Search found 1205 matches

by Radius Solis
Tue Jan 21, 2014 4:09 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Official ZBB Quote Thread
Replies: 2878
Views: 636821

Re: The Official ZBB Quote Thread

Cúlro wrote:Mods who have to reign in their natural personality to avoid rubbing people up the wrong way are not well-suited for the job.
Cúlro wrote:Mods who have to reign in their
Cúlro wrote:reign
Congratulations! You have found a sentence in which the difference between "reign" and "rein" makes for two opposite meanings!
by Radius Solis
Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:36 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Official ZBB Quote Thread
Replies: 2878
Views: 636821

Re: The Official ZBB Quote Thread

Great, now dhok's terrible phase is enshrined forever. Don't worry no one actually reads back this thread [inb4 doing it just to disprove this sentence] False, as I have just run into this while reading back in the thread for a certain quote I half-remember from a few months ago and wanted to see w...
by Radius Solis
Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:55 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Phonemic initial /ð/ in English (and other Germanic)
Replies: 20
Views: 5346

Re: Phonemic initial /ð/ in English (and other Germanic)

Sound changes are not supposed to be grammar-sensitive, in theory, but it's a bit like the principle that sound changes apply without exception: it does work that way, except when it doesn't. Analogical forces can interfere in either. Sound changes are generally known to spread from less-common to m...
by Radius Solis
Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:45 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 204812

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

I'm coming from a classic couch potato (in my case a computer chair) level of activity, so those so many calories burnt are still quite a bit more than what I normally burn day in, day out. Most of my reduction in weight seems to have been from burning the calories off with the walking. If you feel...
by Radius Solis
Tue Dec 31, 2013 7:46 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 204812

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

Now that I have more time to reply... The problem with massive self-denial is that staying in control of it is so hard. That's why most people don't get good mileage out of it for long, even if they have impressive early results. But you're already started in, so don't just let go and devour the who...
by Radius Solis
Tue Dec 31, 2013 3:55 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 204812

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

I'll just come out and note here that when I started keeping track ~2 weeks ago my weight was at 340 pounds. I'm now down to 327 Whoaaa there. I had been inclined to leave this whole topic be, but that is an unsafe rate of weight loss. You want it gone, I get that, and it's a good thing to want - b...
by Radius Solis
Mon Dec 30, 2013 5:53 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Risha Cuhbi grammar
Replies: 12
Views: 9226

Re: Risha Cuhbi grammar

The removed posts can be found here.
by Radius Solis
Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:44 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45313

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

Are brambles native to your part of the USA? It often seems to be the foreign species which are the most annoying. We have native brambles as well, but indeed, they aren't invasive. It's the Himalaya-type blackberries that invade and destroy everything if allowed; left to themselves, they will win ...
by Radius Solis
Fri Dec 27, 2013 7:17 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45313

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

It being the dead of winter here, I have little to say about gardening, other than that I'm looking forward to the beginnings of spring. But what you're doing is pretty cool. We have raspberries... and blackberries, but oh god I would not plant those. No, I spend dozens to hundreds of hours per year...
by Radius Solis
Thu Dec 19, 2013 6:39 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Are palatals coronal or dorsal?
Replies: 18
Views: 5018

Re: Are palatals coronal or dorsal?

Nort is right. "Palatal" is a fake POA phonetically. It's a very real phonological POA - it's extremely common for there to be a series of sounds between the /t/ and /k/ series - but phonetically, exactly what sort of sounds a language fills that space with is a crapshoot. It can be anything from a ...
by Radius Solis
Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:13 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: American perceptions of British accents
Replies: 108
Views: 24131

Re: American perceptions of British accents

Radius: you sure that what they've got in common isn't just that they're all British, and that because you know they're British you hear them as British? Additionally, if there is a real thing you're hearing, it may just be an absence rather than a presence - eg absence of the father-bother merger ...
by Radius Solis
Sun Dec 15, 2013 4:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: American perceptions of British accents
Replies: 108
Views: 24131

Re: American perceptions of British accents

Xephyr is correct that we mostly have no way to get a handle one what the differences are or where they're from. But I think it's fair to characterize them, together, as forming an overall British accent. I don't know what features unite them, but there's clearly something - because British-ness is ...
by Radius Solis
Sun Dec 15, 2013 3:57 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: Aktionsart, Telicity and Durativity
Replies: 9
Views: 10927

Re: Aktionsart, Telicity and Durativity

You give good tests for the first two distinctions (static/dynamic; telic/atelic). I'm not sure what tests there are to distinguish punctuality from durativity. There is a decent one that Terra pointed at but didn't quite hit, only it's restricted to what vec listed as atelic verbs: the progressive...
by Radius Solis
Thu Dec 12, 2013 8:33 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: A guide to small consonant inventories
Replies: 129
Views: 75615

Re: A guide to small consonant inventories

In case anyone wondered about the frequency of each phonemes listed Raw counts are not gonna be particularly useful though, since the data is not independent. E.g. everything Polynesian having /p/ but no /b/, or everything Iroquioan not having /p/ don't quite count as 10 independent data points eac...
by Radius Solis
Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:32 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 204812

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

Christmas is coming soon, but I've been dropping unsubtle hints telling my parents what I want for Christmas which takes the fun of the surprise out of it. Contradictory feelings indeed. I know exactly what I want to get for Christmas, but getting them because I told someone is far less fun than ge...
by Radius Solis
Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:34 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Quick MSA Question
Replies: 5
Views: 2583

Re: Quick MSA Question

If memory serves, it is unattested for all verbs to have a fluid S in any single language. There are virtually always at least some verbs that lexically require an agent-marked S, or some that require a patient-marked S, or some of each. Even halfway-pure split-S and fluid-S languages are rarer than...
by Radius Solis
Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:24 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 413411

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

I find it familiar and unremarkable when spoken, and I'm sure I use it all the time; it's basically just dropping a "that is". But seeing it in written English is a bit of a shock, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. It gives me the willies somehow, like seeing some guy feel up his sister.
by Radius Solis
Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:09 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tongue-twisters
Replies: 24
Views: 8811

Re: Tongue-twisters

Sure.

With swizzle sticks and thistle sixths with widths this thick, Luther's sleuths thwart Seth's sixth sick sphynx.
by Radius Solis
Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:19 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tongue-twisters
Replies: 24
Views: 8811

Re: Tongue-twisters

So does this mean you can reliably say "Rubber baby buggy bumpers" ten times fast? I just tried it - the first time I did screw up with a "bumpy buggers" somewhere in the middle, but ran out of breath before reaching ten. The second time I took a deeper breath and finished ten without an error, whi...
by Radius Solis
Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:06 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tongue-twisters
Replies: 24
Views: 8811

Re: Tongue-twisters

Some of the toughest English tongue-twisters I know of are also some of the simplest phonologically, e.g. "toy boat" (two syllables, two stops, two diphthongs) and "rubber baby buggy bumpers" (CVCVCVCVCVCVCVNCV). I guess YMMV. I have never gotten why either of those were supposed to be tongue twist...
by Radius Solis
Thu Dec 05, 2013 4:22 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Tongue-twisters
Replies: 24
Views: 8811

Re: Tongue-twisters

Languages with CV syllable structures and with small consonant inventories may, in general, be less conducive to tongue-twisters as we think of them. But they are more a cultural phenomenon than a trait of a language, and who's to say speakers of e.g. Hawaiian might not have things in their language...
by Radius Solis
Wed Dec 04, 2013 9:16 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Lexember
Replies: 135
Views: 41226

Re: Lexember

Tlaliolz, Lexember 3rd: āzli - n. type, kind derived: āzlia - adv. typically; as expected; true to type The more usual spelling for this suffix would give āzliya , but a palatal glide is always present in Tl. /i.a/ and thus unnecessary to write it here. Lexember 4th: tfean - n. layer; level (of heig...
by Radius Solis
Tue Dec 03, 2013 7:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English /tr dr/ affrication
Replies: 28
Views: 8613

Re: English /tr dr/ affrication

I'm curious about Americans, like Radius, who say they don't do this. I find it really hard to avoid the affrication. Could someone post a recording? For comparison, here's myself saying "A dragon with stripes lives in the tree." http://www.zompist.com/dragon-tree.wav So far as I can judge, I have ...
by Radius Solis
Tue Dec 03, 2013 3:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English /tr dr/ affrication
Replies: 28
Views: 8613

Re: English /tr dr/ affrication

I think I generally lack it. I had thought that I completely lacked it, but then one time a few months back I noticed I had just said I was going to get something to jrink. On the other hand, the fact I noticed, and sometimes notice it when people from Forn Parts are talking, suggests it really isn'...
by Radius Solis
Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:34 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Lexember
Replies: 135
Views: 41226

Re: Lexember

Hmm! I'm in the mood to do this.

But which language? ... *draws names from a hat* ... How about Tlaliolz.

Entry for Lexember 1st:

tūqtsoa - n. hook; link; bond or connection

For Lexember 2nd:

yan - v. cling, stick, hold fast
tsityan - v. (put + cling) trap, ensnare; catch (prey)