Archive:

Day: December 8, 2016

What are some human-made things you dislike or like that are present in South (and West) Cyprus?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-08 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

This actually isn’t my own dislike, but it’s a dislike that really struck me. My father left Cyprus in 1966. He was in tears the day that Archbishop Makarios III died. I’ve only been back to Cyprus twice, in 1979 and 1989, and briefly and superficially at that. So I don’t have a clear notion […]

Is it possible for a person to acquire a written language as their native language?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-08 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

Hello all the good people, Clarissa and Audrey and Brian. I was going to join in to your discussion under Brian’s answer, but it didn’t head in the direction I was hoping. Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller, who are the deaf–blind people Brian alludes to, communicated through finger spelling, read Braille, and wrote. Must have […]

How did you learn the International Phonetic Alphabet, and how long did it take?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-08 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Other Languages, Writing Systems

Two or three lectures spent on understanding the axes of the IPA charts: place of articulation, manner of articulation; vowel height, frontness, and rounding. A round of the class all calling out the cardinal vowels in unison. /iiiii eeeee ɛɛɛɛɛ æææææ, uuuuu ooooo ɔɔɔɔɔ ɑɑɑɑɑ/. I got to make my first year students do that, […]