zompist bboard

I go for a walk, a run, or a hike.
I take a walk, a hike, a look, a shower, a nap, or a rest.
I have a look, or a rest.
I also run, walk, hike, shower, nap, and rest.

I hear what you're talking about, but I can also hear where the stress is "supposed" to be, because vowel reduction.

English has borrowed a pronoun-set (as you mentioned "they"), at least one preposition ("per"), and half a conjunction ("be cause ") just off the top of my head. Even the form of the copula "are" was probably influenced by the Norse. Open vs. closed class is not a binary distinction, but more of a c...

Constructed example:
It's just not a good crowd, people-I-actually-like-wise.
Admittedly, not the way I'd probably phrase that, but it sounds perfectly grammatical.

Modern Standard Arabic in Cyrillic/ العربية الفصحى بالسيريلية/ ӏәл-ӏъәрәбијјәто л-фосъҳъә бе-с-Сирилијјә: /m n/<м н> /b t d tˤ dˤ d͡ʒ k q ʔ/<б т д тъ дъ җ к қ ӏ> /f θ ð s z sˤ ðˤ ʃ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h/<ф т ҫ ҙ с з съ зъ ш х ӷ ҳъ ӏъ ҳ> /r/<р> /w l lˤ* j/<в л л ј> Prepositions and the definite article offset by...

Welcome to the ZBB. Pickles and tea, etc. You seem to be off to an alright start, though depending on the setting, your use of Latin/Spanish/Greek might be a little questionable.With regard to your phonology, are/ʃ/ and /ɕ/ supposed to be two separate phonemes written with the same letter <ɕ>, or is...

This often happens to negations, since a negative statement that sounds like a positive one can cause a good deal of confusion. The classic example is French. Old French: Jeo ne dis. "I do not say" Negative particle precedes the verb. Modern Literary French: Je ne dis pas . "pas" originally meaning ...

Proto-Oceanic is reconstructed with a "labiovelar" series, typically assumed to be a set of possibly labialised velarised bilabials. In some languages, these are reflected as simple velars. No-one knows exactly where these phonemes originally come from, though.

The Most Difficult Romanization Challenge Ever:

/N/ <ŋ>

/p, t, k/ <b d g/gu>

/l/ <r/g>

/i e a o u/ <y ä a ô o>
gemination marked with an apostrophe

/taNNop NoNka kalto tallu taNtul lata/
[tannop moŋka kaːɾo tallu tandul laɾa]
Daŋ'ôb ŋôŋga galdô dar'o daŋdol rada

Some words are unlikely to be traceable to a proto-language with a certain time depth, either because they are seldom enough used that they are extremely likely to be replaced within a given period of time, or because they refer to concepts that primitive peoples simply lacked, such as writing or in...

Octopi is the only ʊs->aɪ plural in English, and for that alone deserves to be protected. Same goes for people,our only suppletive plural.

Wenq: (/wə̃ʔ/) Initials: /p b mp mb t d nt nd tr̥ dr ntr̥ ndr tʃ dʒ ntʃ ndʒ k g ŋk ŋg ʔ/<p b mp mb t g nt nd tr dr ntr ndr c z nc nz k g nk mg q> /s x h/<s x h> /m n ɲ ŋ/<m n nj ng> /l r j w/<l r j w> <h> appears at the beginning of every vowel-initial syllable Medials: /æ ɑ ɛ œ ɔ e ø ə o i y ɨ u/ <...

How does your proximate/obviate distinction work, exactly?

Msérsca teapín teose [tʃɔˈpiːn tʃuˈsɛ]->Minva ćopn ćusa [tʃɔpn̩ tʃusə]-> Kes Minsh sjtomp sjtus [ʃtɔmp ʃtus]

As usual, I'm going for systematicity more than intuitiveness. /mʱ m nʱ n ɳʱ ɳ /<mh m nh n ñh ñ> /ʋʱ ʋ lʱ l ɭʱ ɭ yʱ y ɦ/ <vh v lh l ḷh ḷ yh y h> /bʱ ~ β z ʒ gʱ ~ ɣ/<bh zh jh gh> /b dʱ d ʣ ɖʐ ʤ g/ <b d dh z ẓ j d g> /pʰ ~ f p tʰ t ʦʰ ʦ ʈʂʰ ʈʂ ʧʰ ʧ kʰ ~ x k/<ph p th t ch c ċh ċ qh q kh k> /s ʃ/<s x> /...

Reminds me a bit of Verner's law

You know who I hate? Fucking dyslexics. dGudzong Tibetan /pʰ p b tʰ t d ʈʰ ʈ ɖ c ɟ kʰ k g ʔ/<pp p b tt t dt td d dd cc c j kk k g q> /tsʰ ts dz tɕʰ tɕ dʑ/<ts tz dz cs cz jz> /ɸ β sʰ s z ʂʰ ʂ ʐ ɕʰ ɕ ʑ xʰ x ɣ h ɦ/<f v sz z zz ss s zs sc sj zj x gh hh h> /m̥ m n̥ n ȵ̊ ȵ ŋ̊ ŋ/<pm m tn n cn jn kn gn> /l̥...

Why is the palatal aspect of the sound so integral that its omission is considered sufficiently noteworthy to have its own formal term? Most sufficiently widespread sound changes in English have names. Why is it there in the first place? <u> in Middle English did not represent /u:/. The symbol for ...

/m ɱ n̪ n ŋ ɴ/ <m ɱ n ṇ ŋ ń> /p t k/ <p t c> /l j w/ <l j v> /i y u/ <i y u> /e ø ɘ ɵ o/ <é ǿ ớ ẃ ó> /ø̞ ɵ̞ ɤ̞/<ø w ơ> /ɛ œ ɞ ɔ/ <e œ ö o> /a ɑ/ <ä a> Tones <1-5 after the syllable> Worst possible syllable: ṇớɱc. Yuck. Edit: /amt5 nɤl2 ø̞ ol4 tul1 tu ɤn2/ ämt5 ṇơl2 ø2 ól4 tul1 tu1 ơṇ /ji5 ŋɞn ji5 ɱy...

There's two kinds of English spelling reform that you'll find. Both of them are generally terrible. Kind 1 is people half-seriously (or seriously) suggesting that we reform English spelling. These tend to be just generalizations of already existing conventions, like treegod's reforms. These are terr...

C:
/m n ɲ ŋ/<m n ñ g>
/p t c k/<p t c k>
/f s ç x/<f s x h>
/w l j ʁ/<w l j r


G:
/w j ɴ/<w j n>
V:
[a ə]<a y>
[ɛ i] <e i>
[ʌ ɯ] <a y>
[ɔ u] <o u>
Worst possible syllable:
ñenc

Somewhat Jokey ASCII romanization of Hanoi Vietnamese Initials: /p t̪ʰ t c k kʰ~x/<p c t q k x> /ɓ ɗ/<b d> /f v s z ɣ h/<f v s z j h> /m n ɲ ŋ/<m n y g> /l r w/<l r w> Medials: (all but u and Vw series can take -w- between initial and medial) /a aː ɛ ə ɔ e əː o i ɨ u/<a aa ae ea ao e eo o i eu u> /i...

Abnormal Language: Stop: /t, k, kʷ, ʔ/<t k kw q> Implosive: /ɗ, ɠ, ɠʷ/<d g gw> Ejective: /tsʼ, tʃʼ, tɬʼ, kʼ, kʼʷ/ <c' j' tl' k' k'w> Affricates: /ts, ʒ, tɬ, kx, kxʷ/<c j tl kx kxw Fricative: /θ, s, ʃ, ɬ, x, xʷ, χ, χʷ, h/<f s ş hl x xw ķ ķw h> Approximants or Voiced Fricative: /ð, z, ʒ, ɮ , ɣ, ɣ, ʁ, ...

Actually I don't think this is quackery, so maybe it deserves a new thread, still what do you all think of this? To me it makes about as much sense as anything else and seems to be looking for causes etc. http://www.academia.edu/2944128/Indo-European_Expansion_Cycles First impression: It is not qua...

Don't really like too much <ˇ> on consonants. It can be alright in moderation, but isn't to be overused. I think German orthography is visually appealing; regardless of how impractical things like <tzsch> are, they'e, well, not exactly beautiful, but fun to look at anyway. I also like how Dutch writ...