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Category: Linguistics
Why does “Chinaman” carry a negative, denigrating connotation, while “Englishman” does not?
Thanks to posters, and in particular those I agree with 🙂 — Lee Ballentine, Sng Kok Joon Leonard. Some answers brought up how the word was coined, so I went to the Oxford English Dictionary. As it turns out, the entry for Chinaman has not been updated yet, and Google Books was if anything more […]
What is the etymology of “Laconia”?
Well, Chad Turner, Frisk and Chantraine are on the internet… Frisk (Lakōn): Krahe, in Indogermanische Forschungen 57:119, relates the name as suspected Illyrian to Lacinium, a promontory in Southern Italy, and Juno Lacinia. Chantraine (Lakedaimōn): Etymology unknown. There have been unsuccessful attempts to use the gloss in Hesychius “lakedama: bitter water made in the sea […]
What’s the Latin translation of “Fun or money? (I’ll work for one or the other; optimally, both)”?
Pro ludo aut pro lucro? Pro alterutro laboro; pro utroque malim. Alberto Yagos? Answered 2016-09-26 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Whats-the-Latin-translation-of-Fun-or-money-Ill-work-for-one-or-the-other-optimally-both-”/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Why did the Byzantine record the name of Osman Ghazi as Otoman?
Here’s some data, from Gyula Moravcsik’s Byzantinoturcica, a dictionary of all Turkic names and words that ended up in Byzantine Greek. The names are in roughly chronological order. Osman is named as: Atman (George Pachymeres, Nicephorus Gregoras) Atouman Atoumanos Atoumanes (Notitiae Chronicae, Chronicon Turcorum) Otmanos Otmanes (Hierax, Chronica Minora) Otoumanos (Chalcocondyles) Othmanos Othman Otthmanos Otthmanes […]
How did countries get their English names?
Depends. Recent country names are carried across from whatever the country is calling itself, without much alteration: Bhutan, Nepal, Senegal, Angola. Neighbouring countries that England had close contact with traditionally would have the most diverse names—mainly based on what those countries called themselves, but looking Germanic, and not made to be consistent. Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, […]
No, not, never, negative, nein, neither, nope, non, none, nix, nuh-uh, nil. What’s with “N” and so much negativity? Who cursed this poor letter?
The negativity all comes from the simple fact that *ne is proto–Indo-European for not. Follow me down Wiktionary, the free dictionary, won’t you? no: < Old English nā, nō < Proto-Germanic *nē < PIE *ne not: < Middle English noght < Old English nāht ‘nothing’ < nōwiht ‘not anything < ne + āwiht ‘anything’ < […]
How do I address strangers in Australia?
Other respondents have covered this well (which is a benefit of me putting off replying to A2A’s!) I’ll just add some metacommentary. People of Quora who get me in their feed because they like me or something: do read the other responses. The egalitarian ideal of Australia is that we address each other as mate, […]
Do languages evolve from conversations, scripts or a combination of scripts and spoken words?
If by scripts you mean “written texts” (and if you do, it’s a misleading way of saying it), languages evolve mostly through the spoken word. However, peculiarities of written registers can influence how people speak—for example, the reemergence of /t/ in often, or the influence of Classical Arabic on the spoken Arabic variants. Written language […]
Does Old English have enough vocabulary for writing a diary?
Yes, but you will need some word coining for modern references to actually come across as Old English. (If you’re going to be dropping in unassimilated modern words all the time, you might as well be writing modern English. You won’t have the look and feel of Old English.) Strongly recommend you look at the […]
Are all English periphrastic constructions (e.g. the present perfect) instances of grammaticalization?
Yes to what Clarissa Lohr said, and no to what Darius Vukasinovic said. (You still at Monash, Darius? I live in Oakleigh.) An auxiliary verb is by definition a grammaticalisation, since it is no longer a content word. I have spoken does not have much to do with possession, I will speak does not have […]