Zompist Bboard Again

Guys, I'm not quite sure what you're discussing, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything much to do with what you're reading, watching, or listening to now, right? Maybe it would be a good idea to discuss it in another thread if you're interested in continuing the discussion? Thanks.

Wait, so she hasn't heard of anyone dying of disease? Like...no relatives? How did anyone in her family die? God, Americans are so baffling. May I point out that there are plenty of Americans who find her idiocy just as baffling as you? Sure, and I'm American myself. I still think we're baffling. E...

Ā, I kitea ngā āhuatanga tini o te kupu reo Shilluk ‘acama’ i te rauemi a SIL, i pōhēhētia te reo Dinka. Ahakoa e mōhio tonu ana au kia rite te reo Dinka; he reo kupu kōmitimiti nui me te wetereo ‘Austronesian trigger’, nē? Ah, I saw the table of forms of the Shilluk ‘acama’ in the SIL resource and...

Why? I think I'm just confused by Donahue's paper atm especially since I have no idea what happened since that rough draft that's available on MEGA. :P At the end of p. 43, he writes, "Firstly, there are seven phonetic contrasts in syllables with a high pitch, arranged as follows." Then h...

Yes, but some people (such as my teacher) actually force such awkwardness with arbitrary rules like "don't repeat any words!"

Do any Papuan languages have retroflex consonants, though? Given especially the fact that I see <gb>, I have a feeling you'd have better luck looking towards one of the languages spoken on the West African coast, perhaps a Gbe or Kru language.

Wait, what do you mean by "believe smth"? Like...isn't having an opinion believing something? :?: As in "I think it's going to rain tomorrow". Oh, okay. Then you'd say തോന്നുക. Hmm. Do you know if Tamil or Telugu have similar distinctions? I don't know much Telugu, I'm afraid, b...

I mean, isn't that basically what a monarchy is, for example? And all of those had monarchies. EDIT: Also, I actually learned about the Cagots from my advisor in his Romani Studies course for undergrads (when I was taking it in my first year as an undergraduate university student). And it should be ...

The fifth episode of Njanga Ninga takes place in Manjeshwaram , on the exact opposite end of Kerala (the northernmost part of Kerala, in Kasaragod district, near the border with Karnataka) from the previous episode. The informant in this episode claims that what they speak here is Beary Bashe. [ˈn̪ə...

"Meaning" There are at least four ways I can think of that I've seen people explaining what something means in Malayalam. I think one of the most common ways I've seen them do it is using the expression [ˈen̪n̪ɯ ʋɛˈt͡ʃaːl] or, colloquially (though people don't seem to admit this form exis...

Wait, so she hasn't heard of anyone dying of disease? Like...no relatives? How did anyone in her family die?

God, Americans are so baffling.

Wasn't Russian always stress-timed? I would expect that it was Old East Slavic that lost pitch accent. Standard Russian has vowel reduction but is a relatively new development. Some varieties of Russian (particularly Northern Russian) have less vowel reduction than others, and other East Slavic vari...

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:07 am In German, it's apparently usually considered bad style to use the same word too often in one sentence, paragraph, or short text. Is that the case in English, too?

Yes. One of my schoolteachers (incidentally, one of the few who really liked me at the time) was really strict about this.

Among the languages in the list in the first post, do you know any that has a word for "think" with these senses: 1) have thoughts 2) have an opinion But not these: 3) believe smth 4) intend to do Wait, what do you mean by "believe smth"? Like...isn't having an opinion believing...

I suppose this is just further proof that people will always find ways to hate each other, as if any were needed… Yes. It is especially stupid at this point. It is a) illegal and b) ......how is this helping us anyway? Higher-caste people are making a big fuss about oh noez the lower-caste people f...

That sounds about right. There are innumerable jatis. And then on top of that you also have gotras and the varnas don't work the same way everywhere and What About Foreigners and...and... I would also like to ask, since this empire is large: When an empire with a caste system annexes some other popu...

I would also like to ask, since this empire is large: When an empire with a caste system annexes some other population, how are they integrated into the caste system? Do they shoehorn them into existing categories? Call them all their own group? Some other strategy? In India, all foreigners are eff...

On p. 730 of The World's Major Languages , Sanford B. Steever writes, "Tamil dialects show diglossic variation in which a 'high' formal variety ( centamiẓ ) contrasts with a 'low' informal variety ( koṭuntamiẓ ). The difference between these two corresponds only roughly to the difference betwee...

[kəˈɻijuga], [kəˈɻikʲuga], [kəˈɻuguga], [kəˈɻɛkʲuga], and related verbs These are four verbs that all sound similar but have very different meanings. The last post inspired me to start talking about these particular verbs. The first one, [kəˈɻijuga], can be used in the same way as [ˈsaːd̪ʱikʲuga], ...

Is it just me, or do people seem to talk more about Lithuanian than about Latvian for some reason?