Search found 567 matches
- Sat Mar 24, 2018 6:41 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Voynich manuscript
- Replies: 40
- Views: 20411
Re: Voynich manuscript
It's Old Turkic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6keMgLmFEk The Voynich Manuscript is a mysterious medieval manuscript written in the early 15th century. To date, scientists, historians, mathematicians and linguists have struggled to decipher the manuscript. However, the mystery has finally been pu...
- Tue Dec 01, 2015 2:32 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Do Alphabets Always = European?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 7860
Re: Do Alphabets Always = European?
Japanese has a very simple syllable structure: (C)V(N) . Hiragana and katakana are perfectly sufficient to write this limited syllable structure. Perhaps if Japanese had a more complicated syllable structure, they would've developed a way to unambiguously record these syllables. (Note that both hir...
- Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:14 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: European languages before Indo-European
- Replies: 812
- Views: 196584
Re: European languages before Indo-European
However, linguists have now shown that IE did exist: despite the lack of any clear Greek invasion of Greece, for instance, they must have come from somewhere, and they must have had a shared origin, at least linguistically, with Celts, Romans, etc. And geneticists have shown that there WAS a vast p...
- Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:11 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Do Alphabets Always = European?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 7860
Re: Do Alphabets Always = European?
As far as I can tell, and from my reading in Geoffrey Sampson's book "Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction", it appears that we have our first alphabet (having symbols for each individual consonant and vowel) from the ancient Greeks. The Greeks took the Phoenician script (which is an abjad, s...
- Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:55 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: European languages before Indo-European
- Replies: 812
- Views: 196584
Re: European languages before Indo-European
Sal, can you give a brief timeline of when (in years before present) and how long the paleolithic, mesolithic, neolithic, bronze age, and stone age eras are?
Hmm. That seems strange to me... Don't most people have a name for themselves?So no, there's no clear ethnonym.
- Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:36 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: European languages before Indo-European
- Replies: 812
- Views: 196584
Re: European languages before Indo-European
I have a couple questions: (1) Where does the term "Yamna(ya)" come from? (2) Do we know what the Indo-Europeans called themselves? (Maybe *teuto ?) (3) What do the genetics of the Basques look like, relative to those of Northern Europe, Southern Europe, and the Caucasus? I suspect .that raising chi...
- Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:29 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Is gutturality a trait of primitive languages?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 5812
Re: Is gutturality a trait of primitive languages?
Am I prejudiced or something? Yes. There is no such thing as a "primitive" language The only thing that'd make sense to call primitive, would be a pidgin. Pidgins have certain grammatical features (and lack other certain grammatical features.), so I wouldn't be surprised if they had phonological pe...
- Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:33 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Pan-Americanisms
- Replies: 38
- Views: 8128
Re: Pan-Americanisms
You have to be particularly careful with Amerindian languages, because the data are often in bad shape. Lexicons always look nice in print, but they were often recorded by untrained people with English- or Spanish-trained ears. Despite the extensive and oftentimes vicious destruction of indigenous ...
- Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:27 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
- Replies: 1058
- Views: 224782
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
"Wrestling coach says she was told she can't have baby on Fargodome floor, officials cite safety concerns" -- http://www.inforum.com/sports/3801448-wrestling-coach-says-she-was-told-she-cant-have-baby-fargodome-floor-officials-cite I pondered for a moment why somebody would want to give birth in the...
- Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:38 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: The dream thread
- Replies: 1807
- Views: 316128
Re: The dream thread
I usually don't remember dreams, but I remember this one from about a month ago: I was standing in front of a vending machine that sold matching sets of bras and hats (baseball caps). (A set was made up of 1 bra and 1 hat.) It cost $2 to get a set. You could not buy just half of a set. The image on ...
- Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:27 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Revived words
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8280
Re: Revived words
I thought of another: drone
It's a bit like 'panzer' though. It was already in use, but uncommon, and then technology created a new thing, which got strongly attached to the name. Looking on Google Images, when I search for "drone", I don't find a single bee or ant, but only the flying machine.
It's a bit like 'panzer' though. It was already in use, but uncommon, and then technology created a new thing, which got strongly attached to the name. Looking on Google Images, when I search for "drone", I don't find a single bee or ant, but only the flying machine.
- Sun Jun 21, 2015 8:12 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Hmm, interesting. So the difference between *T and *Dh may be reduced to a consonant gradation similar to the consonant gradation systems found in various Uralic languages, and cognate to them. (AFAIK, the standard reconstruction of Proto-Uralic does not feature consonant gradation, but it may simp...
- Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:42 am
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Teach-Learn Polarity [mostly on causatives]
- Replies: 19
- Views: 14980
Re: Teach-Learn Polarity
Not in my dialect. For me, "teach" and "learn" refer to the same event, but I can send a letter today and you can receive it tomorrow. "Send" has two passive uses - the 'indirect' passive you're talking about to me is not equivalent to 'receive' at all. I can have been sent something last week, but...
- Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:59 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
The root structure constraints, however, seem to point at the *D grade having been a highly marked one in some stage. (1) How so? (2) By this, do you mean that *T and *Dh are more similar to eachother than either is to *D? The pairs *kap, *ghabh (take) and *tem, *dhem (dark, dim) come to mind, and ...
- Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:30 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Quick question about Japanese pitch accent
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3051
Re: Quick question about Japanese pitch accent
Your students have to write IPA representations of English words?and it's the way all my students preferred to mark stress on English words
- Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:18 pm
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Teach-Learn Polarity [mostly on causatives]
- Replies: 19
- Views: 14980
Re: Teach-Learn Polarity
Send vs Receive Very little connexion here. Send--vs--receive and teach--vs--learn seem alike (but not completely) to me. The only thing that's different is that "learn" marks its nominative argument as an agent, but "receive" does not; "receive" is basically equivalent to the passive "be sent". be...
- Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:53 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Thank you for your nice and helpful comments. Although I can see parallels I do not usually get tempered (because preferring to concentrate on things rather than emotions), but I admit a good degree of impatience, partly explained by the local habits: Finns are known for doing first talking later –...
- Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:45 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Now, you haven't done any of this yet, but I've seen many threads that started off sane that quickly descended into madness (Octavanio and AshMoonFruit come to mind), so I'm just anticipating what I hope doesn't happen again. Oh god, Octaviano was awful (as was Tienzen Gong if he appeared here as w...
- Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:00 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: What do you say for X?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2189
Re: What do you say for X?
All mouth and trousers All mouth and no trousers Neither. Also, Americans don't say "trousers", not that I've heard a variant with "pants" instead though. He can talk the talk but he can't walk the walk I have heard this though. I've also heard a similar phrase with the same meaning: All bark and n...
- Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:54 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
am a Finn and in our culture this sort of extremism is not tolerated so we've taken a different approach This seems to be a recurring theme: Extremists think that they accurately represent the entirety of their culture, and use the line "But it's my culture!" as a reason/excuse as to why they shoul...
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:01 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Hi, Terra, thank you for your questions, here some answers: 0. Before entering to the details in begin with noting that the answers to the questions concerning the reconstruction can be found in my dissertation, which I recommend you to read perhaps even a couple of times when you have extra hours ...
- Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:27 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Some questions for you, Jouna:
(1) Your PIE reconstruction has only 2 series of stops. Why no the usual 3 ? How do you derive the third from just 2 ?
(2) Do you believe in a genetic affiliation of IE and Uralic? If so, how many stops would you reconstruct for it ?
(1) Your PIE reconstruction has only 2 series of stops. Why no the usual 3 ? How do you derive the third from just 2 ?
(2) Do you believe in a genetic affiliation of IE and Uralic? If so, how many stops would you reconstruct for it ?
- Thu Apr 02, 2015 7:16 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Yes, except for the "unstressed /u/ becomes /o/ and unstressed /i/ becomes /e/" bit. That did not happen, otherwise we'd have i~e and u~o ablaut, which is not observed! Also, not all unstressed /a/ became /o/ - many simply disappeared (zero grade). I still haven't found out when unstressed /a/ beca...
- Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:46 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Spoiler: it's from pre-Greek. Doesn't matter what word you're looking up, it's always from pre-greek. And there's nothing about sound changes to greek, but there is a long chapter all about pre-greek. Yes, Beekes seems quite eager to declare a word as pre-Greek. Every-other word I look up seems to ...
- Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:35 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 454357
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
It can occur on either.Does s-mobile occur with verbs or is it restricted to nouns?
What is the ancient traditional way?For example promotion ceremonies are still held in the ancient traditional way
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Btw, speaking of Leiden, does anybody have Leiden's Greek etymological dictionary?