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12 answers

26k views

What characteristics are unique to English (or at least rare among language as a whole)?

Zairja

1,148

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66 votes

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Why did early Indo-European languages seem to be morphologically complex?

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54 votes

13 answers

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newinterested

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41 votes

9 answers

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James Grossmann

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41 votes

10 answers

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Languages that are gaining morphological distinctions

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Mitch

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38 votes

5 answers

3k views

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Louis Rhys

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34 votes

4 answers

2k views

Why are certain there-sentences infelicitous in English?

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Vitaly

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34 votes

2 answers

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alecxe

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33 votes

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dainichi

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32 votes

6 answers

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Is there any evidence to support the claim that English grammar is unusually straightforward?

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Tom Hosker

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31 votes

5 answers

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Is future tense in English really a myth?

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26 votes

4 answers

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Why was מֹשֶׁה‎ transliterated as [moʊzɨz]?

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WAF

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26 votes

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26 votes

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JSBձոգչ

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26 votes

8 answers

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American English : are [ə] and [ʌ] different phonemes? (schwa vs. chevron)

phonology phonemes american-english allophones

Fabien Snauwaert

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25 votes

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Are there any languages or cultures that have genderless given names?

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Robusto

742

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25 votes

3 answers

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25 votes

9 answers

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24 votes

23 answers

26k views

Is there a language whose writing is 100% phonemic?

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Pacerier

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23 votes

3 answers

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Reversal of kinship terms when speaking to a child

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22 votes

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21 votes

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21 votes

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What characteristics are unique to English (or at least rare among language as a whole)?

Why did early Indo-European languages seem to be morphologically complex?

Do unschooled people use cases correctly, e.g. in Germany and in Russia?

What is word order used for in "free word order" languages?

Languages that are gaining morphological distinctions

Why does speech speed seem to vary between different languages?

Why are certain there-sentences infelicitous in English?

Why is “ß” not used in Swiss German?

What languages lack personal pronouns, and why?

Is there any evidence to support the claim that English grammar is unusually straightforward?

Is future tense in English really a myth?

Why was מֹשֶׁה‎ transliterated as [moʊzɨz]?

Why is constituency needed, since dependency gets the job done more easily and economically?

Which Romance languages have reflexes of the Latin nominative in nouns?

American English : are [ə] and [ʌ] different phonemes? (schwa vs. chevron)

Are there any languages or cultures that have genderless given names?

How do linguists distinguish between case endings and postpositions, especially in languages which have both and/or have no traditional grammar?

Are there languages that distinguish between inclusive and exclusive "or"?

Is there a language whose writing is 100% phonemic?

Reversal of kinship terms when speaking to a child

Does Japanese have determiners?

Why do Polish and Belarusian have an atypical greeting if compared to other Slavic languages?

Paucal number without singular

Why is /h/ called voiceless vowel phonetically, and /h/ consonant phonologically?

Are there any fundamental differences in personal pronoun acquisition across languages?

Are the Japanese and Korean subject particles known to be related in any way, including by Sprachbund?

How powerful is literacy to slow down language change?

What is the function of the soft sign (Ь) in Russian?

Are there any languages that mark nouns as mass?

Are there any languages that don't permit instrumental subjects?