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Re: Odd natlang features thread

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 8:07 am
by Acid Badger
Disfixes I guess are odd enough: There is a trend across Central German dialects to lenite certain intervocalic consonants, including combinations of a nasal and a plosive. Morphologically this meant such clusters were lenited in plural forms, where they'd be followed by a vowel, but not in singular forms, where they'd be in word-final position. Together with further sound changes, this created some interesting patterns in various dialects: [hant] vs [hɛn] "hand/s", [gʀɔnt] vs [gʀən] (Luxembourgish); [ʃlɑːx] vs [ʃləi̯], [dɑːx] vs [deː] (also Luxembourgish); [tsant] vs [tsɛŋ] "tooth/teeth", [hant] vs [hɛŋ] "hand/s" (Rhine Franconian); [kɛɪ̯nt] vs [kɛŋ] "child/children", [rəŋk] vs [riŋ] "ring/s", [vaːlt] vs [vɛl] "forest/s" and [ʃux] vs [ʃɔʊ̯] "shoe/s" (Upper Hessian); [kɛi̯nt] vs [kɛŋ] "child/children", [kruːk] vs [kryː] "jug/s" and [ʃtui̯ɐk] vs [ʃtʏr] "stork/s" (Ruhla dialect, Thuringia). Etc.

Re: Odd natlang features thread

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:23 pm
by kanejam
Apparently the Papuan language Berik can inflect its verbs for 3 numbers, 5 tenses, 3 times of day, 2 distances, 3 sizes of object, 2 genders, sometimes 2 heights, as well as a continuous action marker (though not all at once it seems). The phrase kitobana means "he/she gives three large objects to a male in the sunlight". golbilint and terbefe are other forms from the same paradigm.

It also has the famous six vowel system /a e i o u ə/.

Re: Odd natlang features thread

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:09 pm
by Imralu
Vijay wrote:I'm actually not sure that's so odd. At least, I know anecdotally that some languages have specialized words for 'to eat'...like 'to eat (anything)' vs. 'to eat a meal', and this distinction is found across a pretty wide variety of languages, too.
It's quite common also for sign languages to use different classifying verbs depending on what is being eaten and how.

Re: Odd natlang features thread

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 1:55 pm
by Vijay
Imralu wrote:
Vijay wrote:I'm actually not sure that's so odd. At least, I know anecdotally that some languages have specialized words for 'to eat'...like 'to eat (anything)' vs. 'to eat a meal', and this distinction is found across a pretty wide variety of languages, too.
It's quite common also for sign languages to use different classifying verbs depending on what is being eaten and how.
Interesting, thanks!

Re: Odd natlang features thread

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:22 am
by Birdlang
Toda has an unusual vowel system for a Dravidian language, and a lot of articulations.
Source PHOIBLE.
http://phoible.org/inventories/view/1793