Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2

[KathTheDragon]

And of course, he's perfectly correct... if sound changes weren't regular, which they have be quite conclusively shown to be.

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

He even links Mandarin and Arabic!

And there's this crazy under his 'Talks' section:

The aim of this seminar is to show that Arabic and English as well as European languages are
dialects of the same language, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes of phonetic, morphological and semantic change

He sounds like linguistic equivalent of a creationist to an evolutionist... somewhat.
He says they are all one dialect but with sound changes is like the creationist arguement that wolves, dogs, jackal, etc. are the same kind, but with microevolutionary differences.

[Chagen]

Posted without comment: http://www.universalverballanguage.org/page3.html

I read that as "universalballlanguage" and was subsequently disappointed that this was not an article on how B-Ball truly speaks to all humans regardless of L1.

[zompist]

And of course, he's perfectly correct... if sound changes weren't regular, which they have be quite conclusively shown to be.

Not to excuse the quacks, but sound change isn't regular. An in-progress sound change isn't regular at all. A completed one is pretty darn regular, but exceptions will remain.

[KathTheDragon]

Well, yes, but what he's proposing naturally concerns completed sound changes.

[linguoboy]

Oh, this is brilliant:

EVERY natlang and every conlang is PERFECT for the purpose it has been created for. And so, [my conlang], too, is perfect for its purpose....Until now i have not received any critique or even a comment for improving some point, so this confirms what i said.

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

Oh, this is brilliant:

EVERY natlang and every conlang is PERFECT for the purpose it has been created for. And so, [my conlang], too, is perfect for its purpose....Until now i have not received any critique or even a comment for improving some point, so this confirms what i said.

Oh yes, the Sosti guy...

[Particles the Greek]

What might an awards system for quackery be measured in, and look like?

[Zju]

What might an awards system for quackery be measured in, and look like?

I suggest to measure the quackery in octavians. 1 oct equals positing that PIE was actually three different languages and finding Caucas etymologies for Spanish words. So this guy earns about 1/3 oct.

[linguoboy]

I thought the universally recognised quantum of linguistic quackery was the "nyland".

[Particles the Greek]

I thought the universally recognised quantum of linguistic quackery was the "nyland".

So we have two competing measurement systems? What is the conversion factor between them?

[WeepingElf]

I thought the universally recognised quantum of linguistic quackery was the "nyland".

So we have two competing measurement systems? What is the conversion factor between them?

I would rate Octaviano around 200 millinylands; so perhaps 5 octs = 1 nyland.

[Particles the Greek]

I thought the universally recognised quantum of linguistic quackery was the "nyland".

So we have two competing measurement systems? What is the conversion factor between them?

I would rate Octaviano around 200 millinylands; so perhaps 5 octs = 1 nyland.

Or maybe 8 octs, for the sake of consistency???

[KathTheDragon]

But that would push Octaviano down to only 125 millinylands. I think he's more quacked up than that.

[Zju]

I agree that 1 oct is about 200 mNl and serves to measure quackeries that are too small to be practical to be measured in nylands. But then there is also Gr (Goropium), which serves to measure a whole another dimension of quackery - the blissfully ignorant one, as opposed to making up sophisticated developments and hypotheses and furiously denying any criticism.

[KathTheDragon]

Can we have an example?

[Particles the Greek]

Can we have an example?

Indeed. Some sort of calibration would be very useful.

[Matrix]

[Zju]

Can we have an example?

Indeed. Some sort of calibration would be very useful.

Theories labeled as goropisms, such as sun language theory. Or the arabic guy earlier in the thread.

[Pole, the]

A logarythmic scale would be useful as well.
For example. if we assume average background quackery level to be around 1 mNl, then one octaviano estimates around +23 db Nl and one nyland around +30 db Nl.

[Matrix]

A logarythmic scale

Exponentially increasing beat time?

[WeepingElf]

A logarythmic scale

Exponentially increasing beat time?

Like this?

[WeepingElf]

This guy has smoked too many of the wrong mushrooms, it seems. I guess he's about 400 to 500 millinylands - twice as nutty as Octaviano.

[Particles the Greek]

This guy has smoked too many of the wrong mushrooms, it seems. I guess he's about 400 to 500 millinylands - twice as nutty as Octaviano.

letters with very similar sounds had opposite meanings.

I had no idea the Proto-Indo-Europeans were literate. Does he know something we don't?

[kuroda]

Exponentially increasing beat time? Seriously, none of you know what he's talking about?

HONESTLY, YOU NICE TWERPS!!! He's trying to describe the ratio in which the more he talks, the more that sane people gather from all around to beat him into jelly.

Me? I have a _good_ sense of rhythm.