Search found 575 matches
- Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:43 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Rate of sound change
- Replies: 35
- Views: 8794
Re: Rate of sound change
This seems like the cousin of the tonogenesis sound change where final consonants affect tone and then disappear. In both cases certain information is lost after it has been safely stored earlier in the word.
- Sun Aug 04, 2013 2:03 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: Almean Industrial Revolution... and imperialism?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 8739
Re: Almean Industrial Revolution... and imperialism?
Is this really colonization? We have to be careful of calling everything Europeans did in foreign countries colonization--and not applying the same standard to other peoples. Does setting up Chinatowns constitute colonization, for example? If you had extraterritoriality in Chinatown, then yes. Of c...
- Sun Aug 04, 2013 1:56 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: Almean Industrial Revolution... and imperialism?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 8739
Re: Almean Industrial Revolution... and imperialism?
Excellent post, Sal. There is one huge difference between Almea and Earth that would have a big impact on colonization. On Earth, India and China were very economically and technologically advanced relative to Europe in the early modern period. When the Portuguese first came to India, they were step...
- Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:34 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Rosa's roses: all in your heads?
- Replies: 22
- Views: 5632
Re: Rosa's roses: all in your heads?
Couldn't schwa be an allophonic realization of either /6/ or /I/? That way, you can admit that it's not phonemic while maintaining the "two schwa" contrast.
- Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:06 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Paralyzing Plate Tectonics
- Replies: 10
- Views: 5448
Re: Paralyzing Plate Tectonics
I still don't understand the problem. You start with a super continent. Draw some divergent fissures on it in random places (a look at a tectonic map of Earth will give you an idea how many you need), and fast forward. The resulting convergent boundaries will yield coastal mountain ranges like the P...
- Sat Jul 27, 2013 12:49 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Hunter-gatherer languages
- Replies: 25
- Views: 6975
Re: Hunter-gatherer languages
Most of the differences will be lexical, and some of them will be obvious based on culture and technology. Some of them might not be so obvious. Technologically primitive cultures in places like New Guinea often have very few words for color, for example, compared to the several basic color words of...
- Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:59 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Paralyzing Plate Tectonics
- Replies: 10
- Views: 5448
- Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:57 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Creativity of the day
- Replies: 1704
- Views: 336058
Re: Creativity of the day
According to this site , there are 400,000 apartment dwellers in Missouri. Then this article says that there are 135,000 units in the "metro St Louis" area. In fact, according to that article, demand for apartments is on the rise, with the lowest vacancy rate in ten years and 1000 more units planned...
- Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:11 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Creativity of the day
- Replies: 1704
- Views: 336058
Re: Creativity of the day
Only cartoon plutocrats with monocles and liveried footmen have a separate room for dining. Humans eat in the kitchen. Or the bedroom if they're under 25 and that's where the computer happens to be.
- Thu Jun 27, 2013 9:05 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: #94: Face and Politeness)
- Replies: 974
- Views: 182573
Re: Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: SHORTS #08: Pahran gramat
"Half eight" meaning 8:30 will never cease to confuse me. Obviously "half eight" should mean either 7:30 or 4:00, but it should never be anything higher than eight!
- Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:11 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Plausible limits of population [now playing: outer space]
- Replies: 71
- Views: 15347
Re: Plausible limits of population
The heat death of the universe is inevitable.
Burn everything.
Burn everything.
- Sun Apr 28, 2013 11:19 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Plausible limits of population [now playing: outer space]
- Replies: 71
- Views: 15347
Re: Plausible limits of population
But anyway, that ignores that half of the insolation doesn't reach the surface, and that two-thirds of what does falls on the oceans (which in this model we've dedicated to our farming). On the other hand, 20% efficiency is incredibly conservative. Surprisingly, that's not the case! About 30% of to...
- Sat Apr 27, 2013 7:58 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Plausible limits of population [now playing: outer space]
- Replies: 71
- Views: 15347
Re: Plausible limits of population
OK, I'll bite. How much light do we actually need? If humans spend 8 hours in total darkness, and the other 16 hours using indoor light, then the vast majority of sunlight that falls on the Earth is superfluous. We could just cover the entire surface of the planet in solar panels, and use some of th...
- Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:57 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Plausible limits of population [now playing: outer space]
- Replies: 71
- Views: 15347
Re: Plausible limits of population
All Earth carrying capacity equations forget that the Earth must be inhabited by people, and people never explore the practical limits of what they can do. We have the internet. That means we could all be doing online masters programs with every spare minute of our days. We should all be quintuple d...
- Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:50 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Let's test sound symbolism.
- Replies: 35
- Views: 7390
Re: Let's test sound symbolism.
c, b, a, b
- Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:25 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Genetics/Sex question
- Replies: 37
- Views: 9745
Re: Genetics/Sex question
Even without any differences in fitness, a 4 sex system will eventually reduce, given enough time. At least, so long as the children's sex is determined by their parents. The same happens with any lineage. Patronymic names break down over just a few thousand years (compare the Netherlands to Korea)....
- Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:27 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
- Replies: 812
- Views: 209917
Re: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
All conjunctions evolved from [ə]. He has one thing in common with the people on this board. He cannot tell the difference between [ə] and [ɐ]. Granted, in many dialects of American English they are merged, but where they are merged, the enunciated pronunciation is [ɐ]. [ə] is only found in reduced...
- Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:06 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
- Replies: 812
- Views: 209917
Re: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
All conjunctions evolved from [ə]. He has one thing in common with the people on this board. He cannot tell the difference between [ə] and [ɐ]. Granted, in many dialects of American English they are merged, but where they are merged, the enunciated pronunciation is [ɐ]. [ə] is only found in reduced...
- Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:33 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How Do You Sound Fancy in French?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 9870
Re: How Do You Sound Fancy in French?
What a fantastically helpful response to an admittedly silly question! There are lots of ideas here for making registers in conlangs. If this discussion keeps going, we should edit out the juicy bits and archive them in L&L Museum.
- Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:23 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How Do You Sound Fancy in French?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 9870
How Do You Sound Fancy in French?
So in English we have Latinate words for most things when we want to put on our fancy pants. But to a Francophone our attempts to sound urbane must seem feeble. "His visage turned pugnaceous" just means "He looked at me with fighty-face." "She masticated the raconteur into submission" just means "Sh...
- Sat Jan 19, 2013 12:23 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Game
- Replies: 2673
- Views: 513592
Re: Sound Change Game
Visdel: toa' lhaima' [dɔwəˤˈɫəimɐˤ]Bristel wrote: Tuneg Lilitu: dowah laimah [dowaʔ lai̯maʔ]
- Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:23 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: #94: Face and Politeness)
- Replies: 974
- Views: 182573
Re: Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: #80: Zonal Auxlangs)
Just expressing my approval of the last couple of podcasts. Great work.
- Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:07 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: English as a North Germanic language?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8447
Re: English as a North Germanic language?
What sound changes do Northern Germanic and Anglo-Frisian have in common (that are not of transparently recent origin, and which are not also shared by West Germanic)? I can't find any.
- Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:11 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
- Replies: 812
- Views: 209917
Re: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
Vuvu wrote that sentence in Greek and hit "translate."
- Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:27 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Appliquéd & Crocheted - Peculiar inflexion of borrowings
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7685
Re: Appliquéd & Crocheted - Peculiar inflexion of borrowings
When I was a kid, I thought "fetid" was a past participle of a verb "to fet." There may be some other morons who were similarly confused about "pallid" or "squalid." But I don't even know if those are loan words.