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1500 questions
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Do any languages contrast [r] and [r:]?
I've heard of languages that contrast [r] and [ɾ] but I am unable to find any language that contrast a normal trill and a long trill. I searched far and near but to no avail. So is there any language that contrast [r] and [r:]?
user30668
9
votes
2 answers
Validity of aging estimation for Proto-Afro-Asiatic
Tl;dr: What reasons do we have--besides glottochronology--to think that Proto-Afro-Asiatic is actually 14,000 years old?
So, if you know much about proto-languages, you might know that Proto-Afro-Asiatic (PAA) blows other proto-languages out of the…
Khove
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9
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2 answers
What are parasitic gaps?
In 2001 M.I.T. Press published a volume titled Parasitic Gaps, edited by Peter W. Cullicover and Paul M. Postal. Its preface begins as follows:
Parasitic gaps (P-gaps) represented by the underlined gaps subscripted p in example (1), have been an…
Michael Hardy
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9
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5 answers
What evolution framework best describes the change between languages over time?
Language change and the evolution of languages can be seen as an evolutionary process. Human brains form the environment that constrains language. Language acquisition provides the replication, recombination, and mutation for language. Thus, the…
Artem Kaznatcheev
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9
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2 answers
Can one sentence have two or multiple possible phrase structure grammars? And what is this called?
After reading about syntactic structure and phrase structure grammar in Wikipedia and on the internet, I was wondering if there are any sentences with more than one possible phrase structure grammar? And is there a special name for such…
9
votes
3 answers
What makes East-Asian languages sound different than European languages?
I'm not sure if this is on-topic here. If I get reasonable amount of comments telling that it's off-topic, I'll delete my post.
I wrote a code that generates random human-readable strings. Every other letter is vowel, and in some random places there…
user32480
9
votes
2 answers
Why are voiceless plosives (p, t, k) unaspirated after /s/?
Take for example English voiceless plosives such as /p t k/ which are aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable and before a vowel as in kill, tar, pie:
[kʰɪl]
[tʰɑː(r)]
[pʰaɪ]
But after a preceding /s/:
[skɪl]
[stɑː(r)]
[spaɪ]
the /s/…
user30668
9
votes
1 answer
Merger of perfect and aorist in Italic and Celtic
One of the common features of the Italic and Celtic branches is the merger of perfect and aorist. So, in the surviving "perfect" forms we find a mixture of old aorist stems and old perfect stems.
Here I want to know, how parallel this merger was. Of…
Sir Cornflakes
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9
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Do Russian-Ukrainian bilinguals or speakers immersed in both languages switch between the pair [ʂ ʐ] and [ʃ ʒ] when they switch between the languages?
In Russian phonology there are [ʂ ʐ], while in Ukrainian phonology there are [ʃ ʒ]. The two sets sound quite identical phonetically, while the articulation positions of the two sets are different. So, do Russian/Ukrainian bilinguals or other…
wodemingzi
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9
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How does one become a field linguist?
It may be because I'm reading Daniel Everett's autobiography right now and it has me all pumped up for adventure... but it does bring up the question: How do you actually break into that field?
Is going for a Ph.D. program like "Language…
Nick Anderegg
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9
votes
1 answer
How does PIE *d- in *dlegh- change to PGmc. p- in plegō (E pledge)?
As shown in the Wiktionary:
pledge
From Middle English plege, from Anglo-Norman plege, from Old French plege (Modern French pleige) from Medieval Latin plevium, plebium, from Medieval Latin plebire "to pledge", from Frankish *plegan (“to pledge,…
archenoo
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9
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Morphology of proper names
I'm wondering if there are any general morphological properties of proper names. If a word is used as a name, it will be constrained by whatever syntactic constraints that language uses from proper names, but are there any kind of cross-linguistic…
Niedfaru
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9
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2 answers
Did Eureka lose its H?
Archimedes famously proclaimed Eureka, I have found it, but should the word itself proclaim I have lost my H?
According to wiktionary and wikipedia, Eureka simply comes from the greek εὕρηκα, perfect active indicative of εὑρίσκω, to find. While…
Matifou
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9
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2 answers
How do tonal-language speakers use tonality when speaking non-tonal languages?
First post. Wanted to title it "Speaking in tones," but that's not very informative.
Long ago, I learned a little about talking drums and whistle speech as long-range communication tools based not on direct semantic coding (Morse, e.g.) but on tonal…
cTen
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9
votes
2 answers
Does the phrase "thinking in a language" have empirical meaning?
In discussions of language learning, multilingualism, and related topics, I hear references to "thinking in a language." Two questions on this stack exchange list have referenced this, namely "What language, if any, do deaf people think in?" and…
James Grossmann
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