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Category: Linguistics
querent
A queer little word, querent, and one that tripped me up when I beheld it come from the Magister: Michael Masiello’s answer to Why do many students believe that their major will limit or prevent them from getting jobs or degrees in other fields? Sure, there are other means of finding this out, but Quora […]
Could someone tell why the words bind, band and bundle haven’t got more similar spelling?
I’m a bit incredulous at the other reactions to this question; but of course, you’ve A2A’d the right person. You’re right, OP. bind and band and bundle all mean similar things. A band is something that you bind things with. An bundle is a bunch of things that have been bound together. Hey, bound is […]
What are linguistic problems in swearing?
Use of swearing to affirm solidarity. There’s a lot of that. In fact, what the contextual cues are to differentiate between swearing used to affirm solidarity, and swearing used to express hostility. Cultural factors associated with the use of swearing to affirm solidarity: what are the demographics? Working class? Youth? Gender? Other correlates? Are particular […]
Ancient Greek: why is there no neuter first declension nouns?
The original Indo-European declensions were thematic (corresponding to the Greek second declension) and athematic (corresponding to the Greek third declension). The first declension was a late innovation in Proto-Indo-European, involving a suffixed –e[math]h_2[/math] > -ā. It postdates the split of Hittite. The masculine first declension nouns were an even later innovation, and they were specific […]
How many languages are spoken in New Guinea?
The Ethnologue: Languages of the World guesses 850. On the one hand, the Ethnologue is best placed to know, since it is published by SIL International, and the SIL has the missionary linguists on the ground, who far outnumber academic linguists. On the other hand, the Ethnologue is consistently a splitter not a lumper. 850 […]
What are the most difficult things to learn in the Modern Greek language?
To Tasos Anesiadis’ answer (Tasos Anesiadis’ answer to What are the most difficult things to learn in the Modern Greek language?), I’ll add for Modern Greek: The chaos introduced by the clash of spelling pronunciations from Ancient Greek (via Puristic), and vernacular pronunciations. [nd] vs [nð]; clusters like [fθr]; [i] vs [j] before a vowel […]
Which languages have changed the most drastically in the last 1000 years?
When Bergsland and Vogt (1962) debunked the assumption in Glottochronology that core vocabulary is lost at a constant rate among languages [Bergsland, Knut; & Vogt, Hans. (1962). On the validity of glottochronology. Current Anthropology, 3, 115–153], the lexically conservative language they brought up was Icelandic. The lexically innovative language they brought up was Inuit, which […]
eudaimonistic
Michael Masiello’s answer to Which would be better for humanity in the long run, everyone being a Catholic Christian or everyone being an atheist? I would argue that what would be better for humanity in the long run has something to do with the cultivation of eudaimonistic virtues — ethical and civic values that aim […]
How far did the influence of Ancient Greek spread?
OK, let’s dispense with hora quickly. Not to belabour it, but yes, coincidence. Probabilities add up pretty quickly in real life, in a way that clashes with our seeking of patterns: See Birthday problem – Wikipedia. If you put 23 randoms in the same room, there is a 50% probability that two of them will […]
If “gnothi seauton” is “know thyself”, what would “love thyself” be in ancient Greek?
OK: ἀγάπα σεαυτόν agápa seautón. That’s the imperative. Konstantinos Konstantinides’ ἀγαπᾶν σεαυτόν agapân seautón is the infinitive “to love yourself”. The quote from St Matthew in Evangelos Lolos uses the future indicative agapēseis: “you shall love your neighbour like yourself.” Chad Turner went with the middle voice imperative of philéō: φιλέου “be loved [by thyself]”. […]