Search found 2994 matches
- 13 Jan 2024 16:04
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1944
- Views: 664127
Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
In general of course the problem with any question about these people is that unless they're really, really stupid there's basically no conceivable limit to what they can do. 95k? For context, 250k separates the invention of the internet from the invention of the Lavallois process (a greatly improv...
- 13 Jan 2024 16:00
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
I don't understand this distinction. If I cause you to have Y, I must make Y go to you If I cause Y to go to you, you must now have Y If I (successfully) throw you a ball, you then have the ball If I (successfully) give you the ball, then the ball must have moved to you (otherwise you'd have had it ...
- 11 Jan 2024 21:54
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1944
- Views: 664127
Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
They've been in space for 95,000 years... and yet their agricultural food chemistry is permanently stuck at specifically the level of Earth in 2024? [i.e. they can make artificial meat but it's not fully convincing]. That seems both weird and 'convenient'. In general of course the problem with any q...
- 08 Jan 2024 17:24
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1700
Re: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
Didn't Pterry do the reverse werewolves thing (maybe in passing)? Yes, Lupine in Reaper Man . He also returned repeatedly to the idea of animals (or inanimate objects) suddenly being imbued with intelligence, from the Luggage to Gaspode the Wonder Dog to Maurice and his Amazing Educated Rodents. An...
- 08 Jan 2024 17:08
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1700
Re: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
Now THIS is my kind of tea party! I imagine this wouldn't be fun for the werewolf either though, because wolves are fundamentally social creatures. "Morality," as we know it, only tends to happen in creatures that have a sense of social values - I don't want to hurt others, because others...
- 08 Jan 2024 03:00
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: "Hwenti" - Tolkien's lost Elven language
- Replies: 5
- Views: 674
Re: "Hwenti" - Tolkien's lost Elven language
It's literally just one word; there's not much that can be said about it. I guess what must be said is that in a very real sense Quenya and Sindarin ARE the 'Germanic' elven languages, because in those languages the voiceless aspirates have lenited into voiceless fricatives - i.e. Grimm's Law. What ...
- 06 Jan 2024 17:01
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1700
Re: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
AND ANOTHER THING! Werewolf on a boat? Bad news if they get angry, obviously, as there's nowhere for anyone else to run to. But also... ...the visibility from a boat is about 2.8 miles in perfect conditions. Werewolves can smell 10 miles or more. That seems like it would be useful! Because when they...
- 05 Jan 2024 20:28
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1700
A small thought regarding werewolves: Sherlock Holmes as The Terminator
I almost felt like making this its own topic, but since it's basically one small observation that felt like overkill. And then I thought I should post in the general conversation thread, because this is more an observation than an idea. But then again, it's conworld related, so I thought perhaps the...
- 05 Jan 2024 17:38
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Any thoughts on this tense/aspect system? Past perfective ─ starts in the past, ends in the past Terminative ─ starts in the past, ends in the present Continuous ─ starts in the past, ends in the future Present perfective ─ starts in the present, ends in the present Inchoative ─ starts in the prese...
- 02 Jan 2024 15:12
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
1) Pitch accent: One way to think about weight-sensitive stress is to think of it as stress in a fixed moraic positions. Let's say you stress the third-to-last mora whenever possible. This gives you the following patterns for words with at least three to four moras. cúucu (cû:cu) cúcuu (cúcu:) cuúc...
- 31 Dec 2023 19:14
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1029
Re: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
I think in Bulgarian it would be transliterated "vǎ́ršanik" (if that shows up for you - for me the stacked diacritics don't work). Which I guess could be spelled 'Varsanik' in an English-language newspaper or the like. In Cyrillic, въ́ршаник, I think? But again, you probably want to wait u...
- 31 Dec 2023 14:59
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1029
Re: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
If you use surnames that end in single vowel + K (e.g. Choksondik), they will sound Slavic to many people. Ah, I see. So the answer is probably not, as Dutch, as I just looked up, is not a Slavic language. Personally, I never put much thought into what his nationality would be. So, seeing as I have...
- 31 Dec 2023 14:29
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1029
Re: Alfons Varsenik - GodzillaLouise Thread
I'd suggest using a real Dutch name. Schuyler . . . Lambert . . . Conklin . . . Van Dyke . . . Vanderbilt . . . Vanderpol . . . Stuyvesant . . . Ockerse . . . just to name a few. Fwiw, those are English/American names, some of which are of Dutch origin. Even those with Dutch origins would be pronou...
- 31 Dec 2023 00:12
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Can we agree on that simplified Chinese is way simpler than English?
- Replies: 68
- Views: 3767
Re: Can we agree on that simplified Chinese is way simpler than English?
You are clearly entirely ignorant of basic linguistic terms and concepts, and your English is limited. With respect, I'm not sure there's any point anyone here trying to educate you (and in any case, it's hard to give much credit to your views on English when you're not able to express them in Engli...
- 29 Dec 2023 22:08
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Can we agree on that simplified Chinese is way simpler than English?
- Replies: 68
- Views: 3767
Re: Can we agree on that simplified Chinese is way simpler than English?
"Simplified" and "traditional" "Chinese" are not two varieties of Chinese. They're just different systems of spelling. Which is irrelevant to the language itself. ["Chinese" isn't really a language at all, other than for the purposes of the central government'...
- 21 Dec 2023 21:02
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Something that just came to my mind is syntactic ergativity vs. morphological ergativity. If you assume that there is a language with true and total ergative word order, where intransitive S is treated like the object/patient O of a transitive verb, could can get the following languages. SV, SOV SV...
- 20 Dec 2023 22:49
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
The one thing that really leaps out from those stats (thanks for compiling them!) is the SOV/SVO issue. From your figures, of languages as a whole, there's 564 SOV languages to 488 SVO languages - i.e. 46% of S-initial languages are SVO. But among ergative languages, there's 20 SOV languages to 1 SV...
- 17 Dec 2023 20:54
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
How do you develop consonant clusters? I have always found it problematic. Do you just table all three consonant combinations possible with the consonant inventory and decide which ones you like? Do you just have some kind of intuition? Do you read a grammar of some native American language and cop...
- 17 Dec 2023 01:48
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: a question about monster raving loony alignment
- Replies: 4
- Views: 814
Re: a question about monster raving loony alignment
I'm afraid I don't speak Rushani, so I don't know how it deals with this problem. However, if a language doesn't have a dedicated mechanism for indicating counterintuitive argument assignments, it may use a general mechanism - perhaps an unexpected topicalisation or focusing can encourage listeners ...
- 17 Dec 2023 01:39
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1736
- Views: 361788
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
As Arayaz says, the obvious answer is vowel loss. /dakata/ > /dakta/, etc. A rarer option is fortition of glides, which can originate in vowels or through excrescence: /daita/ > /dakta/, or /dat_ja/ > /dakta/ It's also possible to have direct decomposition - a labial-velar stop could become a cluste...