Search found 129 matches

by spats
Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:11 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: The Lexicon Building Counselling Service
Replies: 224
Views: 41697

Re: The Lexicon Building Counselling Service

The native words are hel·leu [ə'ɫ:ɛw], [ə'ɫ:əw] or [e'ɫ:ɛw] and hel·lesà [əɫ:ə'za] or [eɫ:e'za], and they're written and pronounced the same way in Catalan. The English word is Hellesan , and I'd say is pronounced [ˈæɫ:əzæn] or [ˈæɫ:əzən]. Judging from the original pronunciation and the spelling, I...
by spats
Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:11 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Romanization challenge thread
Replies: 3842
Views: 841960

Re: Romanization challenge thread

Qwynegold wrote:/ɲᶣ/ etc, are you sure palatals can be labio-palatalized?
The alternative would be /ɲʷ/, which might imply labio-velarization. If you're looking for something that is very definitely /ɲ/ + /y/, I don't see the problem with using /ɲᶣ/.
by spats
Tue May 15, 2012 9:36 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The "null" question word
Replies: 8
Views: 1952

Re: The "null" question word

Also, English is not V2 and fronts the verb in questions, which suggests that there is some other mechanism at work in the Germanic languages. WALS classifies this separately, as "Interrogative Word Order" but it is fairly rare and mostly constrained to Germanic. English's approach is hybrid, as it ...
by spats
Mon May 14, 2012 1:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Inflecting for number in decimals
Replies: 29
Views: 5177

Re: Inflecting for number in decimals

is -'s and -s' audibly distinguishable in your variety of English? By intonation in some cases, because there tends to be a slight rising-falling over each noun phrase, but in no other way I can detect. It's actually a really interesting thing, because I'm sure lots of languages use prosodic cues a...
by spats
Thu May 10, 2012 12:10 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is this a reasonable sound change?
Replies: 23
Views: 3996

Re: Is this a reasonable sound change?

Aiďos wrote:I have /ke kɨ ki ky kjV/ going to /tse tsɨ tʃi tʃy tsV/
Didn't/doesn't Chinese do something like this?
by spats
Wed May 02, 2012 11:06 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: promise + INF
Replies: 11
Views: 2190

Re: promise + INF

Today I started to write: I promised my better half to pick up some bread... and swiftly changed that to: I promised my better half I'd pick up some bread... The first version shouldn't be ambiguous in context, but sounds quite awkward. I guess there's a rule in English to take the nearest NP as th...
by spats
Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:43 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Sievers' Law-like phenomenon in English
Replies: 32
Views: 5662

Re: Sievers' Law-like phenomenon in English

I have to say though that I’m not sure where you get the idea that Japanese /u/ is exolabial, and that Australian and British /u/ are endolabial. It seems like you’ve got it backwards. I can’t speak with complete confidence about Australian and British /u/, but I do not agree with your assessment o...
by spats
Thu Apr 19, 2012 2:36 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Sievers' Law-like phenomenon in English
Replies: 32
Views: 5662

Re: Sievers' Law-like phenomenon in English

Japanese /u/ is very similar to the one in most British accents, in that it's fronted compared to cardinal . I don't know of any major English accents with anything like cardinal in them. I don't find the Japanese /u/ to be that hard to "do", but neither would I say that it's similar to the BrE or ...
by spats
Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:57 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Vowels phonemic depending on the part-of-speech
Replies: 5
Views: 1591

Re: Vowels phonemic depending on the part-of-speech

Agree, and it doesn't matter where the vowel came from. It has become phonemic. This happens all the time. Some feature is purely allophonic, but ends up following a pattern because some other language feature changes from one word form to another. For example, perhaps one form has a prefix and the ...
by spats
Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:14 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Can WALS do this?
Replies: 15
Views: 3260

Re: Can WALS do this?

Regarding word order and suffixing vs. prefixing (specifically in SOV languages): I suspect it's a case of how the language ended up in that word order to begin with. Word order is always changing around. Just in IE, you have a proto-language that was SOV having daughter languages that are everythin...
by spats
Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:57 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon
Replies: 21
Views: 3507

Re: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon

As for 結愛 and so on, there seems to be a trend these days in using kanji creatively, purposely bending the acceptable limits of kanji pronunciation (dropping the i from 愛 ai in Yua , for example). These days there are lots of kids out there with weird names that are almost impossible to read withou...
by spats
Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:03 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Can WALS do this?
Replies: 15
Views: 3260

Re: Can WALS do this?

Well, let's see... Out of the 466 languages identified as having prepositions, 351 languages or 75.32% are identified as noun-adjective. There's quite a strong correlation. Not only that, but among languages that have a specific order of noun and adjective and have strictly pre- or post-positions, ...
by spats
Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:04 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon
Replies: 21
Views: 3507

Re: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon

Semi-related: I recall reading that the -ko suffix in modern Japanese girl names (.. well, it's going out of style now) originated as a suffix like <san>; it means "child" or "small thing" (though the latter is less productive now). It's actually been out of style for some time now. The only -ko na...
by spats
Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:59 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon
Replies: 21
Views: 3507

Re: Compounding and the structure of the lexicon

I forgot to mention Basque emakume, "woman". This is almost certainly an old compound, I think, since kume and ume both mean "child", and eme means "female", along with, according to the dictionary, "soft" and "smooth" (for some reason I find that quite funny). So I guess it was one of the followin...
by spats
Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:14 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Too many central vowels?
Replies: 8
Views: 2630

Re: Too many central vowels?

Potential vowel inventory: [a e i o u] [ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ] [ɨ ɪ̈ ɘ ɜ] Having never used central vowels much in my conlangs, does this vowel inventory have an unrealistic number of them? I think this is close to fine. It seems Germanic to me. Are there tense/lax or short/long pairs? For example, if you groupe...
by spats
Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:37 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Quick Question on the Plausibility of a Sound Change
Replies: 3
Views: 1385

Re: Quick Question on the Plausibility of a Sound Change

I've been playing around with a conlang idea recently, and part of the sound changes is getting rid of all /Cw/ clusters. So far I've got the following: /kw/ -> /t/ (before a front vowel), /p/ (before a back vowel) /gw/ -> /w/ /tw dw/ -> /p b/ All of which are attested in natural languages, so they...
by spats
Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:22 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?
Replies: 25
Views: 7030

Re: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?

I wonder if it is generally true that most foreign "a" words are pronounced with /ɒ/ in the U.S. or if there's some regional variation on this as well. Only if you write the "cot" vowel as /ɒ/, which you shouldn't when analyzing U.S. English. There is the potential for the result of the cot-caught ...
by spats
Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:58 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?
Replies: 25
Views: 7030

Re: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?

Ran wrote:I wonder if it is generally true that most foreign "a" words are pronounced with /ɒ/ in the U.S. or if there's some regional variation on this as well.
Only if you write the "cot" vowel as /ɒ/, which you shouldn't when analyzing U.S. English.
by spats
Thu Mar 29, 2012 7:59 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?
Replies: 25
Views: 7030

Re: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?

I have [a] in all of those words, but I'm American. Oh? I'm American but I have [ɑ] for most of them. I think for a lot of Americans, especially those without the cot-caught merger, the "short o" vowel is a sort of indeterminate low vowel. A lot of people transcribe it [a] even though it's probably...
by spats
Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:31 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?
Replies: 25
Views: 7030

Re: New /a/ phoneme emerging in Canadian English?

There was a thing a while back here in one of those idiolect threads about this happening in... New England or something? New England already has three low vowels: /æ/ in cat, bag, etc. /a/ in father, car, hard, etc. /ɒ/ in cot, caught, saw, etc. The middle vowel is about where the Southern America...
by spats
Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:56 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Definitness vs. specificness of articles
Replies: 14
Views: 2689

Re: Definitness vs. specificness of articles

So, in hypothetical creole: Me try fin' car = I'm looking for a car. Any car. (non-specific) Me try fin' one car = I'm looking for one, specific car, which may not have been introduced in conversation. (specific) Me try fin' de car = I'm looking for the car that has already come up in conversation. ...
by spats
Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:47 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: TAM terminology quicky
Replies: 2
Views: 992

Re: TAM terminology quicky

Working on my tense/aspect/mood, I have a querry on what term I might use: a single act taken as a completed whole ("I saw a movie.") = perfective a momentary or punctiliar act taken as a completed whole ("I sneezed.") = semelfactive a single act taken as a completed whole in repetitive series of a...
by spats
Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:25 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Phonological Aha Erlebnis
Replies: 5
Views: 1286

Re: Phonological Aha Erlebnis

Yeah, that's [ɘ]. But nobody ever lists their vowel phonology as /i e ɘ a o u/, just like nobody writes /i ɛ ɑ ɔ u/ for a five-vowel sysetm, even if those are closer to the actual realizations than /i e a o u/. Similarly, the sixth vowel in a gapless six-vowel system is almost always written as /ə/,...
by spats
Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:25 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: Combat and Biology in Lower Gravity
Replies: 11
Views: 7105

Re: Combat and Biology in Lower Gravity

Regarding speed: The limiting land speed factor for animals is probably metabolic, so your cheetah analogue could be even faster. And your big bruiser predator or bull/ox/rhino might also have a higher top speed. But probably not all that much higher - again, the big problem is stopping since you st...
by spats
Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:14 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: Combat and Biology in Lower Gravity
Replies: 11
Views: 7105

Re: Combat and Biology in Lower Gravity

Three other things: 1. Balance is easier in low-g; you literally fall more slowly (75% as fast in half gravity). Interestingly, this actually helps both larger bipeds and smaller ones. Kids fall down so easily because they fall to the ground faster than adults relative to their height. On the other ...