Most Popular

1500 questions
9
votes
1 answer

Are there languages in which adverbs inflect?

Are there any languages in which adverbs (in the sense of verb modifiers) inflect to match the verb they modify?
aimalanos
  • 93
  • 3
9
votes
3 answers

Is it possible for an adult to learn a language without carrying a foreign accent?

As an adult, I'm working on learning French, coming from a background growing up speaking a few languages natively. According to French friends of mine I practice with, I have a "good" accent, but I've never been a big fan of "good". So to me this…
9
votes
7 answers

Does IPA notation ever get capitalized to match their written counterparts?

Some alphabets capitalize proper nouns, others capitalize all nouns. Does ipa notation ever get capitalized to match their written counterparts? I would assume not, as it might be sending mixed messages - especially if they could represent different…
Mou某
  • 409
  • 6
  • 15
9
votes
2 answers

Was language invented only once or several times?

We have over 5000 language on Earth as of now, some extant and others not. These all came from what we now call proto languages, but do scientists believe that all proto languages came from one "mono-language" or several different language origins.…
Charlie
  • 211
  • 1
  • 8
9
votes
4 answers

Are there any purely monosyllabic languages in use today?

All languages in the world that I know of use words with more than one syllable. Are there any where all words have strictly one syllable? That would mean that there is just one vocal cluster per word, be it a single vowel (short or long) or a…
alexfernandez
  • 193
  • 1
  • 6
9
votes
2 answers

What is the sound law to describe the etymology of “helix” and “vulva”?

What confused me is the transition from "w" in PIE *wel- to "h" in E. helix . And what's the sound law applied to the word E. "vulva",which has the change from "w" to "v"? helix "a spiral thing," 1560s, from L. helix "spiral," from Gk. helix (gen.…
archenoo
  • 1,717
  • 11
  • 21
9
votes
4 answers

Borrowing words along with the articles or other grammatical parts (like Spanish from Arabic)

Disclaimer: I do not know Arabic. Here is an example of Spanish words of Arabic origin: alacrán, albañil, alquimia... I wonder why Spanish language borrowed so many Arabic words along with the Arabic definite articles (the prefix 'al' in the…
GA1
  • 1,179
  • 1
  • 11
  • 21
9
votes
4 answers

Are there languages without vowel reduction?

Are there languages without vowel reduction? That is, are there languages in which the vowels in certain syllables are not centralized and/or "de-rounded" and/or shortened because of speaking rate, stress patterns, etc.? I've heard that Hungarian…
James Grossmann
  • 8,730
  • 8
  • 41
  • 83
9
votes
4 answers

In what ways do the fields of linguistics and sociology overlap?

I'm a linguistics major and I'm considering a minor in sociology (among others). In what ways do these fields overlap? More specifically, what types of sociology classes are good for a linguistics major? I assume anything having to do with epidemics…
Nick Anderegg
  • 1,965
  • 2
  • 18
  • 28
9
votes
2 answers

What is known about the universal aspects of the relation between intonation and emotion?

Are there language-independent aspects of the expression of emotion by intonation? More specifically, are there established relations between the expression of emotion by linguistic intonation and by musical means (i.e. musical…
Azo
  • 293
  • 1
  • 5
9
votes
3 answers

Is the body language and hand movements manifested by a person as they speak part of that person's idiolect?

By this, I mean do a person's body language and hand gestures as they speak manifest in a consistent and observable way? I'm a person who speaks with my hands very much; if I'm not moving my hands while I talk, I feel as if I'm not explaining things…
Nick Anderegg
  • 1,965
  • 2
  • 18
  • 28
9
votes
3 answers

How can the IPA vowels be memorized?

Memorizing IPA consonants is trivially easy; each symbol represents one sound, and that sound can be described with a variety of parameters about manner of articulation, etc. The IPA vowels, however, are a whole other beast. How can they be…
Nick Anderegg
  • 1,965
  • 2
  • 18
  • 28
9
votes
2 answers

What is the "first language"?

I vaguely remember reading an article about a book that talked about what the "first language" would have consisted of, but I can't seem to recall what the book was or what the language was called. What is the first language or the origin of…
Nick Anderegg
  • 1,965
  • 2
  • 18
  • 28
9
votes
2 answers

What is the historical basis for the use of this type of phrasal verb in English but less so in Spanish?

For example, English uses phrases like to look for and to look at, which (I believe) are considered phrasal verbs. Spanish, however, would under normal circumstances use some derivation of buscar and mirar, respectively, instead of a prepositional…
9
votes
4 answers

Any other example of "socially stigmatized phoneme" like the "th" sound in some Venetian dialect?

Older people living in some rural areas north of Venice use the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ for many words, like cena "supper" which is pronounced θena, exactly like in Spanish cena (Castilian, not Latin American) while in Italian the…
betelgeuse
  • 390
  • 3
  • 7