zompist bboard

So, as a consequence of that, I tried to derive ejectives by snuggling a glottal stop up against a pulmonic stop. I started with a very simple phonology of normal pulmonic consonants and simple CV phonotactics. Then I'd debuccalize intervocalic /t/. Then delete, say, /u/ before a glottal stop. Which...

I had a quick conlang sketch a few months ago that developed ejectives, although they weren't part of the normal inventory. I actually didn't know how to produce ejectives, but I learned how to do it with this sketch. What happened was basically that it had normal pulmonic stops, as well as a glotta...

Yea, I think my Googling was driven by my perception of it as a Southernism, probably mostly because I think of Southern English when I think of vernacular or nonliterary English, but it's noted as being widely present in many vernacular Englishes.

I mostly hear the song lyrics as "We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts [mumble mumble]" And travel afar? It seems like demonstrative them dates from Early Modern English and Shakespeare, but became a vernacular, nonliterary, and dialectical form by the 18th century. It persists at least in AAV...

I remember hearing a story on NPR within the past year or two. It was about a Tamil (IIRC) poet or author who was talking about the difficulty of reforming or producing modern literature in Tamil, because of the weight of the language's traditional literature. He was trying to standardize the langua...

My amazing Google powers couldn't find it, but I did find this video Lips of Babel, which is great.

I think it would be much easier to do a tripartite alignment if you explicitly mark case with inflections or adpositions. But then it would be easy enough. If you had an isolating language that marks these relationships with word order, it seems like the tripartite system would quickly collapse into...

Age bracket: 30-34 Gender: Male Nationality: American State/Province/Other Subdivision: Louisville, Kentucky Occupation: Assistant editor/grad student Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Status: Married Native Language: English Secondary Languages: Japanese, and I read some French Languages I Want to L...

Sure. Don't design the orthography for linguistically-naive Americans. But explain it to them somewhere. The lessons have some pointers on avoiding common pitfalls, like distinguishing between l and r or between rhotic consonants. "Doova"/"duva" is probably a similar pitfall for an English-speaking ...

I love that chart, guitarplayer.

Some questions! Soonoyun means hello. ...Doova (see you later) ! In the romanization of Arka, what does doubling the vowel mean? Is it pronounced like in Japanese, or a long vowel in a different language? Is Arka mora-timed or syllable-timed? "soonoyun"はソーノユンって言う？ "doova"はドーヴァみたい？ It's probably too ...

[7]"the alphabet" is fine, but I think I'd prefer "the Roman alphabet" (or "the Latin alphabet"), because it's not the only alphabet on Earth! Yes, the discussion of alphabets was a little confusing, because it conflates three separate concepts: the Lunar alphabet, the Latin alphabet, and the roman...

Some of that is nitpicking, or not actually wrong ;) The English text was not written by a native speaker, but it was mostly OK, clear, and comprehensible. And I'm glad the author is making this information available in English. 大丈夫よ。がんばって! I don't love anime, but the anime characters are fine. It's...

The PDF is not displaying non-punctuation/non-mathematical symbols for some reason. Do you have a jpg of it up somewhere?

O, sad. I skimmed through the grammar once or twice and thought it had a really nice feel. And this sounds like you're abandoning it and it is no longer supported.

So, "c" is an alveolar trill? Whereas "r" is an alveolar approximent as in American English?

If you're writing for a popular audience, most English speakers call the alveolar trill a "rolled r".

sleep > sleepy > tired > hard-working > diligent > rigorous > strict > cruel > heavy

Next word: heavy.

have an idea > eureka moment > epiphany > religious or ideological conversion > become a heretic > become a witch > witchcraft > sorcery

Next word: sorcery.

to honor > to worship > to idolize > idol > a dummy > a fake > a swindler > a swindle > a hoax > a chimera > an illusion > a shape in the clouds > cloud

Next word: cloud.

So thinking about this more, we probably just don't have a clear taxonomy of sandwiches. Mostly because it isn't all that important, probably, so we haven't thought about it much. We've been trained to identify, from a list of rabbits, deer, whales, and meadows, to identify the meadow as the item th...

All are fine. 3 is shortest, so it's probably the best. I suspect I might produce #2 or #3, but not produce #1, although it sounds fine.

It makes me think of this, although the part of speech is different:

Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.

wharf > harbor > port > port town > commercially important town > fortified market town > fortified winter military settlement > fortified frontier settlement > fortified settlement > bastle > farmhouse > barn

Next word: barn.

barrage > barraged > besiged > pinned down > immobilized > paralyzed > comatose > sleep paralysis > night-mare or hag (supernatural creature) > succubus > fashionable young woman > fashionable clothing > feathers > feather

Next word: feather.

ripple > undulate > dance sensuously > prostitute > unmarried woman > bride > wife

Next word: wife.

Yea, thank goodness we didn't get into wraps. Which are usually kind of gross, anyway.

Also:

This Is Not a Cheesesteak.