Linguistics's topics - tribe.net

Idioms

2008-05-02T23:57:13Z

does anyone know where the expression "the whole ball of wax" comes from?

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Mathematical predictions of regular verbs and tense?

2008-05-02T19:00:02Z

Comrades:

What do you make of this?

http://www.sciencecodex.com/harvard_scientists_predict_the_future_of_the_past_tense

Craig in Arcata

posted in Linguistics - 20 replies

Any Linguistics students focusing on syntax?

2008-03-16T06:43:54Z

Anyone here majoring in linguistics and focusing on syntax? I'm looking to collaborate on a theory of, I suppose, psycholinguistics, but really more a single all encompassing theory that can describe the transformation of a theoretical semantic object (supposed to be the cognitive representation of a sentence meaning) into phonological forms of the sentence, including morphology and syntax in this single theory. My aim is to avoid the current model of theories, and instead have a theory that describes some mathematical function that maps abstract meanings to concrete phoneme strings. Anyone interested?

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

familiar pronouns

2008-02-28T23:50:48Z

Modern English does not have a distinction such as "tu" and "vous" in French. Do most other languages have this kind of linguistic distinction between familiar and formal terms of address?

Examples:
tu/vous
du,Ihr/Sie,sie
du/ni

Is this true?
If so, why?
Or, why has it fallen out of use in English?

posted in Linguistics - 42 replies

Latin Pronunciation of 'v"

2008-02-20T01:20:05Z

Hi - Hopefully someone can assist me. I am trying to find some evidence for the pronunciation of Latin consonantal "v" as "w". All the material I have located tends to make definitive statements about its pronunciation as English "w" without providing examples or steps in the reasoning for coming to this conclusion. Of the reasoning I have seen much of it seems to be quite specious. For example, one source suggested that because we pronounce "wine" the way we do supports the fact that 'V" was once pronounced this way and thus we have Latin "vinum" being pronounced 'winum". But to me there are far more examples of Latin derived English words (brevity, veritable, venerable, virile etc) where the "v" sound is maintained - so is it not more likely that just the pronunciation of wine has changed? This argument requires that German, Italian and a lot of English words just changed to their current "v" pronunciation but "wine" is correct. Occam's razor wouldn't support this as an argument.

In terms of definitive works I've only found a couple. I've read W.Sydney Allen's perspective but it seems rather a concise and not well developed argument for the soft pronunciation (ie. English "w" sound). He may be right but he doesn't argue his point very well.
The Roman Pronunciation of Latin. Frances E. Lord makes a good argument but tends to suggest a harder sound more like a "vf" or I suppose Germanic "v" sound (if I've understood the author correctly)

I realize that at various times both "v" and "w" pronunciations may have been correct but I am curious as to where the evidence for the almost unanimous position that classical Latin pronounced it as a "w" sound comes from.

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

Become a part of "bAbeL - art project"

2008-01-06T11:21:19Z

Dear brothers and sisters,

i study art therapy in Germany and work on the arty part of my diploma at the moment - and i invite you to support my work “ babel“!
Babel is about the try to cancel the moment of disintegration, it is about identity, community,structure and the basic needs of human beings and it is about you as well, when you join this project;
Please send me one article of your clothing, which you don`t need
anymore (it doesn`t matter if there is a mark on it, a cut in it, the
zipper is not working anymore etc.) and a word (in your language, a
word, which you like, which you don`t like, which you use often or
never, it can be a name, too) to this adress :

Sandra Becker
Hunscheidtstraße 162
44789 Bochum
Germany

in case you like to send me more material - like little messages,
infomation about you, your life, your country,the article of clothing
( maybe there is a story about it - you never liked to wear it, it was
a gift, you wore it in an important moment) - i will be pleased about
it.
my plan is to put all together in a new way - so that there will be one dress and one poem at the end for one performance/ film/installation, but it is not clear how it will be exactly - at least the most important thing depends on you. maybe the dress and the poem will go on a journey again, maybe they will come back to you, maybe you get a message from them, maybe you won´t see them again, maybe....the ideas become more and more with every package i get from you what ever will happen - i let you know. and be sure; whenever you give something - you get something.
the artwork will be shown at the diploma exhibition of the FH Ottersberg (Germany) on march 21th 2008.
you will find a documentation on my tribe-blog.

i hope that it will be possible to support me,
looking forward to get a message from you,

Become a part of babel !
sandruschka

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

Kitty Pidgin

2007-12-01T04:11:19Z

I can has idiosyncratic conjugation!

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/04/cats-can-has-gr.html

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

Burningman linguistic adventure (for all you academics)

2007-10-16T03:44:08Z

The background: this year, I was part of a Burningman theme camp whose theme is a scavenger hunt. We have a lost board, with tiles on it that say things like "alcohol donation" or "more than 7 scars" or "graduate of Hampshire" or whatever. People bring the thing or person to us. We take their picture with the tile, move it to the found board, and, if the item is a consumable, we take it. The winners get to dig into the bag of semi fabulous prizes, which are things like bubbles, necklaces...we really put the semi in semi fabulous. Our standards slip as the week goes by. Perhaps it is also fair to mention that we are a heckling theme camp.

Many of the items required a judge. In my case, I was the judge for the tile which said "cunning linguist." Generally, what this meant was that I was summoned to question someone who claimed to be one, I would ask them what school they studied Linguistics at, they would react with confusion, and I would inform them that it was an actual academic discipline. Generally, they would give up at that point, sometimes asking if "loving" language was enough. Inevitably, those folks would not speak any languages other than English.

Well, round about Thursday, I was summoned to test someone. The subject: a young man wearing a media pass, who claimed to be a fourth year burner with the SF Chronicle. We went through the aforementioned ritual, including finding out all he spoke was English, whereupon he insisted that he be given consideration because the tile did not have the word "academic" on it.

I told him I would think of a question to test him with, and that if he could answer the question well enough to show a knowledge of how language works, I would award him the prize. He told me that he would prove to my campmates and to me what a great linguist he was by reading "the last two sentences of my article on Burningman for the Chron." I told him it had no bearing on my decision, but to go ahead while I thought of a test question for him, if he liked.

He proceeded to read the sentences loud and proud to those hanging out on our porch. I cannot do them justice, but let's just say they were so composed of hundred dollar words like "juxtaposition" that they were almost unintelligible. I looked at my campmates for their reactions, the most positive of which was probably "stunned."

"OK, that sentence sample aside," I said, "here's your test question. There's a very famous saying in Linguistics that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. What does that say about the difference between dialects and languages?"

"Ha," said Mr. Reporter confidently, "an army and a navy are used to make war, and opress! If we read George Orwell's 1984, we find that language can be used to shape thoughts and enforce ideas, and therefore, be used like an army and a navy."

"Well," I said, " what you're referring to is called the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, and modern day linguists...well, don't take much stock in it."

This made him go completely ballistic. "WHAT? WHAT?" he screamed. "Your answer does not map to the question! And when I was in college, if you could prove the answer did not map to the question, YOU got the credit for your answer!"

"Well, good for your professors" (I could have pointed out that his answer didn't "map" to what I asked, but at this point, I was just getting amused).

"YOU NEED TO BE MORE OPEN MINDED! YOU NEED TO BE MORE FLEXIBLE IN YOUR DEFINITIONS!"

"But I'm having so much more fun pissing you off." (Said in my sweetest quietest voice, which is actually better than yelling, IMO.)

"I AM WRITING THIS QUOTE DOWN! I AM CALLING MY EX GIRLFRIEND, WHO IS A LINGUIST! YOUUUU bla bla bla...."

At this point, one of my campmates said, "Hey, if you're that set on it, why not just compose a Spanglish haiku about it, and we'll call it even?"

"Yeah," I said, "How about a haiku?"

"NO!" screamed my wannabe linguist, as he shoved his notebook back in his pack and started to walk away.

"So, are we gonna be in the article?" called one of my campmates.

"NO!" shreiked the contestant, "you are NOT in the article!!!"

After he left, one of my campmates turned to me, and said, "Wow. What did you *say* to that guy?"

"I thought you were being nice actually," said another campmate.

A few hours later, I was sitting on a couch thinking about something else, when a wave of psychic hatred and rage from this guy washed over me, with an accompanying babble of pieces of the conversation we'd had. Somehow, I knew he was freaking out about it to someone who juuuust didn't give a shit, and I knew exactly what direction he was in relation to me. "His poor ex. What a call she shall receive," I thought to myself, as I tried to send some compassion back his way.

The next day, a real linguist showed up. He'd studied at UC San Diego, and was even working as a computational linguist. I asked him what morphology was, and he told me it was the study of the shape of words. Case closed. And cunning he was - his playa gift was postcards of maps of places that didn't exist.

I told him about the previous day's adventure, and he grinned and said, "Yeah. I love how everyone's a linguist."

posted in Linguistics - 14 replies

What are your interests?

2007-10-14T19:24:44Z

Kindof a tribe icebreaker here...

I am a psych major/spanish minor in the 3rd year of my undergrad. i am contemplating a minor in linguistics - wondering if I have enough time to fit it all in.

My first loves are for psycholinguistics and bilingual cognition, but I also am raelly itnerested in spanish dialects and my taste for historical linguistics and phonetics is growing.

So far I am planning to go on to speech pathology.

posted in Linguistics - 30 replies

Romanian speakers

2007-07-14T03:27:39Z

I could really use some help with conversational practice, and some grammar pointers and whatnot. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Popular Linguistics

2007-07-01T17:19:02Z

Did anyone see Law & Order: Criminal Intent last night? Detective Goren asked a suspect "Do you speak any other languages . . . Asian languages? Because I noticed you have a slight glottal stop." (The suspect spoke Mandarin.)

A "slight glottal stop"? What is that, exactly? And, heaven forbid that glottal stops actually get used in English. Perhaps there is an opening at NBC for a linguistic consultant.

posted in Linguistics - 42 replies

Akeminopu?

2007-06-06T06:35:43Z

First you tell me what you think this is.

Then I'll tell you what it is.

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

Plurals in non-english languages

2007-05-26T01:41:25Z

This question was sparked when i was reading about "genders" on another thread.

English has two plurals. "one" and "more than one". (book, books; toy, toys)

Russian has "one" "two or three" and "many". (god, goda, godi; karanadsh, karanadhsa, karanadeshii)

I was wondering if anyone else has knows other plurals that distingusih between different levels of plurality.

Then, does anyone know of explinations or theories they could direct me to? thanks.

posted in Linguistics - 69 replies

favre into "far -ve"

2007-05-02T23:21:22Z

anyone know how this french name ends up pronounced "far-ve" in english? Just curious

posted in Linguistics - 6 replies

the south enya without the 'n'

2007-05-01T00:10:57Z

how do you show it in the roman alphabet : I can't find it there . . .
the tongue never touches the roof of the mouth . . . but you hear it in the word 'here' as in 'he<n>ya'
how do you show a nasal without the tongue going to the roof of the mouth in asci?

posted in Linguistics - 8 replies

evolution of syntax

2007-04-30T22:40:49Z

how did we get from the romantic language sentence structure to the seemingly ruleless structure we use in american english?

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

2 Questions about Romanian

2007-04-29T18:57:59Z

I'd ask in the Romania tribe, but it's been dormant for about a month. So if anyone here can help me, I'd be greatly appreciative.

First question is a simple one. In German, instead of having one word for "it," you'd refer to something as "er" or "sie" (he or she) depending on the gender of the noun (die nacht, the night, feminine, would be she). Is the same done in Romanian?

Second one is a little more involved. I'm going to use the verb "vorbi" as an example.
Eu vorbesc, tu vorbeşti, voi vorbiţi. I speak, you (sg) speak, you (pl) speak. Now, Pimsleur's course on Romanian uses an example of one man talking to one woman, but uses the plural form of the verb to ask if the woman speaks English: "vorbiţi engleză?"
Is it just a different conjugation? Is it wrong? Should you ask "vorbeşti engleză"? I ask partly because Pimsleur isn't the only program that uses this conjugation, and it seems awkward to me.

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

The Name of that Phenomenon

2007-04-16T05:50:22Z

I cannot, cannot remember when the term is for an overuse of word to the point of its impotency.
Such as: "I'm starving," in which "starving" once had a very strong, very distinct connotation.
Or: "This noodle is terribly dry." Terrible = an adverbial modifier, no longer meaning actually "terrible"

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

General Semantics

2007-04-15T07:38:57Z

check out the new general semantics tribe

change your life forever to learn this stuff

http://www.generalsemantics.tribe.net

posted in Linguistics - 6 replies

I NEED VOCABULARY HELP

2007-04-05T05:29:06Z

mothers & fathers are called parents, so does anyone here know of a likewise handy singe-word inclusive term for aunts & uncles, &/or nieces & nephews in English? if not English, ANY language? if you know of such words in other languages, please provide literal English translations of them - if literal equivalents exist. thanks.

posted in Linguistics - 14 replies

eating chicken

2007-04-02T18:39:08Z

In English, cow is the animal, beef is the food; pigs or swine are the animal, pork is the food. In Spanish, pescado is the animal, pez is the food (or is that backwards?).

But chicken is chicken; pollo is pollo. Are there examples of languages which have a different word for "chicken", the domestic fowl, and "chicken", the cooked food?

posted in Linguistics - 10 replies

Good Article Index

2007-04-01T00:44:58Z

http://www.kkhec.ac.ir/Linguistics%20Linguistics/linguisticsarticlesindex.htm

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Translation Telephone

2007-04-01T00:12:37Z

http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/ - takes an english text, translates it (via babelfish) into another language, and back to english, 5 times.

Feeding the site's intro into the site gave me:

That thing happens, if a printed question English (of the computers) is to translate of two channels between 5 diverse languages? The authors of the software of the translation of SYSTRAN probably never had meant this application of the relative program. In the date of September of 2003, it almost is to something good seriously to turn the translation to her of the text of the software of grammaticale and the free slang of a language the marks of the values of the approach of grammaticale and others leggibili corrected. But software is not equipped for the following one of 10 translations of the same part of the text. Ordered excess for which the returns are of the sustenations of extrangeiras of the ways and for English halves and full not he answer he sequitur almost no similarity with the main tube of the collection. Emfatizam old "Telephone" of the game; To the times something is destroyed and it gains to something. Controllila!

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

cool wav file of old english text

2007-04-01T00:07:12Z

www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm

I hope the link works!

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

help needed

2007-04-01T00:05:16Z

I have been looking for some help regarding a linguistics problem and would like some help solving, finding the information I am looking for.

I took two linguistics courses in college as electives many years ago, graduated in 1987. The college I went to was Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago Il. and the professor's name was Richards/Richardson. A "strange" professor and yet very brilliant in his teachings. In one of the courses that I took he posted on the board a "mathematical" formula for speaking/writting a sentence properly. There were 10 steps that were part of the sentance but not all had to be used. There had to be certain steps to make a proper sentence flow. I have lost the notes from the class and was wondering if anyone knew of what I am asking and could either post in this tribe or send it to me. This formula that he used made writting or speaking a sentance flow and was easier to understand than the usual verb, noun, adverb way of teaching how to write that is taught in school.

Any help will be appreciated.

David

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

aorist/pluperfect

2007-03-31T23:37:21Z

Hope this isn't too basic for this tribe, but I've been trying to grasp the difference between:

I saw the bird
I have seen the bird

Anyone?

posted in Linguistics - 9 replies

Animal noises around the world

2007-03-31T23:25:02Z

I always enjoyed learning these when I studied a new language.

http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/dabbott/animal.html

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

Meeting in Linguistics/Mersin University/Türkiye

2007-03-31T22:13:29Z

Hi everbody.
In my university Mersin University/Türkiye there is highly-qualified linguistics department and we are very active.
We have a conference which will be held October 2007.
It is open for any graduate student in linguistics.
But we think to set a session for undergraduate students like me.
But for now this is only a project.
If you are interested you can get information from here:

http://postgraduate2007.mersin.edu.tr/

or contact with me.

See you :)

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

Tlingit 'Macbeth' production explores cultural ties with Alaska Natives

2007-03-20T02:45:56Z

Posted: March 14, 2007

By Anne Sutton -- Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Battles are waged to the beat of drums, witches as land otters slink across the stage and Banquo's ghost dons a raven mask in a Tlingit language adaptation of Shakespeare's brutal and bloody tale of a murderous Scottish lord.

Sprung from the rainforests of southeast Alaska, this Washington, D.C.-bound production of ''Macbeth'' marries the Elizabethan tragedy with an ancient indigenous culture - an elaborate conceit that its players say brings new life to both worlds.

The idea took root more than 25 years ago when director Anita Maynard-Losh, a San Francisco transplant, came to live in the remote community of Hoonah, a largely Tlingit village bound by Tongass National Forest and the icy waters of the Inside Passage.

She knew ''Macbeth'' well; she had taught Shakespeare in schools and as she began to learn about the Tlingit culture, she was struck by certain similarities.

''When I was in Hoonah, I started seeing these connections: the society built on clan systems; the connection with the supernatural, which is very strong; and the fierce warfare that the Tlingits were famous for, the Scots also were quite renowned for,'' Maynard-Losh said.

Northwest Native lore also abounds with moral tales of the treacherous host, she said, as when Macbeth murders Duncan in his castle.

But the basic element of what it means to be a tribal society, putting the well-being and survival of the group over individual liberties, is what really struck her.

''That seemed like a huge piece of this play: What happens when somebody starts not caring about the good of the group and just caring about their own success,'' she said.

In January 2004 and again on a statewide tour later that year, Maynard-Losh first put her ideas on stage directing Tlingit ''Macbeth'' in English for Juneau's Perseverance Theatre.

Though now director of Community Engagement at Washington's Arena Stage, she agreed to return to Juneau this winter to restage the Perseverance production for performances March 8 - 18 at the National Museum of the American Indian, part of a theater festival called ''Shakespeare for a New Generation.''

This time, however, she wanted to take it to the next level.

The play, at least most of it, was translated into Tlingit, an endangered language that only Tlingit elders speak fluently.

The psychological impact of bringing Tlingit to the stage has been profound, she said.

''To hear young people speaking Tlingit and acting and talking about big ideas and big emotions is something so unique; it was really moving and exciting to hear,'' Maynard-Losh said.

The decision to base the play in Tlingit won over Lance Twitchell, one of three new players in the cast and the language coach.

Soft-spoken and earnest - he leads a Tlingit prayer at the end of rehearsals - the 31-year-old former tribal leader is one of about 15 young adults in the state working toward becoming the first fluent speakers in more than a generation.

''When I heard about the play and heard that [elder] Johnny Marks was the translator, I thought that was great. Johnny is as good as they come for Tlingit speakers,'' he said.

Twitchell first began learning Tlingit 12 years ago from his grandfather, the late Cy Dennis Sr.

''He would say things like 'eil,' the word for salt, and I'd try to say it and he'd laugh. My goal was just to get him to not laugh at me,'' he said.

A simple word, it would seem, but rooted in one of the most difficult and complex sound systems in the world. According to linguists, Tlingit contains sounds that are not shared with any other language.

Twitchell's grandfather's generation witnessed a turning point in the history of this language and culture that are thousands of years old. In the early 1900s, Native languages across the nation were under attack by missionaries and government school teachers who considered the languages barbarous and uncouth. Native children were punished for speaking their own language in Alaska's segregated schools, a policy that lasted for six decades.

The purge, and eventually the pressure to assimilate, was largely successful. It is estimated that fewer than 300 people in the world are fluent Tlingit speakers, but now a revival is under way among those who believe, like Twitchell, that language is the lifebreath of the culture.

It's why he studies Tlingit, teaches it to children, works on interactive language programs and, though not an actor, jumped at a chance to play Ross in Tlingit ''Macbeth.''

''You will never get the culture unless you get the language. And it will never really be carried on unless the language is carried on. It will just be like a shell of what once was,'' he said.

Indeed, the journey to the nation's capital carries a special significance for him.

''There was a calculated effort ... to kill this language and this culture,'' said Twitchell. ''And yet, we are still here, we are still speaking, we are still learning in our own different ways and times.''

For more information, visit www. perseverancetheatre.org.

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

Quechua language tribe

2007-03-19T01:58:09Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/quechua

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

Crow language

2007-03-19T01:57:29Z

I have always loved crows and am particularly fascinated by their calls. Does anyone know anything about how crows communicate or have any references to how I could find out?
Thanks!

posted in Linguistics - 10 replies

Connectionist Model of Language Acquistion

2007-03-08T23:18:06Z

So my linguistics textbook gives no credence to the connectionist model, which supposedly attempts to mimic the neurological reactions to specific input in the acquisition of language. I was just curious to see if anyone had any coginitely good ideas.

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

Belarus adjective

2007-03-08T04:13:31Z

Comrades:

How do you pronounce the adjective from Belarus?

I don't know enough of the linguistic differences between Belaruski (I'm guessing) and Russian, but since the country is called Belarus and not Belarussia or byalarosiya, I'm guessing I should call the language Belarusian, pronouncing is "bell-ah-ROO-see-uhn."

Sonya, are you out there?

Craig in Arcata

posted in Linguistics - 12 replies

Sook

2007-03-06T18:59:44Z

Hi Everyone,
Here in Nova Scotia we use the word sook quite frequently... It's a verb and a noun, you can be a sook or you can sook. Rhymes with book, look. Like the term sooky-baby. A crybaby, pouting...
People in New Mexico don't know it, people in Colorado don't know it, people in the Britain don't know it, people in Ontario don't know it. I'm sure some people might know it, but the people I've asked have never heard of it...
Just wondering where you're from and if you've ever heard it?
A little project of mine, the dictionary I looked at said that it is an Australian word, so why is it so common on the east coast of Canada???
:)

posted in Linguistics - 6 replies

"Hamas", in Spanish ("never, never again"); in Zionazzi ("ham-ass")... Israel or Isra-oil?

2007-03-01T04:21:58Z

God certainly has a sense of humor!

In the Holy Land, Hamas won an election. The oil based hate, the kind that makes sure the only black guy in the movie dies, prounounces it "ham-ass". So if you want to see who is selling divisive hate use your ears to divide the lambs from the goats, the wheat from the chafe.

posted in Linguistics - 13 replies

Balderdash & Piffle -- BBC

2007-02-14T16:58:31Z

Has anyone watched this show? I'd be really excited to see it, but alas, i live in teh US where we seem to enjoy far less... um... intellectual Television. :-)

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

lazy translations

2007-02-01T20:27:38Z

I bought several boxes of string lights recently and each box has a different french translation of the english. Here is the english version:

Suitable for outdoor use

Here are the three different french versions:

1. Convient pour une utilisation à l'extérieur
2. can't remember but it was something not quite the same but similar in connotation to the first
3. A uitiliser à l'extérieur seulement.

Does anyone see the problem here? The third french translation makes it seem like it is dangerous to use indoors. I am not even sure if the lights were originally made by french-speaking people, but I am guessing not since all three boxes had the same english translation but three different french translations.

Anyone else encounter stuff like this?

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

writing book

2007-01-26T01:48:52Z

i need a book.
it will teach how to writing
i will critise it for an assignment.
thank you :)

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

how to analyzing conversation?

2007-01-20T20:38:08Z

Thank goodness for tribe....somebody- please! :)

I'm having trouble writing my final paper for my Language and Culture class. The assignment is to write a 10-15 page research paper based off of conversations I have recorded. I'm supposed to include looks at morphemes, phonemes, syntax, slang, tone, gender relationships, etc. Any and everything is fair game.

I'm lost! I don't know how to begin looking at this. I typed up portions of the conversations (frustrated at the tedious task of pressing play, listing to each word uttered, pressing pause, typing and starting again). I'm trying to go through again and circle and add notes where something is happening beyond words, but really, I'm feeling nothing.

Does anyone have any words of advice or a good way to go about this?

Thanks,
Jules

posted in Linguistics - 9 replies

English TESL classification test

2006-12-17T23:03:15Z

I need a basic TESL English classification test that can be administered to students but I am having a hard time finding one.
Part of it must also be administered orally.

I have made my own but would like to get my hand on a genuine test.

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

vowel shifting

2006-11-18T00:56:35Z

did anyone hear the segment on npr last week on vowel shifting? pretty interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5220090
---
Professor William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguist and author of the new book Atlas of North American English Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change, says there is a shift of vowel sounds in the inland northern cities. He calls it the "northern city shift."

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

Is a burrito a sandwich? Judge says no

2006-11-17T19:14:15Z

Is a burrito a sandwich? The Panera Bread Co. bakery-and-cafe chain says yes. But a judge said no, ruling against Panera in its bid to prevent a Mexican restaurant from moving into the same shopping mall.

Panera has a clause in its lease that prevents the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury from renting to another sandwich shop. Panera tried to invoke that clause to stop the opening of an Qdoba Mexican Grill.

But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke cited Webster's Dictionary as well as testimony from a chef and a former high-ranking federal agriculture official in ruling that Qdoba's burritos and other offerings are not sandwiches.

The difference, the judge ruled, comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla.

"A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans," Locke wrote in a decision released last week.

In court papers, Panera, a St. Louis-based chain of more than 900 cafes, argued for a broad definition of a sandwich, saying that a flour tortilla is bread and that a food product with bread and a filling is a sandwich.

Qdoba, owned by San Diego-based Jack in the Box Inc., called food experts to testify on its behalf.

Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit: "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

- Associated Press, Fri Nov 10, 4:17 PM ET

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

monophthongization

2006-10-02T16:20:07Z

so I am studying for an exam in old slavic linguistics, and I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around a good definition for monophthongization. anyone have any ideas?

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

cascade of mirrors

2006-06-03T22:21:29Z

I’ve seen it all already
I’ve been it all already
All cascades before me
All cascades… no more me
Every facet, every flaw,
Every reflection, I ever saw

At the hollowest of centers
Ever quiet, ever still
Feel the whirlwind blowing
From the windowsill
Density expands,
Material contracts,
As my Minding wanders
The construct of the facts
Recorded through my Castle
A castle formed of clouds
Shifting in a storm front
Of undulating shrouds
Brilliant light and color
Afire on the air
Details more than clever
Exploding everywhere
Details less than stable
Collapsing as they wear

Is it Heaven or Hell?
The Realm in which we Dwell…
The answer may be, “Well,
It depends on the Swell”
For Riding a Wave
Is a High that will Save
But to Crash on the Sand
Is the fate of the Damned
The world is what we make
And so to turn the wake
We must rise above the tide
And form our Falls in stride
Dancing with the Rhythm
Of our Soular Cataclysm

Travel this way to the Core
Leave behind the phantom Shore
We do not need it anymore
No time to glide on Winds of Yore
Let’s Fly beyond the Revolving Door

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

Internet glosses and their meaning to you

2006-05-17T15:39:39Z

Hey, All:

I am a 40-something who works on a college campus. I hang with the geeks and nerds to keep up with various nomenclature. It's AMAZING! Taking the anthropologist-linguist point of view, I've only recently discovered the meanings of
LOL (laughing out loud)
ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing)
LMAO (laughing my ass off)
PWNED - okay, this requires some explanation. Originally, the word was "owned". As in I "owned" this or that, meaning I am the master, the guru. BUT, there was a typo and now it is PWNED, pronounced /po:wnd/.

Amazing, verdad?

Craig in Arcata in the middle of the night.

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

LINGUISTICS LINKS

2006-04-09T19:21:18Z

for starters, this...

www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050209/news_lz1c9language.html

and this...

www.themeaningoftingo.com

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

What's Your Favorite Cliche'?

2006-03-24T04:24:08Z

Mine is:
"Don't miss the forest for sake of the trees."

While were at it what's your least favorite cliche'?

Mine is:
"Another dollar another day."

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

Seeking Bilingual ASSISTANT Manager for Soda Promotion-San Diego!

2006-03-23T19:20:57Z

Seeking Bilingual ASSISTANT Manager for Soda Promotion-San Diego!

8 Days A Week has a Fantastic opportunity for a BILINGUAL (Fluent in Spanish) Assistant Manager on a Fun 6-Week Soda promotion with a Soccer theme! Please see below and respond as directed below to Jennifer@8dayspromotions.com if interested/qualified:

Event: Soccer Soda Promotion
Position Title: Assistant Manager
City: San Diego
Program Dates:

Events: May 24 – July 2, 2006; Potential program extension based on mutual assistant manager/client agreement

Days: Events 5 days/Week Wednesday- Sunday

Times: Approx. 8 hour days

Assistant Responsibilities:

· Set up/break down events

· Execute promotions by interacting with consumers and encouraging participation

· Supervise brand ambassador

· Serve as onsite contact during promotions

· Miscellaneous tasks as needed by client

Assistant Qualifications:

· Bilingual- FLUENT in both Spanish and English

· Experience on similar campaigns

· Punctual, Friendly, Mature, Responsible, Outgoing, Enjoy working with Public

· Must be comfortable lifting weight up to 50 lbs

· Enjoy soccer a plus!

RATE: $500-$550/Week, based on exp.

TO APPLY: Email Jennifer@8dayspromotions.com ASAP with the following:

1) Your full name and best contact information.

2) Attach RESUME of promotional/management experience.

3) Candidates MUST SEND 2 RECENT SELF TITLED PHOTOS IN .JPG FORMAT!!

4) EMAIL SUBJECT MUST READ: ~San Diego Soda Assistant~

#2
Seeking Experienced Bilingual Promo Manager for Soda Promotion-San Diego!

8 Days A Week has a Fantastic opportunity for a BILINGUAL (Fluent in Spanish) Market Manager on a Fun 6-Week Soda promotion with a Soccer theme! Please see below and respond as directed below to Jennifer@8dayspromotions.com if interested/qualified:

Event: Soccer Soda Promotion
Position Title: Market Manager
City: San Diego

Program Dates:

Training: Fly to L.A. approximately May 24

Events: May 27 – July 2, 2006; Potential program extension based on mutual manager/client agreement

Days: Events 5 days/Week Wednesday- Sunday

Times: Approx. 7-9 hour days

Manager Responsibilities:

· Drive and maintain promotional van as required

· Train and supervise brand ambassadors

· Confirm events with venue contacts

· Serve as onsite contact and liaison during promotions

· Set up/Execute/break down promotional events

· Submit daily event recap/event photos

· Make Scheduled weekly Product Pick ups

· Retrieve necessary promotional materials for events

· Miscellaneous tasks as needed by client

Manager Qualifications:

· Bilingual- FLUENT in both Spanish and English

· Management Experience on similar campaigns

· Punctual, Friendly, Mature, Responsible, Outgoing, Enjoy working with Public

· Valid Drivers License with Clean Driving Record

· Professional demeanor and conservative appearance

· Proactive and solid troubleshooter

· Must be comfortable lifting weight up to 50 lbs

· Enjoy soccer a plus!

RATE: $700-$800/Week, based on exp.

TO APPLY: Email jennifer@8dayspromotions.com ASAP with the following:

1) Your full name and best contact information.

2) Attach RESUME of promotional/management experience.

3) Candidates MUST SEND 2 RECENT SELF TITLED PHOTOS IN .JPG FORMAT!!

4) EMAIL SUBJECT MUST READ: ~San Diego Soda Manager~

posted in Linguistics - 0 replies

Favorite Word Sites

2006-03-15T23:58:00Z

I like to look on here for fun stuff with the English language. What are your fun sites for any language?

http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words.html

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Dialect vs Vernacular

2006-02-21T17:48:51Z

Could someone explain the technical difference between dialects and vernaculars? I'm too long out of school to remember.

Thanks.

Wendy

posted in Linguistics - 20 replies

Spoonerisms in other languages?

2006-01-16T19:32:35Z

Can anyone tell me whether Spoonerisms exist in languages other than English? I.e: Could we take a word like Geschwindigskeitmesser and swap the letters around and still make it understandable? By the same token, could we also see a word like "la poubelle" changed to "pa loulelle" or something and still have the same meaning for a French person? Would an Italian say something like "Pi Tiacacerrebe?" or a Spanish speaker "Nomo co!"

posted in Linguistics - 13 replies

Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist

2006-01-11T18:43:42Z

Her column drives me crazy with its blend of bad social advice and speculation presented as fact, but often enough there are a few good tidbits or puzzles that compel me to keep reading. Yesterday I found myself at the laundromat with only a "Parade" from November 13, and this was was the mind bender she offered:

"Which word doesn't belong in this list: irredeemable, irreducible, irreligious, irrevocable, irremovable, irrepressible, irreversible?"

She offered only one correct answer, a phonetic one. My answer was morphology-based, and equally valid. What's your first instinct? I'll give some possible answers in a bit...

posted in Linguistics - 8 replies

Just for fun

2005-12-31T20:28:04Z

Those who love word games might enjoy this tribe.

It is the Lingo Factory and we simply manufacture words.
http://lingofactory.tribe.net/?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5Bcdfbb92b-65c4-44e4-b3d6-52d4b817b2aa%5D

There is no scientific validity or profound importance to the work. However as someone that has traveled and taught ESL abroad I have noticed that we often intentionally use the kinds of mistaken associations, false cognates and other common linguistic faux pas' to form the basis of many of our puns.

My sincere suggestion is take a look, have a laugh and familiarize yourself with how twisted language can get.

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

phonetic alphabet expands

2005-12-15T22:19:18Z

With Sound From Africa, the Phonetic Alphabet Expands
By MICHAEL ERARD

For the first time in 12 years, the International Phonetic Association is amending its official alphabet. A sound called the labiodental flap will be granted its own letter, one that looks something like a v with a hook.

The sound, a buzz sometimes capped by a faint pop, is present in more than 70 African languages. It is produced by the lower lip moving back and forward, flapping on the inside of the upper teeth.

"The labiodental flap sound is as important as any other sound to speakers of languages that use it," said Peter Ladefoged, emeritus professor of linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Think how Americans would protest if there were no way of transcribing the vowel in 'bird,' which in the usual U.S. pronunciation is almost as rare among the sounds of the world's languages as the labiodental flap."

Until now, linguists have recorded the sound with made-up symbols, usually the letter v modified by accents. The venerable phonetic alphabet was established in 1886, and now, after slow increments of change, includes 28 symbols for vowels, 86 for consonants and 75 other marks for tone, stress, aspiration and other phonetic details.

One of the most recent sounds to win a symbol was the bilabial click, used in two African languages. The labiodental flap is much more widely used but took longer to be recognized.

One reason, said Dr. Ladefoged, is that clicks, often considered to be the most exotic of speech sounds, have been noticed by Europeans since the 17th century. They also occur in politically important languages like Zulu and Xhosa.

"None of this is true about labiodental flaps," Dr. Ladefoged said in an e-mail message. "Even now, some people think they are a minor effect in a few words in a few languages."

Last spring, he encouraged Kenneth S. Olson, a linguist at SIL International who has studied the extensive use of the labiodental flap in Africa, to propose officially that the sound, first observed in 1907, have its own symbol.

SIL International is a Christian organization based in Dallas that studies, documents and helps in developing lesser-known languages.

Dr. Olson encountered the sound while conducting research in Congo and had performed extensive acoustic analysis to determine that the sound was, in fact, a flap, not a fricative consonant like the "f" of English. Nor did it involve a sharp intake of air like the clicks.

The new symbol had been recommended by a fellow linguist, Geoff Pullum, who described it "as if a fishhook R had been slammed leftward into a lowercase v so hard its vertical had merged with the right leg of the v, and the dangly bit had been left hanging there like the drain pipe out of an upstairs toilet in a partially demolished building."

In June, Dr. Olson received a note from the association, informing him that the proposal had been voted on and accepted. Mono speakers are pleased, Dr. Olson said. "The idea of an I.P.A. symbol would offer some prestige to the language, that this oddity is valued by people around the world."

Other language oddities wait for their moment. There is a bilabial trill in two Brazilian languages, Oro Win and Wari' (phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/orowin/orowin.html) and what Dr. Ladefoged called "hissing-hushing fricatives" of Ubykh, once spoken in Turkey (phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/ubykh/ubykh.html).

Dr. Olson plans to visit the Philippines to study a sound that speakers produce by sticking their tongues out of their mouths, a sound that outsiders ridicule.

Dr. Olson says an official symbol might raise the status of the sound and the people who pronounce it, though perhaps not with the symbol from rock 'n' roll marketing he jokingly proposed - the Rolling Stones' lips.

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

linguistics background

2005-12-05T15:15:03Z

I was wondering about the linguistics background of the members of this tribe. How many of you have a formal education in linguistics? Applied or theoretical? Or are you just interested? As for me, I have bachelors degree in theoretical linguistics and Spanish from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Let me know, thanks

posted in Linguistics - 42 replies

R.S.V.P

2005-10-23T02:34:55Z

Respondez Sil Vous Plait
Please respond.

How did we get that guy?

posted in Linguistics - 17 replies

Couldn't play note one.

2005-10-16T22:50:09Z

I was speaking with my husband who is not English as first language, and said to him "I was so confused I coulnt' play 'note one'".

He imeditatly corrected me/questioned me, saying "he coulnd't play one note?" And i replied that it's an expression. As I thought of that particular inverstion, in trying to explain it to him, i determined a few case limiters. But I can't figure out exactly where teh inversion comes from.

1) it is generally only used with limited nouns (note, word, and maybe one or to others).
2) it is often assoicated with "know". He didn't know [word] one. (eg, "he couldn't write word one" doesn't come as naturally to my tongue.
3) I'm pretty sure it is not intended to be Note One, as in "he didn't know note One, but he knew Two, Three and four."
4) it has the "sense" or the "style" of something upper crust to my ear, though often those are creatures of hyper correction (Give the book to her and I - has the 'air' of being educated, since it relies on the mistake use of the pronoun I, and the assocated hyper-corrections).

Anyone have any idea where this particular inversion might come from?

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

Quick IPA question

2005-09-19T17:57:51Z

Could anyone quickly tell me the place and manner of articulation of [q]?

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

free morphemes

2005-09-18T06:54:29Z

I just wonder if there is any possibility for "co, de, re" and "un" to be free morphemes in any other languages: for example,latin, greek, german etc.?

posted in Linguistics - 8 replies

japonese Phonetic help

2005-09-10T16:10:14Z

Hey all. I was curious if anyone had the phonetic description of the R/L sound in japoneese. I sware I cannot figure out from my own mouth, exactly what is happening with the toung and where.

posted in Linguistics - 7 replies

technical word

2005-08-24T16:51:57Z

Dear Friends:

I am a new member, from Chile. (Spanish is my mother language)
Translation is my second work, I am a pharmacist.

At this moment, I have a problem with the following technical term:

"choke cover"

It appears in a list of parts and components of a microwave oven, and I have not found the equivalent term in spanish.

The problem is that the meaning of such a term is not clear to me.

Are there any member that can help me or give me a hint about this?

Thanks in advance

José Bocic

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

compounds

2005-08-22T17:05:21Z

This matter is becoming very undescribable. Compounds like fashion -every day something new. I still haven`t found any good book about them. Reading and collecting compounds from any book is more coplex than getting information from any grammar book. For example: "mother of pearl"-compound, but "mother of son"-non compound, other compounds take prefixes (strangely):anti, co, de, pro, re, un etc. -it looks more word formation than compounding. The explanations about it that lay in the books is that one should look up the dictionary for word origin. And what about other grammar books explaining that two or more words can be absolutely independent when separated from compound? For example: co-,pro-, re- cannot go independently. Is someone clever out here to bring some light into this matter?

posted in Linguistics - 27 replies

Where to begin...

2005-08-14T17:21:03Z

Hi!

I'm hoping my tribe friends can recommend a good place to start for a non-academic with an interest in linguistics, especially language origin. I've a little training in phonetics and have studied language make-up for quite a while (mainly Irish Gaelic) but wanted a good information text about language in general, it's development and it's major components that's also a good read.

Thanks for your help!

posted in Linguistics - 10 replies

Pardon My French

2005-08-05T20:32:59Z

This question comes from another tribe.
http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/thread/933f21a7-aa8a-474b-96e3-640b68ba1f3a?tribeid=23d315be-a852-4fd6-9e10-bb9ea8dfb924&r=10535

Anybody know where that saying came from?
And would this question qualify as a Linguistics question?

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

sickness

2005-08-02T18:54:43Z

ok linguists, I have a query. Recently I was being my normal grammatical self and correcting my friend when she stated "i'm nauseous" but instead of the usual awe and interest met when I explain why "I'm nauseated" is the correct way of stating that you feel sick, she posed a question. Since most of the american population understands what is meant when someone says "I'm nauseous", isn't that the correct way of expressing nausea in the modern age? Personally I am all for the original grammatical way, but I just wanted to put this question to other linguistically minded folks such as yourselves to see what happens. any thoughts?

posted in Linguistics - 30 replies

computers & linguistics

2005-07-28T19:41:42Z

Ok, all.

I know virtually nothing about the new stuff that combines computers with linguistics. Studies of artifical languages, studies of computers and analysis.

anyone have comments they want to toss out. (and yes, in some ways, this is just to get conversation started. :-)

also, books you like that are studies of language and computers.

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

Cop-per

2005-07-22T01:33:33Z

I dont even know how to spell it.
The term used for Policeman. Is it just straight - copper?? I think so.

The histroy of that word is this.

Back in the 1800's, Britain, the Bobby's (police-man) had copper buttons on their jacket. Hence, the nickname - copper.

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

Various linguistic questions regarding French and English for film.

2005-07-07T21:57:35Z

First let me start that I know nothing of linguistics.

I am making a movie about popular music in France during the 60s, basically the French interpretation of rock 'n' roll and pop music. One of the things that I want to investigate are the linguistic reasons why French is French and why English is English and why one sounds one way and why the other sounds another way and is considered the language of rock 'n' roll.

I also have questions about the use of the article in French and other things. So I have these questions that I want to know if they are valid questions and if so what the answers are. Then I am looking for some professor to interveiw (or two) for the movie.

So specifically I am looking for someone, expertwise, to ask those questions to and others and someone to interview that can tell me what it is I am talking about.

Thanks for any input.

posted in Linguistics - 26 replies

German word for: over-improved?

2005-07-05T20:37:03Z

I'm looking for the german word for over-improved.

I think it's most commonly used to describe bad architecture, as in, improving something to the point of making it worse.... :0

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

Berber

2005-06-23T20:11:19Z

Can anyone tell me the countries where Berber is spoken and what language group/family it belongs to? Also, what languages do they speak in Nigeria? Thanks

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

= "a member of the linguistics community" ?

2005-06-09T23:09:52Z

There seems to be no snappy one-word name for "someone who studies language(s)".

Isn't "linguist" most often a reference to someone who works with or is studying (one or more) foreign languages in order to speak and use them?

Linguistics, on the other hand, is the study of language in general - without the primary aim of speaking many languages.

So is there a word? "lingualogist"???? ("Sprachwissenschftler"???)

"Linguistic Scientist" is too clumsy.

posted in Linguistics - 25 replies

a question

2005-05-31T04:07:31Z

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone could give me a good answer.
I don't have the IPA font on this computer, so bear with me. Several of my friends say "scantless" when they mean "scandalous". I was trying to come up with a natural phonetic explanation for this. As far as I know, it's not natural to devoice a voiced alveolar plosive (d) between between an alveolar nasal (n) and a vowel. Is (t) just easier to say than (d)? My friends also eliminate the vowel between the alveolar nasal (n) and the alveolar lateral approximant (l), "scandalous" to "scantless" (again, sorry about I'm not using IPA). I can't really come up with a theory that would make these sound changes natural. Maybe it's just their white trash dialect. I don't know. Please respond only if you understand theoretical linguistics. Thanks a lot to all you cunning linguists out there

posted in Linguistics - 18 replies

mistakes

2005-05-28T20:09:06Z

(I've taken my reply from the "a question" thread. It was a bit of a digression from the original question of that thread.)

The basic question I have is: do linguists really never get bothered by spelling mistakes?

Would spelling mistakes in an application letter for the job Professor of Linquistics at a university affect the chances of getting the job?

Grammar is just the attempt to codify what already exists in a language and use it as a rule of thumb for creating new text for particular auduiences. Would it be correct to define grammar this way?

There are ways of putting things that reduce ambiguity or make meaning clearer. I'm trying to say that I understand that "grammar" is derived from the language, and so "grammatical mistakes" do not exist in that sense. Perhaps you can say mistakes don't exist because we all make it up as we go along.

I don't know about linguistics, so I don't understand why it should not include discussion of spelling. I find the evolution of languages over time very, very interesting, so I do understand that these are all natual changes and that current meanings and spellings of words are result of those changes.

However, should an English teacher correct grammar or spelling? Should "definate" be marked with a red pen? If not, why not?

When I write something, I try to make the text for the reader (believe it or not), so that it is easier to understand. I also try to use correct spelling. There are obviously differences in "standard" English spelling depending on the version of English you are using, but I try to avoid...mistakes. Obviously, everyone makes mistakes. Maybe I will spell "definite" "correctly", but I'll probably get some other common word wrong.

How is a mistake defined? An "unintentional error"? How do you define "error", when it comes to spelling? Llinguists might allow the existence of "typing mistake" but not "spelling mistake". "Spelling mistake" can be defined perhaps as "an unintentional disagreement with a standard or conventional spelling". It is all relative.

Correct spelling is certainly a convention. It has become more standardised with printing and with improved communication.

Reading text on the internet inevitably means encountering a fairly wide variaty of backgrounds (people of differnet origins, ages, backgrounds, etc), so it is perfectly understandable that the language is going to have many different forms.

Howver, after emphasising natural changes, relativism, convention, and all those things, I still can't help being bothered by "definate" (for example). It just seems that a teacher with a background in linguistics would never correct anyone's spelling in an English class (or whatever the native language is).

posted in Linguistics - 8 replies

conservation of complexity for languages?

2005-05-19T14:48:45Z

as a student of languages--and language--years back i came to the intuitive theory that there's some kind of conservation of complexity principle at play in human languages.

like a language that is somehow simpler in one aspect will be more complex in another.

anyone know of any good treatments on this issue? perhaps a psycholinguistic processing load approach or even a more formal information-theoretic one...

(this was inspired by issues raised by Telly and Kip on the pronouns thread, but i think it needs its own thread.)

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

Hyper-Corrections

2005-05-12T18:50:24Z

A pet peeve of mine is the "hyper-correction" in English grammar. The classic example of this is a sentence like "The waiter gave the check to Bill and I," when it, of course, should be "The waiter gave the check to Bill and me."

People are taught from childhood that "me and Mike went to the store" is wrong, and one should instead say "Mike and I went to the store." The hyper-correction comes about when people believe that the rule is to use the nominative case "I" any time you have a compound subject or predicate. This is absurd and illogical. These same people would never say "The waiter gave the check to I."

The thing that really irks me about the hyper-correction is that educated people make this mistake and they all believe that they use correct grammar, when in fact, they are just as wrong as people who miscongegate verbs, as in "he don't."

posted in Linguistics - 48 replies

Fifteen genders

2005-05-12T18:45:03Z

This was in another thread, but I thought it might be the head of its own thread. Leading to it was a post mentioning that Bantu languages may have over a dozen genders (some have, I hear, as many as 35 or so), none of them related to sex, and a question, in response, asking if there was any meaning significance attached to the genders in those languages.

===

Yes, there are rough meaning groupings. In Swahili, for example, with a few exceptions, all nouns referring to humans are in the M-Wa class. Most of the other noun classes are not so neat in their groupings, but meaning plays a role and sound plays a role.

The word "gender" in grammar originally meant noun class. Since the meaning of "gender" has been taken over by sexual gender, we usually use the word "noun class" to refer to other forms of grammatical gender.

I took Swahili, which is very representative of Bantu grammar, so I will use that as an example. Swahili has 15 noun classes or genders. In European languages, with two or three genders, basically all you have to worry about is making adjectives agree with the noun gender. In Swahili, not only adjectives but verbs and prepositions must agree with the gender.

And every gender has its own distinct forms of singular and plural. For example, M-Wa class means that the singular form of each noun begins with the prefix m- and the plural form with wa-. Example: mtoto = child, watoto = children. Ki-Vi class: kichwa = head, vichwa = heads. Adjectives, verbs and prepositions must agree in gender (noun class) and number, by way of prefixes which are usually the same prefixes as for the nouns. This results in many sentences which are highly alliterative. Like, a sentence about a noun in Ki- class can have every word beginning with ki-.

Noun classes (in languages that have them) are partly governed by sound and partly by meaning. The historical evidence is that gender in Indo-European languages was originally sound-governed -- classes of nouns with certain ending sounds taking adjectives that agreed in sound, and only gradually did these noun classes become identified with sexual gender. In the Bantu languages, the relationship with sound as well as meaning is obvious, because whoever came up with Swahili really loved sound patterns and alliteration.

As a beginning Swahili student, it's like, why all these noun classes to make things difficult, it would be a pretty easy language without them. But it doesn't take long before the noun classes become part of the whole flavor and texture and charm and rich quirkiness of the language.

posted in Linguistics - 26 replies

a chance to redeem my Linguistics degree?

2005-05-10T01:45:03Z

I graduated with a BA in Linguistics from Ohio State in 1982. I didn't do very well, especially for an allegedly smart person--almost flunked Phonology II and don't remember a thing I was taught in that class. The only reason my prof passed me was because it was my last quarter adn he knew my heart wasn't in Phonology.

I don't even remember taking Historical Linguistics, and I did absolutely no drinking or drugging in college--I think I was just too depressed to absorb anything, but that's another story for another tribe.

I liked my Phonetics class the best, probably because I tend to prefer the practical to the theoretical, and my Psycholinguistics class, and the rest was either frustrating or forgettable.

I thought I was going to go into TESOL, but I didn't. The only things I've used my degree for have been to contrive a spelling for my name, "Khrysso," and to work on my enunciation as a singer.

I kind of wish I could go back now and look at some of the material I didn't understand back then and see if my life-experience would make it make more sense. So maybe a Linguistics tribe will give me a bit of an opportunity to revisit a rather dusty and shadowy piece of my past...

posted in Linguistics - 7 replies

Linguistic Careers

2005-05-04T05:20:04Z

I am currently a Sign Language major and very interested in interpreting. More recently I have developed an interest in the field of linguistics and am thinking about becoming an interpreter or ESL teacher. I would like to hear a little more from people who are currently working in these fields or in a linguistics related field. Here are a few questions I've come up with. Any information would be helpful.

1. What is your career ? Do you use your linguistics degree/is it required for your career ?
2. Do you enjoy your job ?
3. What is the pay range for the type of work that you do ?
4. What other types of careers in linguistics are you aware of ?

posted in Linguistics - 5 replies

Internet traffic predicts future

2005-04-24T14:57:13Z

See -- http://urbansurvival.com/simplebots.htm

"Ever since Plato's Allegory of the Cave, people have sensed that odd things go on at the archetype level of consciousness. The web bots are an attempt to use the high data density of the internet to sample language and seek linguistic shifts that we believe may precede events. The initial results suggest that language shifts on a macro level begin to occur 45 to 90 days before society-changing events. We believe we've demonstrated, most recently with the Northeast Power Outage forecast, that changes in language do indeed precede events - on a far grander scale than Dean Radin's work first suggested - and these language changes are available by sampling routine internet traffic."

Also -- http://noosphere.princeton.edu/home_bottom3.html

posted in Linguistics - 2 replies

International Phonetic Association

2005-04-21T00:02:29Z

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html

this site has fonts (yay!), charts, sound recordings etc.

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies

blogspeak etc.

2005-04-19T19:42:26Z

I have been thinking a lot about how language is used on the internet, and I was wondering if any of you have any thoughts or have read anything interesting about it. Some things that interest me:

--Threading. Interacting via text lets us hold more than one conversation at a time, sometimes even multiple conversations with the same person (in IM, or what have you--I'm talking about fast-paced, simulataneous conversations, not just forums like this one). That seems really cool to me...it's interesting that our brains are able to do it very easily, even though it's a skill that verbal communication just doesn't let us use. This is kind of a CogSci/Pragmatics issue in my mind.

--The appropriation of orthgraphic conventions for completely new uses. Punctuation etc. to convey tone and add meaning. There is a weird one in the fanfic community right now--if someone has written a story in which, say, Harry Potter is portrayed as jealous, then someone might write in response, "I loved your jealous!Harry." Isn't that weird? How did that come about? How do these things become conventional?

--The endlessly intersting topic of online communities--how we borrow conventions from other communities, like 1337 (haxx0r, pr0n, etc.). How this is similar to or different from borrowing in regular speech.

Anyway. Food for thought. :-p

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Idiolects

2005-04-18T02:10:34Z

I am wondering if any of you have done research on idiolects. Have you read any insightful papers or theories on the subject?

posted in Linguistics - 4 replies

Cuban Spanish

2005-04-13T01:19:55Z

i am having a tough time finding authors on Cuban spanish... particularly phonetics.

if anyone knows of any please help!

thanks

posted in Linguistics - 3 replies

Weekend Project

2005-03-30T20:25:04Z

http://bytebrite.com/weightywords/

Criticism welcome.

Peace,
Denny

posted in Linguistics - 6 replies

for any who can answer, question # 2

2005-03-18T18:28:43Z

has any linguist ever made a comrehensive inventory of the sounds common to ALL human languages?

posted in Linguistics - 17 replies

Any people in the school of functional-typology out there?

2005-03-15T02:04:23Z

I graduated from the U of O in linguistics almost a decade ago and have not kept up. I am wondering where functional-typology is these days...

posted in Linguistics - 1 reply

Favorite Quotes

2005-03-07T19:50:11Z

"Language is a virus from outer space." -- William S. Burroughs

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language." -- Wittgenstein

"The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things." -- Tao Te Ching

posted in Linguistics - 11 replies