The CBB

The syntactic analyses is interesting in being unexpected, because instead of starting from V-preposition-O-S and clefting the subject (as Sal suggested), you start from O-postposition-V-S and move the postposition to an intermediate position. Of course, reading mostly Minimalist Programm stuff, I a...

I think it is controversial [:D] My more detailed opinion is that acoustic stress in Standard Indonesian is heavily influenced by the other varieties/languages people speak. Different Indonesian varieties already vastly differ in prosody. Some might have fixed, weight-dependent or lexical word stres...

I had similar experiences with more boring explanations. Turns out the old tune that I re-remembered and that showed up on YT simply got a mash-up/cover version/whatever and is on every radio channel now. I must have heard it somewhere though, because I do not usually listen to the radio.

Just wanted to share this interesting tidbit of Indonesian morphosyntax, that I came across recently. Standard Indonesian has a phrasal nominalizing circumfix ke--an . It usually derives abstracts nouns from simple roots. (1) keadilan ke-adil-an NMLZR-just-NMLZR 'justice' It can however also attach ...

Impressive work [:)] There are some minor things that I would probably sort in a different category. Applicatives are not a word class but a morphological category that is usually marked on verbs, for instance. I would probably also sort the grammar/morphosyntax part a bit differently, but this migh...

Some Grassfields Bantu languages (e.g. Oku) might be the obligatory exception to this tendency. Lots of monosyllabic words with contour tones but (especially in assocative constructions) the contours (or parts of them) tend to wander around a lot. Non-Sinitic Sino-Tibetan languages like Chungli Ao m...

Oh, I see
Then yes, both are attested in natlangs. Some natlangs only allow contours in heavy syllables, other natlangs (also) allow contour tones on light syllables.

That looks interesting and somewhat reminds me of Gothic for some reason
Will there be a set of regular sound changes?

There are natlangs that have word-tone melodies like HL oor HLH (where H is a high tone and L is a low . In some languages these yield contour tones like /kânà/ HL.L, /kâná/ HL.H. In other languages contour tones might be more restricted, yielding /kánà/ H.L and /kâná/ for these melodies. Yet other ...

So, another question about tone: Rising and falling tones seem to occur in contours, does that mean that if a language has either of these, then it will have contour tone? Like, if you have a word /ka.na/, which of course has no heavy syllables, does this mean it cannot have a rising or falling ton...

It's great that you started a thread on Arpien [:)] Do you want to post example sentences at some point? Do you have enough vocabulary? If not, maybe you could post all the rules involving adverbs? Also, I think I came up with an ad-complementizer adverb use. In the phrase 'if and only if', the word...

Interesting as usual. I was never really enthusiastic about the idea of a monarchy for conworlding purposes. I kind of assumed that it was the default. If a conculture of mine does not have a dedicated political system, they are probably a boring monarchy. But now that you have shown the variation i...

You could look at African tone languages for inspiration. Will all words in your language be monosyllabic? In some tone languages syllables can have low, high, or falling tone. Words however can only have a restricted set of melodies, too, e.g. no more than one high tone stretch per word. Made up to...

The other thing is that I must be misunderstanding something because I don't see the Indonesian example as being the same sort of thing that I thought you were doing. You seem to be using the instrumental case to create a clause or phrase indicating a modality, whereas Indonesian seems to be using ...

Interesting read. I am a bit surprised by the phonological process that applies to two nasal consonants. Does it also apply if nasals are identical? So, e.g /m/+/m/ -> [ɲ]? Or to clusters that do not involve any nasal further back in the mouth? I.e. /m/+/n/ -> [ɲ]?

Right, so I think googling[ "unmarked high" tone phonetics] might give you examples of languages that have been argued to have an unmarked high tone.

There are languages with object agreement only. I can't come up with a natlang example on the spot though.

I think this question can be formulated in term of markedness. Is the low tone always the unmarked tone? The answer is: no, in some languages the mid tone is unmarked.

Similarly, they can be related to adpositions of course. A somewhat constructed example from German (might not be diachronically correct). Ich be-schneide den Busch. I at-cut the.ACC bush I cut the bush. Ich schneide etwas bei-m Busch. I cut something at-the.DAT bush I am cutting something at the bu...

I actually really like this feature. Reminds me of Indonesian, e.g. Dia ber-kata kalau kamu mau pergi. 3SG have-say COMPL you want go 'He said that you want to leave.' Kata-nya kamu mau pergi. say-3SG.POSS you want leave 'People say you want to leave.' but also, Kamu kayak mau pergi. you like want g...