Search found 2981 matches
- 10 Feb 2024 18:31
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: How do your languages treat (in)definiteness?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 1177
Re: How do your languages treat (in)definiteness?
Faux-Phrygian, the conlang I’ve been working on lately, has a definite article, with some restrictions. It marks referents that have already been mentioned in the discourse or which are physically present. Other possible definite categories, like shared cultural concepts, take no article on first r...
- 10 Feb 2024 16:58
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Just concerning the "obstruent influence tone without bearing it"-question. Depressor consonant is a good key word. Onset obstruents can synchronically and phonetically influence tone because they require a certain state of the glottis for their voicing value which restricts the possible ...
- 08 Feb 2024 17:06
- Forum: Everything Else
- Topic: What are you listening to/watching?
- Replies: 322
- Views: 88589
Re: What are you listening to/watching?
FWIW, the second season of "Reacher" is much, much better than the second. The first is carried by charismatic performances, but is almost laughably bad in its writing at times (it's basically a neoconservative's literal wet dream with most of the sex taken out - it makes 24 and Jack Bauer...
- 08 Feb 2024 16:39
- Forum: Everything Else
- Topic: What does “natlang” mean?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 635
Re: What does “natlang” mean?
I have never ever seen it used to mean "national language" or "native language". And I think eldin has a typo because presumably he's missing a "not" from his definition of "natural". Nor have I ever seen it used to mean "Nativity language", "Na...
- 08 Feb 2024 16:33
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
And the question is?
[you also haven't given much information, have you? Try writing out the tones for all three "kana" words, with and without the suffix - rather than insisting that we just guess!]
[you also haven't given much information, have you? Try writing out the tones for all three "kana" words, with and without the suffix - rather than insisting that we just guess!]
- 04 Feb 2024 21:16
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
The trouble is, I really like -g, especially how weird and cludgy it is after stops or consonant clusters. So I'm thinking of reintroducing it in these environments via analogy. Which option sounds best? 1. Have it be reintroduced by analogy, regardless of the new consonant cluster rules. 2. Have i...
- 04 Feb 2024 21:12
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Are these really example of certain forms being exempt from phonotactic rules, or are they just examples of new clusters being formed through sound change after others were lost? In English at least, the problematic suffixes - -ed, -es - are formed by elision of schwa, subsequent to whatever process...
- 29 Jan 2024 19:19
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
I have a problem here, because by definition statives can't be transitive. [wikipedia does use the example '[be able to] play the piano', but I think that's something different, and it isn't covered by wikipedia's own lists of categories]. They can be bivalent in some languages (like "I hear t...
- 29 Jan 2024 14:42
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1679
- Views: 348000
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Would it make sense for a subject/agent noun to take the nominative case if the verb is stative (transitive or intransitive) and the ergative case if the verb is dynamic (transitive or intransitive)? I have a problem here, because by definition statives can't be transitive. [wikipedia does use the ...
- 29 Jan 2024 01:12
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Thanks very much for the explanations! No problem! I may not be teaching anyone anything, but at least I'm getting some practice at explaining ideas clearly... and finding myself illuminatingly worse than I'd assumed... So if in a language there is separate symbols for both consonants and vowels, b...
- 29 Jan 2024 00:32
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
I'm sorry if my last post sounded aggressive; I'm just frustrated with myself, because after writing hundreds and hundred of words to explain something that to me seems incredibly obvious and originates in about two sentences on wikipedia, evidently I'm still speaking gibberish that nobody can unde...
- 28 Jan 2024 15:44
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
I'm sorry if my last post sounded aggressive; I'm just frustrated with myself, because after writing hundreds and hundred of words to explain something that to me seems incredibly obvious and originates in about two sentences on wikipedia, evidently I'm still speaking gibberish that nobody can under...
- 27 Jan 2024 21:31
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
...perhaps, if that's serious and not trolling, you could be more specific!? Look, you see those letters, right? They form a line . I mean, no, not literally a single line, but the symbols, the letters, are arranged in a row, aren't they? There are two ends of that row, yes? Left, and right. Now ima...
- 27 Jan 2024 19:47
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: would rescuing an endangered language have a similar effect to israeli hebrew?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 1277
Re: would rescuing an endangered language have a similar effect to israeli hebrew?
I think that using paragraphs and relatively standard punctuation is a basic level of decency that should be expected from people asking a question, and will often result in more answers. As for the question: yes, any living language will change over time, and hence older texts in that language will...
- 27 Jan 2024 17:27
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Systematic means having a coherent system. So, for instance, if you have the syllable-symbol BA and add a mark to make it BAN, and you have a syllable-symbol PA and add the same mark to make it PAN, that's a systematic relationship between symbols. I wasn't trying to be poetic. Take a word like &quo...
- 27 Jan 2024 00:23
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
- Replies: 900
- Views: 207341
Re: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
Don't languages often include info we in English find totally needless? Yes, absolutely. Within reason - although the edge of reason may be hard to determine. Iaai (iirc) has over thirty possessive classifiers, and (iirc) some argue that the class of classifiers is actually open. [however, as I say...
- 26 Jan 2024 21:20
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
- Replies: 900
- Views: 207341
Re: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
My point is that what I said about "bowl" also applies to all other nouns. To put simply, you say you have "classifiers" that specify the shape of an object, rather than nouns, but my point is that "nouns" are mostly just things that specify the shape of an object, so t...
- 26 Jan 2024 15:19
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
- Replies: 900
- Views: 207341
Re: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
Okay, I really like this idea that I had, but I'm not sure how naturalistic it is, or how I can make it more naturalistic, so I'd appreciate some advice. Basically, in this language, nouns don't exist as a cohesive group. Instead, there's three sets of...classifiers, I guess? One set of words for s...
- 26 Jan 2024 15:14
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
- Replies: 900
- Views: 207341
Re: Random ideas: Morphosyntax
I've been thinking about a generic-specific system like in some Australian languages lately, and also a collective/singulative number system, and just thought of a way to combine the two. I'm kind of confused by some of your terminology. Why rename nouns as "nomina", which is just a trans...
- 25 Jan 2024 19:47
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1111
- Views: 282997
Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
So an abugida is a specific kind of alphasyllabary, I guess? No, an alphabet could also be an abugida. Unless you define it as not an alphabet because it's an abugida. But certainly non-alphasyllabaries can be abugidas, as I've explained. For instance: Lorm£ Xip£sum£ dolor£ sit£ Xamt£, con£sc£ttur£...