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Linguistics
Jun. 11th, 2026 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere are some language preservation resources ...
The Language Conservancy
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Mayan Languages Preservation & Digitization Project
The National Museum of Language
The Language Conservancy
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Mayan Languages Preservation & Digitization Project
The National Museum of Language
A thought experiment
Feb. 4th, 2026 08:25 pmpauammaAssume someone with suitable field linguistics training and experience goes back in time to the PIE era, learns that language, and brings it back, passing it as a conlang. How long do you think it would take for linguists to catch on?
pauammaI fed the first paragraph of this news toot in German about a mass demonstration in Hamburg to Google Translate, and something struck me as off. After noting that Google Translate renders the last sentence,
So I'm wondering: what's at work here, and how do other machine translators fare on this paragraph?
Die Kundgebung wurde aus Sicherheitsgründen von den Organisatoren vorzeitig beendet.(a passive-voice construct), as
The organizers ended the rally early for security reasons.(definitely active voice), I got curious and went to Bing, which more properly renders it as the passive-voice
The rally was ended prematurely by the organizers for security reasons.
So I'm wondering: what's at work here, and how do other machine translators fare on this paragraph?
I never metastatement I didn't like.
Sep. 17th, 2022 06:10 pmpauammaSo that discourse schema in informal-register English that describes something in an interrogative noun phrase then assigns a property to it in an agentless verb phrase with the noun phrase as the implied subject? Is totally topic-comment order or I don't know what that is.
Names for degrees of contrast?
Sep. 5th, 2022 09:54 pmpauammaIs there a name for the number of degrees of contrast in coordinating conjunction a language has? Eg, English has "and" and "but", but some Slavic languages have an intermediate, mild-contrast one.
pauammaUsing the illative where ("Saan tumae ang pusa?") in "where did the cat poop?", effectively asking where the poop went, not where the cat was.
pauammaCould someone able to run the WordSmith corpus software check John Macalister's NZ English corpus for a time series of relative prevalence of the kūmara and kumara spellings? A table is probably best, but I can make do with a graph if needed.
(no subject)
Aug. 3rd, 2022 08:46 pmpauammaIs there a name for the process by which a loanword (or calque) sheds some of its source language meanings? Like "atom" not also meaning "individual" in languages that borrowed it from Greek, or "café" in English only meaning the establishment serving food and drinks and not also coffee as it does in French?
Same question for words borrowed with a meaning absent from the source language, like "femme" referring to gender expression in English but gender in French?
Same question for words borrowed with a meaning absent from the source language, like "femme" referring to gender expression in English but gender in French?
Wanna hear some funny language facts?
Jul. 1st, 2022 12:03 amelenyafinweNo? Your bad. I still talk about it ^^
Language changes all the time and two German words are a good example to illustrate one way this can happen. I speak of Frau (woman) and Weib (trull).
The Modern High German word Frau comes from Middle High German vrouwe, which stems from Old High German frouwe. The Germanic word from which this stems, is lost, but we know that it was a very old word for “Herr” (lord), a version of Frejya. Interesting enough. But it continues. Vrouwe was at it’s time a word for noble women.
The Modern High German word Weib on the other hand stems from Old High German wîb, Middle High German wîp and a more fitting translation would be the English wife, because both words have the same Indoeuropean origin. Wîp was at it’s time the word for all female persons, especially married housewives; that’s literally what this word means.
If you call someone a Weib nowadays it’s an insult (that’s why I first translated it first with trull). The word therefore changed it’s meaning to a worsened version and also became more specific in its meaning, since it now only applies to a very specific group of female persons.
Frau now is the opposite. That word now is used for all female persons therefore it has broadened its meaning. It became less specific and changed its meaning.
Language changes all the time and two German words are a good example to illustrate one way this can happen. I speak of Frau (woman) and Weib (trull).
The Modern High German word Frau comes from Middle High German vrouwe, which stems from Old High German frouwe. The Germanic word from which this stems, is lost, but we know that it was a very old word for “Herr” (lord), a version of Frejya. Interesting enough. But it continues. Vrouwe was at it’s time a word for noble women.
The Modern High German word Weib on the other hand stems from Old High German wîb, Middle High German wîp and a more fitting translation would be the English wife, because both words have the same Indoeuropean origin. Wîp was at it’s time the word for all female persons, especially married housewives; that’s literally what this word means.
If you call someone a Weib nowadays it’s an insult (that’s why I first translated it first with trull). The word therefore changed it’s meaning to a worsened version and also became more specific in its meaning, since it now only applies to a very specific group of female persons.
Frau now is the opposite. That word now is used for all female persons therefore it has broadened its meaning. It became less specific and changed its meaning.
Funny Italian proverbs
Jun. 20th, 2022 05:52 pmsuchasnackItalian adages are often hilarious when they're not misogynist and racist, but we're going to ignore those ones mkay?
Here is a choice of my favourite sayings, the ones I heard the most during my life, followed by a literal translation and by their real meaning.
( Enjoy! )
Do you have a favourite proverb? Share it in the comments, if you want! :)
Here is a choice of my favourite sayings, the ones I heard the most during my life, followed by a literal translation and by their real meaning.
( Enjoy! )
Do you have a favourite proverb? Share it in the comments, if you want! :)
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2022 05:32 ampauammaOpen to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5
Which do you think are native English speakers most likely to pronounce /bʁaj/?
Ticky?
(no subject)
Apr. 28th, 2022 07:13 pmpauammaDear scammer emailing me in a North Germanic language that's not Icelandic and that GT claims is Danish:
You would be slightly more credible if you could settle on a single translation for International Monetary Fund.
Hugs and kisses,
Me.
You would be slightly more credible if you could settle on a single translation for International Monetary Fund.
Hugs and kisses,
Me.
Achievement unlocked (redux)
Mar. 10th, 2022 06:33 ampauammaSpam language correctly identified as Estonian despite not knowing it or Finnish. (Either that, or Google Translate and I both misidentified it the same way.)