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1500 questions
23
votes
8 answers
Does Japanese have determiners?
It's generally established that Japanese does not have the grammatical category of articles (akin to English "a/an" and "the").
But as mentioned in this answer, the concept of articles seems to be something fairly whimsical that came out of…
hippietrail
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23
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9 answers
Are there grammatical analyses of languages that are extremely different from IE grammar?
It's a fact that the grammar core of most European languages (not only IE ones) can be analysed in a relatively precise common framework. Of course I do not know much of these languages, but the basic concepts of nouns, verbs, adjectives, verb…
JPP
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23
votes
3 answers
Is there a single origin for the connection between time and weather?
There are several families of languages where the same word can mean either a concept closely related to time or a concept closely related to weather:
Romance root: French temps, Italian tempo, Spanish tiempo, …
Slavic root: Bulgarian време,…
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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23
votes
5 answers
How did Korean become a language isolate?
According to most linguists, Korean is a language isolate. Why doesn't it have any sister languages, like languages usually do? Why didn't it spread to other areas, or split into various languages? The speakers are not geographically isolated from…
Louis Rhys
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23
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3 answers
Is Yiddish a creole language? And if not, what is it?
A "creole" language is formed by the merging of two parent languages, usually through an earlier rudimentary mixture of the two. Does this make Yiddish a creole language?
My question is really about what constitutes a creole language: what are its…
Robusto
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23
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2 answers
Why did some Hebrew words beginning with Yod become transliterated into Latin as "hi?"
This is something I noticed when reading some different older English bibles. Often times, it seems there was originally & traditionally a digraph (I guess) ⟨Hi⟩ where now the more proper letter ⟨J⟩ is used:
Hierusalem (Jerusalem)
Hiob…
Matthew T. Scarbrough
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23
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8 answers
Do absolute synonyms exist?
By absolute synonyms, I mean words (in the same language) that are interchangeable in all situations.
There can't be differences in register, meaning, or emotional value.
Is there material that treats about this subject, especially showing examples…
beton
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23
votes
1 answer
Is the Dené–Yeniseian hypothesis widely accepted, and has it led to further research?
In 2008 Edward Vajda presented his decade-long research into a connection between the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia (e.g. Ket, Yugh) and the American Na-Dené (Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit) family. His conclusion was the the languages were indeed…
Mark Beadles
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23
votes
4 answers
Why do Polish and Belarusian have an atypical greeting if compared to other Slavic languages?
While chatting with a polish penpal, I've discovered that in Polish the expression for "good morning/good day/hello/good afternoon" varies if compared to the other Slavic languages; later I saw that also Belarusian has the same behavior: they both…
Alenanno
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22
votes
4 answers
Does Japanese have pronouns?
It is often said that Japanese doesn't really have a pronoun word class, such as in the Wikipedia article on Japanese Grammar:
Although many grammars and textbooks mention pronouns (代名詞 daimeishi), Japanese lacks true pronouns. (Daimeishi can be…
curiousdannii
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22
votes
3 answers
What did the Greeks and Romans believe about language relationships?
The ancient Greeks and Romans had no concept of historical linguistics or of the Indo-European language family. However, it would have been noticeable to anyone who spoke even a little of both Greek and Latin that they shared many similarities, most…
TKR
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22
votes
2 answers
Why do parents refer to themselves in third person?
Why do parents refer to themselves in third person, when talking to small kids? I've seen this happening in German, English and Russian and I do this myself (even though I try not to, because I think, it is odd). I've read some explanations on this…
Amelse Etomer
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22
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7 answers
What is the origin of non-natural grammatical genders in Indo-European languages?
Non-natural grammatical genders in Indo-European languages:
What is their origin (assuming that there is a single origin, if there are many origins)? Or what are the origins?
How and for what purpose did they develop?
At a glance, there doesn't…
Louis Rhys
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22
votes
7 answers
Are the Japanese and Korean subject particles known to be related in any way, including by Sprachbund?
Japanese and Korean have strikingly similar grammars but whether they are related or not is an open question.
Both languages have a particle to mark the grammatical subject of a sentence and in fact it is pronounced the same (within the phonetics of…
hippietrail
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22
votes
12 answers
Why was korea able to remove kanji but japan wasn't when both languages use homophones?
I am strictly interested in the question of homophones and kanji. Korean has homophones yet they removed the Chinese characters and are getting by just fine? Or are they?
Japanese kanji lovers say kanji is required in order to deal with…
Alex
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