zompist bboard

Terra wrote: What is the difference between the THOUGHT and LOT vowels? Is THOUGHT the same vowel as CAUGHT?

LOT, for me, is [ɑ] and THOUGHT is [ɔ]. CAUGHT is not a lexical set, as far as I know. The lexical set for that vowel is called THOUGHT.

"Sneak" is a fairly standard example of one of those words where lots of people are uncomfortable over which past participial form is the "correct" one ("snuck"? "sneaked"? neither?). Today I realized that for me, while "snuck" is fine with the past perfect, it's not possible with the present perfe...

what's with all you people who say you have [ɨ]... in English ? Umm, that's the schwi , a near-close unrounded central vowel, which exists in English dialects that have two or three centralized, reduced vowels (i.e. most). Marking it as [ɨ] is simply marking it as what it is Exactly. To me, [ɪ] sou...

Darkgamma wrote:How do you pronounce <elasticity>, <ergonomics> and <Skyrim> ?

[ˌɪlɜsˈtɨsɨɾɪ]
[ˌəɹgoʊ'nɐmɨks]
[ˈskaɪɹɨm]

Don't phrase it in those terms. We should at least give the castillians a fighting chance - and most popular club in the world versus most hated club? Not fair. Really? There's a more hated club out there than Man U? Agreed. I think Man U have so many fans that they are the most hated club, solely ...

Italian: anything with initial [zv] or [zb], especially svegliarsi (to wake up) and sbagliarsi (to make a mistake) pomodoro (tomato) dimmi (tell me!) aiutare (to help) arrabbiata (angry) French: most anything ending in -elle, especially -chelle équipe (team) possible [posi:b] répareras (will repair)...

Not sure if this qualifies as innovative or not, but yesterday I heard "cleant" as a past tense form of clean. The speaker used pretty much all of the features common to AAVE, including dropping the have/has in past tense constructions, so I couldn't tell if the form intended was "I cleant" or "I ha...

This is a short story I wrote called "You've probably never heard of it" with some edits by my creative writing teacher. He took out some of my favorite parts but I don't have access to the original. ------------------------------------ Inside The Record Palace, Jordan Owens glanced at his watch. He...

Magb wrote:I probably overuse the semicolon too, but it's not my fault that it's the best punctuation mark.

This. It has such flair; such panache; such ingenious daring; I love it!

On a side note, I know there is a website for exactly this purpose but I can't remember what it's called or find it on google. It has a side-bar on the left of a ton of different languages, and clicking on each language yields a list of books in/about the given language. Also, some of the top bar o...

I would love to learn a little Old French (partly for background for a conlang I'm considering, and partly because I think it sounds good). Does anyone have a link to a pdf about Old French Grammar? On a side note, I know there is a website for exactly this purpose but I can't remember what it's cal...

What I had in mind was naturally tritransitive verbs, but I suppose ditransitives with increased valency satisfy my curiousity just as well.

Side note: are these verbs common enough that it would benefit a conlang to have a specific benefactive inflection on pronouns?

The basic VP in French could be said to have 4 specific slots. To have them all, you need a ditransitive verb, so we will use the verb "donner" (to give), though there are other verbs that accept all for slots. Here is a classical example : Je te le lui donne. Je donne pour toi* le cadeau à ton frè...

In my studies of French, I came across the structure "to buy something (for someone)." (Je t'ai acheté un cadeau = I bought you a gift = I bought a gift for you.) French, and English, I think, treat this as an indirect object, IIRC. My question is, does any language, natural or constructed, permit a...

sano wrote:

Izo wrote:Next word: phobia

Kala:

kyopu - phobia / fear / fright

next word: nether

Infundi (bottom.ADJ)

Next word: unable to express oneself due to overwhelming anger

I was under the impression that "If I were you" was the imperfect, because the following clause is conditional.

I may be confusing this with French, though: "Si j'étais toi, je lui parlerais." "If I were you, I would talk to him."