /ðæt/ is the standard ...

Does anyone know anything about the variant /æt/ of that ? I have it and I have heard my daughter use it. And it clearly is not a variant of it to me; it feels like an allomorph of that rather than an independent word. I’m not quite sure what you mean by this question… surely /ðæt/ is the standard ...