Search found 153 matches

by TzirTzi
Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:26 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languages
Replies: 25
Views: 5894

Re: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languag

I am not a native speaker, but "helpless fury" feels a bit unusual. As a native speaker, "helpless fury" feels very reasonable to me - but, better than that, have a look at the ngrams data: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=helpless+fury%2Chelpless+wrath%2Chelpless+anger&year_start=1800&...
by TzirTzi
Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:35 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languages
Replies: 25
Views: 5894

Re: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languag

Alternatively, perhaps she's implying that language is affecting its speakers and that it is these lexical items that actually make the concepts available to speakers at all: and this would be Sapir-Whorfism, generally accepted to be wrong. I thought it was its strong version that was generally acc...
by TzirTzi
Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:45 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: What are you reading, watching and listening to?
Replies: 469
Views: 135533

Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Having just seen the film of 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time (found a little local independent cinema which shows classic films), I've been inspired to reread the book for the nth time. Though they were written at the same time and so there's no 'right' order, I feel like I should have watc...
by TzirTzi
Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:05 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languages
Replies: 25
Views: 5894

Re: Untranslatable Words & Comparing Emotions Across Languag

Notice how she somehow nevertheless managed to translate them in the relevant chart! Mistaking lack of a one-word equivalent to a foreign word for inability to translate it is linguistically uneducated. So both from an emotions perspective and from a linguistics perspective, the chart is oversimpli...
by TzirTzi
Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:00 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: the Old Granny thread
Replies: 624
Views: 188223

Re: the Old Granny thread

A recipe for vege sausages Makes 6 sausages. I was lacking several of my normal ingredients when I came to make these last night, so improvised, but the new version was successful enough that I may follow the same recipe again in future. 3 boiled new potatoes An end-slice of brown bread A handful o...
by TzirTzi
Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:55 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: Vowel Systems
Replies: 109
Views: 101151

Re: Vowel Systems for Beginners

One Vowel There are no modern languages with just one vowel, with the very, very possible exception of Nuxalk (see below). One or two restructions of Proto-Indo-European have just /e/, but this is somewhat untenable, given that all of its daughters have at least three vowels (I think), many of its ...
by TzirTzi
Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:45 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Suprasegmentals
Replies: 6
Views: 2434

Re: Suprasegmentals

Just to make a very minor but perhaps helpful point, the features discussed here are in generativist phonology more often called auto segmental than supra segmental. The idea is that there is a tier of segments--phonemes--which is a linear ordered list of segments, each of which are defined by a ser...
by TzirTzi
Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:19 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: English as a North Germanic language?
Replies: 31
Views: 8204

Re: English as a North Germanic language?

Must English be either West- or North-? Can't it just be said to be a mix? Not according to the tree model. We don't really have a robust vocabulary for describing the various degrees of language influence which fall well short of the kind of mixing you find in languages like Michif or Media Lengua...
by TzirTzi
Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:29 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 413494

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

To add a different angle, what about if it was the freezer you were warming up (e.g. in order to be able to clean it) instead of the food from the freezer? My answers remain the same, but my gf reports different verb preferences for these two situations.
by TzirTzi
Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:33 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Schwa-schwi merger
Replies: 52
Views: 12848

Re: Schwa-schwi merger

Also: somebody in these forums once told me that "bias" is apparently pronounced [baɪɪs] (BYE-iss) in NAm English. I pronounce it like that but with a /z/ at the end (BYE-is). How else would you pronounce it? /"bAI%as/ or /"bAI%{s/, with secondary stress and an unreduced vowel in the second syllable.
by TzirTzi
Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:22 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

Re: t/v pronoun typology

If you have free time and are looking for reading material, I might suggest you read: "Terms of address and second person pronominal usage in Hindi : a sociolinguistic study" by K. S. Misra. It discusses strategies of using three levels of T/V pronouns in nonstandard Hindi in a wide variety of soci...
by TzirTzi
Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:04 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

Re: t/v pronoun typology

So, given the social context T or V will be the "default" pronoun and therefore unmarked, but if used in an atypical situation it is marked? I'm confused. Are you suggesting certain pronouns are always marked, or just marked in certain situations? The latter. Given social context - including, most ...
by TzirTzi
Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:36 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

Re: t/v pronoun typology

Question, how do you determine which is marked or unmarked? Is the unmarked one simply the one most often used? Also how do you deal with a system with more than two layers? Well, if you can ask native speakers then they'll probably tell you that there's a particular pronoun choice which they'd exp...
by TzirTzi
Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:38 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

Re: t/v pronoun typology

I'd agree that English doesn't have a t/v distinction as the you-thou distinction (in living speech outside Yorkshire at least) serves only to mark normal from ritual speech. But OI is pretty different - analyses of different corpora have found it to be a very typical t/v system sensitive to social ...
by TzirTzi
Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:20 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

Re: t/v pronoun typology

No, Old Icelandic :) .
by TzirTzi
Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
Replies: 2452
Views: 413494

Re: The Innovative Usage Thread

Radius Solis wrote:SURVEY TIME!
a) It's thawing. - acceptable
b) It's unthawing. - unacceptable
c) It's thawing out. - acceptable

d) it's defrosting - preferred
by TzirTzi
Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:06 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: t/v pronoun typology
Replies: 16
Views: 4451

t/v pronoun typology

Hello all :) My understanding of t/v pronoun systems is that given a particular speaker and addressee, there will be an unmarked choice: t or v. The unmarked choice may be determined by social properties of individuals (rank, age, gender, caste, etc.) or properties of relationships (familial relatio...
by TzirTzi
Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:10 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Unstressed aspirants in Texas English
Replies: 36
Views: 6282

Re: Unstressed aspirants in Texas English

Interesting stuff.. @Travis - I had indeed vaguelly imagined that most US varieties eliminated the distinction between intervocalic /t d/, so it's interesting to hear that that isn't universal. I suppose that makes it a little more likely that I'm actually hearing what I think I'm hearing (easier to...
by TzirTzi
Fri Dec 30, 2011 10:10 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Unstressed aspirants in Texas English
Replies: 36
Views: 6282

Re: Unstressed aspirants in Texas English

I live in Texas and I have no idea what you're talking about...I can't ever remember hearing this as a common feature in someone's speech. Do you have any recordings or whatever that you can link to as an example? I don't off hand - I'll have a look around online and see if I can find any examples....
by TzirTzi
Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:26 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Unstressed aspirants in Texas English
Replies: 36
Views: 6282

Unstressed aspirants in Texas English

I've known a couple of Texans and heard a couple of speakers on the radio who shared this feature. It sounds like voiceless stops being aspirated in odd contexts - like coda position in unstressed syllables. For example: <...not a very...> [nAt_h@vEr\i]. What I'm actually hearing is just an unexpect...
by TzirTzi
Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:39 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")
Replies: 2538
Views: 880995

Re: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")

Perhaps some form of fermented onions is a major Lukpanic foodstuff? :D
by TzirTzi
Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:38 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")
Replies: 2538
Views: 880995

Re: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")

With the southern Proto-Homeland for Núalís-Takuña, this seems to mean that some groups (Pre-Núalís first, Pre-Takuña second) moved - relatively quickly - along the coast *without* colonizing the adjacent islands; much later the historical Takuña began to explore the islands starting off their new ...
by TzirTzi
Wed May 25, 2011 6:13 am
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: Chinese whispers / retrofitting game
Replies: 209
Views: 36896

Re: Chinese whispers / retrofitting game

si:z k!i:sn=gjljk| ohej nowu:a uxny:jk| k!n=zak| k!n=k| k|isljik| n=gja sn=k| siza k!ongjju: k|ljo:hej nowu: sagja sis k|a:siza ok|k|ohej nowu: sšaoz k!i:s n=gja isasis zislja k|i:snk| u:j isagjau:a k!i:zhej nowu: bʔu:hej nowik| sigjlja do: k!izn=sy:s siz k|i:sis sik| k!iza u:hej nowza ohej nowu:iu:...
by TzirTzi
Tue May 24, 2011 3:28 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")
Replies: 2538
Views: 880995

Re: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")

Lots of good thoughts going on! :) Basilius, your suggestion of the N-T peoples originating in Sumarušuxi fits very well with my original conception - indeed, I wondered about this possibility when I was writing the document on the Siixtaguna culture I linked to. I also agree that east-west migratio...
by TzirTzi
Sat May 21, 2011 3:38 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")
Replies: 2538
Views: 880995

Re: Conlang relay [relocated] (aka "The Cursed Relay")

Another problem that occurred to me is that the Siixtaguna culture is an immigrant culture, in historical terms fairly new to the Siixtaguna coast and nearby islands (having migrated from some unspecified place in the east, presumably Tuysafa). - this bit still sounds awesomely novel to me :) To me...