Search found 492 matches

by Mecislau
Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:28 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Question for modern day Europe concountries
Replies: 15
Views: 4693

Re: Question for modern day Europe concountries

Viktor77 wrote:Yea I remember it. But sadly I haven't seen Mecislau on this site for ages.
I still exist, I just have been focusing more on languages than on history of late.
by Mecislau
Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:35 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: sources for person & number agreement
Replies: 62
Views: 11113

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 ...
by Mecislau
Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:54 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: sources for person & number agreement
Replies: 62
Views: 11113

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...
by Mecislau
Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:48 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: sources for person & number agreement
Replies: 62
Views: 11113

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...
by Mecislau
Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:02 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: sources for person & number agreement
Replies: 62
Views: 11113

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...
by Mecislau
Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:59 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: sources for person & number agreement
Replies: 62
Views: 11113

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...
by Mecislau
Wed May 22, 2013 7:26 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
Replies: 6
Views: 3150

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...
by Mecislau
Wed May 22, 2013 1:19 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Origin of Latin's Passive Voice
Replies: 6
Views: 3150

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, *...
by Mecislau
Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:40 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Morphoplogical change stimulated by Sprachbunds.
Replies: 18
Views: 3882

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...
by Mecislau
Sat Jun 30, 2012 1:22 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Finger survey
Replies: 33
Views: 6737

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")
by Mecislau
Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:23 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: On the Inflection of Numbers
Replies: 17
Views: 3702

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 ...
by Mecislau
Sun May 20, 2012 12:49 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: Bizarre Sound Changes
Replies: 190
Views: 92938

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...
by Mecislau
Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:43 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Ukrainian dying out among young Ukrainians?
Replies: 57
Views: 9347

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...
by Mecislau
Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:02 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
Replies: 812
Views: 202759

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...
by Mecislau
Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:07 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: Odd natlang features thread
Replies: 354
Views: 144831

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...
by Mecislau
Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:36 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: On the genitive of personal names in Polish
Replies: 9
Views: 2315

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...
by Mecislau
Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Verbs that indicate which level of formality should be used
Replies: 27
Views: 5105

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...
by Mecislau
Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:04 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: language learning on android
Replies: 4
Views: 1355

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?
by Mecislau
Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:46 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Question about Arabic
Replies: 8
Views: 2268

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 ...
by Mecislau
Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:18 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Question about Arabic
Replies: 8
Views: 2268

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...
by Mecislau
Sat Oct 22, 2011 4:06 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Short survey on English
Replies: 18
Views: 3118

Re: Short survey on English

All three sound perfectly natural to me.
by Mecislau
Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:03 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
Replies: 11
Views: 3977

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?...
by Mecislau
Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:52 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Open source web based dictionary system
Replies: 37
Views: 11237

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.)
by Mecislau
Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:07 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: OTTER
Replies: 1013
Views: 403326

Re: OTTER

Image

HUNGRY OTTER + DINNER
by Mecislau
Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:02 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Better formatting for interlinears on the ZBB
Replies: 11
Views: 3977

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...