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2 answers
habitual aspect in english
In discussions of AAVE, people frequently bring up the "habitual be", as in
(1) He be working.
Usually, they use this as an example of something that Standard English doesn't have. This Wikipedia article, for example, notes that this is a "habitual…
tjhance
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Does anyone know if there are plans for a 'successor' to Huddleston and Pullum (CamGEL or CGEL)?
Huddleston and Pullum's The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CamGEL or CGEL) is widely considered a 'successor' to a previous 'great English grammar': Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language…
linguisticturn
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8
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Old-Persian Numeral System
Does any body know how old-Persian numeral were used and provide some example?
(source of image is Unicode characters maps)
Real Dreams
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8
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Is learning German easier for people who know Sanskrit, and vice versa?
I've heard many times that learning German is easier for those who speak Sanskrit, and vice versa. Is there any linguistic basis for this? What similarities exist between the two languages that may be able to explain this?
This article, for example,…
Manishearth
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8
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4 answers
Why is the English phoneme /θ/ pronounced like /t/ in Indian accents but /s/ in Chinese accents?
The dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/; spelled with th) often present a challenge to non-native learners of English. Depending on the speaker's native language, different phonemes may be substituted. In Indian accented English, the dental fricatives…
Bai Li
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8
votes
3 answers
Explaining the relationship between "short", "kurz" and "curzu"
I've recently noticed something that I can't explain, a link between German and Sardinian. Two languages that, at least apparently for me, are not supposed to be that linked. Also English is included in this, which is more related to German than it…
Alenanno
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8
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1 answer
Is calling a spelling "defective" acceptable in the linguistics of languages other than Hebrew/Aramaic?
Most of my work has been done in Hebrew where describing a spelling as "defective" is common and accepted. Is this wording current in other areas of linguistics or would something like "(not) spelled phonetically" be better?
Theodcyning
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8
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3 answers
Is there a language where another verb form is simpler/more basic than the imperative?
Imperative tends to be the simplest verb form, cf. Latin dic, fac. English is not very inflecting, so other verb forms can be just as simple as the imperative. Nevertheless, is there a language, where another verb form, e. g. 3 sg present or past,…
Abas
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8
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Why are the scripts of Crete known as "Linear"?
Two famous, apparently related scripts now known as Linear A (which encoded an as-yet undeciphered language) and Linear B (used to write Greek) were discovered on the island of Crete.
Why are these scripts known as "Linear"? Is there a story behind…
Robert Columbia
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8
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5 answers
What evidence supports labialized velars in PIE?
Traditional reconstruction gives the following velars in PIE:
*/ḱ/, */ǵ/, */ǵʰ/
*/k/, */g/, */gʰ/
*/kʷ/, */gʷ/, */gʷʰ/
I wonder what evidence is there to consider velars */kʷ/, */gʷ/, */gʷʰ/ separate phonemes rather than combinations of a velar and…
Anixx
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3 answers
Why did the pronunciation of the rhotic phoneme /r/ change after the 2ndWW in public speech?
For example why did radio presenters roll the r on the BBC before the war and not after? Why did Brecht roll the r extensively? Why did Hitler roll the r extensively? My perspective is from the performance point of view but I am looking desperately…
V.Rettich
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8
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4 answers
Why are the reconstructed forms of PIE root in Etymonline and Wiktionary different?
I found PIE roots described in Etymonline (or American Heritage Dictionary) and Wiktionary are quite different. For examples:
agō: *ag- (Etymonline),
*h₂eǵ- (Wiktionary)
laxō: *sleg- (Etymonline),
*slǵ-so (Wiktionary)
stō: *sta-…
coldsun0630
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8
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2 answers
Catalan assimilation of 's' /s/ → [ʃ] after palatal consonants 'ny' /ɲ/ and 'll' /ʎ/
Question
I've noticed a phenomenon in (Central) Catalan speech that I had seen no mention of when studying the language. In words with a final -nys or -lls, the s is assimilated and becomes palatal [ʃ] (or possibly [tʃ]).
e.g.
any /aɲ/ > anys …
iacobo
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8
votes
2 answers
Why does Hebrew transcribe Akkadian š inconsistently?
Biblical Hebrew consistently uses the letter ס (s) to transcribe names with the Akkadian consonant š. For example, Esarhaddon for Aššur-aḥa-iddina, Esther from Ištar, Sargon from Šarru-ukīn (all Akkadian transcriptions copied from Wikipedia).…
b a
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8
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Mutual lexical borrowings between Arabic, Persian and Turkish: a reference request
As an occasional learner of these languages, I find the linguistic situation of Arabic, Persian and Turkish very interesting: they are three genetically unrelated languages (if you stick to unquestioned families, they are Semitic, Indo-European and…
JPP
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