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Day: April 17, 2017

somnambular

By: | Post date: 2017-04-17 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Michael Masiello’s answer to If a healthy person suddenly starts preparing for their funeral, does that mean they’re subconsciously aware of impending death? I suppose if someone were to make these arrangements while on Ambien, in a remarkably focused somnambular state, one might say the person was unconsciously aware of impending death. But “subconsciously” just […]

Does our alphabet encompass almost all possible sounds?

By: | Post date: 2017-04-17 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Writing Systems

The question details ask for a meticulous and specific answer (though the question itself is neither). The original 24 letter alphabet used for Latin did not even encompass the sounds of its daughter languages, let alone the sounds of other languages. Centuries of often messy digraph and diacritic solutions ensued. But any language using a […]