Search found 340 matches

by Zekoslav
29 Apr 2020 17:27
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: The Great Vowel Shift & Vocalism in Romance languages
Replies: 33
Views: 8197

Re: The Great Vowel Shift & Vocalism in Romance languages

Concerning the ideas about Proto-Romance vowel length, I find the speculation about what would happen to allophonically lengthened stressed vowels once loss of unstressed vowels enters the play quite bold! Yes, logically, length distinction would become phonemic in closed syllables, but unless the l...
by Zekoslav
28 Apr 2020 09:39
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: The Great Vowel Shift & Vocalism in Romance languages
Replies: 33
Views: 8197

Re: Apparently Old Prussian underwent the Great Vowel Shift

Should all of this maybe moved to the Romance tidbits thread? This is now quite off-topic and any further reply would be as well.
by Zekoslav
27 Apr 2020 14:58
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: The Great Vowel Shift & Vocalism in Romance languages
Replies: 33
Views: 8197

Re: Apparently Old Prussian underwent the Great Vowel Shift

That Logudorese preterite looks whacky as hell though, to the point that I even wonder if you transcribed it correctly... It looks like it has got the same [-zi-] suffix that appears in a few Old French verbs that descend from the Latin 2nd or 3rd conjugation (facere fēcistī fēcimus > faire fesis f...
by Zekoslav
27 Apr 2020 14:36
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Romance tidbits
Replies: 37
Views: 8807

Re: Romance tidbits

I have seen this [ie̯] reconstruction before. Do you happen to know what it is based on? I'm not sure. The fact that in the earliest stages of the language it could only make assonance* with itself, not with any other vowel, shows that it was something special (this is mentioned in another interest...
by Zekoslav
25 Apr 2020 17:52
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: The Great Vowel Shift & Vocalism in Romance languages
Replies: 33
Views: 8197

Re: Apparently Old Prussian underwent the Great Vowel Shift

The great vowel shift is a famous combination of ordinary changes. 1. Long vowels get raised. 2. Long vowels get diphthongized. It's no wonder something vaguely ressembling it happened in other languages. Probably the most curious part of the change is /aː/ > /ɛː/. Other than in English, this is att...
by Zekoslav
25 Apr 2020 17:38
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Romance tidbits
Replies: 37
Views: 8807

Re: Romance tidbits

BTW I just corrected my previous post on French rounded vowels, after receiving feedback elsewhere. Besides improving clarity a bit and adding more comments about the writing system, I had a mistake: early Old French /ɛlC/ actually evolves to /(j)awC/, then /awC/, then /oC/, e.g. Classical Latin be...
by Zekoslav
21 Jan 2020 09:59
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282043

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

I've got a question about a minor sound change from Latin to French: So far I've been able exactly two proparoxytones ending in -agus, sarcophagus > cercueil and Rotomagus > Rouen . They undergo a special development, intervocalic /g/ is completely lost and -aus contracts to -us. The words develop a...
by Zekoslav
18 Jan 2020 10:39
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282043

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

Yes, Oceania is a hotspot for elaborate number marking, most languages have singular, dual and plural, often also trial or paucal or both. This is so widespread it is no wonder it was included in the local English-based creoles! There are also interesting comitative constructions made from a noun an...
by Zekoslav
17 Jan 2020 09:18
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1106
Views: 282043

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

Loanwords influencing the recipient language's phonology, especially phonotactics, isn't that rare. English word-initial voiced fricatives are almost entirely due to loanwords, while Štokavian (the basis for standard Serbo-Croatian and its 'descendants') /f/ and /d͡ʒ/ wouldn't be phonemic without lo...
by Zekoslav
16 Jan 2020 21:30
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Proto-(Indo)-Mesopotamian (IE diachronic lang)
Replies: 10
Views: 2411

Re: Proto-(Indo)-Mesopotamian (IE diachronic lang)

If this consoles you, the conditions for preservation/loss of initial laryngeals are uncertain and this is just one of the possible explanations. As for why *e and *o trigger different developments, this depends on how you reconstruct the difference between *e and *o which is yet another can of worm...
by Zekoslav
16 Jan 2020 21:22
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Today I learned ...
Replies: 120
Views: 99912

Re: Today I learned ...

I got the same hunch about French, and the -ir pattern is actually a regular, productive (although not very productive) pattern which eventually drew all irregular verbs to itself. The result is that 1sg = 2sg syncretism became regular for -ir, -oir and -re verbs. Another interesting case, which mig...
by Zekoslav
16 Jan 2020 18:03
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Proto-(Indo)-Mesopotamian (IE diachronic lang)
Replies: 10
Views: 2411

Re: Proto-(Indo)-Mesopotamian (IE diachronic lang)

From what I've read Akkadian's development from Proto-Semitic seems to mirror that of Indo-European languages from PIE. in that most "gutturals" are lost but leave traces in coloring a neighboring vowel. It only has a velar/uvular series (voiceless is inherited, voiced possibly from *r), n...
by Zekoslav
16 Jan 2020 17:51
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: Today I learned ...
Replies: 120
Views: 99912

Re: Today I learned ...

Even though I have a master's degree in French, I shamefully transmit what I read on another forum rather than what I learned in my studies here: apparently increased, although not obligatory use of subject pronouns in Old French precedes the erosion of personal endings. So there might have been Ger...
by Zekoslav
11 Jan 2020 18:44
Forum: Translations
Topic: The Public's Eyes, Ears and Mouths
Replies: 15
Views: 3482

Re: The Public's Eyes, Ears and Mouths

Re: Wackerangelisation I'll speak from my own experience of standard Croatian and my own substandard variant thereof. The same should apply to other standard languages which broke of from the Former Yugoslav Language of Serbo-Croatian (as one linguistics blog's commenter nicely calls it) and probabl...
by Zekoslav
11 Jan 2020 18:13
Forum: Everything Else
Topic: Conlang YouTube, Metal Music, Emotions, Etc. [Split]
Replies: 93
Views: 59332

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

Youtube comments seem to attract maliciousness and stupidity like rotten meat attracts flies (I tried to stop reading them but my unhealthy curiosity still draws me to them...). I wouldn't assume any relation between the political views of those who make videos and those who comment them, it's just ...
by Zekoslav
08 Jan 2020 16:24
Forum: Translations
Topic: The Public's Eyes, Ears and Mouths
Replies: 15
Views: 3482

Re: The Public's Eyes, Ears and Mouths

Ha, clitics splitting up phrases due to strong Wackerangel behavior reminds me of my native language (although it's more characteristic of the written language than the spoken one).
by Zekoslav
04 Jan 2020 10:10
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Sumro-Letaeric language family
Replies: 10
Views: 2083

Re: Sumro-Letaeric language family

This feels like reading an introduction to Indo-European linguistics for the first time once again! Being immersed in a completely unknown world for the first time and confronted with snippets of unknown languages, I can't comment much but you seem to have done a good work with lots of detail. I see...
by Zekoslav
01 Jan 2020 09:48
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Replies: 881
Views: 275082

Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

A nasty one from two closely related varieties: Štokavian što "what", eastern Kajkavian što "who" They are completely unrelated! Eastern Kajkavian što is cognate to Štokavian (t)ko which also means "who". /kto/ > /tko/ > /ko/ vs. /kto/ > /xto/ > /ʃto/.
by Zekoslav
31 Dec 2019 09:32
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here [2010-2020]
Replies: 11605
Views: 2043761

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

If only we had more inscriptions of Gaulish (especially from a late period)... the problem with Celtic substrate theories is that they usually compare Romance with Welsh. Brittonic was supposedly very similar to Gaulish so its used as a proxy, and it does share many sound changes with Gallo-Romance ...
by Zekoslav
30 Dec 2019 18:04
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here [2010-2020]
Replies: 11605
Views: 2043761

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

Yea, Irish has had a Germanic-like initial stress (complete with reduction and loss of unstressed vowels) before, during and after the period it developed initial mutations. All you need for initial mutations is for word-medial sound changes to apply to phrases instead of individual words. This pro...