The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
- Zumir
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The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Just because I'm bored, I'm starting a craziest language competition. The idea is for each poster to post their candidate for craziest natlang, and the winner will be the one with the most votes by the 50th vote. I'll start things off by casting my ballot in favour of Nuxalk. So...
Ready
Set
Go!
(Also, it would be a good idea to number your posts. )
#1
Ready
Set
Go!
(Also, it would be a good idea to number your posts. )
#1
Last edited by Zumir on Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Zim ho Xsárnicja žovnyce.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
I'll vote Georgian. Its grammar is nearly kitchen-sink.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
More interesting than listing the languages would be explaining why you think so, and providing examples of said insanity.
Ready,
set
go!
Ready,
set
go!
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
4: Ubykh
Because the phonology looks like someone barfed over the consonant list after nibbling on the vowels.
Because the phonology looks like someone barfed over the consonant list after nibbling on the vowels.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Hmm, there are many options. Could someone give me more suggestions?
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Icelandic because it's Germanic and has /tɬ/, it has a lot of quirky case marking (with verbs, adjectives and prepositions), an insanely irregular substantive morphology system, some really rare things like long-distance reflexives and other fun stuff.
vec
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
English, because nothing in the orthography or grammar means what it looks like it's supposed to.
How about the converse too: the least batshit natlang?
How about the converse too: the least batshit natlang?
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Spanish, it has a nice, regular orthography, and its verbal system isn't that hard.
As for insane natlangs, Moroccan Arabic--what if you just deleted most of the vowels from the triconsonantal roots and bought loanwords on the cheap from Berber and French?
As for insane natlangs, Moroccan Arabic--what if you just deleted most of the vowels from the triconsonantal roots and bought loanwords on the cheap from Berber and French?
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Somali if only for that consonant inventory. It's like they got drunk, spun around five times and threw darts at the IPA chart.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Ingush for its phonology, its near-to-kitchen sinky grammar and the 385646 irregular forms of everything
- Zumir
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Note: so as not to get confusing, it would be a good idea to number your votes.
Zim ho Xsárnicja žovnyce.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
I would have to say !Xóõ, for having the most phonemes, although Nuxalk and Georgian rank pretty high for their consonant clusters. Ubykh probably ranks high as well for its strange yet vast phoneme inventory (dozens and dozens of consonants but only two vowels) and I think it has some pretty tough consonant clusters as well.
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
- Nortaneous
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
NWC langs aren't that bad with consonant clusters, I think the maximum in Ubykh is medial CCC.
Anyway, least batshit would probably be Quechua, the classic example of a very regular language, although I'd be personally biased toward German. Most batshit... if we restrict it to phonology, I'd have to say Dahalo, but Archi has both a batshit phonology (among other things, four prevelar lateral affricates, as opposed to Dahalo's one) and, from what little I know about it, an equally insane grammar.
Anyway, least batshit would probably be Quechua, the classic example of a very regular language, although I'd be personally biased toward German. Most batshit... if we restrict it to phonology, I'd have to say Dahalo, but Archi has both a batshit phonology (among other things, four prevelar lateral affricates, as opposed to Dahalo's one) and, from what little I know about it, an equally insane grammar.
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
- Zumir
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Archi has a labialized lenis ejective velar lateral affricate. No more needs to be said.
Last edited by Zumir on Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Zim ho Xsárnicja žovnyce.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
No it doesn't. Ejectives are not voiceless, they have no phonation.Zumir wrote:lenis voiceless ejectice
- Zumir
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Voiceless ejective? What voiceless ejective? Edits post.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
I'll second Somali for batshit phonology.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
I have to wonder how much of the perceived batshittery of Somali is just due to bad analysis on the Wikipedia page. It could easily be cleaned up into something more sensible, although I'm not sure how accurate this would be:
So the only things that are weird then are the retroflex plosive and the vowels.
The Wikipedia page also mentions some phonemes elsewhere, like /ɢ/, which aren't in the chart, so it's probably not all that reliable.
Code: Select all
m n
b t d ʧ ɖ k g ʡ ʔ
f s ʃ x ħ ʕ h
r
l j w
The Wikipedia page also mentions some phonemes elsewhere, like /ɢ/, which aren't in the chart, so it's probably not all that reliable.
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
From the Somali phonology article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_pho ... Allophones
So basically at the end of a word /t k/ become [d g] and /d g/ become [t k].* The voiced stops (/b/, /d/, /ɡ/ and /ɢ/) are devoiced in word-initial and word-final position. Between two vowels they become fricatives.
* The voiceless stops /t/ and /k/ are realised as [d] and [ɡ] in syllable-final position.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_pho ... Allophones
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
- Nortaneous
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
found a grammar on archive.org that says there's actually no voicing distinction, though obviously its reliability is questionable
hitting uztr now (edit: the Notes on the Somali Language pdf doesn't display at all for me; can anyone get it to work?)
hitting uztr now (edit: the Notes on the Somali Language pdf doesn't display at all for me; can anyone get it to work?)
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Anyone ever tried to count in Navajo? I'd rather try to cast a soccer game entirely in binary.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
I've often heard that Finnish is very hard to learn, with living in Finland being a must to fully master it. Not sure how true that is.
I presume Estonians & Hungarians would find it easier to master.
Gaelic has a similar reputation for being tricky, but I don't know how much that is compaired to other languages.
Has anyone mentioned any tonal languages? I tried to learn some basic Manderin a few years ago & was told I was getting all the tones wrong.
I presume Estonians & Hungarians would find it easier to master.
Gaelic has a similar reputation for being tricky, but I don't know how much that is compaired to other languages.
Has anyone mentioned any tonal languages? I tried to learn some basic Manderin a few years ago & was told I was getting all the tones wrong.
Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Pfft, tone doesn't make a language crazy.richard1631978 wrote:Has anyone mentioned any tonal languages? I tried to learn some basic Manderin a few years ago & was told I was getting all the tones wrong.
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Re: The Most Batshit Natlang Competition!
Quite. I have actually heard Mandarin has one of the more reasonable tonal systems out there.Astraios wrote:Pfft, tone doesn't make a language crazy.
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