Zompist Bboard Again

It's sporadic. E.g. in English, "spaceman" resists the shift to schwa, perhaps because it's a word used mostly by children. I think I've heard "fireman" and "policeman" both ways . Spearman would almost certainly have a schwa. Homestar Runner frequently plays with the ...

It's sporadic. E.g. in English, "spaceman" resists the shift to schwa, perhaps because it's a word used mostly by children. I think I've heard "fireman" and "policeman" both ways . Spearman would almost certainly have a schwa. Homestar Runner frequently plays with the ...

The other day I saw on Reddit someone say "wanna talks" presumably for "wants to talk" from "wanna" as a contraction of "wants to" in front of verb forms without the s. "Wanna" seems to have become an adverb. Without more context, this usage looks p...

Sorry to briefly hijack the thread... That's really interesting about noun incorporation, bbbosborne and Zaarin, I'll have to look into that more, it's really relevant to some things I'm trying to work out. Marianne Mithun has some excellent writings on polysynthesis, noun incorporation, and various...

Are there natlangs in which incorporated nouns can be inflected for number? (I don't mean that as an implied criticism, just hoping to learn more.) It's very atypical of incorporation, but it does happen. The more usual construct (as found, for instance, in Iroquois or Maya) is to use an independen...

Hwaļik is odd but not implausible. Rvofaets'o on the other hand...

I assumed that Afghanistan had stronger ties to Iran because the major languages in Afghanistan are Dari and Pashto (both Iranian), Afghanis are overwhelmingly Muslim, and historically much of Central Asia has been dominated by Iranian peoples if not Iran proper. Did you forget about Pakistan? The ...

Afghanistan is culturally more closely affiliated with Iran than India. I know at least one Afghan who's told me that Afghanistan in general is culturally closer to India than to Iran, and outside of western Afghanistan (Herat etc.), Afghan music is definitely closer to Indian music than to Iranian...

It's too bad we don't have more historical context for Gomberg. Was he 1942's equivalent of a Posadist? My impression is that, disturbingly, he was not. Also, note that the provinces of Canada are preserved in the North American superstate, but the states of Mexico are not. Not sure where Gomberg i...

My immediate reaction is why is my homeland so big? We don't want all that territory! What I find fascinating is that to the west India takes not just Pakistan but also Afghanistan, and then to the east it takes not just Bangladesh but also most of Southeast Asia except Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia--b...

My immediate reaction is why is my homeland so big? We don't want all that territory! What I find fascinating is that to the west India takes not just Pakistan but also Afghanistan, and then to the east it takes not just Bangladesh but also most of Southeast Asia except Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia--b...

I love how everything is "United [Government] of [Location]."

E.g., the classic sf stories would have one smart woman and half a dozen men. (Like Star Trek TOS, in fact.) Which was still better than TNG, which had zero smart women. I'm sorry, that was mean. :P I love Marina Sirtis. I think she's the only actor on TNG who was an equal to Patrick Stewart, even ...

Doing away with English's non-contrastive aspiration and opting for denti-alveolar coronals would probably be helpful, particularly for the Spanish- and French-speakers. Im pretty new to this so I'm not sure what that is. English /p t k/ are aspirated syllable-initially except when preceded by /s/;...

Any suggestions of tweaks, or is it good enough that if i like it just go with it. Its just a personal artlang with no associated conworld or conculture and no parent languages so if its not at least a semi-plausable i'll change it, but otherwise im not too worried about explaining it. Like I said,...

For those like me who can analyze consonants inventories better in IPA order: /m n ɲ ŋ/ /b t d k g ʔ/ /f v s z x h/ /ɹ j/ /r/ /l ʟ/ Comments: It looks fine, typologically unusual, but fine. I'd say the two things that stand out to me, which aren't problems but more things that make me curious about ...

ÜberBen wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:33 amk͡p͡x͡fˡ k͡p͡x͡fʰˡ g͡b͡ɣ͡vˡ

Are these monstrosities attested anywhere? Are they even possible? :p

As I mentioned in the other thread, I like the aesthetic, being a fan both of older Germanic languages and Irish.

Some male (and non-males with conditions causing abnormal hair growth) humans in my conworld have hair on their necks and shoulders So do I. :P Oh, you mean like a mane... Some male (and non-males with conditions causing abnormal hair growth) humans in my conworld have hair on their necks and shoul...

Tropylium wrote: ↑Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:45 am– *RH > *Rː in Anatolian; in "some" cases also in Germanic

And Celtic.