All Questions
10,897
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How certain is the Latin origin of Albanian ”gënjej” (to lie) from Latin (ingannō<ganniō)?
Albanian word gënjej ("to lie") is considered to be of Latin origin — from Vulgar Latin ingannō, from Latin ganniō... These are the only details I could find. Wiktionary gives no scholarly ...
- 656
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votes
1
answer
109
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Why are some Word Classes not Immediately Dominated by a Phrasal Category?
Source: pp 106-107, Syntax, A Generative Introduction (3 ed, 2012) by Andrew Carnie
[6.] iv) English Phrase Structure Rules
a) CP ⟶ (C) TP
b) TP ⟶ {NP/CP} (T) VP
c) VP ⟶ (AdvP+) V (NP) ({NP/...
CommunityBot
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3
votes
1
answer
91
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Origin of Latin Non-Finite Verbal Endings
I'm wondering about the origins of the various non-finite verbal endings in Latin.
My understanding so far of their PIE origins:
Infinitives:
Present Active: -s-ey (dative of an s-stem verbal noun)
...
- 6,547
-2
votes
1
answer
95
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context free grammar ressource
I am looking for a large...ish context free grammar, preferably in flat format (so no XML for example). The language does not matter. Whether it has features or not doesn't matter either. Can you ...
0
votes
1
answer
111
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What script is this, and what does it mean? [closed]
A girl in the gym has this printed down her trousers but has no idea what the text means or where the trousers even were bought from.
My two guesses are either Amharic or Oghams. Who knows?
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2
votes
0
answers
54
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How do I identify constituents and clause boundaries?
I'm going through some practice exercises for an upcoming exam and trying to do syntax trees is really tripping me up. Could anyone please walk me through how they would break them down and how to ...
- 69
3
votes
1
answer
481
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Why did Modern Tamil reduce its alphabet from Middle Tamil to Old Tamil?
It is generally known that Modern Tamil (since around a century) totally simplified its alphabet from covering all Indic consonants to only consonants in Old Tamil (as written in Tolkāppiyam grammar ...
- 82k
2
votes
2
answers
241
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About phrasal verbs, separable verb and verbs with adverbs
I was wondering about the concepts listed in the title. In one side we have the separable verbs in German, like mitkommen:
Ich komme mit.
On the other hand we have phrasal verbs such as think over ...
- 735
3
votes
1
answer
151
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How common is Teke as a written language in Gabon and what variety is usually the basis of the written language?
In many instances of Gabonese media, "Teke" seems to be regarded as a single language, however there are several varieties that are distinct enough to be considered as separate languages. ...
CommunityBot
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5
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0
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102
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Do the "gibberish lines" in the Charition farce reflect a Dravidian language?
The Charition farce (P.Oxy. III, 413) is a Greek theatre play which tells the story of a girl, Χαριτίων Charitíōn, who is held captive in a coastal kingdom of India. The only manuscript of this ...
- 680
1
vote
1
answer
105
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Determining the number of phonemes from set of phones
For this exercise, I'm to determine the number of phonemes from a set of phones and then write their allophonic rules for each phoneme
phones: [b], [ɣ], [β], [l], [t], [d], [g]
However, I think I'm ...
- 82k
-1
votes
2
answers
172
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Half-letters in American English
I'm an American spending some time in Japan, and notice that even though most people know some English words, they have a hard time understanding and pronouncing a word like "left" because ...
- 82k
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votes
1
answer
111
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Why do Spanish words change meaning when put in a sentence? [closed]
The word "ponga" means "I put" but when put in this sentence: Que solo la mire de lejito y se ponga asi" is "That he only looks at her from afar and gets like this" &...
- 7,531
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42
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The acceptability of verbal phrase ellipsis and subject-auxiliary inversion in triple modal sentences
I have been researching on multiple modal constructions, which is a feature used in the Southern United States. Unlike Standard English, this dialect allows more than one modal auxiliary per clause.
...
- 693
4
votes
7
answers
11k
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Is it possible to become fluent in any language simply by reading books in that language?
I know the best way to learn a language is to go to a country which speaks that language, but what if you don't have that convenience.
Is it possible to become fluent simply through reading books in ...
- 453
2
votes
1
answer
73
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How exactly are vowel qualities plotted on a neat quadrilateral chart?
How exactly are vowel qualities of a particular speaker, or average qualities of the speakers of an accent, plotted on a neat quadrilateral chart like these (from the Wikipedia articles for Received ...
- 352
5
votes
1
answer
57
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Clarifications on exophora
An exophora is an expression referring back to something outside the text. Specifically, wikipedia states "not in the immediate text".
Does “not in the immediate text” mean not within the ...
- 217
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0
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26
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Distance between languages [duplicate]
This question is similar to this one; the difference is that I'd like to find out about quantitative measurements that are not based solely on the vocabulary.
Are there any such objective quantitative ...
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votes
2
answers
264
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Egyptian Hieroglyphics: where are Champollion's proofs?
I'm reading both the French Dictionnaire égyptien by J. Champollion published in 1841 and the English edition. It's my understanding that it is the standard for decipherment. The text provides a ...
- 217
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1
answer
119
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How and when was the name of Somalia written with س in Iran?
In Arab world Somalia is written with ص. They call it صومال.
But in Iran where people use so many Arabic words in a daily basis without misspelling them, write Somalia with س. They write it سومالی.
...
- 106
7
votes
2
answers
1k
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Why are the phonemes of Tutankhamun's throne name transliterated out of order?
Tutankhamun's throne name in the sacred writing is as follows:
Which, from the bottom, represent ideograms conventionally pronounced as Neb-U-Kheper-Ra.
However, when the name is transliterated (for ...
1
vote
1
answer
125
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Closeness between written words and spoken words over different languages
In my understanding, the different languages exist in spoken form and (mostly) in written forms (what about sign languages?).
Some languages have developed a close relationship between the written ...
- 217
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votes
2
answers
72
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How can we represent a stressed monosyllabic word?
According to Wiktionary, in Chinese, the word 是 means "truly; indeed" when it is stressed. However, according to Wikipedia, it appears that the concept of word stress is not applicable to a ...
- 759
1
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1
answer
75
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In PIE, what was the function of the suffix *-(ō)l?
For example, in the word:
*H₃nóbʰ-ōl / *H₃ómbʰ-l̥ "navel" (Wiktionary: Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₃nóbʰōl)
- 6,622
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1
answer
95
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Possessive reflexive pronouns (himself's, herself's, myself's, etc.)
"He looked out the window and saw his car."
Does "his" mean the same person initially called "he", or someone else? In English, it could be either one.
If the English ...
- 125
5
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2
answers
1k
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How might one swear in Proto-Indo-European? [closed]
Proto-Indo-European is an interesting topic. I'm fascinated by how it spread. But, I wonder how to use curse words. These words, like others, will probably be reconstructed from other languages: Latin,...
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1
answer
72
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Standard representation of dialects across cultures?
If you expand the "Dialectal data" link here on the Chinese Wiktionary, you see like ~40+ what I'll call "varieties". They are grouped under 2 categories:
Variety (parent group, ...
- 82k
2
votes
2
answers
244
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When is a conjunction not a conjunction?
I am trying to get to the bottom of Thai constructions which I can only gloss along the lines of:
(1) Because of the fact that her friends helped her escape prevented the soldiers from catching her;
...
- 125
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0
answers
86
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Is there an android app that adds short vowels to Persian texts?
I found an app for Arabic.
But is there an app or maybe a website for Persian too?
- 377
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2
answers
106
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How to interpret the only available Middle Persian dictionary?
I am looking at this:
I think this is a verb (some others are even less clear). What does besaz(en)- mean? The parentheses and the hyphen. The M is for Middle Persian, but there is no indication that ...
- 377
6
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4
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1k
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What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
I'm a Persian, I'm from Iran, and I speak Farsi.
Here, we have a very strange rule that we turn آ into و in informal conversations.
For example:
خانه = house (formal) /kh a ne/
خونه = house (informal) ...
- 377
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0
answers
18
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Is there any type of app that trains my english skills?
I like to write some more in english and for that I want to improve my vocabulary (and overall grammar skills). Is there an app that focuses on teaching new words and explains their meaning? I know ...
4
votes
1
answer
6k
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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 ...
- 125
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0
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42
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Is this syntactic tree correct so far? [closed]
*Not homework
I have been doing practice problems, but I am really struggling with syntax trees.
I think I have the first part of the tree, but I'm not sure about the rest.
Here is the practice ...
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0
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53
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Did the discovery of Akkadian texts written in Ugaritic script affect our knowledge of Akkadian?
Besides Ugaritic, Hurrian and Akkadian texts, written in Ugaritic alphabetic script, were also discovered at Ras Shamra.1
My question is straightforward: did the discovery of Akkadian texts written ...
- 983
11
votes
5
answers
3k
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Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
I just realised that all (standalone) Japanese numbers from 1-10 are borrowed from Chinese (maybe except 4 and 7 if they're read as よん and なな instead of し and しち). Now, I understand why a language ...
- 1,449
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votes
2
answers
884
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Swahili stress with two vowels in a row, how does it work?
I'm uncertain how stress works with two vowels in a row,
so I used a regex to grab some words out of a small learner's-dictionary,
and then make the two possible stress-patterns after each entry,
...
- 125
1
vote
4
answers
116
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Second Person Inanimates in Swahili
I know what when making verbs about people I can use an object placeholder in order to indicate the difference between the first, second and third persons.
So if I'm talking to my daughters I might ...
- 125
2
votes
3
answers
219
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Does Swahili have relational nouns?
I've just come across the concept of relational nouns, and I'm curious if Swahili's position-indicating words count.
In Swahili, there's a possessive particle -a that joins nouns together. For ...
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2
answers
172
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What is Ugaritic "Ž"?
In New Evidence on the Last Days of Ugarit (1965), Astour quotes a Ugaritic letter (RS 19.11) which seems to include a glyph "Ž":
However, I haven't been able to find any source talking ...
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1
answer
272
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What is the etymology of the Maghrebi interjection "شاه" (chah or cheh)?
At least in the Maghreb, there is a word to say "serves [somebody] right!", i.e. "!شاه" or "ccah!" in Berber form.
I'm struggling to find its etymology. Although it might ...
CommunityBot
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2
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Is there a list of word meanings that are universally represented in all languages?
I am looking for a comprehensive list of words/concepts that are represented in most if not all known languages - presumably the category would include human body parts (hand, foot, mouth, eye), ...
- 6,136
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0
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48
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Does the word "mi" mean anything by itself in finnish?
Starting to learn finnish, I have noticed lots of question words in finnish all start with the syllable "mi": mika, mista, missa, miten ...
Does "mi" mean anything by itself, or is ...
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17
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8
answers
3k
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Is it feasible to create an IPA adaptation for cats?
I was trying to transcribe my cat's noises into IPA. For example, her wanting to be petted is like [njæː] or [njaː]. But purring doesn't seem to fit any existing notation, except maybe [ʜ]. Has anyone ...
- 693
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4
answers
197
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Is Sign Language "spoken" in other languages?
In English we say "I speak sign language," I'm curious if the same idiom exists in other languages too or do they refer to it differently?
- 217
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1
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185
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What influenced the fact in almost all European languages the word human "man" means a male?
Why "werman" (OldEnglish man as male) became simply Man (human) and "wifman" (OldEnglish man as female) became woman?
Man in English (man, human)
Homme in French (man, human)
Mann ...
- 6,622
2
votes
0
answers
17
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To what extent can Jakobson's communicative functions be applied to an analysis of written texts?
As a tutor of teachers in Spain taking the state entrance exam for English I am often confronted with the typical exam question 'identify the communciative fuctions' for text analysis. The teachers ...
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2
answers
51
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Can "words" ever have multiple parts of speech?
I am considering the design of database schemas for various word types, and wondering how the properties work. For example, it appears that a wordnet entry has 1 partOfSpeech and 1 lemma. But I don't ...
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0
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15
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What is "Argument Visibility" and “INFL“ in Case Theory?
I didn't know much about case theory. Can anyone help me explain the meaning of "argument visibility" in a way that is easy to understand?
What's more, does the "INFL" mean "...
- 197
0
votes
2
answers
236
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Frequency of phonemes in Indian languages
I would like to know the relative frequency of phonemes in Indian languages whose sript is basically very close to Devanagiri. We need this data to make a pronunciation based keyboard layout for ...
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