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Category: Linguistics
Is Classical Sanskrit the world’s first constructed language?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Sanskrit-and-Prakrit/answer/Neeraj-Mathur-13 There’s a spectrum between conventionalised and artificial, and Sanskrit is somewhere along that spectrum. Specialists other than myself can answer better than I as to how artificial Sanskrit is. We have no idea how old the Aboriginal initiate language Damin is, and therefore whether it is older than Sanskrit or not. It is clearly […]
Is English a fascist language?
Arguendo, let’s accept your premisses: Everybody expects non native speakers to know English and speak it fluently and hate them for not doing so. Also this language is invading all other ones. That wouldn’t make English fascist, and using a loaded term like that inaccurately means people won’t take your argument seriously. (And that’s not […]
Why is the word Colonel pronounced like kernel when there is no R in the word?
Originally Answered: Why is the word colonel pronounced kernel? Vote #2, Daniel Ross: Daniel Ross’ answer to Why is the word Colonel pronounced like kernel when there is no R in the word? Vote #1 me, because I go a bit further. 🙂 I checked with OED. So, the word started as colonnello in Italian. […]
Why is using profanity sometimes referred to as “swearing”?
Because there used to be a taboo against swearing oaths by divine figures in Protestant England, and the taboo against oaths got conflated with the taboo against profanity, as Saying Bad Things. In fact, that conflation also applies to oath: the definition of oath 5. an irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God […]
recidivist
https://www.quora.com/api/mobile… The Magister: True. But should you forgive the recidivist seven times? Nay, verily, seventy times seven. Alfredo Perozo: Recidivist… what a woody-sounding Masiello Mega Word! Recidivism – Wikipedia Recidivism (/rᵻˈsɪdᵻvɪzəm/; from recidive and ism, from Latin recidīvus “recurring”, from re– “back” and cadō “I fall”) is the act of a person repeating an undesirable […]
When did μπ and ντ start being used for (m)b and (n)t in Modern Greek?
Let me unpack your question there, Uri. When did μπ stop being pronounced [mp] and started being pronounced [mb], with voice assimilation? Early. It does not occur in Southern Italian Greek (them saying [panta] instead of [panda] for “forever” really sticks out), but it does everywhere else in Greek, and it’s a change that could […]
What is the latin rendering of “The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting¨”?
Differunt pornographia eroticaque per luminatione. I could try to come up with something more historically accurate for pornography and erotica, maybe invoking the Ars Amatoria. But frankly, the reference is to film, and I don’t think historical accuracy is worth it. Answered 2017-02-15 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-latin-rendering-of-The-difference-between-pornography-and-erotica-is-lighting¨/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Will the 2011 edition of the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon by the TLG ever be published in print?
I no longer work for the TLG, and I didn’t get to speak for the TLG when I did. But while a lot of work over several years went into the TLG redaction of the 1940 LSJ (involving myself among others), that work involved proofreading, corrections to mistagging, typos or misprints in the digitisation (and […]
My native language is English, but it seems that more inflected languages are widly more complex. Does every language really have equally complex grammar?
Drop everything you are doing, and upvote Joachim Pense. Vote #1 Joachim Pense’s answer to My native language is English, but it seems that more inflected languages are widly more complex. Does every language really have equally complex grammar? There are some bad answers here, and some good answers here. There’s a progression of sophistication […]
What is the latin rendering of “Pornography is literature designed to be read with one hand”?
Pornographia litterae sunt uno manu legendae. Answered 2017-02-15 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-latin-rendering-of-Pornography-is-literature-designed-to-be-read-with-one-hand/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]