Search found 66 matches

by Kai_DaiGoji
Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:39 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Help with labialization, palatalization, and aspiration
Replies: 37
Views: 7279

Re: Help with labialization, palatalization, and aspiration

Great, I thought I got it, and now listening to these sound samples, I clearly don't. Anyone know of a sound example that contrasts (for example) [kʷ] and [kw]. The examples I find contrast [kʷ] with [k], and I'm still lost. Sigh. More work to do. Honestly languages which contrast [kʷ] and [kw] are...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:40 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Help with labialization, palatalization, and aspiration
Replies: 37
Views: 7279

Re: Help with labialization, palatalization, and aspiration

Great, I thought I got it, and now listening to these sound samples, I clearly don't. Anyone know of a sound example that contrasts (for example) [kʷ] and [kw]. The examples I find contrast [kʷ] with [k], and I'm still lost.

Sigh. More work to do.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:58 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tone as grammatical marker rather than phonological
Replies: 21
Views: 5208

Tone as grammatical marker rather than phonological

The title is badly phrased, but my question is basically: Are there examples of languages that use tone to mark grammatical features rather than acting as phonemes? I know phonemes is the wrong word, but I'm not sure how to ask if tone can be used for marking case and inflecting verbs, rather than h...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:52 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Words that are their own opposites
Replies: 107
Views: 13859

Re: Words that are their own opposites

My favorite example is 'dust.' It can mean to remove small bits of particulate, or to add small bits of particulate.

There's also a couple of good examples in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:02 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Syntax question worth asking
Replies: 13
Views: 2454

Re: Syntax question worth asking

Since (by all the arguments) 'worth' seems to be either an adjective with a few unique properties, or a preposition with a few unique properties, I'm happy to give up on coming up with a categorization we're all happy with..
by Kai_DaiGoji
Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:32 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tritransitivity?
Replies: 30
Views: 9926

Re: Tritransitivity?

Ah, I counted wrong. x-transitivity vs x-valency.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tritransitivity?
Replies: 30
Views: 9926

Re: Tritransitivity?

How's this for an English example: I gave Mary herpes.

Disclaimer: I did not give Mary herpes.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Tue Dec 21, 2010 1:42 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Yonagu idea: Essay collection
Replies: 75
Views: 12421

Re: Yonagu idea: Essay collection

I'd like to contribute. Would you be looking for academia-style texts with citations and pointers for further research, or a more relaxed "ideas on..." style? I'd happily write an essay on gender or number. Or both. I wrote my dissertation on grammatical gender and social gender in French, so I kin...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sat Dec 11, 2010 3:22 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Do phonemes exist? (Travis bait)
Replies: 58
Views: 9877

Re: Do phonemes exist? (Travis bait)

6. People are surprised by phonetic facts, such as [...] the fact that affricates are composed of several phones [...] Side note: I was under the impression that affricates were a single phone, i.e. that [tS] was not a [t] followed by a [S] but a single sound, with a stop followed by a fricative re...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:48 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Possible minimal pair between unaspirated and aspirated 't'
Replies: 7
Views: 2068

Possible minimal pair between unaspirated and aspirated 't'

... in English. This is somewhat contrived, but I've been thinking about it, and I think there's a situation where [t] and [t h ] form a minimal pair. Consider the following words: bank stop (a phrase I made up to refer to, I don't know, a stop sign by a bank, which becomes known as the bank stop) a...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:30 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Language revival
Replies: 16
Views: 3741

Um, the founding of Israel was far later than the revival of Hebrew. I know that. What I was saying is that I'm not sure Hebrew would've survived, at least to the extent it has, without the massive state support Israel then provided it with. I was under the impression (incorrectly?) that prior to I...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Tue Oct 05, 2010 6:33 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Language revival
Replies: 16
Views: 3741

The Hebrew revival still came from a very specific cultural moment, which would be very difficult to replicate. Same with Esperanto, for what it's worth.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:48 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Greek help
Replies: 13
Views: 3227

Beautiful, thank you all.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sun Oct 03, 2010 9:00 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Greek help
Replies: 13
Views: 3227

Greek help

This is a quick one - a lepidopterist is someone who studies butterflies, or lepidoptera. I know ptera is the root meaning wing, but the OED is really unhelpful with the root lepido-. Anyone?
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:14 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
Replies: 812
Views: 202739

"Give me a word, any word, and I show you how the root of that word is Greek." "Kimono." "Kimono, okay, let's see. I have it. Kimono comes from Greek word, Chimonas, which means, 'winter' - and what do you wear in the winter: a robe." :D I was worried with such an international crowd here that the ...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sat Oct 02, 2010 10:09 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
Replies: 812
Views: 202739

Who said that? A turkish guy I know. I found it quite amusing. And he was serious? Oh yes, he was. "Give me a word, any word, and I show you how the root of that word is Greek." "Kimono." "Kimono, okay, let's see. I have it. Kimono comes from Greek word, Chimonas, which means, 'winter' - and what d...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:02 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "n times greater"
Replies: 26
Views: 5871

and the only conclusion I can draw is that phrases like "five times hotter than" sound meaningful, but aren't Well, they can be meaningful if they're included in sentences like: "It's five times hotter than the kettle is .", which would mean it's: (KettleTemp * 5), as opposed to the (KettleTemp * 5...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:12 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Dalmatian Resources
Replies: 15
Views: 3437

I really don't. I've dabbled in German and Russian, but I really only 'speak' English.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:29 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Dalmatian Resources
Replies: 15
Views: 3437

Io wrote:
Kai_DaiGoji wrote: Is there anything out there for those of us who don't speak German or Italian?
Yes.

German and Italian textbooks and courses.
Touche.
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:51 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Dalmatian Resources
Replies: 15
Views: 3437

To end the slavic back and forth, I was speaking about the romance language. Is there anything out there for those of us who don't speak German or Italian?
by Kai_DaiGoji
Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Dalmatian Resources
Replies: 15
Views: 3437

Dalmatian Resources

I've been looking to use some Dalmatian for something I'm working on for my creative writing class, and the resources I've found via google seem cut and pasted from Wikipedia. Does anyone know of some good resources on the Dalmatian language?
by Kai_DaiGoji
Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: "n times greater"
Replies: 26
Views: 5871

I ran into this with the phrase - "five times hotter than." I was trying to think about this to determine how hot the 500 C oven we used at work was. At first I thought "it's five times as hot as 100 C, therefore 5 times boiling temp, therefore, 1060 F." But it's not. It's 932 Fahrenheit. 1060 F wou...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:04 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: European languages before Indo-European
Replies: 812
Views: 192299

Re: European languages before Indo-European

Here is an interesting article about the linguistic diversity of aboriginal Europe. I think that pre-colonial North America is a fairly good model for pre-IE Europe (overall roughly similar climate and cultural development). Pre-colonial North America (what is now USA and Canada) had about 60 langu...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Mon Aug 23, 2010 2:16 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Phonotactics and language identification
Replies: 17
Views: 4009

Sound sequences aren't simply evaluated on a binary choice of "allowed" or "not allowed", but also on probability. Anyone familiar with African names knows that certain combinations are much more probable in Niger-Congo languages than they are in English, even if they fall within the realms of the ...
by Kai_DaiGoji
Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:43 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Phonotactics and language identification
Replies: 17
Views: 4009

Phonotactics and language identification

I remember reading once somewhere that one of the ways we identify words as English or not involves phonotactics - like the whole gostak things, we know that 'distims' and 'doshes' are both potential English words, even though we may not know them specifically. We also recognize a word like 'vlim' i...