Zompist Bboard Again

California was just an example. I know it's found in various places (though I wasn't, as I stated, consciously aware of the merger as a child). The real question IMO is, since western dialects merge counterclockwise, and eastern dialects merge clockwise, should we consider these two separate changes?

I encountered this sentence in The Hobbit (as I'm translating it into my conlang Sajiwan), and though I get what it means, I have a hard time analyzing it. "Beorn did not show it more than he could help, but really he had begun to get very interested." What it obviously means is that Beor...

I have a question about yod-coalescence. In dialects with yod-coalescence, "sure" and "sugar" are pronounced with an SH sound. But "super" is not. I have run through every reason for this I can think of, and have come up with nothing. 1. Could it be because super is a ...

I don't have the cot-caught merger, but even I have to speak very carefully to notice the distinction. As a kid I would hear people speaking in Californian and just think "Oh, that's a funny way to say that." The low and back vowels are generally a good source of ridicule for non-standard ...

I have a question about yod-coalescence. In dialects with yod-coalescence, "sure" and "sugar" are pronounced with an SH sound. But "super" is not. I have run through every reason for this I can think of, and have come up with nothing. 1. Could it be because super is a m...

Has anyone posted here before about this quiz? It's twenty samples of native and non-native speakers reading a story, and you have to guess where the person is from.
https://www.dialectsarchive.com/test-your-ear

Predictably, there is little positive evidence beyond the basics. When it comes to color symbolism, we can say with confidence that humans think there is something special or conspicuous about red. This paper shows that cave painters at a Levantine site were going to great lengths to get the reddest...

Same story with labiodental nasals.

I think the format is to use a noun, but for first and second person a pronoun has to suffice instead.

Is there a name for the prevailing wind of a monsoon system when the wind is blowing from the continent? I can't think of one of the top of my head and a cursory googling was unhelpful. I ask for conlanging reasons (LZ ノヨフ nujuh needs a translation). I'm pretty sure it would carry at least some dus...

I detect no dental /s/ in that video. There is more "buzz" in his /s/, but that sounds to me a result of pronouncing the sound with a stronger than usual apical quality. It's entirely possible, at least to my ears, that his tongue is even farther from the teeth than the standard /s/.

HolyKnowing, what is holding you back from picking a vowel system? Are there other design criteria that would prevent you from just having a seven vowel tirangle or something?

Yeah, I forgot to mention the kana used to stand in for vowels.

Does anyone have any examples of this between other non-Latin/Cyrillic writing systems?

I recently came across this sign for a Japanese restaurant in Korea: https://i.imgur.com/NTIVVMp.jpeg The name is Hatane, which is clearly written in Latin letters. Below that, it says Hatane again in Korean, because this restaurant is in Korea. But they've chosen some Japanese kana that look like t...

Given that the theory posits a net outward migration of Jupiter, the plausibility of type I or type II migration seems immaterial. If Jupiter can migrate outward due to unmeasured and unatested resonance with Saturn, then surely it is also plausible that it could simply stay in place.

I am unaware of anyone who claims that type I or II migration should be expected as the default unless some convincing alternative is presented. They are simply possibilities among possibilities. Since we don't know the density and temperature of the starting material, the expected gain or loss of a...

Seems like an elaborate scenario that creates as many problems as it solves, all because of something (Mars' relatively small mass) that can easily be explained by chance.

It's 28 letters.
I believe in you.

This pdf is pretty good, because it's succinct and hits all the points you want for comparative grammar. You don't really need Arabic script knowledge, because they give you all the vowel marks. This one is a little longer and more rambling, but it's better for the details. Again, vowel marks are i...