Zompist Bboard Again

whale = deep-singer OR bristel-tooth

next: pig

I was speaking with someone this morning who said, "This happens when I've watched Russell Howard or Russell Kaye - by which I mean both, not that I can't remember which." Got me thinking, are there languages that distinguish inclusive 'or' and exclusive 'or'? I feel there must be. And as ...

mule = infertile-bearer

next: slug

sea urchin = spiked-treasure OR slow-spine OR two-then-five

next: lion

@pabappa I guess what I dont get is that it looks like youre incorporating an indefinite object into the verb, and then calling it oblique. My conlangs would follow yours in not using classifiers for indefinite objects, but I wouldnt feel comfortable assuming that I should also do the same for adver...

@bradrn, Akangka

Seems you disagree. No matter - I'll just browse through some grammars. But I have a feeling it can be either way, which is good, as I won't have to do too much diachronic justification for whichever I choose.

@Pedant, your point to methru and alynnidalar was well made - I can see whence comes your name. Also, mythical animals are fine, and should be interesting as many are amalgams of extant animals.

parrot = speaking-colour

next: earthworm

@pabappa Apologies if my terminology was inaccurate. By ‘oblique object’, I meant any argument of a transitive verb that isn’t the subject(agent) or direct object(patient). This would include indirect objects, locative constructions, instrumentals, adverbs of manner (if applicable), and so on. @brad...

Tapir = freshwater-lounger OR inquisitive-nose

Next: gecko

I had a game over at CBB which was the 'Animal Derivation Game' for creating animal names in terms of other things. However, it moved from describing qualities and traits of animals (bat = fuzz-wing; dog = hunt-friend) to merely describing animals in terms of other animals (bat = flying rat; dog = w...

Can we think of any reasons why a language's verbs might have both subject and direct object marking on them, but not any oblique arguments marked on the verb? I'm evolving a lang whose noun classifiers have melded onto the verb as prefixes denoting subject and object, but I'm wondering if oblique a...

Hi all, Does anyone know where I might be able to find a list of the 1000, 1500, or 2000 most common words in Modern Standard Arabic? (preferably derived from an enormous amount of material, and not parsed by a rubbish computer program that can't differentiate "al-kitāb" from "kitāb&q...

@cedh, methru, Vijay, Pabappa, dhok, Nortaneous, Whimemsz Thanks for the feedback! If I have /tʰ/ go to /s/, it'll probably be via a dental fricative to it doesn't create a push chain with the already extant /ts/. But, I'll also allow the voiceless trill in some cluster environments because I think ...

Hi all, This is my first post here on ZBB. I'm looking for ideas for how /tʰ/ can change in different environments. I currently have /tʰ/ changing to /r̥/ when word-initial, word-final, and intervocalically /tʰan natʰ atʰa/ -> /r̥an nar̥ ar̥a/ But my current issue concerns how /tʰ/ will change in co...