Search found 79 matches

by Beli Orao
Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:37 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "tsk tsk"
Replies: 16
Views: 3605

"tsk tsk"

Where does this phrase come from? Does it go back to PIE? There is a cognate in South Slavic languages (c c [ts ts]).
by Beli Orao
Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:45 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Most & Least Changed Languages
Replies: 30
Views: 5705

Re: Most & Least Changed Languages

Depends on what you mean by "changed." If (like in your examples) you mean languages that have the highest loanword/native word ratio, then Hungarian is probably up there. Out of those that had undergone the most drastic sound changes, French is a classic example. Out of the languages that have unde...
by Beli Orao
Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: natural "interlanguages"
Replies: 19
Views: 3842

Re: natural "interlanguages"

I've always parsed Bulgarian (phonologically, at least) as a mix of Serbo-Croat and Russian, with Serbo-Croat slightly dominant. For some reason it is the hardest South Slavic language for me to understand (while I speak relatively conversational Macedonian, and understand it almost perfectly...aren...
by Beli Orao
Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:40 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: natural "interlanguages"
Replies: 19
Views: 3842

Re: natural "interlanguages"

[rant]

Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are not only based on the same language, they are based on a single dialect. Yes, people from back where I'm from call one dialect four separate languages (you forgot Montenegrin). Embarrassing, I know.

[/rant]
by Beli Orao
Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:23 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: natural "interlanguages"
Replies: 19
Views: 3842

Re: natural "interlanguages"

I'm more interested in how I could have this work out with, say, a Dutch speaker, without using English.
I think that it would be more difficult for Germanic speakers as your languages have diverged more, whereas the various Slavic languages are still quite similar.
by Beli Orao
Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:22 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread
Replies: 3108
Views: 640332

Re: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

I pronounce them how they're meant to be pronounced -- Standard American. :D
by Beli Orao
Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:52 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: natural "interlanguages"
Replies: 19
Views: 3842

natural "interlanguages"

I am specifically talking about the "languages" that spontaneously arise when two people who speak related, but not entirely mutually comprehensible languages try to converse. Either speaker may have some knowledge of the others' language, but not up to fluency. Are there any rules that dictate the ...
by Beli Orao
Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:53 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: lingua franca of the hanse
Replies: 21
Views: 4332

Re: lingua franca of the hanse

I wish standard German had Low German phonology with its current morphology intact.
by Beli Orao
Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:09 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: lingua franca of the hanse
Replies: 21
Views: 4332

lingua franca of the hanse

What was the lingua franca of the hanseatic league (I assume a variety a low german)?
by Beli Orao
Sun Jun 05, 2011 11:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tone as grammatical marker rather than phonological
Replies: 21
Views: 5231

Re: Tone as grammatical marker rather than phonological

I think Serbo-Croat. has this, but I'm not really sure how pitch accent works. I think <u grad> (in the city/to the city) is in a different case depending on the tone, vs. [u~grad] (not sure of the notation either) or something.
by Beli Orao
Sat Jun 04, 2011 4:39 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect
Replies: 17
Views: 4302

Re: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect

What I am saying is that a planet with large bodies of liquid water permanently on its surface is less likely to lose it due to a RGE. Probably because - as you typed earlier - the planet's star wouldn't yet be strong enough to strip the Hydrogen away. Yeah, this has been the biggest obstacle in cr...
by Beli Orao
Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:44 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect
Replies: 17
Views: 4302

Re: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect

Chemical weathering does not lead to a greater production of CO2. The CO2 was always there. On Earth, we have less volcanic activity and more means of using the CO2 up. Venus never had that, so it never had to make up for a lack of CO2 to begin with. What we are seeing on Venus is probably the same...
by Beli Orao
Wed Jun 01, 2011 7:29 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect
Replies: 17
Views: 4302

Re: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect

But if such an event were to occur, the loss of H2O would cause more immediate effects to life than a resultant runaway greenhouse effect. They'd die of thirst long before boiling. An advanced enough civilization that can store enough water underground (and create some kind of contained breathable ...
by Beli Orao
Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:45 am
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect
Replies: 17
Views: 4302

Re: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect

We know (or at least are pretty sure) that liquid water can't exist on Venus because of its proximity to the sun. But has that always been the case? The solar luminosity of the Sun has increased over its lifetime, perhaps when L was lower H2O could exist on the surface without evaporating. AFAIK th...
by Beli Orao
Tue May 31, 2011 5:55 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect
Replies: 17
Views: 4302

A planet undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect

How long did it take for the runaway greenhouse effect to strip Venus of its hydrogen as its oceans boiled? What temperature was required for the water vapor feedback to enter a "runaway" stage (I'm assuming something over 100 degrees)? Did Venus have a "cold trap" in the tropopause before the ocean...
by Beli Orao
Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:00 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: the "u" + acc (gen?) pronoun construction
Replies: 9
Views: 2394

Re: the "u" + acc (gen?) pronoun construction

The genitive. They only appear the same for animate nouns. You'd say у моей машины, not у мою машину, for instance.
Is your example a possessive construction, though? Unless the South Slavic equivalent "у мојој машини, у моју машину" means something completely different.
by Beli Orao
Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:41 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: the "u" + acc (gen?) pronoun construction
Replies: 9
Views: 2394

the "u" + acc (gen?) pronoun construction

Whence the Slavic tendency to say "in me X" for "I have X"? afaik this phenomenon occurs in all branches, being most obvious (to me) in Russian and documented but archaic/dialectal in South Slavic.

(Also, is the genitive or accusative pronoun used? They look the same.)
by Beli Orao
Sat Apr 16, 2011 4:26 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Need thesis ideas
Replies: 29
Views: 4829

Re: Need thesis ideas

My major is "Global Studies" or International Relations in normal people speak, but I can make a conlang for my Honors Thesis.
Ah, the humanities...
by Beli Orao
Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Germanic conditional clauses and English
Replies: 10
Views: 2282

Germanic conditional clauses and English

Afaik, you can only form conditional sentences in English with the word if = (O.E gif ). Was there ever a point where the word when could be used in English to have a conditional meaning in addition to the temporal meaning c.f. German wenn ? Also, does gif have any modern/past cognate in non-Anglic ...
by Beli Orao
Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:49 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: dlya
Replies: 4
Views: 1951

dlya

What's the derivation of this word? As a South Slavic speaker, it sounds very strange, and since Russian already has "za" I don't see the point. :P
by Beli Orao
Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:46 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Sociolinguistics?
Replies: 2
Views: 1520

Sociolinguistics?

What do sociolinguists actually study? Do they utilize any models to represent sociolinguistic phenomena (whatever they may be)?
by Beli Orao
Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: modern German declension
Replies: 10
Views: 2217

modern German declension

So the distinctions between cases in German are made mostly by articles, right? Is there a name for this phenomenon? At what stage in the development of the language did it arise? Are there any parallels in other Germanic languages?
by Beli Orao
Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Gallo-Italian plurals
Replies: 17
Views: 3920

Gallo-Italian plurals

According to this Wikipedia article, the feminine plural in Gallo-Italian is derived from the Latin accusative plural, while the masculine plural is derived from the Latin nominative plural. Are there any examples of this in other Romance languages?
by Beli Orao
Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:20 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schleicher's Fable
Replies: 16
Views: 7898

Re: Schleicher's Fable

To my Slavic ears, the Proto-Slavic sounds like Lithuanian. It's fun to pick out words I understand in a Baltic-language text, even though the branches diverged (I think?) 3,000 years ago. A couple of times I was able to decipher entire sentences in Lithuanian, armed only with my knowledge of South ...
by Beli Orao
Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:44 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Slavic diminutives?
Replies: 2
Views: 1290

Slavic diminutives?

I've noticed that in the sort of pan-Slavic pidgin my Russian, Macedonian and Ukrainian friends and I have developed out of necessity, the word for "shorter girl" is маленкa. Which Slavic language has the diminutive suffix -enka?