Search found 352 matches
- Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:36 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Basque's Surdéclinaison
- Replies: 28
- Views: 8231
Re: Basque's Surdéclinaison
Tl;Dr (that I only got by looking up a blog post he made) is that Basque lets you use an inflected form as a base for new inflections. But as far as I can tell, by "inflection" he mostly means "derivation." I'm not particularly knowledgeable here, but isn't the claim that it's found just in Basque a...
- Sun Mar 20, 2016 3:25 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlearn
- Replies: 669
- Views: 149479
Re: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlea
Same here, and I usually misspell it, notice the red squigglies, and fix it. It's rare than I spell it correctly.jmcd wrote:I still say it thusly. Ain't nothing stopping this rebel~~Sglod wrote:I always thought pronunciation was pronounciation and said it as such... (/prənaʊsi.ˈeɪʃᵊn/)
- Fri Mar 18, 2016 11:05 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Origin of retroflex consonants
- Replies: 22
- Views: 6850
Re: Origin of retroflex consonants
Southeast Asia and the Transhimalayan region have plenty of initial retroflexes. Chinese, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Qiang, Naxi, Yi/Nuosu/Loloish, Kra, and Hmong, for the most part, are based around monosyllables and have retroflexes. Several of those (Tibetan, Chinese, Vietnamese) formed them from Cr cl...
- Sat Mar 12, 2016 1:53 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5654
Re: Existence of [tʃwV] and [tɕjV]
They are entirely unremarkable and definitely possible. For forbidding them, that's easy. /j/ drops after palatals, or /tɕ/ only formed by assimilating and absorbing /j/ in the first place (Japanese tjV>tɕV) so as to preclude any possible clustering in the first place. And coronal+/w/ > labial/labio...
- Sat Mar 12, 2016 12:10 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: How to design a non-European phonology
- Replies: 622
- Views: 166755
Re: How to design a non-European phonology
Affricates are usually phonemically indistinguishable from stops, having the same contrasts and appearing in the same contexts, though there's exceptions (Basque where they're only voiceless like fricatives; Avar where they can be both fortis like fricatives and ejective like stops). I don't know ho...
- Tue Mar 08, 2016 5:27 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Neo-Akkadian/Kaschdean/A-Leschān A-Labār NP:REDONE
- Replies: 31
- Views: 5911
Re: Neo-Akkadian/Kaschdean/A-Leschān A-Labār
That seems quite unlikely to me, but it's your language. I'm not familiar with any language that has a marker for proper nouns which is only used for that purpose, which was borrowed from another language (presumably via bilingualism) and then used in a way completely distinct from the way that it ...
- Tue Mar 08, 2016 5:32 am
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Odd natlang features thread
- Replies: 354
- Views: 145189
Re: Odd natlang features thread
It also apparently has a phonemic contrast between /ɨ/, /ɨː/, /ə/, and /əː/, in addition to the /a aː i iː u uː e eː o oː/ vowels that are typical of e.g. Dravidian languages. Not particularly rare to contrast /ɨ ə/, and it's really common in SEA and the eastern Himalayan area, so that's not really...
- Mon Mar 07, 2016 2:05 am
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Bizarre Sound Changes
- Replies: 190
- Views: 93192
Re: Bizarre Sound Changes
/u(:) o(:) a(:)/ > /ʉ(:) ɵ(:) ɛ(:)/ in all open syllables in Khaling (source).
- Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:32 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Small vowel inventories in North America
- Replies: 27
- Views: 5521
Re: Small vowel inventories in North America
The most skewed, non-American, non-large (i.e. below 7) vowel systems I know of are Nivkh /ɪ ɪe æ u ɤ o/ and Big Nambas /i e ə a u/. Supposedly that Nivkh vowel inventory is false and it's a little bit of a mystery where it even came from. The 'right' inventory for the language is fairly banal, but...
- Tue Mar 01, 2016 9:40 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Himba color naming
- Replies: 38
- Views: 7845
Re: Himba color naming
Taking a loot at the Wikipedia page , subtractive primary/printing cyan is clearly blue, additive secondary/display cyan is more blue than green, [...] . Er, those are exactly the same color. You do realize that the diagram of 'printing cyan' is appearing on your monitor, where it is displayed usin...
- Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:44 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Himba color naming
- Replies: 38
- Views: 7845
Re: Himba color naming
Taking a loot at the Wikipedia page, subtractive primary/printing cyan is clearly blue, additive secondary/display cyan is more blue than green, but most of the other shades are green.
- Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:14 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlearn
- Replies: 669
- Views: 149479
Re: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlea
Well, in reality, most instances of them are going to be [n̪(n̪)] and [ʔð] I'm pretty sure. The /ð/ of grammatical words is usually swallowed by the preceding nasal, and off the top of my head I'm not coming up with other instances where a cluster of /nð/ would come up. And I think I only have conta...
- Tue Mar 01, 2016 12:56 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Phonaesthetic archetypes for fantasy races
- Replies: 24
- Views: 10036
Re: Phonaesthetic archetypes for fantasy races
My current project (which granted is going slowly due to inconsistent motivation) takes place in a "small" area, largely confined to an area roughly the size of Japan/Korea/Greece/British Isles. It started out with clear fantasy races and changed over time, but I'll call them by their closest fantas...
- Mon Feb 29, 2016 1:38 pm
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Odd natlang features thread
- Replies: 354
- Views: 145189
Re: Odd natlang features thread
there's cases like Latin /rabie:s/ to French /raʒ/ Didn't /b d g/ :> 0 / V_V in Western Romance? So the source of /ʒ/ is less mysterious, the change was more like rabie:s :> raje :> raʒe :> raʒ. The paper also points out <sapiat> yielding French <sâche> and Romansch <sapcha> where I believe we'd ex...
- Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:09 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlearn
- Replies: 669
- Views: 149479
Re: Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlea
My entire family has an intrusive <n> in mozzarella /mantsərɛlə/, and if I heard correctly my mom's sister does as well. I don't know if that's a widespread thing or a quirk of our family. Velar nasal, instead of alveolar/palatal, in <onion>. People never seem to notice anyways. It seems to be a wid...
- Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:29 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Well, intervocally yes, except it looks like Vni# > Vɲ and ini > ihi or i.
- Thu Feb 25, 2016 1:47 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Didn't Egyptian Arabic turn /dʒ/ into /g/? Classical Arabic had /gʲ~ɟ/ that fronted in most dialects to [dʒ~ʒ~j]. It seems more likely Egyptian Arabic backed Classical Arabic /ɟ/ without an intermediate. Or perhaps it simply adopted [g] for /ɟ/ due to Coptic or Greek influence. How can I go from n ...
- Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:32 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Another possibility altogether is that all three types of stop merge (as in some dialects of Quechua) and long stops derive from clusters. Zompist has said elsewhere that it seems more likely they were borrowed and then incorporated into native lexicon. Quechua on the whole only has a single series...
- Tue Feb 23, 2016 5:05 am
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Odd natlang features thread
- Replies: 354
- Views: 145189
Re: Odd natlang features thread
and there are labial-palatal affricates /pcʰ pc bɟ bɟ°/. ° is the convention for devoiced plosives, but they could just as well be written /pcɦ/.) That's pretty cool. Reminds me of Hmong's "bilabial lateral" series. I also remember some Bantu langugage had /pʃ bʒ/ onsets with few or no clusters per...
- Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:52 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Origin of retroflex consonants
- Replies: 22
- Views: 6850
Re: Origin of retroflex consonants
A counter, off the top of my head, is Mixe languages. They have a near-complete shift of s>ʂ. [ʃ] appears but, at least in the South Highland that I've looked at the most, only as palatalized /ʂ/ (all consonants can be palatalized). Looking up a few, apparently Proto-Zapotec had both retroflex and n...
- Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:56 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
EDIT: Don't some dialects of Arabic realize /q/ as [g]? Does anyone know the philology of that? It fills in for the missing /g/, since most dialects have /t k q/ and /b d/, a step towards leveling the system. Not sure if you could pull it off already having /g/. There's dialects that have the empha...
- Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:51 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Do you think these two make sense? ts > t' q > k' I know that the reverse has happened in some Semitic languages, but are there examples for this direction, in a language that previously doesn't have ejectives? The only way I know to gain ejectives for sure like that is the aspirate/plain/voiced>as...
- Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:23 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
- Replies: 2827
- Views: 613751
Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread
/g/ became pharyngeal in one European language. I want to say it was Iberian in origin but the name escapes me right now. You are likely thinking of Galician, where [ħ] can be an allophone of /g/ presumably intervocalically. Yar, the intervocal [ɣ] back and devoiced. An intermediate happen in Ukrai...
- Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:22 am
- Forum: L&L Museum
- Topic: Bizarre Sound Changes
- Replies: 190
- Views: 93192
Re: Bizarre Sound Changes
03:03 < nort> mundari nasal release only occurs in monosyllables 03:03 < nort> /ub/ [u?bm] but /udub/ [udu?b] 03:24 <@vlad> southeastern tepehuan also has b > ?m word-finally but not just in monosyllables 03:24 <@vlad> and I thought that was weird Just noticed this for some reason. Kharia, another ...
- Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:48 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Ejectives in Zulu
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2094
Re: Ejectives in Zulu
Yea, I assume that's what it is. Eastern Armenian and, more closely/relevantly, Sotho show shifts of plain/aspirated > ejective/aspirated under the influence of languages with ejectives.