zompist bboard

Alas, I am going to have to bow out. My situation dramatically changed over the last few days, and I will be inundated with work while the game is going on. I'm unlikely to have time for the next few months. Very sorry.

I'll play, too--especially since I'm trying (afer all these years) to become a "Productive Member of ZBB Society", and Kallai (finally) is nearing a workable syntax, and here in China I have a lot of time on my hands, at the moment.

Age bracket: 40ish Gender: Male Nationality: USAan State/Province/Other Subdivision: Seattle (usually), China (momentarily) Occupation: ESL Teachers Rule!!! Sexual Orientation: Gay Status: Singlish Native Language: English Secondary Languages: Österreichisch (a bisl verrostet, leider) Languages I Wa...

next: (your favorite word from your own language here) Kallai: nuku [nuː.kuː] (adj) from nukux [nuː.kʊʂ] (noun), a half-grown cat. Used to describe the (non-sexual) beauty or grace of young beings (esp. young humans) who do not seem to be aware of their own beauty or grace. Next: mispronunciation, ...

There's a poem in Mandarin that's just the repeated syllable xi (or shi, forget which) in different tones. It was a bit like buffalo buffalo buffalo but actually makes some semblance of sense rather than just being one of those Example Sentences that linguists like to trot out. http://en.wikipedia....

Guitarplayer wrote:Wer gegen Aluminium minimal immun ist, hat die Aluminiumminimalimmunität.
'Those who are minimally immune against aluminum have an aluminum-minimum-immunicy.'

This one is super. I love it.

Very wary voles beware of very wily wolves, for nary a wily wolf will wolf down a very wary vole. Excellent! And if I understand correctly, it's new with you? That is, you just created it in the last two days? Yes, that's right. Thank you. Here's a natlang tongue twister from where I am right now (...

Very wary voles beware of very wily wolves because the very wily wolf will wolf down nary wary voles. I do not think this means what you think it means. I know it's an adjective derived from "ne'er a". I looked it up to make sure before I wrote it, but I used it anyway because it's obsolete (IMD) a...

Guitarplayer wrote: Anyvone have vone viss [v w] to confuse ziss Cherman shpeaker for goot?

Here's an attempt--maybe someone more creative can make it better:

Very wary voles beware of very wily wolves because the very wily wolf will wolf down nary wary voles.

Popular when my parents were kids, as messing up at the end causes you to swear: I slit a sheet; a sheet I slit. Upon the slitted sheet I sit. And just to make this a value-added post, let's invent a new one: Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink. Thanks! I've added both to ...

Die, die die, die die Silben zähl e n, töricht nennen, mögen wohl recht haben. [ʦ(e|ɛ)ːln̩] (or /ʦɛːlən/, if you will), not [-lan]. Unless that was just a typo. Sorry, typo. Thanks for the correction. And in the same vein as the above: Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, dann fliegen Fliegen Flieg...

If you had an isolating language that marks these relationships with word order, it seems like the tripartite system would quickly collapse into a standard nominative or ergative language. That's an interesting idea. The possibilities are SV/VAP, SV/VPA, VS/APV, VS/PAV. I like it. I kind of have a ...

That reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher Ha. I've actually used a slightly shorter version of that one in class. It reminds me this one in German: Die, die die, die die Silben zählan, töricht ne...

This one isn't hard to pronounce, necessarily, but I love it to teach the importance of vowel reduction in North American English:

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

[kənjəˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

or, alternatively (with focus on “you”)

[kənˈjuːˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

How do they work? From what I understand: The agent of a transitive verb takes the ergative case. The object of a transitive verb takes the accusative case. And the argument of an intransative verb takes the intrasative or absolutive case ... Maybe I won't do morphological case, but a system of adp...

Weiber sind Eigentum; Frauen sind Menschen?

(Some German will come along and correct me.)

I've always said the deterioration of our train system was one of our biggest failures as a nation. Damn you America and your stupid highway system! And exactly *when* would you support the sort of tax regime that would make a European-esque interstate rail system in the US plausible? Is it importa...