Zompist Bboard Again

As someone who currently goes onto a deep dive into the Italic and Celtic rabbithole, these are some interesting thoughts. The kʷ/p branch split notably also did occur in Italic. Latino-Faliscan retained the labiovelar and Sabellic shifted it into p. Neither did lose the original p, though. Lusitan...

Something which, of course, only occurred to me when I switched my computer off: we depend on oil for a lot more things than just petrol; where would we get our plastics from, for example? And I hear a lot about how much essential fertilizer comes from the Middle East; would this trigger a change i...

Some thoughts about the history of the Celtic languages In this post, I shall share some thoughts about the history of the Celtic languages, not all new or original. 1. The shibboleth of La Tène The first idea is that the shift *kw > p that characterizes "P-Celtic" (i. e., Gaulish and Bry...

Most interesting article I've read all week: Cory Doctorow: Will Trump hormuz us into the full Gretacene? Fascinating, and I fully support the name "Gretacene" for the new era. If he's right, it'll cause a fundamental change in the global economy, which gets me wondering: what will the de...

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2026 8:31 am Well, it looks like my mum has (early stage) breast cancer. It seems there is not a year where misfortune does not befall those I love.

Sorry to hear that. Puts the mildly bad day I had today in perspective...

Yes, I agree with you on Arabic, the vowel patterns (are they called "ablaut" as well? I didn't know that) clearly behave as a kind of infixes, so I would call them morphemic as well. I would put English (and other Germanic languages) firmly in the "ablaut is of limited productivity&...

... describing the Elves as "natural conlangers" who are conscious of the features of their language, and enjoy playing with them. Just who invented the word "conlanger", anyway? Please note that Tolkien did not use the word "conlanger"; that was my paraphrase. Etymonl...

Regarding the recent supreme court ruling, my understanding is that most countries do not allow the courts to nullify laws, only to rule whether they've been followed or violated. It seems like the US is unusual in giving greater weight to court rulings than decisions of the legislature. Is that an...

Regarding the recent supreme court ruling, my understanding is that most countries do not allow the courts to nullify laws, only to rule whether they've been followed or violated. It seems like the US is unusual in giving greater weight to court rulings than decisions of the legislature. Is that an...

You have completely missed the irony in alice's post - a trait they are famous for in these quarters. (Hint: irony has nothing to do with metals, nor with laundry care.) No, I understood the irony. I meant that there are people trying to make her statement literal rather an ironic by creating AGI c...

Au contraire, the Computer is a Being of unfathomable Cunning, large and complicated far beyond our Ken, whose Function we can only ascertain in very small Parts at a Time, by offering it divers Incantations and interpreting its Responses with very careful Understanding. Well, that is certainly the...

Thank you! They look nice.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2026 9:45 pm I do have to say that before I saw Fevornian I'd never've seen an iotated yat myself!

Seconded! I didn't know that iotated yat was a thing at all!

How did I live my entire life until now without ever knowing that Josh Ritter exists? So far, I've only heard Getting Ready to Get Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnQ89jZvZD0 , but I'm curious about more of his stuff now. Nice song, though IMHO nothing special, but I like the way he represents...

That's a good one, Raphael! Thanks for sharing!

If I am not mistaken, Tautisca is a Romance language set in present-day Germany, which makes me think that 'Tautisca' is meant to be cognate with Deutsch . Edit: I looked it up and I am mistaken -- Tautisca is not meant to be in any specific actual IE branch. *tewtéh₂, via PGm *þiudiskaz¹, is indee...

A great book I am reading at the moment is Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman. Bregman encourages the reader to find effective ways to improve life for the many, an explains how citing examples of abolitionists, virologists and others. Seconded! I have read that book, too - twice . EDIT: malloc shoul...

What I read from your words is that you seem to think that all rightists were equally bad - which they aren't. It is a common sentiment among far leftists, but it is nevertheless wrong. Certainly I'm glad that Orbán lost and not suggesting that this is nothing. But like you, I would be happier if p...

It's worth noting that the Tisza party is also staunchly right wing, which made this election rather like Ronald Reagan versus Donald Trump. It also means that Hungary has nothing but right wingers in its parliament now. I'm not very happy about Tisza myself. It is at least a center-right party; I'...

Obviously there's no international standard for representing the Köppen type with colours, but I find it hard to think of A-type climates as blue. (What do synaesthetes think? This could be very interesting.) I am not a synaesthete, but my thinking of what Köppen climate type should have which colo...