zompist bboard

Also, something that I noticed is that your /a/ needs to be central; right now it sounds like [a] (rather than [ä]) or [æ]. It's also a bit nasal. Your [ɯ] also doesn't sound quite right; I feel like [ɯ] isn't back enough, and right now you're pronouncing it something like... er... maybe [ɨ]?

I seem to have a problem with rapidly producing [ʕ] and other pharyngealized consonants, which is a pain. I'm getting better at it, though. Somehow I don't have any trouble at all with [ħ].

(manhandling English into a continental vowel system DOESN'T WORK, people) By this, do you mean, using values of <a e i o u> that at least approximate [a e i o u]? If so, I don't really know why you think it's so impossible. English vowels are certainly no harder to write than those of Swedish or D...

However, I do hear a lot of argument-dropping from the Orthodox Jews I've met in Manchester; they say things like "Here, put this, will you?", or "Do you want now, or we should save for later?" I've occasionally caught myself doing too, but I couldn't say whether it's natural or taken on from heari...

For me: A: So you didn't see C today? B: No. That means B didn't see C. I don't think I would say "yes" alone at all in this circumstance, because it leads to ambiguity. However, if I wanted to say that I did see C, I would say either "Yeah, I did," or "No, I did." I guess this is one of those weird...

Both #1 and #20 (both of which always crop up on these lists) can be adequately translated with the Welsh hiraeth (which never crops up on any list.) As well as the Portuguese saudade and the Cornish hireth . Also, Schadenfreude is skadeglädje in Swedish. That's a calque borrowing, though.

Isn't jayus something like a Chinese "cold joke?" Maybe it's not, though; the only one I've ever been told I thought was very funny. I can't decide which one I like most. Toska , litost , Torschlusspanik , wabisabi and l'appel du vide are all pretty illuminating. Anyways, what are some English words...

I've kind of always wanted to learn Latin as well, not just to read but to be able to speak fluently... I have this sort of embarrassing fantasy where I'm speaking Latin at home with whatever family I'll amass in the future... I think it'd be enough for me, the insight into historical linguistics, t...

Did Castilian and Portuguese really share a proto-Ibero-Romance ancestor with Catalan, part of the Eastern Ibero-Romance (Occitano-Romance?) group? If so, are Astur-Leonese and Pyrenean-Mozarabic transitional groups between Eastern and Western Ibero-Romance? And which of the modern spoken varieties...

Hebrew has it, even. There's a difference between hikir and yadaʿ; the first is for acquaintance, the second for factual information.

/θ ð r/ Why, really? Well, because /r/ is phonetically something like [ɹʷ], at least in some positions. If you sound it too strongly, it sounds ridiculous, maybe comically Midwestern, assuming you're learning GenAm. But foreigners are lucky if their /r/ even approaches [ɹ] or [ɻ]. Many times it's j...

In pronunciation, the interdentals are obviously hard, but I'm sure English's complex vowel system and complicated vowel reduction is a pain. I think /r/ is by far the hardest consonant any English learner will have to master. There are so many ways to almost get it, but just miss. I really can't s...

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Aren't there prepositions like z or v in some slavic languages? I think I've seen some there. But they are prefixed to the following word in speach or have a quick vowel following them. French also has l' before consonants such as l'bazaar, but it is not a pure consonant. You're talking about writt...

Thanks!

Uh I think it's just a simplification of /sj/. Like, "Marcia" was at one point /mArsj@/ --> now /mArS@/. That would be the simplest explanation, surely. Yeah. You also get /S/ for <si> in words like "fission" (and similarly /Z/ for earlier */zj/, eg. "fusion"). Er, for me, fission has /ʒ/ as well. ...

If I were made to venture a guess, however stupid, I'd have to say that it's probably something to do with the rather overwhelming predominance of occlusives among the few consonants that a phonologically simple language is likely to possess. In Central Rotokas, for an extreme example, all consonant...

Du Hast den Schönsten Arsch der Welt - Alex C, ft. Y Ass (I recommend you not watch for the video)
Мамо - Анастасія Костянтинівна Приходько (Yes, Eurovision)

Often times I mix my Hebrew and Spanish together, so whenever I say something like "Can I go to the bathroom," it comes out something along the lines of: "Puedo lalekhet* al sherutim**?"


*lalekhet= ללכת
**sherutim= שרותים

Are Almean humans interfertile with terrestrial humans, and thus the same species?

(weird question, but someone has to ask them)