I just found out it goes the other way!
The original meaning of "leech" was "physician or healer". They started calling those blood-sucking worms "leeches" because the healers used them.
What's the factoids here, and what are the truths? Is the existence of a pegative case a factoid? That Tariana has a fused tense-evidentiality system? Is the consonant inventory mentioned on the Karaja wikipedia page the "ridiculous" one? Is it wikipedia that in this case is spreading a factoid?Solarius wrote:A pegative case.
Oogami, a Ryukyuan language of Japan, contrasts three degrees of consonant length.
Examples from linked PDF:
/fɑɑ/ [fɑː] ‘child’
/f.fɑ/ [fːɑ] ‘grass’
/ff.fɑ/ [fːːɑ] ‘comb=top’
Karaja has a ridiculous consonant inventory.
Tariana has aspiration on nasals and approximates. Tariana also has a lot of clitics, and a fused tense-evidentiality system.
Kobon has a very limited number of verbs.
Qiang does some interesting stuff to, although I'll save it for Nortaneous since I found out about it through him.
Something similar happened with 'pea' in English, if I remember right. I think it was a French lone that was plural but used in English as a singular, so 'peas' is a plural twice.CMunk wrote:Backformations are always funny:
The danish word for "propeller" is propel. The plural is propeller, so the original loan (from english) was (re-)analyzed as being the plural form. The same sort of thing is happening to kilometer, for which some people use kilomet in singular (although this is still frowned upon).
Not quite. Unless I'm remembering wrong, the original form of the word in English was pease (I think you're right about it being a loan from French though), and pea is a back formation from that, because pease sounds like a plural.Lodhas wrote:Something similar happened with 'pea' in English, if I remember right. I think it was a French lone that was plural but used in English as a singular, so 'peas' is a plural twice.
I don't quite understand the semantic difference between truth and factoid. I can't confirm the factuality of Karaja's wiki page.Xing wrote:What's the factoids here, and what are the truths? Is the existence of a pegative case a factoid? That Tariana has a fused tense-evidentiality system? Is the consonant inventory mentioned on the Karaja wikipedia page the "ridiculous" one? Is it wikipedia that in this case is spreading a factoid?Solarius wrote:A pegative case.
Oogami, a Ryukyuan language of Japan, contrasts three degrees of consonant length.
Examples from linked PDF:
/fɑɑ/ [fɑː] ‘child’
/f.fɑ/ [fːɑ] ‘grass’
/ff.fɑ/ [fːːɑ] ‘comb=top’
Karaja has a ridiculous consonant inventory.
Tariana has aspiration on nasals and approximates. Tariana also has a lot of clitics, and a fused tense-evidentiality system.
Kobon has a very limited number of verbs.
Qiang does some interesting stuff to, although I'll save it for Nortaneous since I found out about it through him.
Ah, I understand. I've only heard the latter.MrKrov wrote:Most definitions I've seen include a primary meaning of "popular bullshit spread around as fact because it's in media" and/or a lesser meaning of "brief, insipid fact". (I may be paraphrasing here.) I believe he's referring to the former.
Ah, that might be it.Ralph wrote:Not quite. Unless I'm remembering wrong, the original form of the word in English was pease (I think you're right about it being a loan from French though), and pea is a back formation from that, because pease sounds like a plural.
I've never heard that folk etymology. The usual folk etymology is lag om, "law about". Which also is wrong, but closer to the actual etymology.Stammalor wrote:Swedish have taken in words from english and have in different ways dealt with the plural.
The swedish word keps comes from the english "caps", that is the plural form. But in swedish keps is the singular, the plural is kepsar. People completely bypassed the original singular form.
The swedish word Lagom (wich many swedes are very proud of) means something like "in the general area of the right amount of something" (if that makes any sense). So if some one wants some food and some one else asked "how much" he could answer lagom (not too much, not too little, but not neceserily the exact right amount, more in the general area).
Anyway, the point is that some believe that the word comes from the phrase laget runt/om which is something you say when something is passed around and everybody gets a little. It could be a boule of candy or something. So the word lagom word comes from what you say when there is enought so every one gets a little, nifty right? But it is totally untrue I have now been told. It simple comes from old norse and is the plural dative form av lag which means "law". As simple as that
I've never heard this folk etymology, only the one given by Stammalor.Systemzwang wrote:I've never heard that folk etymology. The usual folk etymology is lag om, "law about". Which also is wrong, but closer to the actual etymology.Stammalor wrote: (not too much, not too little, but not neceserily the exact right amount, more in the general area).
Anyway, the point is that some believe that the word comes from the phrase laget runt/om which is something you say when something is passed around and everybody gets a little. It could be a boule of candy or something. So the word lagom word comes from what you say when there is enought so every one gets a little, nifty right? But it is totally untrue I have now been told. It simple comes from old norse and is the plural dative form av lag which means "law". As simple as that
I have only heard the dative plural etymology as well.Xing wrote:I've never heard this folk etymology, only the one given by Stammalor.Systemzwang wrote: I've never heard that folk etymology. The usual folk etymology is lag om, "law about". Which also is wrong, but closer to the actual etymology.
I hate to admit it, but this is how I would do it. Not using the s-plural in a few recent loanwords like fans feels a bit weird. It would wouldn't surprise me if Swedish (at least "Standard" Swedish) will end up fully embracing the s-plural in a few recent borrowings. I just hope it won't spread to other words, but who knows.Stammalor wrote: Alternative 1: Zombie (singular), Zombies (plural), Zombien (Definite singular), Zombiesarna (Definite plural). Very english with a wierd Definite plural with both an english plural and a swedish one.
I thought that we were making fans into a mass/uncountable noun.I hate to admit it, but this is how I would do it. Not using the s-plural in a few recent loanwords like fans feels a bit weird. It would wouldn't surprise me if Swedish (at least "Standard" Swedish) will end up fully embracing the s-plural in a few recent borrowings. I just hope it won't spread to other words, but who knows.
Xing wrote:What's the factoids here, and what are the truths? Is the existence of a pegative case a factoid? That Tariana has a fused tense-evidentiality system? Is the consonant inventory mentioned on the Karaja wikipedia page the "ridiculous" one? Is it wikipedia that in this case is spreading a factoid?
Solarius wrote:I don't quite understand the semantic difference between truth and factoid.
MrKrov wrote:Most definitions I've seen include a primary meaning of "popular bullshit spread around as fact because it's in media" and/or a lesser meaning of "brief, insipid fact". (I may be paraphrasing here.) I believe he's referring to the former.
*I meant the second definition: : a briefly stated and usually trivial fact.Solarius wrote:Ah, I understand. I've only heard the latter.
Allowed final clusters in Qiang are either the same as or a subset of allowed initial clusters, and the only allowed C1s in a cluster (all clusters are two consonants) are /ʂ x χ/. However, /ʂ/ is realized asSolarius wrote:Qiang does some interesting stuff to, although I'll save it for Nortaneous since I found out about it through him.