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Day: February 6, 2016
Would the Byzantines have spoken Ancient Greek or something closer to modern Greek?
Modern Greek. Being literate in Greek has always meant being literate in Ancient Greek; so all our evidence of the vernacular is tainted, right up until the Cretan Renaissance (and there it’s tainted in a different direction, of conventionalised dialect). In the period between the Arab conquest of Egypt (when the papyri run out) and […]
Can you create your own rules in conlangs?
What others said. Yes, but make sure there is an internal logic to your rule, and that you’re applying it consistently and meaningfully. Klingon has an internally consistent story with its zero copula constructions: the pronouns in copula constructions (“he — teacher”, ghojwI’ ghaH) have been reanalysed as verbs, and take verb aspect endings (“he […]