Search found 2628 matches
- Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:36 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: How was the age of the Rigveda (and by extension, the oldest attested form of Sanskrit) determined?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 13773
Re: How was the age of the Rigveda (and by extension, the oldest attested form of Sanskrit) determined?
In terms of language, note that the Buddha (c. -500) didn't speak in Sanskrit, but in Magadhi. So classical Sanskrit was already old then... and Vedic Sanskrit is quite a bit more archaic than classical Sanskrit. Isn't the point that he chose to teach in Magadhi (or some pre-Prakrit), rather than i...
- Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:11 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Centaurs
- Replies: 8
- Views: 7764
Re: Centaurs
As others have said, centaurs are more likely if six legs is the norm for your dominant animals. Six legs also offers the option of having dragons-- i.e. four-legged winged creatures. (The usual dragons shape makes no sense, except perhaps on a planet with minimal gravity. But birds with extra arms ...
- Mon Aug 06, 2018 4:07 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Globalisation and language change
- Replies: 6
- Views: 6972
Re: Globalisation and language change
Globalisation has sped up the replacement of non-standard varieties. It also has helped minority languages find new methods of preservation and communities who spoke now extinct languages find linguists willing to help revive them. This. Everyone gets so worked up over "global English" or...
- Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:59 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: How was the age of the Rigveda (and by extension, the oldest attested form of Sanskrit) determined?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 13773
Re: How was the age of the Rigveda (and by extension, the oldest attested form of Sanskrit) determined?
The dates I found (researching the ICK) were a little later: -1300 to -1000. Wendy Doniger's The Hindus probably has info on this. Indian historians prefer a date as early as possible. A lot of it is attempting to fit it into what we know of Indian prehistory. The Harappans lasted until the -1700s, ...
- Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:02 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: General American and actors
- Replies: 27
- Views: 20593
Re: General American and actors
I think you missed the joke... the thing with focus is that if your vowel is too high (or even too open) you get "fuck us", and with beach that if you lax the vowel you get "bitch". And Ars Lande is quite right that wrong vowels are liable to produce misunderstandings. As just on...
- Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:56 pm
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
- Replies: 11
- Views: 18804
Re: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
That fixed the loop, but tried to go to the wrong page.
But I fixed the original problem anyway, by making an index.html that redirects to almeo.html.
I do appreciate the help— I never learned how to do .htaccess.
But I fixed the original problem anyway, by making an index.html that redirects to almeo.html.
I do appreciate the help— I never learned how to do .htaccess.
- Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:54 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: On Socionomics and Directors
- Replies: 3
- Views: 7819
Re: On Socionomics and Directors
The best analogy I can think of it with modern vs. premodern medicine. Could a society choose to use modern medicine, only throw out the practice of antisepsis? Of course. It could still make use of modern knowledge of anatomy, surgery, genetics, drugs, etc. Only, lots of people would either die fro...
- Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:39 pm
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: Some Verdurian typos
- Replies: 98
- Views: 118876
Re: Some Verdurian typos
OK, typos should be corrected.
("Dolorai" goes back to before the Great Relexification... that was an error in the old grammar too!)
("Dolorai" goes back to before the Great Relexification... that was an error in the old grammar too!)
- Sat Aug 04, 2018 4:06 pm
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
- Replies: 11
- Views: 18804
Re: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
Thanks, Are Lande! Sadly, though, it doesn't work. Any request just goes to the main page. Any idea what might be going wrong?
- Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:25 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Quechua resources
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7404
Re: Quechua resources
Can they wait a year and a half? That will probably be my next project. Your Mexican friend is out of luck, but your Peruvian friend is living in the only place where Quechua resources are easy to find. If they don't live in Lima, surely they know people who do, or who go there. (And if they live wa...
- Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:45 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
- Replies: 11
- Views: 18804
Re: The Virtual Verduria Feedback Thread
OK, these should be done except for the rewrite rule. Does anyone speak .htaccess? This is what I have now: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on # Special handling for search strings # RewriteRule ^Special:Search(.*)$ almeopedia/mediawiki/index.php$1 [L] # Everything else RewriteCond %{REQUEST_F...
- Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:51 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Vowel reduction
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7042
Re: Vowel reduction
I added a special BBCode, bk, to avoid this in the future. (You don't have to use it for all brackets, only for things that can be interpreted as BBCodes, like [i] [u].)
- Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:04 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Vowel reduction
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7042
Re: Vowel reduction
Note: I edited your post to make the IPA work. All I did was check "Disable BBCode". (The board was interpreting [i], [u] as "begin italics/underline"). I'll see about a better solution.
- Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:45 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: British Politics Guide
- Replies: 1936
- Views: 1019537
Re: British Politics Guide
In your analysis, what's the difference between Hard Brexit and No Deal, besides having a piece of paper to sign? You said "some extras", but what are those? Also, if I understand you, soft Brexit is dead. But May hasn't officially admitted that, has she? Has the government tossed the Cheq...
- Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:41 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: British Politics Guide
- Replies: 1936
- Views: 1019537
Re: British Politics Guide
You might enjoy Charlie Stross's predictions on what will happen in the likely case of a no-deal Brexit. Spoilers: nothing good. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/07/that-sinking-feeling.html#more There's also an article on May in this week's New Yorker : https://www.newyorker.com/mag...
- Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:36 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Grammar Nazis of Your Conlangs
- Replies: 23
- Views: 20032
Re: Grammar Nazis of Your Conlangs
Neat question! I have a few of these in Verdurian— e.g. pronoun hopping, tag questions, constituent dislocation. (Search for these in the grammar if you want examples.) Plus slang, of course. There are things that go the other way, too— genteelisms that no self-respecting working person would use, n...
- Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:41 pm
- Forum: Languages
- Topic: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
- Replies: 4692
- Views: 2063906
Re: Linguistic Miscellany Thread
I found this an odd sentence: "Some government officials wonder whether anyone organised the protests—possibly fuel smugglers, political rivals or powerful families that benefit from the subsidies." Using "anyone" in that first clause implies to me that the default assumption is...
- Fri Jul 13, 2018 12:54 pm
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: Postpositional phrases following nouns
- Replies: 14
- Views: 14037
Re: Postpositional phrases following nouns
Arguably this happens in the Germanic language English:
the house by the sea
that day a few years ago
Admittedly we don't normally think of "ago" as a postposition, but I think we should.
the house by the sea
that day a few years ago
Admittedly we don't normally think of "ago" as a postposition, but I think we should.
- Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:52 pm
- Forum: Ephemera
- Topic: ZBB Census 2018
- Replies: 89
- Views: 129448
Re: ZBB Census 2018
Ah well, haven't done one of these in, as the Brits say, yonks. Basics Username: zompist Name: Mark Rosenfelder Other nicknames (including good stories, if you have any): Horselover Fat (back in the DFC days) Birthplace: Lagrange, IL (my brother likes to say I was born in a barn) Place of residence:...
- Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:39 am
- Forum: Conlangery
- Topic: How to describe morphosyntax?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 11914
Re: How to describe morphosyntax?
The main reason I prefer giving the paradigms first is for my own reference. It's annoying to scroll through pages and pages of text just to remember how to form the 3s past form of conjugation III. I also find that if I start to get into usage, it's hard to know when to stop. E.g., cases usually ha...