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(L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here [2010-2019]

Posted: 19 Aug 2010 21:06
by Aevas
This thread is for quick questions related to the forum topic; Post your question and hopefully receive an answer here.

Edit: Continued in this thread. -Aevas, 2020-09-06

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 18:59
by Maximillian
In my conlang there is no morphological distinction between adjectives and adverbs. So, my question is, how to call a word that is both an adjective and an adverb?

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 19:32
by LetoAtreides
An adjective.
Spoiler:
In Nolikan, there is no distinction between not only adjectives and adverbs, but also nouns. I call them all nouns, they have however an adverbial case. You may want to introduce such a case into your conlang.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 20:27
by Maximillian
LetoAtreides wrote:An adjective.
Nah, there must be something more interesting! :mrgreen: Qualifier, maybe?
LetoAtreides wrote:In Nolikan, there is no distinction between not only adjectives and adverbs, but also nouns. I call them all nouns, they have however an adverbial case. You may want to introduce such a case into your conlang.
Hmm... What does cat+adverbial-case mean? "In a cat-like manner"? I don't think there is such a thing, cause it's just an adverb that way.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 20:59
by LetoAtreides
Maximillian wrote:
LetoAtreides wrote:In Nolikan, there is no distinction between not only adjectives and adverbs, but also nouns. I call them all nouns, they have however an adverbial case. You may want to introduce such a case into your conlang.
Hmm... What does cat+adverbial-case mean? "In a cat-like manner"?
Yes.

There are also natlangs with an adverbial case.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 14:01
by reizoukin
Maximillian wrote:
LetoAtreides wrote:An adjective.
Nah, there must be something more interesting! :mrgreen: Qualifier, maybe?
I've always heard it called a modifier. Because it modifies.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 02:14
by masako
I am looking for any and all relevant information to the Ancient Egyptian language. Scholarly/Academic is preferable, please.

Thank you.

I also accept PM's.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 20:32
by Maximillian

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 08 Sep 2010 20:32
by Maximillian
About possession. On Wikipedia it says that "The Yabem language of Papua New Guinea, for instance, distinguishes alienable from inalienable possession when the possessor is human, but distinguishes inherent from non-inherent possession when the 'possessor' is not human." What is this inherent vs. non-inherent possession, and how it differs from alienable vs. inalienable?

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 16:17
by Sankon
Alienable vs. inalienable (A-I) possession depends on whether the possessed item will stay possessed by the possessor or will later be somehow unpossessed.

Inherent vs. non-inherent (I-NI) possession depends on whether the possessed item is a part of the possessor or not.

Take the sentence "I will have my dog forever." If you are distinguishing between A-I, "my dog" would probably be inalienable, since the sentence is trying to convey how the dog will never be away from you, and thus be inalienable.

But if you are distinguishing between I-NI, "my dog" would probably be non-inherent, as the dog is not inherently a part of you. If you had the sentence "I petted the dog with my hand", "my hand" would be inherent, as a hand is inherently a part of the speaker's body (assuming that the speaker has hands, of course).

You could say A-I depends on whether or not the possessed item will not be there in the future, whereas I-NI depends on whether or not the possessed item was there since the beginning.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 05:14
by MrKrov
What Proto-Indo-European root would Sanskrit vāṭa derive from?

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 12:51
by sangi39
MrKrov wrote:What Proto-Indo-European root would Sanskrit vāṭa derive from?
I could be completely wrong about this and it's just a guess but could it possibly come from *worto/eh2-. It's the o-grade form of *wr.to/eh2 which Sanskrit v.rti (enclosure) comes from and since vāṭa also means "enclosure", at least according to Wiktionary, it seems possible. IIRC the regular outcome (*rt becoming a retroflex ṭ and the first *o merging into *a: in the new open syllable) but again, I could be wrong. I'm not great with Sanskrit-related stuff.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 18:15
by MrKrov
'k. It's a start. Thanks.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 20:13
by Maximillian
Is there an example of a language that had definite article, but it fell out of use?

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 13:54
by Czwartek
Is there a European language which has uvular stops?

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 15:44
by MrKrov
No.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 20:44
by masako
MrKrov wrote:No.
Wrong.

Firstly, which languages are considered "European"?

Chechen has /q/.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 21:00
by MrKrov
Wrong again. Isn't that just the easiest thing to do? Buy a geography book.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 16 Sep 2010 02:18
by masako
If you consider Chechnya to be in Europe ((most people do) Southeast to be exact), then you answered the question "Is there a European language which has uvular stops?" incorrectly.

Accept it and move on.

Re: Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Posted: 16 Sep 2010 03:27
by MrKrov
And I don't. So I didn't. So suck it.