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Do signed languages undergo the same processes of change that the spoken ones do?
There are several processes of change that affect spoken languages, including phonological and phonetic change, semantic change and lexical replacement. Each of these categories, in turn, comprise a large set of complex phenomena, such as all the…
Otavio Macedo
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Is the "principle of least effort" a real factor behind language change?
I have heard and read several times that one of the forces that drive language change is the so called "principle of least effort". According to this account, several changes are caused by an economy in pronunciation. Take this Wikipedia…
Otavio Macedo
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What determines how noun compounds are formed in a language?
In English and other Germanic languages, noun compounds are formed simply by “appending” the nouns in a certain order. For example, phrases like this are very common:
electricity price comparison service
In Portuguese, Spanish and probably other…
Otavio Macedo
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Are some languages more advanced than others?
I have read about animal communication, particularly in mammals and historical evidence in early hominoids. Naturally, I am always amazed how much information species like dolphins and orcas can actually get across. Yet at the same time, I realize…
Stan Shunpike
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How did the same perfect-tense structure become so widespread in Europe?
In many Germanic and Romance languages, the perfect tense is formed with the verb 'to have' or 'to be' plus a past participle. It's easy to find explanations ["I have an arrow (which is) made (by me)" --> "I have made an arrow"] but how did the…
David Garner
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Why are /t/ and /d/ sometimes affricated before /ɹ/ in English?
I saw a post on ELU about a more general question, Softened pronunciation of consonants, such as “t” or “s” followed by “y”. The question was answered in regard to palatalization, especially for phrases like "but you", where /t/ is followed by a…
LarsH
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What is the difference between voiced and voiceless stop consonants?
As a native speaker of American English, when I was listening to the difference sounds in this IPA chart, I was really surprised when I realized that I could not differentiate between p/b, t/d, and k/g. (I think I've always been distinguishing the…
Alan C
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Has there been any research into the phonetics of ventriloquism?
I have always been impressed by the skills of ventriloquists - and I've been wondering lately whether anyone has done any work looking at the acoustic or articulatory properties of the speech of ventriloquists when they are speaking normally and…
LaurenG
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Is there any language that doesn't express Tense but allows "aspectual coercion"?
Mandarin Chinese appears to be a language that may not express tense (at least in the way I will define below), and it does not seem to allow aspectual coercion.
By not expressing Tense I mean, such a language will fail to show morphological…
Alexis Wellwood
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Are the Finnish pronouns related to their Indo-European counterparts?
Although not belonging to the Indo-European family, Finnish has personal pronouns that resemble (to a layperson, at least) the corresponding pronouns in Indo-European languages. For example, the consonant /m/ in the first person pronouns minä…
Otavio Macedo
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Can a stop be both voiced and aspirated?
One day while discussing things with my friends, we came across the topic of trying to pronounce the sound [gh].
No such symbol actually exists in the IPA to my knowledge, but hypothetically it would be a velar stop that's both voiced and aspirated…
Joe Z.
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What is necessary to decide if Lusitanian is a Celtic language?
The Lusitanian language was almost certainly an Indo-European language, but whether or not it was a Celtic language is still uncertain. Some features, as the presence of the initial p- (as in porcom 'pig'), indicate that Lusitanian is more ancient…
Otavio Macedo
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What is the entropy per word of random yet grammatical text?
It has been suggested that to construct an uncrackable yet memorable passphrase with 256-bits of entropy, the passphrase should be manifested as a poem.
The answerer made an estimation of the entropy per word based upon the frequency of common words…
user4812
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What is an "adjectival article"? Apparently Albanian "të" is one
Being in Albania I decided to sit down with a word frequency list of the language and look each up so I would know some of the common words I see around me.
The second most common word in Albanian is "të", which Wiktionary describes as an…
hippietrail
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Current status of the controversy on the date of Indo-European dispersion
There are two conflicting theories about the dispersion of the people speaking proto-Indo-European (by which I mean the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, excluding Hittite and other related Anatolian languages), one seeing it around…
Joël
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