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1500 questions
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Can native signers of one sign language identify other sign languages?
I understand multiple spoken languages. If I hear someone speak (or see a writing in) English, I recognize that it's English not Latvian and interpret the sounds (or letters) as it's appropriate for the English language.
Is that just as easy in sign…
Džuris
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Does a scientific methodology exist for evaluating bilingual dictionaries?
I recently reread What's the difference between the various context dictionaries available for Spanish (e.g., Tatoeba, Reverso, Linguee, …)?. The accepted answer is excellent. But it got me wondering whether there's a scientific methodology for…
aparente001
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7
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Affrication-like sound in palatal plosive [c]
When I compare the plosive sounds in an IPA table with recordings (like this or this), the sound of [c] stands out to me as noisier and more turbulent than the rest of the series [p, t, ʈ, k, q, ʔ]. In fact it sounds to me almost like an affricate…
melissa_boiko
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Why does "-b-" differ between L “offero” and L "aufero"?
offero
From ob ("towards") + ferō ("bear, carry")
aufero
From ab ("from") + ferō ("bear, carry")
Both prefixes of them end with "-b-", but why do their compounds differ from each other, namely "-b-" vs "-u-"? Is this a regular sound…
archenoo
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Practical ways to verify etymology
What online resources are available to trace back the origins of words?
Ideally, this would be a searchable web dictionary like Wiktionary but listing the etymological chain along with some sort of proof (or a weaker reason to believe) - links to…
ngn
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9 answers
Which language has the biggest vocabulary?
I am thinking that it is English because it has so many borrowed words and most you French, Italian, or German words can be written in English as is. Am I right?
TIKSN
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Is it normal for only one verb class to be productive in Indo-European languages?
In another question on this site, there is some discussion on the view that the so-called "strong verb" class in English is no longer "productive" - that is, newly formed or coined words (neologisms) are never (or at least are not properly supposed…
Robert Columbia
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Phonetic distortion when words are borrowed among languages
When languages borrow words from other languages, they sometimes deliberately distort words to make them phonetically easier to pronounce.
For example, when Japanese speakers are taught the word "circle", it is taught as sa-ku-ru. Similarly, "beer"…
joe
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Should emoticons be considered punctuation?
Following on from my previous question Are "txt-speak" and "emoticons" examples of normal language evolution? I would like to propose that emoticons are simply now symbols of punctuation, rather than icons.
Icons tend to represent a thing or an…
BanksySan
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7
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2 answers
List of 1000 most common words across all languages
What words are the most common across languages? Is there a list of 100 or 1000?
Lance
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Is there a way to prove one language is more efficient than another language for science?
English is widely regarded as the global language of science now. In China, we use simplified Chinese to write scientific textbooks, teach courses and do almost everything. Let's take the simplest example, single variable calculus. I have used both…
Ave Maleficum
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4 answers
How did 'cocodrilo' originate from 'crocodile'?
The English word crocodile seems to originate from the Latin crocodīlus and Ancient Greek κροκόδιλος. Indeed it has ended up very similar in several modern languages: German (Krokodile), Russian (крокодил), Hungarian (krokodilfélék).
But does anyone…
Zak McKracken
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Why can linguists decide which use of language is correct and which is not?
Often we are hearing that such-and-such spelling, phraseology, etc is incorrect. Person X made a grammar error, pronunciation error, orthography error, styling error, other sorts of language error.
I'm not sure if I understand this.
Superficially,…
gaazkam
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7
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Is the word E "able" related to the suffix E "-able"?
able(1)
From Middle English, from Old Northern French able, variant of Old French abile, habile, from Latin habilis ("easily managed, held, or handled; apt; skillful"), from habeō ("have, hold").
able(2)
From Middle English ablen, from Middle…
archenoo
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Is a text with orthographic or grammatic mistakes in a language X still a text in that language X?
Let us suppose that we have a text that in its majority follows the orthographic or grammatical rules of a language X, but 10% of the words have orthographic mistakes, and 10% of the sentences have grammatical mistakes. Is this text still a text in…
algo
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