/r/showerlinguistics
/r/Showerthoughts for linguists
/r/Showerthoughts for linguists
/r/showerlinguistics
304 Subscribers
22:50 UTC
In the name "Katz's", as in "Katz's Deli", the <z> is pronounced as an [s] and the <s> is pronounced as a [z]
I know some people just say /kæts/ but I've heard many people say /kætsz/
16:06 UTC
I suppose in Arabic, it would be called “right-edge ellipsis”…
03:44 UTC
It's one thing that multiple spellings share the same pronunciation, but we also gotta beware of different pronunciations for the same spelling, and even scenarios that involve both situations
First there are Madonna fans who like to watch the movie Desperately Seeking Susan (Sue as a nickname) by Orion (o-rye-in) Pictures. Then there's residents of Michigan's Lake Orion (or-ee-in) who live near Madonna's hometown who like to go to Sault Ste. Marie for vacation, sometimes called The Soo.
08:18 UTC
Polyglots and Linguists of Reddit: What is a "what you see is what you get" alphabet you have studied (if any)?
During COVID lockdown, out of curiosity, I have studied and learned the Greek, Russian, and Hebrew alphabets.
Frankly, I cannot help but roll my eyes at the multiple-letters-for-the-same-sound motif. For example, Kaf and Kuf in Hebrew.
So I wonder...Does any alphabet exist that has a 1:1 sound-to-symbol ratio ? And, if not, which alphabet(s) do you think come(s) the closest?
21:52 UTC
If the “labiodental-r” that’s common England ever becomes standard, r > ʋ is gonna be one of those changes that will confuse the hell out linguists in 1000 years time
03:54 UTC
Sharing an article I wrote about "the" (pun intended)
20:11 UTC
Cockney English "brown" [bɹæ̃ːn] and Parisian French "brun" [bʁæ̃] both come from Proto-Germanic [bruːnɑz], meaning that they've ended up with the same vowel qualities by two entirely different mechanisms from the opposite corner of the vowel space.
PG to Cockney: uː > əu > æʊ > æː
PG [uː] borrowed into Gallic Vulgar Latin as [u], u > y > ỹ > œ̃ > æ̃
07:26 UTC
Why does the word "schwa" not have /ə/?
17:24 UTC
TIL the word fob is fun!
The first-rate fob affixed to finer fob fit fabulously, fully, and firmly within the fanatical, fobbing fob's foul fob.
00:47 UTC
I wonder if the use of reusable hunting materials (eg. spears) would have any effect in whether a language develops to be nom-acc or abs-erg
So my train of thought is this.
Let's suppose there be a primitive civilization that has not yet developed its language to the full extent of 'language' we know today. We know that they use spears to hunt deer. One day one of them utters the following:
I-out spear deer
from-me > spear > deer
Time passes and the word for 'spear' is epitomized as 'kill' because they use spears exclusively for killing things.
The sentence then comes to mean
from-me > kill > deer
Let's say that the 'from'-substance is analyzed either into an ergative case suffix or an ergative particle.
In a society where they, say, fished and only used direct physical contact to hunt animals there wouldn't necessarily be a tendency to utter things where from the agent something happens to the object.
All I know of ergativity is that in Basque the ergative case suffix is -k and both the ablative and the partitive suffixes end in -k (-tik and -rik, respectively).
14:07 UTC