zompist bboard

relevant . We can point at a rock and then find the native word for "rock", point at a pair of rocks and figure out how they say "two rocks", "three rocks", "rocks", etc. Once you know that someone's name is "John", and "bit" is a form of the verb "bite", and those small furry things are called "do...

Also cramming 28 consonants into 18 or 15 letters, and not marking short vowels or gemination works just fine.

Perhaps instead of person one could use distance. When talking about yourself you'd use the pronoun for someone very near but for other people or things it can vary. That could probably be as successful as person! John breaks a cup. John: [near] broke a cup. Sally, in another room: [far] broke a cu...

Do languages *have* to change over a certain period of time? Well, some languages change more slowly others over a similar period of time, but I'm not sure I've heard of a language being completely static over many generations. Also, are certain types (e.g. an agglutinative language, If you mean re...

The one who speaks, that one is free. The one who listens, that one is not a cow. I don't know of any real-world language that does this, but you might throw it into one of those languages spoken by people who differ linguistically from humans only in one or two very small ways. Those seem to be al...

The Glorious People's Republic of R was founded in ∞ B.C.E., when the country's Most Beloved Leader Fred Francis Frum I created reality. Unlike its filthy capitalist neighbors, the people of R experience no poverty or disease or piracy or oppression and are constantly happy. I h op e our l eader, Fr...

/i ɨ u e̞ ə o̞ æ ä/<i ï u e ë o ä a> /m n ɲ ŋ ɴ/<m n ñ ŋ ṅ> /p t c k q ʔ/<p t c k q ʔ> /ɸ θ s ʃ x χ ħ h/<f ţ s š x ḩ h> /ʋ ɹ j w/<v z y w> /ʙ r ʀ/<b r g> /ⱱ/<ⱱ> /ɬ ɭ ʟ ɺ/<ł ḷ l d> /ɓ ɗ/<ɓ ɗ> /pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ/<p̓ t̕ ṭ̕ c̓ k̓ q̓> /ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ/<ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ> /ᵑʘ ᵑǀ ᵑǃ ᵑǂ ᵑǁ/< ̃ʘ ...> /ʘˀ ǀˀ ǃˀ ǂˀ ǁˀ/< ̓ʘ....

/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ň ŋ>
/p t c k q/<p t ḱ k q>
/px tx cç kx qh/<px tx ḱx kx qx>
/ts tɬ tɕ/<c ć č>
/dz dʑ/<j ǰ>
/b d ɟ g/<b d ǵ g>
/f s ɬ ɕ x h/ <f s ś š x h>
/v z ʑ ɣ/<v z ž ǧ>
/w r l j/<w r l y>
/a i u/ a i u
/ā āː á áː à àː/<a aa á áá à àà>

Nortaneous wrote:
Also: are there any natlangs with a three-vowel system and no length distinctions?

[/quote]
Marshallese.

The only thing I could think of to fill in the blank in "give X a(n) _ to Y" would be "introduction", so does it mean "Describe to me what she's like" or something similar?

It can be more fun if fun rules are broken by fun exceptions. A lot. Diachronics. Semitikí vä Indoyuropyané libané ĺizé mi, turzebla äxereblä vä muräxereblä, hadotúvla vä coićikeblä, embe sű nativamerikané libané hadotuké mi dí ĺizé xítxi mi. Semitic and Indoeuropean languages are fun, with their o...

Hadotuka ĺizä ma jö hadotú ĺizé sáwi.
Regular is fun if the rules are.

Fälän "sexful" hividam Inglixü sábiha. Egra lü fyá äröhä xizi vińí sam vulre.
The word "sexful" should be more common in English.I wish I'd have seen it before that.

Nez Perce is a tripartite language where the "pivot" seems to be a single "point", direct vs. inverse. this paper, the ergative and accusative cases were each originally limited to specific circumstances, but in Nez Perce (and to some extent in Sahaptin) they've both broadened over time. The accusat...

TehranHamburger wrote:Yes, at this point it becomes a rule. And like I said, the moment rules are necessary the relationship is best ended (a long time ago) anyway.

"If I notice our relationship beginning to require explicit rules, we're through."<- Not a rule?

Yeah, Latin had a front rounded vowel, and aspirated stops, in the same way that English has nasal vowels, uvular rhotics, palatal fricatives, front rounded vowels and so on. may be more analogous to how English has /x/. That is, significant enough to be listed in phonology charts as a loan phoneme...

Oh, my god. I'm gonna make a joke that's so original it'll just blow your minds. Watch and learn:
I THINK THE SLAVIC AND NORTHWEST CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES HAVE BOTH OF THESE PHONEMES. I can't believe you guys missed that.

Proto-Hathic /pʲʰ pʷʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ/<ppy pp tt kky kk> /pʲ pʷ t c k ʔ/<py p t ky k 1> /bʲ bʷ d ɟ g/<by b d gy g> /ɓʲ ɓʷ ɗ ʄ/ <bby bb dd yy> /mʲ mʷ n ɲ ŋ/<my m n ny ng> /fʲ fʷ s ɕ x ħ h/<fy f s sy kh hh h> /l ʎ ɭ tɬ/<l ly r (lr at the end, if necessary) z> /j ɰ wʲ w/<y gh wy w> /ʘh |h !h ǁh ǂh/<vh ch qh ...

This new discovery really challenges the status kʷo, huh?

PHONOLOGY /p t k/ p t k /b d g/ b d g /m n ŋ/ m n ṅ /f s ʃ x/ f s š x /r l ʀ w j/ r l h u i I'm gonna assume <a e i o u> is /a e i o u/ NOUNS NOM -e, -a, -asi, -anda... -elak, -alak, -asilak, -andalak... ACC -aṅ -odul LOC Ø -:oš COM -:ur -:urak DUR -:apa -asto GEN -oi -orad ABL -:an -em DAT -od -od...

Skolt Sami /p b t d ts dz tʃ dʒ c ɟ k g/<p b t d ts dz tš dž c j k g> /f v ð s z ʃ ʒ ʝ x~h ɣ/<f v dh s z š ž jh x gh> /j w l ʎ r/ <y w l ly r> /m n ɲ ŋ/<m n ny ng> /i u/ <i u> /e ɘ o/<é eh ó> /ɛ ɐ ɔ/<e ah o> /a ɑ/<á a> /ie iɘ ue uɘ/<ié ieh ué ueh> /iɛ iɐ uɛ uɐ uɔ/<ie iah uw uah uo> /ua/<uá> /eɐ ea/...

http://xkcd.com/793/ So you're trying to predict the relationships between languages at time depths greater than 6,000-9,000 years? Just model it as phylogenetics*, and then add some secondary terms to account for borrowing. Easy, right? So, why does linguistics need a whole journal, anyway? *Not e...

Rando-nese
/m, n̪, n, nʲ/<m nh n nj>
/p, t̪, ts, tsʲ, k, q, qʷ/<p t c cj k q qw>
/ʋ, ʋʲ/<v vj>
/s̪, s, sʲ, x, χ, χʷ/<z s sj x g gw>
/ɬ̪, ɬ, ɬʲ/<hlh hl hlj>
/r̪, r, rʲ/<rh r rj>
/l̪ l, lʲ, j/< lh l lj j>

/i ʉ u/<i y u>
/e o/<e o>
/a ɒ/<a ao>
<h> may be used,if necessary, to split digraphs

"To flow"? "To spit"? "Mother"? All of these are easily explained as onompotopoeia/ [spIt_h] and [floU] sound like someone spitting and something flowing, and [ma] sounds like the first noises a baby makes. Using words like these makes me skeptical of any long-distance comparison. Also, "Sound alike...