Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: #94: Face and Politeness)

[finlay]

Incidentally, I find it funny that George was claiming that he usually says Chinese names in a Chinese-ish way, and yet I distinctly heard the word [jæ̃ŋktsi] coming out of his mouth later on.

[Ollock]

Incidentally, I find it funny that George was claiming that he usually says Chinese names in a Chinese-ish way, and yet I distinctly heard the word [jæ̃ŋktsi] coming out of his mouth later on.

Because I don't know where the Hell the name Yangtze comes from. The only name I ever encountered for it in Mandarin is "Changjiang" (长江).

[justin]

I was quite amused that you used my recording. Wasn't expecting that. Although you narrowly escaped hearing the good Baron's "singing," which might have imperiled your and your listeners' ears.

[Rodlox]

Incidentally, I find it funny that George was claiming that he usually says Chinese names in a Chinese-ish way, and yet I distinctly heard the word [jæ̃ŋktsi] coming out of his mouth later on.

you may have missed where he said usually. that's a qualifier in English.

[Ollock]

Incidentally, I find it funny that George was claiming that he usually says Chinese names in a Chinese-ish way, and yet I distinctly heard the word [jæ̃ŋktsi] coming out of his mouth later on.

you may have missed where he said usually. that's a qualifier in English.

Again, I have no clue what the Chinese reflex of Yangtze is -- or if it's even Mandarin.

I will also pronounce Pekingese as /pikɪniz/ (Though I really wonder if I shouldn't start calling Shi Tzus "lion dogs") It all depends on whether people are likely to understand me, how well I know the actual Chinese, etc.

[Bob Johnson]

Again, I have no clue what the Chinese reflex of Yangtze is -- or if it's even Mandarin.

Quoth the all-knowing wiki:

Yangtze River, also spelled Yangtse River, Yangzi River and Yangtze Kiang, is derived from Yangzi Jiang, the local name for a stretch of the lower Yangtze near Yangzhou.

presumably 扬子江 then

[Ollock]

Again, I have no clue what the Chinese reflex of Yangtze is -- or if it's even Mandarin.

Quoth the all-knowing wiki:

Yangtze River, also spelled Yangtse River, Yangzi River and Yangtze Kiang, is derived from Yangzi Jiang, the local name for a stretch of the lower Yangtze near Yangzhou.

presumably 扬子江 then

Dangit, you ruined that for me, now. I already pronounce Lao Tzu (老子) the proper Mandarin way, despite it baffles some people. At least I keep the sense to say Confucius rather than one of his many "real" Chinese names.

[Bob Johnson]

:evil linguistic villain moustache twirl:

[finlay]

Again, I have no clue what the Chinese reflex of Yangtze is -- or if it's even Mandarin.

Quoth the all-knowing wiki:

Yangtze River, also spelled Yangtse River, Yangzi River and Yangtze Kiang, is derived from Yangzi Jiang, the local name for a stretch of the lower Yangtze near Yangzhou.

presumably 扬子江 then

Dangit, you ruined that for me, now. I already pronounce Lao Tzu (老子) the proper Mandarin way, despite it baffles some people. At least I keep the sense to say Confucius rather than one of his many "real" Chinese names.

I've a friend who essentially did his phd on colonialism and westernisation, and something to do with the composer John Cage, and was very careful to use the "native" Chinese name for people like Confucius. I think he used "Kong-fu-zi"; I know he has several alternates, like "revered one" or something. He also used the Pinyin system, which is apparently confusing for a lot of terms that come up in the study of Cage, which are usually written in the Wade-Giles system. Can't remember what they are or anything.

[Ollock]

I've a friend who essentially did his phd on colonialism and westernisation, and something to do with the composer John Cage, and was very careful to use the "native" Chinese name for people like Confucius. I think he used "Kong-fu-zi"; I know he has several alternates, like "revered one" or something. He also used the Pinyin system, which is apparently confusing for a lot of terms that come up in the study of Cage, which are usually written in the Wade-Giles system. Can't remember what they are or anything.

Confucius's given name (AIUI) was 孔丘 (kong3 qiu1). He is usually referred to as 孔子 (kong3zi3) or 孔夫子 (kong3fu1zi3), both of which can be translated as "Master Kong".

As far as pinyin vs Wade-Gyles vs whatever romanization system people felt like using -- it can be a real pain when looking at older sources -- or even different contemporary sources, as various groups use different romanization systems for different reasons. Sometimes the only way to really pin down what someone's name is is if characters are included (and, frustratingly, they are not included as often as they should, considering how important they are when you have to turn around and find a Chinese source).

[Ollock]

Conlangery #33: Suprasegmentals

[finlay]

Vocal folds, not vocal chords! We linguists have outgrown such naïveties!

(Sorry, nitpicking again... still haven't finished the episode, as well...)

[Ollock]

Vocal folds, not vocal chords! We linguists have outgrown such naïveties!

(Sorry, nitpicking again... still haven't finished the episode, as well...)

Ah, relax, no one on the show is actually a professional linguist. Besides, we understand it's an idiom.

[Rodlox]

Vocal folds, not vocal chords! We linguists have outgrown such naïveties!

(Sorry, nitpicking again... still haven't finished the episode, as well...)

Ah, relax, no one on the show is actually a professional linguist.

you all deserve to be, though.


also, I very much enjoyed this installment of the podcast.

[finlay]

Vocal folds, not vocal chords! We linguists have outgrown such naïveties!

(Sorry, nitpicking again... still haven't finished the episode, as well...)

Ah, relax, no one on the show is actually a professional linguist. Besides, we understand it's an idiom.

I know, so do I; I'm drunk enough to complain about it though. I always find it weird when William talks about phonology/phonetics, because I feel like I know more than him in that field (disclaimer: this may not be true) and he's getting it right some of the time but not all of the time. It just puts it in contrast, for me, with the breadth of knowledge he has about Navajo and morphosyntax and other such beasts.

[Ollock]

Maybe next time we do a phonology topic I'll invite you on. Do note that I'll have to talk to you on Skype beforehand as an informal "audition". We've found out that not everybody acquits well on the radio.

[finlay]

Yeah, fair enough. I'm not entirely sure I would be ideal, and I'd probably have to brush up because I haven't done academic linguistics in a while. Also, I'm moving to Japan next week to do TEFL, so my availability may be in question (if you're still doing it on Sunday evening EST, it'll depend on my availability on Monday morning, for one thing....)

[Ollock]

Yeah, fair enough. I'm not entirely sure I would be ideal, and I'd probably have to brush up because I haven't done academic linguistics in a while. Also, I'm moving to Japan next week to do TEFL, so my availability may be in question (if you're still doing it on Sunday evening EST, it'll depend on my availability on Monday morning, for one thing....)

Oh, Jeez, yeah, might need to adjust the time if it comes to that. (We record as 6pm, which is around 5-6am in Japan, I think.)

[finlay]

Yeah, fair enough. I'm not entirely sure I would be ideal, and I'd probably have to brush up because I haven't done academic linguistics in a while. Also, I'm moving to Japan next week to do TEFL, so my availability may be in question (if you're still doing it on Sunday evening EST, it'll depend on my availability on Monday morning, for one thing....)

Oh, Jeez, yeah, might need to adjust the time if it comes to that. (We record as 6pm, which is around 5-6am in Japan, I think.)

http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeti ... 2=248&iv=0
Nah, if you record at 6pm, it'll be 8am for me, which is feasible but perhaps painful, and also depends heavily on whether I end up working mornings (I won't have a proper timetable till I get there, for one thing, and I think on some days I may be working in the evening and having the morning off). Definitely won't be free for at least 2 or 3 weeks, though, so don't get your hopes up or anything. I'm content with just listening to you and getting my word in on this thread.

(DST doesn't happen in Japan, though, so when you/we in the UK go forward 1 hour in March, it stays the same there, so it'll be 13 hours ahead rather than 14 – 7am rather than 8am when it's 6pm for you.)

[Ollock]

Hmm, that's interesting. I had thought that Japan was sort of in the same time zone as Beijing, but I guess it's an hour away, at least for Tokyo.

[finlay]

Hmm, that's interesting. I had thought that Japan was sort of in the same time zone as Beijing, but I guess it's an hour away, at least for Tokyo.

Yeah, the whole country. China is +8, Japan and Korea are +9.

[Ollock]

Conlangery #34: Gender and Noun Classes

[Bristel]

I loved the extras at the end of #31: Demonstratives!

The banter is a lot more fluid and humorous.

Would love to try out for an episode, but I'm not sure what topic I would like to join... maybe something involving Phonotactics would be nice, as there's probably a lot one can do to work on in that realm. (especially since your discussion about Quenya and Tolkien caring about "phonoaesthetics", which may be a good topic).

If that were an episode, I may talk about my conlang Squalipsh briefly, which is a conlang inspired mostly by Pacific Northwest languages in that the roots are distinguished (usually) by specific kinds of phonotactics and types of CV clusters.

[Wattmann]

This is interesting.
Conlangery podcasts? This exists??

Woohoo!

[Nannalu]

This is interesting.
Conlangery podcasts? This exists??

Woohoo!

This shit is gonna..
blow..
yo'..
mind...