Search found 194 matches

by Magb
Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:03 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Colours as surnames
Replies: 56
Views: 10215

Re: Colours as surnames

It just occurred to me that some or all of those "Rød"/"Røed" names in Norway could actually be from Old Norse ruð "clearing". There are some Norwegian place names ending in -rød, and I'm pretty sure they're not named after the color. There are also many place names (and therefore surnames) ending i...
by Magb
Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:19 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Default case in different alignments
Replies: 10
Views: 2250

Re: Default case in different alignments

It bugs me somewhat when than is called a preposition. The argument is typically that it's both a preposition and a conjunction. Under that interpretation it's a preposition in "She loves you more than him", and a conjunction in "She loves you more than he". Most English dictionaries have it listed...
by Magb
Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:47 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 486312

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

the song didn't progress as much as I would liked it to have . This seems really awkward to me but as far as I know it isn't incorrect Just for clarification, you're suggesting that the have or 've that normally would've appeared between would and liked has moved to the end, right? I ask because "t...
by Magb
Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:38 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "tsk tsk"
Replies: 16
Views: 4041

Re: "tsk tsk"

This discussion reminds me of how paralinguistic use of pulmonic ingressive sounds, which most people probably think of as being a quirky thing found in a few languages, turns out to be quite common cross-linguistically: http://ingressivespeech.info/.
by Magb
Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:16 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Colours as surnames
Replies: 56
Views: 10215

Re: Colours as surnames

Norwegian: Sort/Sorte/Svart/Svarte ("Black"): 0+36+0+23 = 59 Hvit/Hvite/Kvit/Kvite ("White"): 0 Grønn/Grøn ("Green"): 295+81 = 376 Rød/Røed/Røde/Raud/Raude ("Red"): 1503+1934+32+5+8 = 3482 Blå ("Blue"): 7 Brun/Brune ("Brown"): 1010+122 = 1132 Gul/Gule ("Yellow"): 89+196 = 285 Lilla ("Purple"): 4 Ros...
by Magb
Mon Jul 04, 2011 3:03 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: does high phoneme appearance affect sound change?
Replies: 5
Views: 1549

Re: does high phoneme appearance affect sound change?

I would conjecture that high-frequency phonemes are more likely to undergo phonemic splits, while low-frequency phonemes are more likely to undergo mergers.
by Magb
Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:45 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: How is Romanian "steaua" actually pronounced?
Replies: 12
Views: 2926

Re: How is Romanian "steaua" actually pronounced?

/Stoja/ is how people usually pronounce it around here as well. Apparently we're more German than the Germans.
by Magb
Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:08 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: How do you pronounce "Wikipedia"?
Replies: 136
Views: 21666

Re: How do you pronounce "Wikipedia"?

[ʋɪkɪˈpʰɛəðjɒ]
by Magb
Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:06 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Swedish spelling
Replies: 29
Views: 5513

Re: Swedish spelling

Åge Kruger wrote:Magnus, ha! That's another one of those silly, foreign names! It isn't even a real name, it's a misunderstanding. Hrmph, hrmph, hrmph.
>:(
by Magb
Mon May 30, 2011 2:19 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

Drydic Guy wrote:Fine. Now stop acting stupid. Because that's how you're coming across.
Just trying to lighten the mood in a thread full of needless anger and shouting. No offense meant.
by Magb
Mon May 30, 2011 2:15 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

Drydic Guy wrote:
Magb wrote:
Drydic Guy wrote:
Magb wrote:I'd describe T-V in Norwegian as slightly more common than "thou" in contemporary English.
Thou is not used at all in contemporary English. Not. At. All.
Indeed. And the T-V distinction in Norwegian is used slightly more often.
In other words it's barely used ever?
Thou art correct.
by Magb
Mon May 30, 2011 2:03 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

Drydic Guy wrote:
Magb wrote:I'd describe T-V in Norwegian as slightly more common than "thou" in contemporary English.
Thou is not used at all in contemporary English. Not. At. All.
Indeed. And the T-V distinction in Norwegian is used slightly more often.
by Magb
Mon May 30, 2011 8:26 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

I'd describe T-V in Norwegian as slightly more common than "thou" in contemporary English.
by Magb
Sun May 29, 2011 5:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Polyglottal Telephone XIII
Replies: 225
Views: 34556

Re: Polyglottal Telephone XIII

But I don't think Åge's has changed very much between Norwegian and Swedish Not much at all. He made a minor mistake (I think) in translating the Swedish "svår" ("difficult") to the Norwegian "svær" ("big"). I noticed since I (being Swedish) very nearly made the same mistake in reverse, which would...
by Magb
Tue May 17, 2011 3:32 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

- to my ears, <er> in Norwegian sounds like [{r] or even [ar], as do other occurrences of <e> before <r>, not [E:r]. Does that make sense? You're right. /e:/ becomes [æ:] before /r/ for most Norwegians, except in inflected forms like ser "sees", where it remains [e:] or [E:] or whatever. This chang...
by Magb
Sat May 14, 2011 10:02 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: ZBB accent archive
Replies: 98
Views: 15528

Re: ZBB accent archive

1. Where were you born? Porsgrunn, Norway 2. What is your native language? Norwegian 3. What other languages besides English and your native language do you know? None well enough to mention 4. How old are you? 24 5. How old were you when you first began to study English? "Study" would be when I was...
by Magb
Wed May 11, 2011 11:12 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

Added them... From what I can find, heita is not preaspirated..? Right. In Icelandic, <pp tt kk kkj> (edit: and other clusters with /p t k c/, e.g. <epli> "apple" = [ɛʰplɪ]) are preaspirated. In Faroese, some speakers apparently also preaspirate all plosives following low back vowels, e.g <láta> = ...
by Magb
Wed May 11, 2011 10:43 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

I have to admit that I'm a bit biased by being a native speaker of a Northern Germanic language, so I don't really think about whether which consonants are aspirated and which are not, and I guess I can't always tell, either... Do you think it's okay to leave such details out? Well, it depends on h...
by Magb
Wed May 11, 2011 10:17 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Very odd syntax shift in my idiolect
Replies: 42
Views: 7451

Re: Very odd syntax shift in my idiolect

I've caught myself preaspirating plosives when speaking both Norwegian and English after I started toying around with some Icelandic. It makes so much sense! Many Scandinavian dialects do normally preaspirate voiceless plosives in certain conditions. I noticed Jens Stoltenberg was doing it heavily ...
by Magb
Wed May 11, 2011 10:13 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way
Replies: 93
Views: 18073

Re: Learn Northern Germanic the exciting way

Nice job! A few comments: Icelandic: <nafn> [navn] It's actually [napn̥]. Icelandic has a shift that goes: v > p / {n,l} Danish: <navnet mit er Elsa> [ˈnaunəð mɪd̥ ˈæɐ ˈelsa] Just a small slip-up here. As you said yourself, Danish doesn't allow postposed possessive pronouns (say that 10 times quickl...
by Magb
Fri May 06, 2011 10:15 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Very odd syntax shift in my idiolect
Replies: 42
Views: 7451

Re: Very odd syntax shift in my idiolect

That's the scary part about spending a lot of time with languages closely related to your own. I've found myself accidentally using Icelandic words or constructions (I'm Swedish) such as 'snemma' ('early') and 'eins ... og' ('as ... as'), only to be faced with a blank expression by the one to whom ...
by Magb
Thu May 05, 2011 2:21 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 486312

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

Nortaneous wrote:Me: "No, she doesn't do crack. She does cocaine, and she has done crack."
My roommate: "She does crack. You don't done crack. You do crack."
Further proof that English can make verbs out of anything, including other verbs.
by Magb
Wed May 04, 2011 10:22 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Substituting Diacritics
Replies: 30
Views: 6027

Re: Substituting Diacritics

Swedish å, ä and ö are usually just written a, a and o when they're not available. Some people use aa, ae and oe, but that's much harder to read. That's interesting, since Norwegians use <aa ae oe> more often than not, in my experience. I'm not so sure. It may well vary from medium to medium, but d...
by Magb
Tue May 03, 2011 1:04 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 486312

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

Fake strong verbs in English is an endless source of amusement to me. I thought of a good one today: imbibe - imbobe - imbibben.
by Magb
Sun May 01, 2011 7:05 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Substituting Diacritics
Replies: 30
Views: 6027

Re: Substituting Diacritics

Ulrike Meinhof wrote:Swedish å, ä and ö are usually just written a, a and o when they're not available. Some people use aa, ae and oe, but that's much harder to read.
That's interesting, since Norwegians use <aa ae oe> more often than not, in my experience.