Search found 398 matches

by Basilius
Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:25 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: (Ir)regularity of sound change
Replies: 5
Views: 2388

Re: (Ir)regularity of sound change

Suddenly, a quote from Labov. I have examined the raising of /eyC/ as a prototypical sound change in a continuous phonetic space, below the level of conscious awareness, which has continued in the same direction for over a century. As an ideal candidate for a Neogrammarian sound change, it has been ...
by Basilius
Thu May 08, 2014 3:45 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Replies: 2827
Views: 613890

Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread

r > gʟ θ > tθ For a dumb reader like me, the mechanics and conditioning environments for these^ bits may demand a lengthy explanation :) Also, another Q&D solution for KathAveara: claim that your /z/ was formerly /dz/, then went [dz] -> [z] (-> [s]) in one set of environments and remained [dz] (->[...
by Basilius
Thu May 08, 2014 3:25 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Replies: 2827
Views: 613890

Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread

I'm more interested in the conditioning environments than options for what to turn /z/ into. There's a problem, for one of the changes your split presupposes is trivial and easy and the other isn't. Have you already decided on the intermediary stages for your /z/ -> /ts/ change? If not, this subjec...
by Basilius
Thu May 08, 2014 3:08 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: On French grave accents
Replies: 8
Views: 2151

Re: On French grave accents

Yes, I was stupid.

I understand, is the only word which uses ù?
by Basilius
Thu May 08, 2014 8:40 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: On French grave accents
Replies: 8
Views: 2151

Re: On French grave accents

('where') vs. ou ('or'), obviously.
by Basilius
Thu May 08, 2014 8:00 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Btw, I'm just wondering how far back these sC- roots go, and if in the end all sC- roots are caused by mobile-s, and pre-PIE had only a C(C)V(C)C root structure. Does anybody know what kind of root shapes Proto-Uralic had? At any rate, PU had no initial clusters (and no prefixes). Illich-Svitych's ...
by Basilius
Wed May 07, 2014 6:32 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

A few questions: None of them is easy... 1) Does PIE have any roots of the form sC(C)V(C)C that *aren't* from s-mobile? Well, OK, there are tons of sC -roots (including very reliable ones, like 'stand' or 'snow') that haven't any attested forms without the s- (except in languages that regularly sim...
by Basilius
Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:39 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

The centum-ness of Tocharian, however, is an oddity <...> Also, Anatolian. No, Centum as a valid grouping (genetic or areal) doesn't hold water. How could one possibly state that when the languages all show clear signs of laryngeals being there? I'm not Szemerényi and I don't know his arguments, bu...
by Basilius
Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:30 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")
Replies: 2538
Views: 881067

Re: Akana Conlang Relay 2011 (The Never Ending Relay)

Either way some things are apparent about the moon. - In order to cause total eclipses, the moon must be 4497 km across (4466 km for the latter case) at a bare minimum, probably more like 5000 km. This puts it in the league of Solar System objects like Callisto (4820 km), Mercury (4879 km), Titan (...
by Basilius
Thu Feb 13, 2014 8:56 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang Reconstruction Game 2014: we have a forum
Replies: 97
Views: 38505

Re: Conlang Reconstruction Game 2014: we have a forum

This especially holds for team two, where there have been only 2-3 active members recently. This will certainly characterize me as an extremely light-minded and irresponsible person, given the amount of unfinished conlanging job on my hands... but anyway. If any shortage of manpower is felt with on...
by Basilius
Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:24 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: CCC map voting - RESULTS ARE IN
Replies: 71
Views: 17709

Re: CCC map voting - THRU JAN 30

(A non-participant vote) I applied, chiefly, one criterion: diversity of potential migration routes and contact scenarios. Well, OK, it will also depend on rivers and climates, later on... Anyway, I got this: 1) Matrix (supposing that more relief will be added) 2) Qiqqit 3) Vidurnaktis 4) Lyra 5) To...
by Basilius
Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

There is PIE/PCe *tisres > Gaulish tidres (Old Irish teoir) "three" (fem.) I guess that's close enough. Not really: as far as we can determine the <ð> of <tiðres> probably represented /ts/, not /θ/. However, Skr. tisrás = teoir (and cátasras = cetheoir ) doesn't (don't) seem to point to a * ts . Wh...
by Basilius
Tue Dec 17, 2013 6:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

There is PIE/PCe *tisres > Gaulish tidres (Old Irish teoir) "three" (fem.) I guess that's close enough. Not really: as far as we can determine the <ð> of <tiðres> probably represented /ts/, not /θ/. However, Skr. tisrás = teoir (and cátasras = cetheoir ) doesn't (don't) seem to point to a * ts .
by Basilius
Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:42 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Drydic: ah, OK then.

Tropylium: ... → *-vr- → -br- does not seem to imply that all other b's were *v before the last change. Strictly speaking.
by Basilius
Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:20 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Which "such"? Verner's law is about the f T x -> B D G change (word-internally). More specifically, it's about a subset of exceptions to that change. Also, the change (with the exceptions) arguably wasn't Proto-Germanic, although it was/is common Germanic. PGerm f T x have very little to do with the...
by Basilius
Sat Dec 14, 2013 9:57 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Nessari wrote:<...> the PIE plain voiced series (excepting cases where Verner's Law applied) devoiced to p t k kʷ.
Verner's law didn't apply to this series. I am sorry.
by Basilius
Thu Nov 28, 2013 12:51 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448429

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

- He argues that the occurrence of Grassman's Law in both Greek and Sanskrit shows that it was originally a PIE thing, not a separate and identical innovation. I don't know when I'll have time to read the paper, but does he say anything on why the outcomes of Grassmann are different in Greek and Sa...
by Basilius
Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:08 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: How to design a non-European grammar
Replies: 70
Views: 25161

Re: How to design a non-European grammar

Also.... - topic and focus expressed by intonation and word order, not particles or affixes no problem Frankly, I'd throw this away. It confuses several things. Topic (vs. focus) in information structure is not precisely the same thing as topic in topic-prominent languages; it's the latter ilk that ...
by Basilius
Fri Nov 15, 2013 1:32 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: How to design a non-European grammar
Replies: 70
Views: 25161

Re: How to design a non-European grammar

- subject person affixes as strict agreement markers, i.e. the verb is inflected for person and number of the subject, but subject pronouns may not be dropped even when this would be unambiguous no problem But isn't this a minority option in Europe? Most Romance, most Slavic, Greek etc. drop pronou...
by Basilius
Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:28 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Haedus SCA - Bugfix (01/24)
Replies: 62
Views: 21936

Re: Haedus Toolbox SCA

In my experience, negative categories (and a couple operators enabling the user to merge/subtract categories) are extremely useful. Things like "^V-´" ("neither vowel nor accent mark") appear in, like, every second line in my SC's. I'm not totally comfortable with doing this myself. I just tend to ...
by Basilius
Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:19 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Romanization challenge thread
Replies: 3842
Views: 842177

Re: Romanization challenge thread

Grunnen wrote:<n g>
<kb q k>
Yes, that was witty :)
by Basilius
Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:37 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as Fusion of French and Anglic
Replies: 54
Views: 11754

Re: English as Fusion of French and Anglic

ObsequiousNewt wrote:That is what the thread was originally about...
About humans being lobe-finned fish?
by Basilius
Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:33 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Romanization challenge thread
Replies: 3842
Views: 842177

Re: Romanization challenge thread

Cute Africanish: Consonants: /ŋ͡m m n ŋ/ gm m n ng /k͡pʰ k͡p pʰ p tʰ t t͡sʰ t͡s kʰ k/ kp gb p b t d c z k g /xʷ s x l w/ hw s h l w Also, /ŋk/ n'g (assuming /nk/ does not exist) Vowels: /a e i o u/ a e i o u Example /k͡paxa toneŋa pasula t͡sʰowa. ntisi ŋke kʰawalo mena xa xʷolamane. tʰinu sama se t͡...