Author: Nick Nicholas

Website:
http://www.opoudjis.net
About this author:
Data analyst, Greek linguist

How can a software engineer get into computational linguistics?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-07 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

You need programming chops, though nothing too flash and algorithmic. You need to be across regexes. You need to pick up some linguistics, but honestly, not as much as you might think. You certainly don’t need formal syntax or phonology. You will need to know what morphology is, especially if you’ll be working on languages […]

What is Ferdinand de Saussure’s linearity principle?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-06 | Comments: 1 Comment
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

See e.g. http://personal.bgsu.edu/~dcalle… : Principle II: The Linear Nature of the Signifier The linearity principle is Saussure’s statement that, because linguistic signifiers are sounds (spoken words), they are intrinsically sequential (“linear”). They cannot be perceived simultaneously, the way visual signs are: they must be perceived one after the other, as a sequence in time. That […]

What are the top 5 best Greek Songs of all time?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-06 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Modern Greek, Music

I’m going to give one for each decade from the 30s through the 70s. I’m going to put up, not necessarily my favourite songs, but the songs I think have had the greatest cultural impact. 1935. Φραγκοσυριανή (Frangosyriani): Catholic Girl from Syros. Lyrics: Markos Vamvakaris. Music: Markos Vamvakaris. Markos was the master of the Peiraeus […]

What English words appear to be derived from Latin, but aren’t?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-06 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

In a roundabout way: syllabus is ultimately derived from a garbling of the obscure Greek word sittyba, which got mangled progressively in manuscripts and then print editions of Cicero, and reinterpreted from its original meaning “title slip”. The Curious and Quibbling History of “Syllabus” (part 2) Answered 2017-01-06 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-English-words-appear-to-be-derived-from-Latin-but-arent/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Can someone write in their language using it’s grammatical structure while still using English words?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-06 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

https://www.quora.com/Can-someone-write-in-German-language-using-German-words-but-following-English-grammar (Modern Greek > English) If it is possible! You hear there, “It can someone to write in the language theirs using the grammar theirs but English words?” Hey not you us quit? For what you us passed, for revue? Not will I sit to you make theatre the how I speak, so you to […]

How many words does the Greek language have?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-05 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

I wrote an extensive set of blog posts in 2009 under Ἡλληνιστεύκοντος (read them backwards), trying to deal with this question with a fixed(ish) corpus, that I was responsible for lemmatising: the TLG. It has a whole lot about the distinction between word tokens (individual instances of words), wordforms, and lemmata (dictionary words). It starts […]

Why do the English say “leftenant” and the Americans say “lootenant” when the spelling of “lieutenant” indicates a pronunciation like “lyewtenant”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-04 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

The American “lootenant” is easy: it’s a general rule of American English that [ju] after alveolar consonants is reduced to [u]: news, tune = nooz, toon. In British English, they are nyooz, tyoon. (And there is variation within American English.) The lack of a French pronunciation is also regular: French ieu is rendered in English […]

What do contemporary Greeks think of Lord Byron?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

To add to the others (which is why you must upvote the others): Greeks revere Byron (to the point of Βύρων[ας] Viron(as) being a name they give their kids), because he was a prominent foreign supporter of the Greek War of Independence. What contemporary Greeks do NOT know is that Byron was a Romantic poet, […]

Is Albanian a creole language?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Other Languages

*tosses head back chuckling* Ah, I know where this question comes from. I did a drive-by shooting in a comment thread, saying “no, Albanian is not a creole”. Fair enough that I should be asked why. A creole in linguistics is not just a language that you think sounds mixed. It has a specific meaning. […]

Do Australians cringe when non-native English speakers attempt to learn the Australian accent?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-02 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

What Christine Leigh Langtree said: Vote #1 Christine Leigh Langtree’s answer to Do Australians cringe when non-native English speakers attempt to learn the Australian accent? I’ll add that most dialect speakers dislike their accent being mimicked, not just Australians; I know I resented the hell out of 1960s Greek comedies’ bad imitation of Cretan. If […]

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