Zompist Bboard Again

It has been argued that there was variation between dialects of Old English in the voicing of word-initial fricatives. I am personally sympathetic to this belief, but the mainstream view is that initial fricative voicing in the dialects of Southern England and the the south-western Midlands only oc...

When did a voicing distinction develop in fricatives in Germanic? Look at cognates like English see compared to German sehen. I understand that the rule in (standard?) German is that if the initial <s> is followed by a vowel, then it's voiced. Phonetically, this makes sense. Originally (I understand...

I suspect that, to be perfectly naturalistic, a conlang grammar should be as unreadable as possible. Ideally the author should redefine most linguistic terms, and introduce his own terminology and conventions, which he will force on the reader. These conventions should flout any and all conventions...

So... this was exploratory, and fun. As this text is not actually attested in-world in Munkhâshi, the only way I can really use it is if there is a group of Gelalhát purists who re-construct Munkhâshi and try to conduct 'authentic' ancient rituals. Or as the opening of a metal concert, or something...

Australian languages sometimes use "sit" and "stand" in a similar way to "be". Bardi is one example. There is one language (unfortunately can't remember the name!) where the correct verb, for inanimates, depends on the shape and position of the object - it could be any ...

Somebody help me. I'm trying to find a definition for "cod fantasy" which I gather is a kind of (maybe?) overblown or cliche fantasy writing? But I can't find any definition that doesn't talk about C a l l o f D u t y. "Cod" has a meaning "fake", e.g. "cod Latin&q...

we also see no Gothic-inspired languages in Middle-earth as far as I'm aware. To the contrary! Taliska was modelled on Gothic. Based on what I had read, I had assumed that it was Gothic, in much the same way that Old Norse was borrowed to furnish names for Dwarves and Northern Men, and the language...

Somebody help me. I'm trying to find a definition for "cod fantasy" which I gather is a kind of (maybe?) overblown or cliche fantasy writing? But I can't find any definition that doesn't talk about C a l l o f D u t y.

A very handsome instrument!

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2023 7:39 am Good luck with you plumbing issues, So Haleza Grise!

Thank you very much, and dobri cuendi!

We bought the current apartment we are living in about 5 years ago. I always knew there were signs that it had previously suffered some damage from water but couldn't figure out what the source was. Since then, whenever it rains heavily (which is every second summer or so), the small external tiled ...

Ahh, so that's where "nashtorî" comes from! Lol.

Something I was meaning to ask - did Zanuy have some kind of important D&D role? I think I saw it mentioned in a couple of Verdurian materials but AFAIK there wasn't an Almeopedia article about it.

Are there irregularities in the verbs in the Obenzayet grammar? I can see some irregularities in nouns, and in the verb sahä but not elsewhere. It's possible that I'm not looking hard enough. You're not missing anything... the Proto-Eastern page basically goes back to the early 1990s, while the Obe...

There are patterns to Eastern irregular verbs that allow a somewhat daring recontruction of the so-called simple forms. We find reflexes of these forms in (e.g.) Caďinor and Obenzayet irregular forms, in the abbreviated Axunašin imperative, in certain fossilized expressions in Cuêzi. Are there irre...

I thought of a question. In the classical European musical tradition, you have to know at least a little Italian to read sheet music. Do they need to know Caďinor in Ereláe?

What do you want to hear next? Something Kebreni? Something Lácaturian? Something Barakhinei? Something Ismaîn? Something Skourene? Ooh, did the Skourenes have musical notation? What about the Tzhuro? I presume they could have learned it from them perhaps. Overall - this is great! I am dipping into...

In the reference grammar: ši-mažtanan ‘in every house’ - this should be "in every city"

My only comment is that at first blush the phonology strikes me as a bit European-y. Of course that's fine, maybe that's what you're going for. And of course a proto-language can have descendants that evolve in any direction (PIE is quite phonologically unlike its descendants). But in terrestrial te...

Hardly ever. I used to withdraw bills regularly and keep them in my wallet but I stopped during the COVID lockdowns and I haven't restarted. I don't even carry change in my pockets (another thing I always used to do for years) which is occasionally annoying. But for the vast majority of the time I d...