I still exist, I just have been focusing more on languages than on history of late.Viktor77 wrote:Yea I remember it. But sadly I haven't seen Mecislau on this site for ages.
Search found 492 matches
- Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:28 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Question for modern day Europe concountries
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4809
Re: Question for modern day Europe concountries
- Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:35 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: sources for person & number agreement
- Replies: 62
- Views: 11394
Re: sources for person & number agreement
Balaton/Szolnok (I'm skeptical about them being descended from the Slavic forms you give, but that isn't a point I really care about arguing or looking up, so whatever) (Meh, I know it's not important, but I was curious) It looks like Balaton is almost certainly Slavic in origin, related to Common ...
- Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:54 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: sources for person & number agreement
- Replies: 62
- Views: 11394
Re: sources for person & number agreement
Given that he seems to have made up terminology - "Leskien's problem" garners a whopping 4 hits on Google one of which is his own paper - and written so much about supposedly non-Indo-European features without even reading up on Proto-Indo-European possessives - one read of which would turn his "mi...
- Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:48 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: sources for person & number agreement
- Replies: 62
- Views: 11394
Re: sources for person & number agreement
If you have a big interest in language contact I don't fault you for seeing it in places where it doesn't actually exist. As they say "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" *sigh* Really? So you're saying people who have formal training in language contact are incapable of actu...
- Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:02 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: sources for person & number agreement
- Replies: 62
- Views: 11394
Re: sources for person & number agreement
Dude, even English allows that. In that very same example. The sentence "Very smart, that Ivan" is grammatical. was already addressed earlier by Xephyr and the first is very crude argumentation full of weasel words. Where was that addressed by Xephyr? The only thing I saw him say with respect to th...
- Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:59 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: sources for person & number agreement
- Replies: 62
- Views: 11394
Re: sources for person & number agreement
Yeah mate when you have two native Slavic speakers disagreeing with you maybe it's time you reconsider your viewpoint. Umm, just speaking a language doesn't mean your opinions on the history of the language is authoritative. But if you disagree, well, then I'm a native Slavic speaker who agrees com...
- Wed May 22, 2013 7:26 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3194
Re: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
Huh. So you don't believe in the -y mediopassive form in the central dialects (Greek, II, Albanian, Germanic)? Less that and more "I didn't really want to delve into that mess" since it's not directly relevant to the question at hand. I have no idea where current opinion tends to side on which endi...
- Wed May 22, 2013 1:19 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3194
Re: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
It's not just Proto-Italic or Proto-Celtic; the form comes from the PIE mediopassive, and cognate forms have been attested in the Italic, Celtic, Anatolian, Tocharian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Germanic, and Albanian branches. The original endings were something like *-h2er, *-th2er, *-(t)or, *-medhh2, *...
- Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:40 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Morphoplogical change stimulated by Sprachbunds.
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3969
Re: Morphoplogical change stimulated by Sprachbunds.
Chagen, it might be easier to understand if you consider just a single language at first, ignoring all language contact. In a single language, how does a change develop? All of its speakers don't decide one day to do something differently at once. A change emerges in some locale or amongst some comm...
- Sat Jun 30, 2012 1:22 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Finger survey
- Replies: 33
- Views: 6920
Re: Finger survey
Russian:
Thumb — большой палец — "big finger"
Index Finger — указательный палец — "pointing finger"
Middle Finger — средний палец — "middle finger"
Ring Finger — безымянный палец — "nameless finger"
Little Finger — мизинец — (unanalyzable, though historically "youngest son")
Thumb — большой палец — "big finger"
Index Finger — указательный палец — "pointing finger"
Middle Finger — средний палец — "middle finger"
Ring Finger — безымянный палец — "nameless finger"
Little Finger — мизинец — (unanalyzable, though historically "youngest son")
- Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:23 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: On the Inflection of Numbers
- Replies: 17
- Views: 3786
Re: On the Inflection of Numbers
If you want complex numbers, go look at Slavic. What Basilius said about Russian doesn't even delve into some of the crazier stuff. In general, the loss of the Proto-Slavic dual wrecked havoc on most of the Slavic languages' numeral systems each language attempted to come up with a different system ...
- Sun May 20, 2012 12:49 pm
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Bizarre Sound Changes
- Replies: 190
- Views: 97009
Re: Bizarre Sound Changes
Biblical Hebrew had *y -> w /#_ (word initially; also this is american IPA notation). I have no idea what would cause such a change, but it happened (ie. Ethiopian /wald/, Hebrew /ˈyɛlɛd/ ; child). It also results in odd verb forms where w, out of initial position due to prefixes or different vowel...
- Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:43 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Ukrainian dying out among young Ukrainians?
- Replies: 57
- Views: 9717
Re: Ukrainian dying out among young Ukrainians?
Okay, there are a huge number of misconceptions in this thread. First of all, Adder, Ukrainian is nowhere near the point of dying out. You have cited two examples of Russian loanwords (one of which isn't even correct). Loanwords happen. It's completely natural even in thriving languages, and their e...
- Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:02 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
- Replies: 812
- Views: 209266
Re: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
This is not so much quackery as just run-o'-the-mill linguistic ignorance, but it's a gem nevertheless. A number of years ago (at Whimemsz's request) I uploaded a number of videos to YouTube consisting of songs from the Hebrew dub of The Lion King with subtitled/transliterated lyrics. I never used t...
- Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:07 pm
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Odd natlang features thread
- Replies: 354
- Views: 148737
Re: Odd natlang features thread
I'm not sure how weird exactly this is, but I've never seen it in any other language. !Xóõ, for many verbs, has entirely different roots depending on whether a group of people or a single person is doing the action or having the state. Ex: tshûu vs. !ʻáã - both mean 'to sit' but the first is used w...
- Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:36 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: On the genitive of personal names in Polish
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2405
Re: On the genitive of personal names in Polish
Not actually knowing the fine details of Polish declension, two possibilities come to mind based on Russian and what I know of Slavic historical linguistics, since you didn't provide the context for the words. 1) In Russian those two names are rendered Антоний and Амвросий, both of which are nouns b...
- Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:13 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Verbs that indicate which level of formality should be used
- Replies: 27
- Views: 5351
Re: Verbs that indicate which level of formality should be u
Huh, Russian seems kind of boring in this regard. Давай перейдём на «ты» "Let's cross/switch to "ты". That's how you might ask someone to switch, but Russian does have dedicated verbs as well: тыкать tykat' "use ты, be familiar with, treat too familiarly" and выкать vykat' "use вы, be on formal ter...
- Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:04 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: language learning on android
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1401
Re: language learning on android
In truth, I have no idea what you're even looking for. Other than something like flashcards, what would you even expect out of a 'language learning app' that's not tied to any one language?
- Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:46 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Question about Arabic
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2331
Re: Question about Arabic
Also, very likely /fa:ha/ "to speak, utter" via /fam/ "mouth," moreso one of the construct forms: /fu:/, /fi:/, /fa:/, even more apparent via the plural; /afwa:h/. The final /h/ is likely itself an artificiality to extend the root - the same kind of use is found in Hebrew, which uses final -/h/ as ...
- Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:18 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Question about Arabic
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2331
Re: Question about Arabic
First of all, "Saudi" is a different root entirely—it's *sʕd, not *swd. Your question ultimately boils down once again to the fact that the concept of "triconsonantal roots" isn't 100% accurate when it comes to Semitic languages. It's a convenient concept for many roots, but it's a gross oversimplif...
- Sat Oct 22, 2011 4:06 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Short survey on English
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3204
Re: Short survey on English
All three sound perfectly natural to me.
- Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:03 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4119
Re: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
Instead of tables, might I recommend something like what I did on this page in the Novegradian grammar ? Ooooh now see, I tried to do this on the Feayran site but couldn't figure out a good way to make it work--didn't think to use definition lists. Brilliant! (Code question: why do you use br tags?...
- Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:52 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Open source web based dictionary system
- Replies: 37
- Views: 11431
Re: Open source web based dictionary system
Alright, version 0.1 is out!
http://www.veche.net/programming/lexmanager.html
(Yes, I know the name sucks; it's temporary, and I'm open to suggestions. The only one I've received so far is "Lummox", which... I have to say, it's growing on me a bit.)
http://www.veche.net/programming/lexmanager.html
(Yes, I know the name sucks; it's temporary, and I'm open to suggestions. The only one I've received so far is "Lummox", which... I have to say, it's growing on me a bit.)
- Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:07 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: OTTER
- Replies: 1013
- Views: 412589
Re: OTTER
HUNGRY OTTER + DINNER
- Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:02 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4119
Re: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
Instead of tables, might I recommend something like what I did on this page in the Novegradian grammar ? The overall appearance is the same, but it has a number of advantages: 1) It wraps correctly. Long tables will need manual breaks or will stretch the page, whereas the method I used using definit...