Zompist Bboard Again

It's also worth noting that a language with an artistic purpose can have an unusual feature or two, and the creation is hypothetically a snapshot of a language at a given point, so it could be that whatever creation happens to be at the point where the affricate exists, but hasn't (yet) deaffricate...

Kuchigakatai wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 9:31 am "history"

Two or three syllables for you guys?

Three.

I don't think I have ~desyllabization of syllabic resonants~ except in Everest /ɛvrɨst/, but there may be more examples.

(vs. words like cabinet where I have two syllables and find three a little grating)

I'd contribute to this. I think compiling a searchable database from vetted papers (i.e. not Starostin, Ehret, etc. and not outlines with the same six obviously insufficient changes) would be a worthy goal. I had some Middle Welsh changes somewhere that never made it into the searchable version but ...

n > l > ɮ > z

That may be so. Even then, American living standards are stagnating. That's fact; there are mounds of data to back that up. Even Donald Trump noticed. If you don't mind that, or hope to someday join the 1%, that's your call. As they say, there's a sucker born every minute. Well, the nice thing abou...

That's a very European attitude. Might it have something to do with the decline in your standard of living? That may be so. Even then, American living standards are stagnating. That's fact; there are mounds of data to back that up. Even Donald Trump noticed. If you don't mind that, or hope to somed...

However, under the current economy, anything you might improve, any time you work a little harder or smarter... a great deal of the benefits will go to the 1%, some of the benefits will go to the 10%. Standards of living will always remain the same for you, no matter what you do. If you're lucky: t...

A Google search turns up wildly varying results on the subject. A Google search turns up wildly varying results on, to pick the last thing I read about, the mass extinction of North American megafauna. Some sources say it probably had something to do with the expansion of humans into North America,...

While we can debate whether or not that was legal (the Supreme Court waffled extremely on it), wealth taxes (a property tax is one) have a long precedent. Unless you're about to argue property tax is also unconstitutional (good luck with that), I don't see why you felt the need to comment. The cons...

It would be an interesting experiment to try a planned economy again, but using modern technologies and economic theories. yeah, we tried to do it here with project cybersyn wasn't cybersyn actually used to, like, break strikes Putting in charge a bunch of old, very sick men who've been around sinc...

Travis B. wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 4:32 pm I have never, ever heard or seen this usage of extra before I saw it here.

?!

Of course, Nort's kind of people would have a fit if we ever tried to enact this. Why? They supposedly love the Constitution! Article 1, Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and gene...

What are the most conservative and most innovative Austronesian branches? Malayan or various Formosan depending on how you reckon it, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some Austronesian languages so innovative that they've yet to be identified as such (the Reefs-Santa Cruz languages were cla...

As Feudalism would view serfs as property, so is Capitalism perfectly contented to consider human beings as potentially capital. The fortunate timing of the Enlightenment (at least for some sectors of the population) curbs the excess somewhat, but "renting" from your "land lord "...

Is income the correct measure? If your wealth isn't in financial instruments or real estate, you're poor by definition. Are you being sarcastic? No. Are you? Your entire net worth is in cash? Like, in a bank? In America, if you're not poor, you at least have a 401k and an IRA. You probably also own...

Polities shmolities. If you can figure out how to become ungovernable you don't even have to think in terms of countries. Is income the correct measure? If your wealth isn't in financial instruments or real estate, you're poor by definition. What's the wealth distribution over time like? According t...

Not that similar to South American - fewer nasal vowels and more coda consonants. A prototypical Papuan inventory would be something like /p t k mb nd Ng s m n N l r/ + optional /f h B G/ + /j w/ + labiovelars. Five vowels (some Tehit dialects have only four but this is unusual) and CVC syllable str...

When your grandfather was most likely a young man home ownership (and car-ownership) rates were lower than they are now, people used less energy and spent a larger portion of their income on food. It's nontrivial to find economic statistics from more than a few years before 1970, but the ratio of t...

The only thing I still don't understand is why you brought Thiel in after discussing Taiwan - for a bit I thought you implied that homesteading would somehow help if we get a nuclear winter, but that doesn't make sense, so what am I missing here? Do you think he could be the man some people thought...

@Nort: Like so very often, I have no idea what you're saying there. It would help if you wouldn't speak in a code and in allusions that only you (and maybe people in whatever circle you're part of) understand. (NB: I know who Peter Thiel is, but how is he relevant here?) What's hard to understand? ...