User Draconis

164 votes

Accepted

Why did Old English lose both thorn and eth?

answered Jul 5, 2019 at 23:04

85 votes

Why do English transliterations of Arabic names have so many Qs in them?

answered Sep 29, 2019 at 19:35

77 votes

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Is English tonal for some words, like "permit"?

answered Sep 9, 2019 at 4:58

76 votes

What is the term for this derivation: "Cheeseburger comes from Hamburger" but... the word hamburger didn't refer to ham

answered Nov 30, 2022 at 2:30

72 votes

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Is Sanskrit really the mother of all languages?

answered Sep 4, 2019 at 19:16

65 votes

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Were ancient languages as sophisticated as modern languages?

answered Dec 16, 2019 at 2:26

58 votes

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Is it unusual that English uses possessive for past tense?

answered Oct 9, 2019 at 23:08

52 votes

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Days of the week in Yiddish -- why so similar to Germanic?

answered Feb 14, 2021 at 22:15

46 votes

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Why isn't "I've" a proper response?

answered Aug 22, 2019 at 17:45

44 votes

Since when did Indo-European languages start associating noun genders with male/female sexes?

answered May 2, 2021 at 18:47

43 votes

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How did the generic masculine emerge?

answered Feb 15 at 17:21

41 votes

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Are there modern languages without standardized spelling? If not, why?

answered Jun 6, 2022 at 23:23

41 votes

How did שְׁלֹמֹה (shlomo) become Solomon?

answered Jul 1, 2019 at 21:22

40 votes

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Is the Cyrillic letter 'Z' the same as the number 3

answered Jul 7, 2020 at 0:35

40 votes

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Is future tense in English really a myth?

answered Sep 5, 2019 at 16:38

37 votes

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Are language and thought the same?

answered Sep 3, 2019 at 15:22

36 votes

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Why are J, U, W considered part of the basic Latin Alphabet?

answered Feb 24, 2021 at 16:04

34 votes

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Why do the Romance languages use definite articles, when Latin doesn't?

answered Oct 14, 2019 at 17:35

34 votes

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Do any languages use words like particles to represent commas, periods, hyphens, quotes, parentheses, etc.?

answered Dec 14, 2021 at 17:24

34 votes

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Why vowels sound different from each other

answered Sep 9, 2018 at 23:39

33 votes

Why do most languages have a different form for singular vs plural nouns?

answered Feb 24, 2020 at 0:03

33 votes

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Why do even completely illiterate persons, who speak their national language poorly, speak their local dialect with perfection?

answered Aug 8, 2020 at 18:42

32 votes

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What do you call an IPA symbol that lacks a name (e.g. ɲ)?

answered Apr 22, 2019 at 16:59

30 votes

Why were writing systems invented independently during roughly the same period across multiple civilizations?

answered Jun 5, 2021 at 22:11

30 votes

Why are the orthographies of Ancient/Proto Languages so Impractical?

answered Mar 26, 2020 at 19:40

29 votes

How does the nonsense word "frabjous" conform to English phonotactics?

answered Apr 14, 2021 at 17:40

29 votes

Is there a language where there are personal pronouns for the first or second person that have gender?

answered Oct 3, 2020 at 1:48

29 votes

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Why was apostrophe so vaguely used in Early Modern English?

answered Feb 2, 2019 at 16:28

28 votes

Is there a language where there are personal pronouns for the first or second person that have gender?

answered Oct 3, 2020 at 1:34

27 votes

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Is there an effort to prove phonemes?

answered May 3, 2021 at 21:27

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808 Answers

Why did Old English lose both thorn and eth?

Why do English transliterations of Arabic names have so many Qs in them?

Is English tonal for some words, like "permit"?

What is the term for this derivation: "Cheeseburger comes from Hamburger" but... the word hamburger didn't refer to ham

Is Sanskrit really the mother of all languages?

Were ancient languages as sophisticated as modern languages?

Is it unusual that English uses possessive for past tense?

Days of the week in Yiddish -- why so similar to Germanic?

Why isn't "I've" a proper response?

Since when did Indo-European languages start associating noun genders with male/female sexes?

How did the generic masculine emerge?

Are there modern languages without standardized spelling? If not, why?

How did שְׁלֹמֹה (shlomo) become Solomon?

Is the Cyrillic letter 'Z' the same as the number 3

Is future tense in English really a myth?

Are language and thought the same?

Why are J, U, W considered part of the basic Latin Alphabet?

Why do the Romance languages use definite articles, when Latin doesn't?

Do any languages use words like particles to represent commas, periods, hyphens, quotes, parentheses, etc.?

Why vowels sound different from each other

Why do most languages have a different form for singular vs plural nouns?

Why do even completely illiterate persons, who speak their national language poorly, speak their local dialect with perfection?

What do you call an IPA symbol that lacks a name (e.g. ɲ)?

Why were writing systems invented independently during roughly the same period across multiple civilizations?

Why are the orthographies of Ancient/Proto Languages so Impractical?

How does the nonsense word "frabjous" conform to English phonotactics?

Is there a language where there are personal pronouns for the first or second person that have gender?

Why was apostrophe so vaguely used in Early Modern English?

Is there a language where there are personal pronouns for the first or second person that have gender?

Is there an effort to prove phonemes?