Zompist Bboard Again

I've noticed a phenomenon in American speakers of English (it may well apply to Canadians too): for a lot of people I see on TV or YouTube or wherever, they seem to pronounce /s/ slightly more forward, almost dentally - almost . Now, I'm not sure if this really is what's happening or if these people...

This seems like something that is bound to have been discussed at some point, but basically: is there a language out there where there are different types of 'and'? In my mind I keep using terms like 'inclusive and' and 'exclusive and' , but they're probably not very good descriptors. Sometimes and...

Here's another example: "Jag ska köpa mjölk, ost och bröd samt ett par strumpor." (I'm going to buy milk, cheese and bread, and a pair of socks.) The English part there is as if (or to me reads as if) the milk, bread, and cheese were either expected to be bought or at least there be no su...

This seems like something that is bound to have been discussed at some point, but basically: is there a language out there where there are different types of 'and'? In my mind I keep using terms like 'inclusive and' and 'exclusive and' , but they're probably not very good descriptors. Sometimes and ...

Perfect passive*: the man having been watched, the house having been painted Agent: the house painted by the man (more literally 'the painted-by-the-man house') the agent (man) is placed in the genitive.. How do these two differ in usage? Honestly, I copy-and-pasted that before I had reassessed it ...

I... I think I may have just finished the verb paradigms for my L conlang, which have turned out to be quite complex, but not unwieldy. Unless something unforeseen crops up, I may have just finally achieved something that I'm happy with.

So today I've had a bit of spare time to myself. I started looking at a Finnish grammar I bought ages ago (when I planned to use it to study the noun cases) and I came across the Finnish participles.... :o Guess what is getting incorporated into a conlang! :lol: Don’t leave us hanging! What’s so gr...

So today I've had a bit of spare time to myself. I started looking at a Finnish grammar I bought ages ago (when I planned to use it to study the noun cases) and I came across the Finnish participles.... Guess what is getting incorporated into a conlang!

"Thinking is difficult: that's why most people judge." - Carl Jung. You have been making no sense at all in this thread. And I am not the only person to come to that conclusion. Why is it my responsibility to anticipate ahead of time what makes sense and what doesn't? I'm not a mind-reade...

The PM and the Cabinet are still the Government during this period, but the House of Commons is basically closed and no more bills can be passed. The day-to-day of Government goes on as normal. The only time that there really is no Government is the half an hour or so between the outgoing PM goes t...

This could be a "strictly speaking, but", but the MP in my constituency announced, on the day the election was called, that parliament has been suspended, and that, within the confines of the law, he was only an "acting", MP, not an actual Member of Parliament, meaning that, for...

Many in Wales are celebrating the fact that we no longer have any Tory seats in Wales, which is true of Westminster, but not of Cardiff. The Senedd still has 8 Conservative seats for at least two more years. Saying that, Welsh Labour have been abysmal in Cardiff and though you may think having a Lab...

Is there a name for what's going on in English the structure subject + be + infinitive when talking about intent or even firm future events, e.g.I am to go next week; David was to see it for the first time. And do any other languages do a similar thing?

I just posted this on Reddit so I may as well put it here too: Is there a natlang precedence for the sound change /ɸ/ > /u/? Changes of velars like /x ɣ/ > /i/ seem well attested so why not a labial > rounded vowel, particularly in the environment VɸC? It seems like a good way of making new diphtho...

I just posted this on Reddit so I may as well put it here too: Is there a natlang precedence for the sound change /ɸ/ > /u/? Changes of velars like /x ɣ/ > /i/ seem well attested so why not a labial > rounded vowel, particularly in the environment VɸC? It seems like a good way of making new diphthon...

Could it just be a dialectal pronunciation spelling of sweetheart?

In a conlang with cases, what consideration should be given to adpositions and which cases they're used with? I've seen European languages which will tend to always use prepositions with, say, the genitive or the dative. Now, my plan is to have adpositions give context to case, e.g. where the locati...

I have two days to myself (if all goes well) in 10 days' time and I hope to spend most of one of them to get things in order, make a to-do list, and see where I am with it all. Well that didn't happen! I got called into work one day and spent the other doing the sort of things one must when in a re...

Today I've accomplished... nothing . I haven't had much time recently to do any conlanging. I don't know about you, but I, for one, cannot just do a little bit for half an hour here and there. I need a morning or an afternoon where I can concentrate on it. Anyway, I had a spare hour-or-so and though...

Professor Brian Cox, around 2013, did a special lecture to a celebrity audience explaining (among other things) why time travel into the past will never be possible. It was a Doctor Who themed lecture and was a part of the BBC's 50th Anniversary celebration for DW. From what I remember it requires f...