Search found 16 matches

by Lothar von Trotha
22 Sep 2020 22:36
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Diglossia and usage of official language
Replies: 3
Views: 1620

Diglossia and usage of official language

Why do some official languages fail to become primary languages of their populations? As an example, Standard German managed to become a language actually used as the primary language of vast majority of people in Germany and Austria. It replaced the spoken dialects (except in Bavaria) completely an...
by Lothar von Trotha
27 Aug 2020 17:57
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Oil languages conservatism
Replies: 1
Views: 1114

Oil languages conservatism

Are certain langues d'oil more conservative in terms of morphology/phonology than others? Modern French has lost more or less all conjugations and has lost even the plural markings. Are there any Oil languages that keep more of them/ Arpitan I believe has well preserved conjugations and Occitan/Cata...
by Lothar von Trotha
24 Aug 2020 00:00
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Latin ISOTed to Japan
Replies: 14
Views: 3877

Re: WI: Latin ISOTed to Japan

I was thinking along your lines. I would put the Roman population in either Hokkaido or Kyusiu-Honsiu. In case of Hokkaido it means more contact with Japan in case of Kyusiu-Honsiu it means both It would be extremely difficult to get a sizeable Roman population as far as Japan. I guess it would have...
by Lothar von Trotha
22 Aug 2020 02:39
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions
Replies: 14
Views: 2615

Re: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions

PS DO you you mean a new instrumental/ablative construction,
something like this "
spatha mente (with a sword)
caballo mente (on horseback)

That would be interesting. cheval /ʃə.val/ + ment = chevalement /ʃə.valəmɑ̃/
by Lothar von Trotha
22 Aug 2020 02:08
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions
Replies: 14
Views: 2615

Re: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions

Proto Uralic is reconstructed as having 6 cases. Finnish has 16, Hungarian 22 cases. So the Uralic languages actually add new cases. I wonder if an IE language could do the same if it started with postpositions. I have seen a paper arguing that all PIE cases except for nominative and accusative are ...
by Lothar von Trotha
22 Aug 2020 00:54
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions
Replies: 14
Views: 2615

Re: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions

BUt what if they actually survived in daughter branches of PIE and became predominant over prepositions? Could they then supplant the disappearing case forms? So in Latin you would have Marcus patrum libris dat > Marcos da libru patre a *(instead of "a patre" Marcus mihi librum patris dat ...
by Lothar von Trotha
21 Aug 2020 23:10
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Late PIE develops postpositions
Replies: 14
Views: 2615

WI: Late PIE develops postpositions

Assume that late PIE for a reason unknown switched from prepositions to postpositions (it it even possible?) and all daughter families continue this trend. Would the nominal declension system become more stable? It's likely for this reason that Uralic languages don't really lose cases - when they ar...
by Lothar von Trotha
21 Aug 2020 23:01
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: WI: Latin ISOTed to Japan
Replies: 14
Views: 3877

WI: Latin ISOTed to Japan

Let's assume around 0 AD a population speaking Latin (Classical Latin for that matter) is ISOTed to Japan. Of course they don't carry their civilization along but adopt Chinese civilizational model as Japan did IOTL.

ANy ideas in what direction would such a language develop?
by Lothar von Trotha
11 Jul 2017 20:07
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Hypothetical Slavic passive
Replies: 11
Views: 4570

Re: Hypothetical Slavic passive

No, it did not survive in any attested Balto-Slavic language.
by Lothar von Trotha
11 Jul 2017 18:40
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Hypothetical Slavic passive
Replies: 11
Views: 4570

Hypothetical Slavic passive

Hi.

Anyone ever thought how would a hypothetical passive voice look like in modern Slavic lanuages (or even Proto-Slavic), had it survived long enough?
by Lothar von Trotha
13 Oct 2015 00:33
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: A mixed West Germanic language
Replies: 14
Views: 2447

Re: A mixed West Germanic language

Not make a conlang... Just translate the given passage to have a glimpse what it may look like.
by Lothar von Trotha
12 Oct 2015 23:39
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: A mixed West Germanic language
Replies: 14
Views: 2447

A mixed West Germanic language

I am thinking over a concept of a language spoken in North America that would be based on Dutch with heavy English influence on phonology and grammar and to a lesser extent, vocabulary. Orthography would be based mostly on the Dutch one Guys, how might it look like? The same text in English and Dutc...
by Lothar von Trotha
25 Feb 2015 21:53
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Orign of PIE morphology
Replies: 23
Views: 6578

Re: Orign of PIE morphology

Would 2500 years from now be enough for a semitic like derivational morphology to emerge in English or French?
by Lothar von Trotha
23 Feb 2015 21:31
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Orign of PIE morphology
Replies: 23
Views: 6578

Re: Orign of PIE morphology

So some PIE ancestor had been analytic and then became agglutinative and then fusional?

If enough time passes, will a similar morphology evolve in French or English?
by Lothar von Trotha
23 Feb 2015 21:27
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: A hypothetical Slavic descendant...?
Replies: 0
Views: 2335

A hypothetical Slavic descendant...?

I have seen a posteriori conlangs created from various sort of languages, including a multitude of English descendants and I came across an idea that it would be great to create a future Slavic language. I don't know if I should ask such question, my linguistic knowledge is minimal but - would someo...
by Lothar von Trotha
23 Feb 2015 21:21
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Orign of PIE morphology
Replies: 23
Views: 6578

Orign of PIE morphology

We know from comparative method that PIE had a rich fusional morphology - but how exactly did that morphology come into existence? Did it evolve from something simpler, like an analytic language? If yes, how might it have looked like?