Search found 497 matches
- 04 Jun 2017 21:15
- Forum: Teach & Share
- Topic: Curiosities from the languages of Italy
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17208
Re: Curiosities from the languages of Italy
Want a crazy sound change from a Romance language just a bit outside of Italy (similar but more restricted forms of the sound change occur in related languages in Northern Italy)? I present you the Surmeiran Verschärfung (fortition): Diphthongal offglides /j w ə̯/ become velar stops before a followi...
- 03 Jun 2017 18:17
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6262
Re: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives
Ye, ergative (and accusative) are commonly used for peripheral functions as well; I would not be surprised to find some languages that demote the O argument to a peripheral NP marked with the ergative in antipassives (which would be more or less an inverse).
- 03 Jun 2017 17:52
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
apu teho kise fufu ipa vugo zisu labu nado Is my list of guesses. Many features are very persistent, and sometimes it looks a bit messier because the application of one rule blocks a later common rule (such as elision of an initial vowel blocking subsequent elision of a final vowel in the VCV words...
- 03 Jun 2017 15:07
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
Ooh this looks great (at a glance at least). Time to waste an afternoon, I guess.
- 03 Jun 2017 15:02
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6262
Re: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives
Often a sentence will be antipassivized so that the former absolutive argument becomes ergative, to then drop it, if one wants to omit it. This would make your “I eat it” into 1-ABS eat.ATP-PST I don't think the antipassive normally turns the former absolutive argument to ergative, does it? My unde...
- 03 Jun 2017 01:14
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6262
Re: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives
It doesn’t necessarily clash with it per se, but in many ergative languages, the absolutive argument cannot be dropped, or if it can, still rarely is - while the ergative is very often omitted. Often a sentence will be antipassivized so that the former absolutive argument becomes ergative, to then d...
- 01 Jun 2017 19:30
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: What IS natural?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 11361
Re: What IS natural?
While unrelated languages at times look very different, there are always commonalities. For one these include very simple universal statements about human language. Every language uses phonemes (including sign languages). Every language has hierarchical syntax allowing for things like embedding sent...
- 01 Jun 2017 18:25
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Guess the language from the gloss!
- Replies: 184
- Views: 29521
Re: Guess the language from the gloss!
First of all, the (28) scares me. I was gonna guess Bantu at first upon seing the numbered categories, but afaik no bantu lang has noun classes numbered up that far, they usually only go till somewhere around 15.
Is it spoken in Papua New Guinea; or in South America?
Is it spoken in Papua New Guinea; or in South America?
- 01 Jun 2017 18:18
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6262
Re: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives
"I force-feed fish" would be "1-ERG fish-ERG eat", with a pro-dropped thing that's getting eaten. That bit is problematic, usually in ergative langs the absolutive NP is mandatory, or at least more mandatory than the ergative one. I would expect that to be able to express “I for...
- 01 Jun 2017 16:57
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6262
Re: Interaction between ergativity, pro-drop, and causatives
Generally speaking ergative and passive sentences look more or less the same, the only exception being that a passive would be clearly a derived structure while an ergative sentence is an underlying structure (hence passives being marked with some form of construction). In most ergative languages, t...
- 29 May 2017 18:02
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
So, there’s been some downtime so I guess I’ll reveal it. It’s somewhat hard to actually make any real groups as I’ve done most sound changes somewhat areally, affecting multiple dialects that may already have different words. The very first generation looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/8An3a3c.pn...
- 25 May 2017 12:06
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
If you want geographic naming, the map is located around southeastern Switzerland.
Those last guesses are pretty far off btw. I did a lot of work with isoglosses, so going for a purely tree-based model might not work out very well.
Those last guesses are pretty far off btw. I did a lot of work with isoglosses, so going for a purely tree-based model might not work out very well.
- 25 May 2017 00:05
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
Here’s some extinct forms. Extra data!
Spoiler:
- 23 May 2017 15:31
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
I’ll leave you guys hanging for a bit longer, but I have some extinct forms if you get stuck.
- 23 May 2017 13:19
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
While the original words were indeed taken from a natlang, it isn’t semitic.
Also some guesses are close, and one guess for one of the words was in fact spot on (but the other one was not).
Also some guesses are close, and one guess for one of the words was in fact spot on (but the other one was not).
- 23 May 2017 00:30
- Forum: Beginners' Corner
- Topic: [j] vs [i̯]
- Replies: 17
- Views: 7218
Re: [j] vs [i̯]
But then again you can analyze Swedish as lacking voiced fricatives altogether, only being alophones of approximants in energetic pronunciation or intervocalic realizations of voiced stops. Some Germanic languages/dialects are generally analyzed this way, like Swiss German or danish. Most analyses ...
- 23 May 2017 00:19
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
Alright, I think I’m done with it. It definitely doesn’t meet my perfectionistic standards but to do that I’d have to spend hours upon hours more trying to plot everythign and then you guys would have to wait for even more ages. I’ve kinda rushed it a bit towards the end so I can’t vouch for perfect...
- 20 May 2017 13:08
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Quick Diachronics Challenge
- Replies: 1041
- Views: 268675
Re: Quick Diachronics Challenge
Whoops.
I got distracted by a speedlanging week over on our discord and completely forgot about it afterwards. Sorry bout that. I've got about 50% of the work done, I'll try to get it done asap.
I got distracted by a speedlanging week over on our discord and completely forgot about it afterwards. Sorry bout that. I've got about 50% of the work done, I'll try to get it done asap.
- 16 May 2017 18:00
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Speedlanging weekend V: 17th June
- Replies: 17
- Views: 3523
Re: Speedlanging weekend V: 3th June
Not to be rude but aren’t you maybe overdoing it a bit? I’d rather let some more time pass. Plus you’ve already organized the last one, maybe give someone else a chance to make a challenge instead?
- 07 May 2017 23:31
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: What did you accomplish today? [2011–2019]
- Replies: 11462
- Views: 1631716
Re: What did you accomplish today?
More like “this week”, but…
https://github.com/Adarain/Speedlanging ... llenge.pdf
Apparently the footnotes (which contain links elaborating) don’t show up on github. They do show up when downloaded though, just checked.
https://github.com/Adarain/Speedlanging ... llenge.pdf
Apparently the footnotes (which contain links elaborating) don’t show up on github. They do show up when downloaded though, just checked.