Most Popular
1500 questions
8
votes
1 answer
Distinction between Chemistry and Alchemy in Arabic and Farsi languages
According to Wikipedia, in Europe the semantic distinction between the rational science of chimia and the occult alchimia arose in the early 18th century. So it seems like there was a need to separate these terms with the advancement of scientific…
ali
- 181
- 3
8
votes
12 answers
What are the exact relations between Slovak and Slovene?
The former seems to have more speakers, while the latter seems to possess the elder history.
Slovak said to be a West Slavic language, while Slovene seems to belong to the South Slavic group (reputedly having some traits shared with the West Slavic…
Manjusri
- 2,781
- 1
- 19
- 27
8
votes
2 answers
How common is phonemic vowel length across languages?
Including different kinds of length distinctions, such as in stressed syllables only, or stressed and unstressed, etc.
Kaninchen
- 392
- 1
- 12
8
votes
3 answers
Did Proto-Indo-European put the adjective before or behind the noun?
Did PIE put the adjective behind the noun (like Romance languages usually do) or before the noun (like Germanic languages)?
The Thin Whistler
- 212
- 1
- 6
8
votes
2 answers
How can you establish that a word is a proform?
A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.
But how do you establish a word as a proform and are there rules that guide the…
Knotwood V
- 81
- 3
8
votes
1 answer
An East Asian sprachbund?
I wonder whether it makes sense to consider the east Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and potentially others) as part of a sprachbund, like the European languages in standard average European
The CJKV languages have a long…
Aqualone
- 689
- 4
- 9
8
votes
4 answers
Why is the subject outside the VP in most theories of syntax?
I'm trying to understand why in most theories of syntax, the subject of a sentence is the sister of the verb, and not the child eg:
S -> NP VP instead of
VP -> NP V (NP...)
The latter feels more intuitive to me because:
The verb semantically…
nathan
- 181
- 1
8
votes
1 answer
Are PIE *suHnús "son" and *snusós "daughter-in-law" related?
One of the Proto-Indo-European words for "son" appears to have been *suHnús (Skt. sūnú-, Goth. sunus, etc.). The word for "daughter-in-law" is reconstructed as *snusós (Lat. nurus, Gk. νυός, etc.). Could the latter be derived from the…
TKR
- 10,893
- 26
- 60
8
votes
2 answers
Is modern English the most spoken language of all time?
Out of all of the people that have ever lived, did/do more of them speak modern English than any other language? There are 2 billion English speakers alive today, but in my brief search I wasn't able to find data on the number of speakers throughout…
GhostNoticer14
- 183
- 1
- 5
8
votes
2 answers
Why are mixed languages so rare?
It seems to be an established fact that mixed languages are rare, and that most languages can be classified as belonging to some family. And this seems to be true; for example, in the former territories of the Roman empire, either a Romance language…
Aqualone
- 689
- 4
- 9
8
votes
1 answer
Are the words "blue" and "red" universally linked to coldness and warmness in different languages?
We often talk about warm vs cold colors. When someone feels sad, we say she "feels blue".
I conjecture this may be universal across cultures due to our experience with the warmness of the sun (which is red, at least when setting) and the coldness of…
J Li
- 587
- 3
- 7
8
votes
2 answers
Which writing systems have the highest/lowest stroke-to-sound ratios?
Preemptive note: This question is about sound-based writing systems, excluding logographic systems like Chinese. Transitional systems like Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya script or Man’yōgana are also excluded, as are heterograms, etc. I’m only asking…
Janus Bahs Jacquet
- 4,673
- 1
- 22
- 28
8
votes
3 answers
Are zzz's associated with sleeping outside of english-speaking cultures?
Zzz's are often used in comics or cartoons to mean sleeping, or snoring.
Is this meaning understood widely in the world, or just western/english-speaking cultures?
aaaidan
- 197
- 1
- 3
8
votes
1 answer
Relationship between Geneva and gin?
I've been curiously browsing wikipedia today. The word Geneva, besides the city and Canton, is also used to refer to a type of Gin that's made there, and to any other kind of Gin as a generified word.
Based on my "research", gin is named after…
Ram Rachum
- 197
- 4
8
votes
2 answers
Which makes more more effective vocabulary practice: L1 -> L2 or L2 -> L1?
Note: Please don't assume that because I'm asking about vocabulary, that my only method of language study is vocabulary memorization.
I'm in the process of learning a couple of new languages, and am getting in the habit of using flash cards for…
Flimzy
- 622
- 1
- 5
- 19