zompist bboard

Robert Blust reports on a change in Northern Batak and Berawan of *b, *d, *ɡ → m, n, ŋ /__# , which he considers quite unusual. It didn't seem that odd to me, though (partly since it's similar to changes I've used in conlangs before). His main point is that final position tends to encourage devoici...

Speaking about business, here are the countries with the largest GDP (top 25): US, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Brazil, UK, France, Italy, Mexico, S Korea, Spain, Canada, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Australia, Taiwan, Poland, Argentina, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, South Africa So Engl...

Question: Is there a topic-prominent language where verbs agree with the topic, rather than the subject? The only topic-prominent language I know with verbal inflection (Japanese) does not have concord... topic FINAL language? Aren't they very very rare? I don't know, I could be exagerating that. C...

Those distinctions are not unique to passives, Fair enough and other categories can also exist in some languages. I'd be interested to see that. This author claims that there is a fourth type in Germanic langs. You'll also find, I think, that what you label as (3) isn't a passive in English, and is...

Something like Chinese measure words can also develop into noun classes, am I right? This seems a more plausible origin of very complex noun-class system (as in Bantu), whereas what YngNghymru said might develop into two-way or three-way distinction, at most. Anyway, is there any study on how the Ba...

I've read that apparently there are three types of passive voice: eventive (describing the process), stative, and resultative (describing the state resulting from a process). But it seems that different languages encode them differently, for example in English: (1) Eventive: The door is open ed by t...

Malay/Indonesian does not have the verb "to be", but has "to become", hence: Dia dokter ("He/she is a doctor") Dia menjadi dokter ("He/she becomes a doctor") Also, "to become adj." can be expressed as meN- + adj. (meN- is the usual active-voice verb marking, although in this case the meaning is stat...

hyggelig -- isn't it similar to gemu:tlichkeit in German? And saudade is an awesome word, same with mamihlapinatapei. Heh, I snickered upon seeing jayus on the list, because friends used to told me that I was jayus during highschool. The meaning has changed though (within about a decade - I'm not th...

Once separate, languages seem to undergo similar paths of development, as loose tendencies in the parent language crystallise into rules independently. Development of articles in IE languages, for instance. Seems like it too in this layman's eyes. Each of the language families seem to come with cer...

Miekko wrote:actually, the majority of languages in the world have tones, so ...

Point conceded.

psygnisfive wrote:Do Language Change Rates Depend on Population Size?

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Thank you. Enjoying it so far.

Whimemsz, that's very good input for me on the grammatical changes. But with all due respect, all examples you cited are mainland languages.... I know, data from (semi-) isolated languages (not language isolates) are scarce. Icelandic, Polynesian langs, anything else? Aren't phonemic tones areal fea...

CaesarVincens wrote:Politeness distinction is tricky because it depends on what you mean. Are we talking Japanese honorifics or Spanish (or so many others) usted?

I'm thinking more East/Southeast Asian honorifics actually. The "polite you" seems easy enough to develop (or lose).

Alright, since I was not making it clear on what I meant by major, I'd give it another try. Essentially I meant a new concept that hasn't been distinguished in the parent language. 1. How likely is it for an isolated language on an island, within a span of ~1000-1500 years, to develop either one of ...

Thanks everyone for your answers. So put it this way: demographic change or not, languages continue to change, although big demographic change might lead to drastic language change. Is that right? Lexical change obv depends on a 2nd source... When I said that I meant major/wholesale changes. I thoug...

Well there's also, you know, """"time"""". Nowhere did I say that time is not important, I thought it was a given. What I'm trying to ask here is about "major" changes, be it lexical, phonological, or grammatical. How likely is it, for example, that within a milennia an isolated lang (as in the "Ic...

First post in quite a while. I'm wondering if demographic change is actually prerequisite to (major) language change. I know, for example, that English is very different from other Germanic languages due to interaction with Celtic peoples, French (Norman) invasion, etc. And the Great Vowel Shift was...