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1500 questions
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Are some languages known to have taken grammatical features etc rather than just lexicon from their substrate languages?
It's common for the language of an area to have replaced an older language previously spoken there. The new language typically will have a few words which can be traced to the old language, the latter being called a "substrate". For instance,…
hippietrail
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Which language was regularly written in the most alphabets?
There are a number of languages which have historically been written in more than one alphabet (Hindi/Urdu, Serbo-Croatian, Uzbek and so on). I am wondering which single language has been regularly written in the most different alphabets.
SigueSigueBen
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Does accent/dialect prestige rely on socio-cultural bias or on acoustics?
Is there any evidence that implies that accent/dialect prestige is formed due to the sounds of accents (i.e. something to back up statements like an accent being "harsh sounding") or is it really just to do with perceptions of the area in which the…
Danger Fourpence
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Pre-Proto-Basque: is there a methodology to establishing its vocabulary?
For example, say I have a list Basque/Euskera words, is there a way I can reconstruct these modern Basque words into a Pre-Proto-Basque version?
beo (hot)
lur (earth)
izotz (ice)
izuga (fear)
bai (yes)
ze (no)
ao (mouth)
draga…
Brandon Minton
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Who was the first to call noun classes "genders"?
I'm not asking about the origin of grammatical gender. I am asking where is the earliest example of the term "gender" used to describe classes of nouns. I'm wondering who first decided to name grammatical classes of nouns (and their treatment) as…
Richard Nilsen
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1 answer
How to identify character names in a body of text?
I'm trying to research methods of identifying or pattern matching names of characters in a novel or a general body of text, but so far my search has been unsuccessful, since "character" refers to those of the alphabet in context with "pattern…
Aram Kocharyan
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Distinguishing dialects objectively: lexical sets in non-English settings
The concept of lexical set is a useful technique for differentiating accents or dialects within a language. A lexical set is a set of all words/syllables that are pronounced with the same vowel. These sets partition the syllables in the language,…
Mitch
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Why is "No" more universal than "Yes"?
I apologize if this has been asked. I'm a little surprised if not. I don't have much experience with non-European languages, but regardless, I see that "No" is almost always with "N", but "Yes" is very different from one language to another.
Si -…
Chuckk Hubbard
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What is the difference between a copula and a transitive verb?
I can only speak from an English perspective. Be seems to me to be a transitive verb, when joining a subject and an object, yet it is described as a copula.
What I mean is
The bullseye is the target
Looks to me like subject, verb,…
Matt Ellen
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Are there alternatives to the comparative method in historical linguistics?
As far as I can tell, the comparative method is the most accepted and widely used method in historical linguistics. Often used in conjunction with the internal reconstruction method, it has proved to be very successful ever since the 19th century.…
Otavio Macedo
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What sound change(s) underlie [iʒ-] in São Vicente?
Is there a particular sound change that would explain changing a word-initial [ʒu] (or alternatively [dʒu]) to [iʒ] before a stressed syllable? Or might this be best explained as dropping the [u] by syncope and adding a [i] by prothesis?
I found…
Dan Getz
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2 answers
Method for Self Teaching
I'm very interested in linguistics and cultures/societies, however, I cannot, at this time, go to college. I'm fairly good with teaching myself things, however, and would like to know what methods (ie. Sites, books, etc.) are good for Self educating…
user325655
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Did PIE *h3 cause voicing in any other words than the "drink" word?
The Proto-Indo-European "third laryngeal", *h3, is often assumed to have been a voiced sound based on the fact that some reflexes of the "drink" root *peh3- appear to show voicing assimilation of p to b: e.g. Sanskrit pibati < *pi-ph3-, Latin bibit…
TKR
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How the tau gallicum may have been pronounced?
The so-called tau gallicum was a character used in Gaulish, written Đ, ð or even a Θ. Its name comes from the only commentary on it that we have, by Vergil (Appendix Vergiliana, Catalepton II, 4).
Every study I have read on Gaulish states that it…
Evpok
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Oldest proto-languages
Dating proto-languages is obviously something we can't do precisely, but we can offer reasonable ranges. For example, Proto-Indo-European can't really be much younger than 5 millennia, and let's say that 9 is an upper bound that would satisfy even…
user54748
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