Zompist Bboard Again

... 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...

My unable appears to contain [ʌ] - at least, it seems to be my STRUT vowel, which in my case is definitely centralized, not back, similar to my schwa - but the first vowel in my enable is definitely farther forward than [ə]; it moves toward [ɛ] in careful speech and toward the center in rapid speech...

Reviving this thread, at least temporarily... Perhaps there are differences in human and Elf psychology that make the Elves more likely to produce and acquire sound changes even after childhood. In at least one of Tolkien's posthumously published writings, he says exactly that, describing the Elves ...

I apologize for my delay in posting on this thread (to be honest, all to often my usual modus operandi is to compile a growing list of threads that I want to respond to, without actually responding to them, until I finally either post all of my replies at once, or throw them out and start over.) Tha...

As other people have said, I like the look of your initial presentation, and found the language interesting, especially the use of native-root Latin replacements.

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but... I can't believe I somehow missed this language: https://fiatlingua.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/fl-00008A-00.pdf I love the colored text on page 14 of the pdf (13 of the text). Thank you for digging that out! That is really good stuff I had missed, too. I ...

[/quote]Apparently, monkeys or apes were quite common in medieval European art, and they were sometimes depicted in the margins of manuscripts. Presumably most people creating these depictions had never seen these animals in real life, but they may have been familiar with them from various texts, il...

Planning on attending a No Kings protest this weekend and just need to decide what my sign should say. I think something simple and specific like "No war with Iran". Given the attack on Iran, I was tempted to make a sign quoting The Princess Bride : "The first one is, never get invol...

Thank you for sharing this. I’m sorry for your loss.

For what it’s worth, I was deeply impressed by your description of Ulian. I read through the travelogue, referring back to the map as I did so, and I found it to be an excellent and evocative piece of worldbuilding.

linguistcat wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 10:49 am

Travis B. wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 7:53 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 6:10 am

Seconded!

Thirded!

Congratulations!

Great to hear!

We have had AAA Plus membership for years, and it has definitely paid for itself over that time, as we have used their roadside assistance in towing after breakdowns, jumping dead batteries, changing flat tires, getting us in after locking ourselves out of our car, etc. (At least in our area, you do...

@rotting bones: I just finished re-reading your Hyperborea thread, and had a few semi-random comments and questions. (I read the thread as it was originally posted, and I suspect that I had some better-thought-out comments and questions at the time, but I unfortunately cannot recall for sure.) - I f...

With regard to the cold temperatures, snow, and everything else coming through:

@Ahzoh, malloc, Zompist, and everyone else in its path - hope you can stay safe and stay warm!

Here in Wisconsin we've got a warm continental climate, and it is expected that there will be snow quite a few times each winter and people know how to simply live with it. Adults (who have to drive) don't like snow (as opposed to children who don't have to drive in snow) but treat it as a fact of ...

“The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, although she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow o...

Look, I'm very much in favor of using public transportation. And I wouldn't be able to afford a car even if I would have wanted to do all this by car. But I've got the impression that all this would have taken a lot less time if I would somehow have been able to magically rearrange all the bus and ...

All that really matters - or that should matter, even in MAGAland - is this: can you reasonably get to work without a car in adverse circumstances, and if you can't, should you still be expected to try? I can remember being TOLD not to come in to school during a period of heavy snow many moons ago....

I seem to have started a little bit of a discussion on vampires and mummies in the comments section of Bret Devereaux's latest blog post: https://acoup.blog/2025/11/28/gap-week-november-28-2025-thanksgiving/ (Do a page search for my name to get to the start.) [I apologize for interrupting the discu...

I’m very sorry to hear that; my condolences. My brother and his family had to say goodbye to their own cat a week ago.

I found the description of folk religion to be well done and quite interesting, particularly the details of celebrations and rituals (especially the funeral ritual) and the role of the Brotherhoods. I flirted with the idea of something like the Brotherhoods in my own conworlding, although in my case...