Comparisons across (as opposed to within) languages or language families.
5
votes
0answers
58 views
Morphology of proper names
I'm wondering if there are any general morphological properties of proper names. If a word is used as a name, it will be constrained by whatever syntactic constraints that language uses from proper ...
1
vote
0answers
53 views
On price tags/labels why some nouns are used singular/plural regardless of countability?
Is there any explanation regarding why some nouns are used in singular form while the others are used in plural form such as price tags in stores or menus in restaurants. I know that in languages ...
1
vote
0answers
75 views
Animal sounds across languages
As onomatopoeia, the words used for animal sounds are often quite similar across many languages. However, there are non-trivial differences, even for something as common as the croak of a frog.
I was ...
3
votes
0answers
71 views
Is there count/mass distinction in European Portuguese as it is in English?
It is said that European Portuguese has count/mass distinction as many Indo-European languages. However I noticed out that all products/items at stores in Portugal are labeled in singular form. In ...
-1
votes
7answers
229 views
Important english word which doesn't exist in another language
I'm looking for an important English word which doesn't have a corresponding word in another language. I would be happy even it's a language spoken only by a small population.
Preferably, the word is ...
-1
votes
1answer
37 views
What are the different types of counting conjugations? [closed]
Different languages conjugate their nouns or verbs based on the number that they are referring to. For example, in languages such as English and French, there are two distinctions--singular and ...
2
votes
3answers
273 views
Which language has the biggest vocabulary?
I am thinking that it is English because it has so many borrowed words and most you French, Italian, or German words can be written in English as is. Am I right?
1
vote
2answers
120 views
Is there a way to prove one language is more efficient than another language for science?
English is widely regarded as the global language of science now. In China, we use simplified Chinese to write scientific textbooks, teach courses and do almost everything. Let's take the simplest ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
How did 'cocodrilo' originate from 'crocodile'?
The English word crocodile seems to originate from the Latin crocodīlus and Ancient Greek κροκόδιλος. Indeed it has ended up very similar in several modern languages: German (Krokodile), Russian ...
3
votes
2answers
123 views
Affix that makes nouns into verbs and verbs into nouns?
I have a friend studying a language from the pacific islands, and she found an affix that when added to a noun makes a verb and when added to a verb makes a noun. What would you call such a thing, and ...
3
votes
1answer
98 views
A classical text about the Sun?
I've read once there is a text about the Sun, which is created to use words and concepts which shall be present in any human language, and which is translated nearly to all human languages for using ...
6
votes
4answers
346 views
Is learning German easier for people who know Sanskrit, and vice versa?
I've heard many times that learning German is easier for those who speak Sanskrit, and vice versa. Is there any linguistic basis for this? What similarities exist between the two languages that may be ...
5
votes
3answers
197 views
Where do we find the highest “language density”?
At Travel.SE it was pointed out that in Georgia (the country), a visitor would have use of learning Georgian, Russian, and Armenian. That's three very different languages, with three quite different ...
5
votes
3answers
314 views
Does English language stand special in terms of phonology?
I am a native Russian speaker.
When I am listening to songs and music in other languages, which I do not know, such as Italian, Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian, and even Japanese, Finnish, Kyrgyz and ...
13
votes
2answers
327 views
How are mathematical operators like “plus” and “cos” analyzed?
Consider the mathematical statement
1 + 2 = 3
It is read in English as
One plus two equals three.
One plus two is equal to three.
In English at least, equals is obviously an ordinary ...
7
votes
1answer
213 views
Using the word “dream” as hope for the future across languages
Many languages seem to use the same word for "dream" (psychological phenomenon) and "dream" (hope for the future). Quick scanning on Wiktionary gives the list:
Germanic languages: Danish (drøm), ...
4
votes
0answers
164 views
What is the most common vowel?
Of all the languages for which there is sufficient data, including extinct languages, which vocalic speech sound, or phone, as represented by the IPA, has been used by more languages, with more ...
4
votes
0answers
127 views
Exclamation for pain
I always thought that the response to pain, which people usually express with 'ouch' or 'ow' is a natural response which is the same for all languages.
Although spelled differently the same and ...
4
votes
3answers
114 views
How distinctive must a phoneme be?
How much of a functional load must a phone carry to be considered its own phoneme?
For example, my idiolect of English has a marginally distinctive glottal stop. However, it exists distinctively in ...
7
votes
2answers
263 views
Rules for glottal stop insertion across languages
Many languages lack phonemic glottal stops, but regularly insert them. For example:
English invariably inserts glottal stops before utterance-initial vowels, and often before word-initial vowels when ...
5
votes
2answers
506 views
What language are the most similar to English?
I speak English and Bengali with similar proficiency, at least in the 'lower' registers of the languages. Since I was a small child in a bilingual home I've been struck by how, despite having ...
3
votes
1answer
101 views
How usual is it for languages to have multiple contrasting “neutral” vowels?
First of all, I used scare quotes on "neutral" because I can't think of a better word. I was going to say "central vowels" but that would cover some "a"-like vowels whereas I am only thinking of ...
8
votes
2answers
110 views
What is the historical basis for the use of this type of phrasal verb in English but less so in Spanish?
For example, English uses phrases like to look for and to look at, which (I believe) are considered phrasal verbs. Spanish, however, would under normal circumstances use some derivation of buscar and ...
11
votes
5answers
268 views
Are there any languages where the genitive case changes according to its object?
In forms like Claudio's house or Claudio's dogs, are there languages in which the Claudio's would change depending on gender and number of the houses or dogs?
10
votes
4answers
262 views
Are there any languages with the equivalent of “both” for three items?
Referring to this question it seems that English does not have the equivalent of "both" for three items. Although it would seem to be a useful word, I am unaware of its existence in any languages. Is ...
8
votes
2answers
246 views
Are there languages with more than three degrees of comparison?
In English and other languages there are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative (e.g. tall, taller, tallest). Are there languages with more than three degrees, expressed ...
3
votes
0answers
255 views
What language has the longest word for 'no' and 'yes'?
I'm asking this because I'm learning Swahili now, for which the word 'yes' translates to 'ndiyo' and 'no' translates to 'hakuna.' It strikes me as strange that a language would have such long words ...
4
votes
0answers
103 views
Cross-linguistic association between velarization and pharyngealization
Articulatorily, velarization and pharyngealization are distinct, but they are often conflated in linguistic analyses I've seen:
Conflating them is common enough, I presume, that the IPA allocates ...
16
votes
2answers
278 views
Do onomatopoeias resist sound change?
Regular sound changes can of course affect phonemes used in onomatopoeias. For example, consider a language containing /mjaw/, referring to the call of a cat. Suppose that final /w/ is sound-changed ...
8
votes
1answer
131 views
Are there studies of difficulty to learn particular language depending on learner's native language?
Do you know if any studies were made to classify the difficulty to learn a particular language depending on learner's native language?
There are a lot of discussions about what is the easiest or the ...
1
vote
2answers
333 views
What word has the most valid meanings, across multiple different languages? (interlingual homographs) [closed]
What word is valid across the largest number of different languages, and as different part-of-speech?
(The precise term is interlingual homographs/heteronyms/polysemes)
Examples:
'rate' is both ...
10
votes
2answers
130 views
About how much does language typology correlate with genetic relationships among languages?
About how much does language typology correlate with genetic relationships among languages? For example, should we expect most Sino-Tibetan languages to be isolating, or most Indo-European languages ...
5
votes
2answers
115 views
Is there a cross-linguistic subdivision of phones in signed languages akin to how all spoken languages have vowel and consonant phones?
After reading Joe Martin's enlightening answer to the question "Are there counterparts to phones and phonetics for signed languages?" I immediately began to wonder how much further spoken and signed ...
5
votes
1answer
186 views
Are certain phonological processes more likely to be surface true?
This question occurred to me when studying Optimality Theory phonology. For reduplication in OT, the base of the stem (/reduplicated part) is taken to be the input for the reduplicated morph. However, ...
8
votes
2answers
390 views
Gender of mixed groups defaulting to masculine – how common?
French has that rule that whenever a masculine entity is part of a group, the whole NP will default to masculine as far as agreement goes. My native language, German, also defaults gender to ...
3
votes
1answer
143 views
Answering Tag Questions
I am not sure if the post really is about tag questions. I apologize for the confusion.
Now consider the following situation in English. Your friend asks you,
Haven't you had lunch?
If you ...
6
votes
2answers
263 views
Are there any “universal” aspects to “adjective sequence”
Whilst it's by no means a "fixed rule", it seems to me the normal sequence for multiple adjectives applied to a single noun/verb in English does indeed tend to correspond to the top answer given in ...
-1
votes
4answers
472 views
Did case systems dissappear to make embedding easier?
I edited this question in response to Karlsson's paper, "Constraints on Multiple Center-Embedding of Clauses" (Journal of Linguistics 43 (2), 2007, 365-392), linked here: ...
20
votes
8answers
560 views
What is word order used for in “free word order” languages?
Consider languages whose case-systems allow the order of arguments to be changed without changing the arguments’ grammatical relations. (Note the 189 languages noted as having “no dominant ...
2
votes
3answers
98 views
Is there a US/UK difference in interpretation/usage of “compound verb phrases” split by an embedded clause
Arising from discussion against “Against traffic” or “Against the traffic” on ELU, I wonder if anyone can give an authoritative opinion and/or supporting evidence for the proposition that Americans ...
11
votes
3answers
245 views
Does any language use bound morphology to express the concept “less”?
In English, many adjectives support the -er ending to express a notion of exceeding:
John is taller than Mary (is).
Mary is smarter than John (is).
Of course, you can also have the more analytic ...
10
votes
1answer
143 views
Why do onsets not count for syllable weight in phonological processes?
Whether a syllable has a heavy or light rime is often important in whether it will participate in phonological processes, and whether it will receive stress. For example, in Latin, stress is on the ...
15
votes
4answers
317 views
Why do rhotics pattern together?
Looking at the IPA, many different types of sounds are given symbols based of of the Latin R,r: approximants, trills, taps/flaps; both coronal and uvular segments.
Sometimes, these sounds are ...
7
votes
2answers
187 views
How are phones distributed across languages?
By making a quick comparison among several language phonologies (from various language families), I could observe that some phones occur very frequently, such as [m], [p], [b], [h], [a] and [i]. ...
8
votes
3answers
227 views
The hunger for single words
Over on English Language and Usage, there are many, many questions of the form "What is a single word for [phrase]".
The poster usually seems to be very keen to use a single word — which may be ...
2
votes
2answers
216 views
Is grammar the main barrier to Japanese people understanding English?
Although a much higher proportion of Japanese people understand English than people from English-speakering countries understand Japanese, it isn't as high as the Scandinavian countries.
I wouldn't ...
6
votes
2answers
191 views
Do distantly related languages have a lower incidence of false friends?
Are false friends less common between distantly related languages compared to closely related languages?
If so, is it merely because there's fewer words that sound similar, or is it also that when ...
1
vote
1answer
85 views
Are Ivar and Álvaro etymologically the same?
I have heard that the Spanish name Álvaro is of Germanic origin. So I began wondering where it might be preserved in the Germanic languages. After some thought I came up with the Scandinavian name ...
4
votes
4answers
246 views
What language takes the longest to text?
It takes X seconds for the average English user to send an average-length text message via phone.
What language is the most effort-intensive to text? How about to write? Is there one language that ...
5
votes
2answers
165 views
Are there any online databases of kinship terms across languages?
Related to a question at ELU, I am interested in doing a comparative analysis of kinship terms in various languages. What would help me with this is an inventory of terms for individual languages.
...
