Search found 887 matches

by Xonen
20 Dec 2020 18:36
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False cognates
Replies: 902
Views: 325163

Re: False cognates

:eng: verbiage :eng: verb "Verb" of course comes from Latin verbum . "Verbiage" was derived from the Middle French verb verbier/verboier "to trill, warble", itself a derivation of Picard dialect werbler "to sing expressively, trill", which is the origin of En...
by Xonen
20 Dec 2020 16:07
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

The discussion on Japanese pitch accent seems to have evolved beyond a "quick" question, so it's been split into its own thread.
by Xonen
02 Dec 2020 15:59
Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
Topic: Pangaea (NSFW description)
Replies: 18
Views: 4696

Re: Pangaea (NSFW description)

Update: It's a really tough decision to lock a thread on someone's conworld, but here, it seems like the original poster had already stopped participating in the discussion and it had been rekindled (after no posts at all for several days) by other people for the primary purpose of arguing about re...
by Xonen
28 Nov 2020 10:17
Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
Topic: Pangaea (NSFW description)
Replies: 18
Views: 4696

Re: Pangaea (NSFW description)

Okay, this thread seemed fairly civil initially, but it seems to be going downhill, and now there are reports. So, locked pending further review by the administration.
by Xonen
14 Nov 2020 17:31
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Nifty Random Features
Replies: 92
Views: 24359

Re: Nifty Random Features

* I'm assuming the etymon of "to necro" is "to necromance"? And even if it isn't, at any rate a back-formation and abbreviation from the noun "necromancer". Oh wow, internet terminology is now old enough that people are making assumptions about its etymologies. [:|] Bu...
by Xonen
24 Oct 2020 17:44
Forum: Everything Else
Topic: The Sixth Conversation Thread
Replies: 762
Views: 193676

Re: The Sixth Conversation Thread

Happy twenty-third, Shimobaatar! As the fortune cookie goes: "May you live in interesting times". Isn't that a bad thing? "Interesting times" refers to things like rebellions, famines, general upheaval. It's "uninteresting times" that's the good one, isn't it? That's h...
by Xonen
11 Oct 2020 00:27
Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
Topic: How would space travel change directionals?
Replies: 15
Views: 8649

Re: How would space travel change directionals?

I'm not certain how speakers of such languages change their speech when they move away from the landmark their language is geared to. This actually came up in a discussion with a bunch of my friends recently; there appear to be at least some anecdotes about speakers of such languages just using the...
by Xonen
01 Oct 2020 02:51
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False cognates
Replies: 902
Views: 325163

Re: False cognates

Finnish sitten Swedish sedan both meaning 'then, subsequently' Also 'ago'... Which, come to think of it, makes the set of meanings kind of suspiciously specific. This is one of those cases where I'm quite sure that one of the words has influenced the other (ie. Swedish has influenced Finnish, most ...
by Xonen
13 Aug 2020 02:26
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

But that person is talking about linguistics. There can be all sorts of immutable laws in linguistics, since linguists seem to be happy to prioritise linguistic rules over naive interpretations of languages. A linguist can just ignore a language that has a counterexample, or redefine it - a naive s...
by Xonen
09 Aug 2020 03:12
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Wikipedia actually claims that Nenets has a phonemic contrast between /n nʲ ŋ ŋʲ/, but AFAICT there aren't any words with <ӈ/ң> before a vowel that induces palatalisation or followed by a soft sign at least on Glosbe or this Nenets dictionary, so I'm a bit sceptical about that. Incidentally, someth...
by Xonen
08 Aug 2020 18:25
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Is it true that no language distinguishes /ɲ/ and /ŋʲ/, or even /nʲ/ and /ŋʲ/? If so, what's the implication for languages that eg. palatalise all consonants before /i/ and have a phonemic /ŋ/? Does it merge with /n/ before /i/? Does it depend on the language? The reason I'm asking is that while [ɲ...
by Xonen
06 Aug 2020 02:16
Forum: Everything Else
Topic: Forum News discussion/feedback thread
Replies: 898
Views: 431628

Re: Forum News discussion/feedback thread

A thought: Does the CBB House Rules post need a mention of bringing drama from other conlanging communities like the ZBB or the Conlang WorkShop over here? From what I recall, there used to be a part of the "Be Civil" rule that read, "Don't go posting that some random dude you met in...
by Xonen
28 Jul 2020 13:27
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Replies: 881
Views: 275073

Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

If initialisms count..... I'd say that's moving quite far from the original purpose of this thread, so at the very least, I'd recommend starting a new thread for them. Personally, I'm also inclined to think that of course  any two- or three-letter abbreviation is going to have multiple uses, even w...
by Xonen
21 Jul 2020 16:41
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Atlantean Language by the Creator of the Klingon Language: Grammars, Dictionaries, New Translations, and Conlangs by Me
Replies: 17
Views: 4027

Re: Atlantean Language by the Creator of the Klingon Language: Grammars, Dictionaries, New Translations, and Conlangs by

Please do not bring personal vendettas from elsewhere on the internet onto this board. Also, a reminder on the House Rules here: no personal attacks. Civil criticism and advice on how to improve certain things are fine - and indeed, the main reason why a lot of people bother posting their work at al...
by Xonen
20 Jul 2020 14:21
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)
Replies: 56
Views: 82406

Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

A Grammar of the Hittite Language https://www.academia.edu/13160223/A_GRAMMAR_OF_THE_HITTITE_LANGUAGE_Part_1_Reference_Grammar?email_work_card=view-paper Neat, thanks for linking this! Not that I expect to have the time to actually read it anytime soon, but hey, Hittite's been waiting for millennia...
by Xonen
21 Jun 2020 22:15
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: How would you romanize Kazakh?
Replies: 37
Views: 14270

Re: How would you romanize Kazakh?

/m n ŋ/ <m n n ŋ> /p b t d k ɡ q/ <p b t d k q> /(t͡ɕ)/ <ç> /f v s z ʃ ʒ (x) ʁ h/ <g v s z ş j h ğ h> /l j w/ <l ı w> /r/ <р> /ɘ~ɪ ʉ ə ʊ/ <i ü y u> /əj~ɘj ʊw~əw~ʉw~ɘw <ı w> /i̯ɘ y̯ʉ~ø~œ u̯o/ <е ö о> /æ ɑ/ <ä а> That usage of <y> and <ı> seems kind of... exactly backward from what I'd expect, both b...
by Xonen
09 Jun 2020 00:12
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Then again, if we exclude recent(-ish) loanwords, Hungarian doesn't really have word-initial clusters at all, AFAIU. This does in fact seem to be the case too. It's particularly noticeable in the word Görög (Greek). There's also words like iskola 'school' - or indeed the aforementioned István – whi...
by Xonen
08 Jun 2020 18:01
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282021

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/35134811.pdf says Hungarian does have some word-initial three-consonant clusters. I'm quite sure most European languages have those by now... Kind of inevitable when people are highly literate, orthographies are mostly phonemic and new scientific and technological co...
by Xonen
05 Jun 2020 13:02
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False cognates
Replies: 902
Views: 325163

Re: False cognates

:hun: föld "earth, soil, field" :eng: field I would have guessed this was a borrowing from some variety of German but evidently not For what it's worth, Hungarian Wiktionary does suggest that it's "maybe" a borrowing from German Feld . There's also the possibility in cases like ...
by Xonen
05 Jun 2020 12:53
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Replies: 881
Views: 275073

Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Portuguese(/Iberian and Neapolitan) o ' DEF.ART.MASC ' and Romanian o ' INDF.ART.FEM ' have been causing me some annoyance recently... I see a sequence like Rom. o casă 'a house' and I immediately want to parse it as definite. By extension I guess Portuguese a ' DEF.ART.FEM ' also adds to this, bec...