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1500 questions
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Are there any diacritics not on the top or bottom of a letter?
I don't know of any besides the horn on Ơ and Ư and the middle tilde on ᵯ and some other consonants
I'm interested in particular in a diacritic precomposed with both "I" and "U"
kwaalaateimaa
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Does any living language contrast /kʷ/ and /kw/?
Does any living language contrast /kʷ/ and /kw/?
If yes, is there a way I can hear a minimal pair spoken?
Anton Sherwood
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13
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6 answers
Why did English stop using thou?
In Shakespearean English, thou/thee/thy/thine were used for second person singular, and you/your/yours were used for second person plural. In modern English, you is used for both singular and plural. Why did English stop using thou?
Orcris
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Dental fricatives for Brazilian Portuguese speakers
Whenever I observe my fellow Brazilian countrymen learning to speak English, a clear sound change pattern stands out:
[θ] → [f]
[ð] → [d], syllable-initial
[f], syllable-final
So, for example, think is usually pronounced [fĩk], then is…
Otavio Macedo
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13
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How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?
Note: I am not a linguist, please provide any corrections for terminology.
I would like to find some approximate data (if it exists) comparing several languages with the number of different syllables in all used words of the language and in the X%…
Puco4
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13
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Is the "p" in "spin" really a "b"?
Daniel Everett claims in Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes (Ch. 11) that the English "p" and "b" in "pin" and "bin" are separate phonemes, since they alone distinguish the words "pin" and "bin," whereas the different "p" sounds in "pin" and "spin" are…
WillG
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13
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3 answers
What are known PIE stock phrases?
In the wikipedia page for Proto-Indo-European, it said that Proto-Indo-Europeans had "oral heroic poetry or song lyrics that used stock phrases such as imperishable fame and wine-dark sea". What are stock phrases that were very likely used by the…
Number File
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5 answers
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 these words. Acknowledging the challenge of making…
Baz
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13
votes
7 answers
What is recursion?
What is recursion? I've looked at the Wikipedia's explanation (recursion and then recursion in language) but that explanation is not really clear.
IamLazy
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Have ejective consonants ever arisen on their own?
In an old comment on another question, jlawler mentions in passing:
Much the same can be said about ejective consonants -- other languages can pick them up, but nobody knows where they come from. Clicks and ejectives are common in the phonologies…
Draconis
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What is this feature of British English called?
In British English you'll often hear them post-fixing expressions that American English tends to keep up front.
For example, I've heard British English speakers (golf commentators in particular) say things like "It looks easy, that shot."
That…
Dennis
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13
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2 answers
Is the Indo-European language family made up?
Question Which European Languages are not Indo-European? on History.SE got this peculiar comment from user mathreadler:
None of them are. Indo-European is completely made-up language family by Britons who wanted India to have excuse to be part of…
Pavel
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13
votes
1 answer
Relations between 'knee' and 'generation'
Recently, a question was asked about the possibility of the words knee and generation being cognates. Unfortunately, that question is rather unclear, so I'm asking this as a separate post.
The words in question are commonly derived from the PIE…
Marc Schütz
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13
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3 answers
What's the difference between /ɪ/ and /i(ː)/?
In English there's the vowel sound /ɪ/ as in "bin" and /i(ː)/ as in "been".
My girlfriend, who is Greek, cannot perceive the difference, but to me they sound very different.
Is the difference really only the length of the vowel?
If I hold the vowel…
Matt Ellen
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5 answers
Rudeness by being polite
When talking to learners of my mother tongue, Swedish, I've sometimes had to explain how using too polite language can be taken as rude or insulting, as it creates a certain distance between the speakers.
I guess this is a mechanism in many…
leo
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