The vocabulary tag has no wiki summary.
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Which languages make Scrabble more interesting, which make it impossible to play?
Scrabble is a popular word game which one makes points by forming words in a 15×15 grid out of 7 letters, following certain rules to combine words.
Assuming this numbers constant, I'm interested how ...
3
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0answers
77 views
What are the constituent morphemes in 'preposition'?
The word preposition. I am trying to break down a series of words into their constituent morphemes and am having trouble with the word 'preposition'.
I can obviously see that the 'pre-' is a morpheme ...
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3answers
277 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?
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1answer
77 views
Words and phrases more likely in everyday speech
I'm processing a large corpus for a given language. I've noticed that for certain sections of the corpus, I can go many tens of thousands of words without the word "me" being mentioned. These are ...
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3answers
134 views
How many “words” do I need to learn?
I am interested in learning a second language. To do this I have created a list of the 1000 most common words and phrases for a given language. I've also established sentences which contains each of ...
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2answers
97 views
Are there people who intentionally refuse to use some words even if the majority does it?
Suppose one person does not like one word or expression. He would have to use it though, so then he chooses a substitute. The majority of the people however use that word.
Now, since one meaning of ...
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1answer
58 views
How is the differing reuse of words depending on language called in Linguistics?
My question is a little bit tricky (for me) to put in a title. I will try to describe:
There are different types of writing systems, such as logographic, true alphabets and segmental scripts. Not ...
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1answer
92 views
How to more precisely translate ancient titles for heads of state? [closed]
There are multiple ancient titles which we always translate as "king". I wonder if could there be more precise translations of those titles.
Just a short list includes the following:
rex
princeps
...
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0answers
55 views
Hierarchy of meanings in a dictionary
What base does vocabulary.com use for its hierarchy of meanings of a word? For example see http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sound. Are top levels (numbered list) all homonyms?
What structure do ...
4
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1answer
49 views
Are there any extensive study on the vocabulary used in the Mongour and Bonan languages?
I have always been interested in examining Tu/Mongour and Bonan language. Mongour is a Mongolic language which is spoken by Mongour people who may be the descendants of Xianbei people who moved from ...
8
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2answers
272 views
Pre-Proto-Basque: is there a methodology to establishing its vocabulary?
For example, say I have a list Basque/Euskera words, is there a way I can reconstruct these modern Basque words into a Pre-Proto-Basque version?
beo (hot)
lur (earth)
izotz (ice)
izuga ...
3
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1answer
95 views
What is the evidence for laryngeal in *méh₂tēr?
Wikitionary shows a PIE word *méh₂tēr but I never seen this word spelled with a laryngeal. There was a long vowel there but how is it correct to analyze it to be *-eh₂- rather than just *ā?
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1answer
451 views
How it happened that evolution of “mater” and “pater” is different despite their similar origin?
With an addition of PIE relatives suffix *-ter-, Eurasiatic *ama, *apa became Old PIE *mā-ter-s, *pa-ter-s (the final -s was later lost in late PIE)
But there is a difference: in Old PIE *māters the ...
5
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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.
...
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1answer
105 views
Vocabulary Usage Patterns
Why do vocabulary sets used by one person within the same context differ as a result of the environment of execution? For example: reading, writing, speaking, listening, etc.
What are the ...
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1answer
239 views
Are there languages which use the negation of 'odd' to denote 'even'?
This question is influenced by another one I found on the German SE, "Warum nennt man in Deutsch die Zahlen 0, 2, 4 … “gerade” Zahlen?". It asks "Why call Germans the numbers 0, 2, 2 "even".
The ...
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2answers
306 views
Why does the name of the flower 'Forget-me-not' have the same meaning in other languages?
The flower forget-me-not is named "Vergissmeinnicht" in German and "Незабудка" in Russian. The meaning is the same in all three languages. Is this a coincidence?
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2answers
148 views
Is the rate of vocabulary change more or less constant?
Has the rate of vocabulary change (that is, number of words falling out of use per decade, say) been found to be largely constant in human societies or does it strongly depend on circumstances?
If ...
