Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2

[MisterBernie]

Forgive me if I am missing some irony in your statement, but does that article not say it is deliberately reversing the way pronouns work in Arabic and Chinese for a thought experiment?

The original article falls into some lovely Sapir-Whorfian omg they don't have a word for X thoughts, and the language log article on it elaborates on the using linguistic quackery in either way to fit your narrative bit.

[Civil War Bugle]

Forgive me if I am missing some irony in your statement, but does that article not say it is deliberately reversing the way pronouns work in Arabic and Chinese for a thought experiment?

The original article falls into some lovely Sapir-Whorfian omg they don't have a word for X thoughts, and the language log article on it elaborates on the using linguistic quackery in either way to fit your narrative bit.

Okay, I guess I was focusing too much on the specific thing you pointed out and not enough on the implications.

[Rui]

Not really quackery, per se but just general dumbassery concerning Chinese, in the comments of this article:

Chinese won't become the lingua franca because it lacks a lot of sounds. It only has 400~ possible syllables and it's missing all final consonants with the exception of n, ng, and r.

So you have to pack in 40,000 words into 400 possibles sounds. It makes it so that certain sounds have 50 different characters to write them. It also has a hard time absorbing loan words compared to languages like French or Japanese.

a, ai, an, ang, ao
ba, bai, ban, bang, bao, bei, ben, beng, bi, bian, biao, bie, bin, bing, bo, bu
ca, cai, can, cang, cao, ce, cei, cen, ceng, cha, chai, chan, chang, chao, che, chen, cheng, chi, chong, chou, chu, chua, chuai, chuan, chuang, chui, chun, chuo, ci, cong, cou, cu, cuan, cui, cun, cuo
da, dai, dan, dang, dao, de, dei, den, deng, di, dian, diao, die, ding, diu, dong, dou, du, duan, dui, dun, duo
e, ê, ei, en, er
fa, fan, fang, fei, fen, feng, fo, fou, fu
ga, gai, gan, gang, gao, ge, gei, gen, geng, gong, gou, gu, gua, guai, guan, guang, gui, gun, guo
ha, hai, han, hang, hao, he, hei, hen, heng, hm, hng, hong, hou, hu, hua, huai, huan, huang, hui, hun, huo
ji, jia, jian, jiang, jiao, jie, jin, jing, jiong, jiu, ju, juan, jue, jun
ka, kai, kan, kang, kao, ke, kei, ken, keng, kong, kou, ku, kua, kuai, kuan, kuang, kui, kun, kuo
la, lai, lan, lang, lao, le, lei, leng, li, lia, lian, liang, liao, lie, lin, ling, liu, long, lou, lu, luo, luan, lun, lü, lüe
m, ma, mai, man, mang, mao, mei, men, meng, mi, mian, miao, mie, min, ming, miu, mo, mou, mu
n, na, nai, nan, nang, nao, ne, nei, nen, neng, ng, ni, nian, niang, niao, nie, nin, ning, niu, nong, nou, nu, nuo, nuan, nü, nüe
o, ou
pa, pai, pan, pang, pao, pei, pen, peng, pi, pian, piao, pie, pin, ping, po, pou, pu
qi, qia, qian, qiang, qiao, qie, qin, qing, qiong, qiu, qu, quan, que, qun
ran, rang, rao, re, ren, reng, ri, rong, rou, ru, rua, ruan, rui, run, ruo
sa, sai, san, sang, sao, se, sei, sen, seng, sha, shai, shan, shang, shao, she, shei, shen, sheng, shi, shou, shu, shua, shuai, shuan, shuang, shui, shun, shuo, si, song, sou, su, suan, sui, sun, suo
ta, tai, tan, tang, tao, te, teng, ti, tian, tiao, tie, ting, tong, tou, tu, tuan, tui, tun, tuo
wa, wai, wan, wang, wei, wen, weng, wo, wu
xi, xia, xian, xiang, xiao, xie, xin, xing, xiong, xiu, xu, xuan, xue, xun
ya, yan, yang, yao, ye, yi, yin, ying, yong, you, yu, yuan, yue, yun
za, zai, zan, zang, zao, ze, zei, zen, zeng, zha, zhai, zhan, zhang, zhao, zhe, zhei, zhen, zheng, zhi, zhong, zhou, zhu, zhua, zhuai, zhuan, zhuang, zhui, zhun, zhuo, zi, zong, zou, zu, zuan, zui, zun, zuo

Syllables spelled with "u", but pronounced with "ü":

ju, juan, jue, jun
qu, quan, que, qun
xu, xuan, xue, xun
yu, yuan, yue, yun

Syllables where "u" and "ü" must not be mixed up:

lu, lü, lüe
nu, nü, nüe

Those are every possible Chinese spoken sound.

Notice, no "th" "tr" "sl" "sk" .... consonant clusters are rare ans other languages use them a lot.

[Herr Dunkel]

Not really quackery, per se but just general dumbassery concerning Chinese, in the comments of this article:

Chinese won't become the lingua franca because it lacks a lot of sounds. It only has 400~ possible syllables and it's missing all final consonants with the exception of n, ng, and r.

So you have to pack in 40,000 words into 400 possibles sounds. It makes it so that certain sounds have 50 different characters to write them. It also has a hard time absorbing loan words compared to languages like French or Japanese.

a, ai, an, ang, ao
ba, bai, ban, bang, bao, bei, ben, beng, bi, bian, biao, bie, bin, bing, bo, bu
ca, cai, can, cang, cao, ce, cei, cen, ceng, cha, chai, chan, chang, chao, che, chen, cheng, chi, chong, chou, chu, chua, chuai, chuan, chuang, chui, chun, chuo, ci, cong, cou, cu, cuan, cui, cun, cuo
da, dai, dan, dang, dao, de, dei, den, deng, di, dian, diao, die, ding, diu, dong, dou, du, duan, dui, dun, duo
e, ê, ei, en, er
fa, fan, fang, fei, fen, feng, fo, fou, fu
ga, gai, gan, gang, gao, ge, gei, gen, geng, gong, gou, gu, gua, guai, guan, guang, gui, gun, guo
ha, hai, han, hang, hao, he, hei, hen, heng, hm, hng, hong, hou, hu, hua, huai, huan, huang, hui, hun, huo
ji, jia, jian, jiang, jiao, jie, jin, jing, jiong, jiu, ju, juan, jue, jun
ka, kai, kan, kang, kao, ke, kei, ken, keng, kong, kou, ku, kua, kuai, kuan, kuang, kui, kun, kuo
la, lai, lan, lang, lao, le, lei, leng, li, lia, lian, liang, liao, lie, lin, ling, liu, long, lou, lu, luo, luan, lun, lü, lüe
m, ma, mai, man, mang, mao, mei, men, meng, mi, mian, miao, mie, min, ming, miu, mo, mou, mu
n, na, nai, nan, nang, nao, ne, nei, nen, neng, ng, ni, nian, niang, niao, nie, nin, ning, niu, nong, nou, nu, nuo, nuan, nü, nüe
o, ou
pa, pai, pan, pang, pao, pei, pen, peng, pi, pian, piao, pie, pin, ping, po, pou, pu
qi, qia, qian, qiang, qiao, qie, qin, qing, qiong, qiu, qu, quan, que, qun
ran, rang, rao, re, ren, reng, ri, rong, rou, ru, rua, ruan, rui, run, ruo
sa, sai, san, sang, sao, se, sei, sen, seng, sha, shai, shan, shang, shao, she, shei, shen, sheng, shi, shou, shu, shua, shuai, shuan, shuang, shui, shun, shuo, si, song, sou, su, suan, sui, sun, suo
ta, tai, tan, tang, tao, te, teng, ti, tian, tiao, tie, ting, tong, tou, tu, tuan, tui, tun, tuo
wa, wai, wan, wang, wei, wen, weng, wo, wu
xi, xia, xian, xiang, xiao, xie, xin, xing, xiong, xiu, xu, xuan, xue, xun
ya, yan, yang, yao, ye, yi, yin, ying, yong, you, yu, yuan, yue, yun
za, zai, zan, zang, zao, ze, zei, zen, zeng, zha, zhai, zhan, zhang, zhao, zhe, zhei, zhen, zheng, zhi, zhong, zhou, zhu, zhua, zhuai, zhuan, zhuang, zhui, zhun, zhuo, zi, zong, zou, zu, zuan, zui, zun, zuo

Syllables spelled with "u", but pronounced with "ü":

ju, juan, jue, jun
qu, quan, que, qun
xu, xuan, xue, xun
yu, yuan, yue, yun

Syllables where "u" and "ü" must not be mixed up:

lu, lü, lüe
nu, nü, nüe

Those are every possible Chinese spoken sound.

Notice, no "th" "tr" "sl" "sk" .... consonant clusters are rare ans other languages use them a lot.

He's totally correct.
And tone? None at all.
And a crapload of other things? None at all.
And Cantonese? None at all.

[Solarius]

"Burushaski as an Indo-European Kentum Language"

Yes.Navajo is also a Niger-Congo language and Nynorsk is Austro-Asiatic.

No, Nynorsk is Eskimo-Aleut!

[Mecislau]

This is not so much quackery as just run-o'-the-mill linguistic ignorance, but it's a gem nevertheless.


A number of years ago (at Whimemsz's request) I uploaded a number of videos to YouTube consisting of songs from the Hebrew dub of The Lion King with subtitled/transliterated lyrics. I never used the account for anything else, but I still occasionally get automatic emails from YouTube when people comment.

Apparently a Hebrew vs. Arabic argument erupted (i.e., has been there ever since I uploaded it), and just today I got this lovely comment:

ok, ill solve this stupid argue
im israelic, i grew up talking hebrew, and hearing harabic at the news twice a week
hebrew and arabig came from the same kanguage, but they changed, when the arabic evoloved, the hebrew wasnt spoken for houndreds of years, when people tried to make people talk hebrew, it became a bit more modern-like (at the sounds) so technicly they are really alike, but one evoloved because of time and one became more comftarble for the ears because of humans.

[Travis B.]

Beautiful that.

[----]

They don't even know their own demonym. I'm so proud.

[Herr Dunkel]

Edit:
This whole shitty ideologically-biased supremist blog about Snskrit and computer programming

[----]

It's like I'm reading Nazi propaganda, except about words.

[dhok]

[Herr Dunkel]

It's like I'm reading Nazi propaganda, except about words.

Exactly

And, there are 108 alphabets, and no <a>
Seriously, <snskrit> ?
And, seriously, if Sanskrit were that awesome, we'd've been interstellar for a millenium by now.

[finlay]

Saṃskṛtam

[Herr Dunkel]

Saṃskṛtam

Tell that to them.
Snskrit =/

[Mr. Z]

They don't even know their own demonym. I'm so proud.

It's not our demonym, it's your demonym for us. And it's because you have such strange ways of forming demonyms. He have one suffix, and that's all. You have at least 3 regular ones, with many more irregular ones.

As for the comment, it's really not that ignorant except for the last part.
Then again, I'm biased.

Edit:
This whole shitty ideologically-biased supremist blog about Snskrit and computer programming

Ooh, Snskrit words have meanings! How attractive!

[----]

They don't even know their own demonym. I'm so proud.

It's not our demonym, it's your demonym for us. And it's because you have such strange ways of forming demonyms. He have one suffix, and that's all. You have at least 3 regular ones, with many more irregular ones.

I assumed that it was different than the expected because it was based off of the native one.

[faiuwle]

Edit:
This whole shitty ideologically-biased supremist blog about Snskrit and computer programming

Don't they realize that computer languages and FSMs are les useful/powerful than real natural languages? (And the paper he links at the top seems to be more along the lines of "Computer Scientist reads ancient Indian grammar, discovers theta roles", but I've only skimmed it so far. Looks interesting, though.)

[Mr. Z]

They don't even know their own demonym. I'm so proud.

It's not our demonym, it's your demonym for us. And it's because you have such strange ways of forming demonyms. He have one suffix, and that's all. You have at least 3 regular ones, with many more irregular ones.

I assumed that it was different than the expected because it was based off of the native one.

So? It just makes it even more irregular. We learn the language, not its particular borrowings from Hebrew.

[alice]

Edit:
This whole shitty ideologically-biased supremist blog about Snskrit and computer programming

Don't they realize that computer languages and FSMs are les useful/powerful than real natural languages? (And the paper he links at the top seems to be more along the lines of "Computer Scientist reads ancient Indian grammar, discovers theta roles", but I've only skimmed it so far. Looks interesting, though.)

This reminds me of a full-page advert I saw in a newspaper years ago, in which the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (yes, that one) showed that an important equation in superstring theory was predicted in the Vedas. Apparently the Sanskrit characters mapped onto the terms in the equation in an interesting way.

[linguoboy]

Source: http://www.zain.com/muse/obj/lang.defau ... view/Brand

Zain is simple, memorable and easy to pronounce across the global marketplace. The name Zain tested extremely well among cross-sections of the potential global audience. These research results coincided with our internal selection. Zain has the added benefit of being rich in positive connotations in several languages. For example, in Arabic, Zain means ‘beautiful, good and wonderful”, in Latin it means ‘dark horse’ (of good breed; meaning cheval de race). In fact, the name Zain reflects our values and our positioning. As a company, our vision is to create a successful business model that will go outward from the Middle East to the rest of the world. Having a name that embodies beauty and optimism is a move we’re proud of.”

Turns out they can't tell "Latin" from French.

[Astraios]

They also neglected to remember that it means cock in Hebrew.

[Legion]

Also the only French people who know what "zain" is, and to whom it will have positive connotations, are horse affictionados.

To everyone else it will sound like "zinzin" ("loony").

[Vuvuzela]

It's like I'm reading Nazi propaganda, except about words.

Sanskrit isn't classified as an Indo-Aryan language for nothing.
It's the ancestor of all human languages. All of them. Even sign languages.

[WeepingElf]

It's like I'm reading Nazi propaganda, except about words.

Sanskrit isn't classified as an Indo-Aryan language for nothing.
It's the ancestor of all human languages. All of them. Even sign languages.

Even the word that occurs more often in e-mail subject lines than any other is Sanskrit. It means 'tiger'. They just can't spell it properly

[Solarius]

From the wikipedia page on Irrealis Moods:

Every language has a formula for the unreal. The Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest have as many as five levels of "unreality", which are of real and practical use in a hunting society.[1]

Even better is the source of the statement above.

Especially strange is this:

The English vowels " a e i o u " are pure musical notes with full acoustic overtones and length. While the consonants " p b k qu" and their voiced counterparts " b d g gu " as well as the nasal-liquid series " m n l r " and also the "air sounds" which are " h s sh f v " - - - - these are all modifiers which combine with vowels to form syllables".